Top Pho — Restaurant in Auburn

Update

I was starting to like this place, but all of a sudden these things happened. So, I'm not too fond of it.

1). I ordered hot tea, and the waiter used Lipton tea. It's super dark, and bitter. I would expect Jasmine tea or so in a Vietnamese Pho place. It's $2 per cup by the way and we ordered 2 cups.

2). It took 20 minutes to cook a bowl of chicken pho.

3). The bean sprouts and jalapeno were frozen. That means they turn the fridge up too high.

4). I can taste too much star anise or Chinese Five Spices in the noodles broth.

————— This place has a new owner. The gentleman greeted me and took my order. My bowl of noodles came out hot, and that's how I like it.

I bumped up the stars from one to four. The noodles were good but a bit on the salty side. There’s also a bit more oily in soup. If these two things improve, I'll bump the stars to five. ————— I do not think the name goes with the quality of the food and service of this restaurant. My opinion regarding the recent visit:

When my wife and I went into the restaurant, no one greeted us, and we sat ourselves down. A couple of minutes later, she (the owner) dropped off a few menus on the table. Then she went to fill two glasses of lime water and put them on the table for us. She was in a hurry. The squeezed lime was in our water glasses, and the pulps were all over, inside and outside of the glasses. The water glasses were watery, overfilled, and dripped when she put them on the table. It was nice of her to bring some lime water for us, but first of all, we didn't order the lime water. My wife didn't like lime in her water.

The lady owner came much later to take our orders, and every time she stopped by, she was always in a hurry. She hurried back to fill the water for other customers and took her time greeting other customers on how they were doing. She asked if they wanted more water, etc. At one point, she asked ‘how good their food was and even pat the customers on the back.’

Then the owner went to the kitchen, grabbed a plate of bean sprouts, and put them on my table. There was a streak of lard of something on my bean sprouts. When I pointed it out to her, she said, "Oh, the soup spilled on it." She asked me if I wanted to change it. I said, “Well, it looks like lard or condensed milk -- streaks on the bean sprouts.” I told her, “Yes, please change it for me.” She came back two minutes later, and the plate of bean sprouts was watery. I had to use a bunch of napkins to absorb the water.

She washed the plate of bean sprouts and returned it. I find it inappropriate to tell me she changed it when she didn't.

Anyway, besides the lack of customer care for us, I think we've had it with this place. Go to Linh Son Restaurant in Federal Way. You get almost twice the size of the food for...

I went in as I was in the area and wanted some pho.

I ordered, and the food came out later. Not bad, not great, just good.

After a while, I had to almost go into the back to get the lady to come up so I could pay.

A couple of days later I was checking my checking account and noticed that instead of a $2.06 tip, she had charged me a $20.60 tip! I called up and spoke to two people who then finally called the boss to the phone. She wanted me to come in to get the refund but I didn't have time to drive back out, and she said she would take care of it, and I would have the refund back on my card in a day.

Or so I thought. I guess she thought I was trying to rip her off, because she never did anything. Several days later there is no refund, and I went back out there, wasting time and gas, to get it taken care of. On phone she said it was a new employee that had made a mistake, but when I talked to the boss face to face, it was the same woman that was there the week before. She argued that she wanted proof, so I showed her the transaction on my phone, and she still argued about how she wanted to pay me back, but the money never came out of the register. Close to half an hour spent there arguing just to get my money back.

So, the food is ok, but the customer service is terrible. If you pay with a card, make sure you check your account a couple of days later!

To note: Mistakes happen, that's why we have erasers. My issue is that she said she would take care of it and that I would have my money back in a day, and she never did anything, resulting in my having to waste more time and money to get her to fix...

I've come here a few times before with co-workers and had a nice experience everytime.

This weekend I had the bright idea of bring my wife here and it was awful. My wife didn't like the rice combo and asked to swap it for chicken chow mein after one bite. We tried to ask the waitress as nicely as possible and was immediately told, "No." She kept saying she/they didn't do anything wrong (despite the dish tasting awful, being the worst rice combo my wife has ever tasted) and kept coming up with a million excuses why she couldn't & wouldn't echange the food. She also kept raising her voice as she said all this, which was embarrassing & not needed.

This place is the only resturant I've ever been at that won't swap your meal to something else when you don't like/don't eat the meal. Apparently they care more about a $15 plate of bad rice than any repeat business from myself, my wife, and my company (not very smart if you ask me.)

Spare yourself the indignity of coming here and treat yourself to a better experience at ANY of the many...