UTea Pho — Restaurant in Austin

This morning, I got to work hungry. Over the course of the early hours, I thought about food more than usual. (Even for a Thursday, which is enchilada day at a nearby cafeteria - I rarely miss out on the scrumptious delight of those verde-slathered taste-bud charmers.) I glanced at the time over and over, my hunger building to a raucous yowl. Some people say they can almost taste the food they're thinking of when they're hungry enough. I believe them - a little precognitive savor of spicy tomatillo and crema teased me as my allotted lunchtime sludged its way toward the present. Then, my favorite work buddy told me she was hitting up UTea Pho and asked if I'd like to order anything. The menu was intriguing - but I was torn. Enchiladas! Could I really wait a whole week? In a rare moment of bravery, I decided to risk a grave mistake. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich with a crab rangoon appetizer. First, I ravaged the sandwich. While the ingredients were fresh, the chicken cooked perfectly, and the mildly spicy sauce was delicious - there was not nearly enough sauce. Imagine me, instead of indulging once again in lusty pools of heaven-sent tomatillo sauce being teased with the faintest dollop of a similarly lovely sauce. The cruelty of this sandwich maker is truly unspeakable, my friends. Shaking my head slowly, perhaps hoping to shake the sadness of missed opportunity off me - I opened the rangoon box. They were bland. The red sauce... as such rangoon sauces go, was mediocre. So here I sit, writing a review. Still a bit hungry, but not just from a need for more calories - but hungry for more sauce. It's as if the sandwich maker lovingly crafted an object so magically appealing that he couldn't bring himself to dole out more than a peasant's shlick of it. I hope to be wrong, but I believe that at the moment of my death, I'll remember the lack of sauce today. My beautiful goddess Jezebel will wonder ever after if the tear that escaped my eye as I left her (terribly bereaved and forever-mourning the greatest man and best friend she would ever know) was in some way because she hadn't been the woman to me that I had been man to her. I wish I could come back just once to tell her no, my voracious queen, it was the sandwich maker at fault for that final stab of sadness. I love you, Jezebel - goodbye - tell the sadistic sandwich man I'll see him in the roasty underworld. He better bring more sauce than he thinks he needs.

Now, some of you might be asking yourselves: "why doesn't this guy just review the place that makes the enchiladas he so obviously has a weird thing for?" Well, let me tell you. I've tried. I've spent hours drafting pages of description - hoping to snare the sensory magnificence of that ambrosia in language. It would be easier to drag a blue whale up a bluff. Instead, let me leave you with the immortal words of Snoop Dogg - "If the ride is more fly, then you must buy." Go find those enchiladas - I won't share them with you - but they're out there. They're more fly,...

The vegan/vegetarian pho was very disappointing - literally tasted like water. The "yellow curry" was nothing like it what it's supposed to be. It was an extremely sweet, Japanese curry mix that you'd get pre-packaged. I do not recommend these specific items from the menu.

The service in-store is decent but be warned that after payment, you will apparently be charged an "automatic tip of 15%" if you don't put an amount and you will NOT know of this charge until they send you the reciepts after you left the store. Highly unprofessional and extremely unethical to charge people's cards extra money without their consent. When I asked if they do automatic tips for dine-in, one staff answered no, which left us confused to why our bill was adjusted. However, when we inquired about the unauthorized charge on our bill, another staff said they are "allowed" to put the tip amount for us since we didn't fill the tip section out. We were then blamed for it and essentially ridiculed for wanting clarification on money we did not consent to giving.

If I had been informed of the automatic tip expectation either on the menu, reciept, or at checkout in person, there would have been no issues. Unfortunately, the staff made us feel like I was the "bad guy" for wanting a refund on a tip I did not know about/authorize. We were rudely asked if we were "that pressed about $6." Yes, we were because we weren't informed of such a charge and was charged behind our back! We'd have no problem as long as we were properly informed such a charge was going to be made. We felt deceived and scammed. After much back and forth, the owner made us a refund but we won't be sure of this refund until a week later. The owner was very nice and accomodating but the overall experience we had with the restrurant was already ruined.

I left this review only for the terrible experience we had when inquiring about the "automatic tip," which by the way, does not exist according to the owner...

First of all, let me state that whenever I go to Vietnamese restaurants I only eat pho with brisket. So this review is about their pho soup with brisket.

Service: I got my pho with brisket in about 3-5 minutes. This is exactly what I am looking for when I eat out. The server also brought my bill before I finished my soup, - also said take my time, no rush - so I did not have to wait on them wasting my time next to an empty plate. This is rare and should be standard, and this is what I am looking for.

Price: Number one cost/value ratio. I have been to other places and this place beats all of them with better tasting soup.

Taste: OMG! The soup itself is first class! Whenever I go to a new place I start smelling the soup, and it was excellent, and best in Austin. After my first spoon, I was thinking not even add any siracha or hoisin sauce because it was just perfect and I did not want to ruin it. The noodles were fresh, just perfect again. The only thing that is not the very best that I ever had - still good - was the brisket, but simply because I prefer a little bit fatty brisket in my soup and this was lean.

size: just perfect for me, but it is a personal preference.

This was my first time here, but from this point, I will go only to this...