84 Viet — Restaurant in Berkeley

Edited after a more recent visit... Shockingly bad! They now make you order by scanning a QR code at each table's seat! And then want you to use your credit card through their QR code system! Ask Google "Is QR code scanning is 100% safe?" = "NO, it's Not safe to scan QR codes... They can download malware or redirect users to fishing websites. ..." And without a written warning about this hazard next to their table located scan codes, this restaurant is now personally 100% liable for any damage to your phone or any illegal use of your credit card information! Regarding their new terrible service!... We went on Valentine's Day evening and there was ONLY 1 waiter working All of the many tables on a busy night. I think the owners or management believes their fancy QR code computer ordering system means they only need 1 or a minimal few employees to serve, bus tables and cook for all of their many tables. It was a mess!!! Multiple sets of obviously angry people waiting for their food at almost every seat and also to go orders had a line of people standing up at the doorway and even sitting down because it was taking so long. Which makes me think there was only one cook in the kitchen also! Every table was getting their food served cold because just one employee was trying to do everything! Going to a restaurant for cold food is outrageous! I guess there might be some super waiter or waitress who could have been able to handle the workload but this 1 waiter could not! I understand the owner or management might be trying to save money by only having a minimal skeleton crew of employees but let me politely suggest they just turn off some of their many way too bright ceiling mounted lights to make it more of a relaxing dining experience, rather than the super bright office-like environment they now offer. That should save a few hundred dollars per day on electricity. We will not be coming back until they offer multiple safer and easier options than their risky add inconvenient QR code ordering system AND hire a few Good waiters or waitresse, just like every othe restaurant does! And we plan to spread the word far and wide about this extremely poor service that everyone suffered through that evening.

• Below is my original review* Delicious but not loaded with meat. We had the beef pho and the beef & pork combo banh mi sandwich. Everything tasted great and full of flavor but I deducted some points because there just wasn't that much meat in in all of our, dishes compared to most Vietnamese restaurants we've been to previously. I especially liked the tasty, chewy and crunchy pork in the sandwich. I know it might be too tough and crunchy for some people without good teeth and jaw muscles but I thought it was truly a rare delicacy. Our server was very friendly, polite and professional in every regard. High marks to her! And even though it's not that important to me personally we did find the interior was nicely decorated if a bit too bright with too many lights switched on for a relaxing dinner meal. It can be very tough to find parking close to that area sometimes of the night or day. I'll also mention someone had flipped their hanging from door "opened / closed" sign to make it seem like they were closed when they were not. So don't believe...

I want to preface this by saying that if you are not Asian or you have lower standards for noodles then go ahead and you’ll have a good time eating here. Also, we were extremely hungry so it’s not like we were full going into the restaurant, we were all starving and wanted any food. To start off, I ordered the fresh spring rolls. There was maybe one full shrimp TOTAL. All the spring rolls were just lettuce and the smallest bit of shrimp. The pho had very little flavor. I feel like they just used chicken stock or they didn’t really take time to make a bone broth. There was also not that much meat and they were out of tendon. They only told me they were out of tendon AFTER I received my bowl and then they said they added extra meat and I can just pay for the beef brisket price instead of the combo. I’m not sure if they would have done that if I hadn’t asked about it. They had lemons instead of limes and if you like pho, you would know that they are very different flavors. Furthermore, they only have one person at our table basil leaves and it was extremely small and wilted. I kept asking for more but they were really really small portions and you could tell that they’re not fresh at all. I also got the cherry soda for $5 and it was made with just cherry juice, sparkling water, and pretty much more than half of it was filled with ice so I didn’t get much to drink. When I asked if they do free refills, they said no but at least they were very...

This is probably one of the most mediocre and overpriced pho places I’ve ever been to. The broth was tasteless and lukewarm, the meat was low quality—all around, not a great experience. Additionally, the spring rolls were filled with lettuce and there were probably a total of 3 pieces of shrimp in the dish.

You would think that with the food being so unexceptional that at the very least the portion sizes would make up for it…but no. For $17-20 dollars at a non-adjustable size, their pho bowls are smaller than most pho restaurants’ size “small”. The 8 dollar spring rolls were absolutely tiny.

Service was slow and inaccurate despite us being one of the only tables in the vicinity. The worst part was them getting our $20 dollar combo pho order wrong but refusing to replace the bowl with what we wanted, instead insisting we keep it and charging us $17. We thought that they ran out of basil (since we asked for some but our server kind of just…ignored our request/said that it didn’t exist??), but only after seeing another person receive it with their dish did we finally insist we get it. Our server stood over our shoulder while we were giving our tip, and only finally left after we explicitly told him we needed to think about it. He got an undeserved 10 dollars.

The interior was clean and open. Not very memorable or particularly aesthetic. Thankfully their hygiene is better than their food.

It’s a shame that such a restaurant would exist in...