Phở Nouveau — Restaurant in Boise

Ok food, poor service. Two of the three food items we wanted to order were not available. After we ordered, it took 50 minutes to get the appetizer and another 5 minutes before our food was served.

During the meal, our waitress bumped into our table, which caused a bit of sauce to spill onto my shirt. She also didn't notice that we were out of rice to go with a spicy chicken dish until I got up to ask for extra rice.

At the end of the meal, I asked if we could have the appetizer comped since it was 50 minutes before we got it. Our waitress told us that this was because she asked us if we wanted all the food when it was ready, and we said yes... I responded that no, I did not mean to indicate that I wanted to wait 50 minutes before having the appetizer. She shouted in response, "We are a family owned restaurant, so I can't comp food, but I'll just take it out of my money." Another waiter came over. He apologized, saying that he did not know what all happened but had removed the appetizer from the bill.

I go to restaurants 3-5 times a week. In the last three years, I never asked for a part of my meal to be comped, but in this case, felt that it would make me feel a little better about the service. The waitress's reaction to my request confirmed that it really was the worst service I had had in the last few years.

On a side note... I had tried Pho Nouveau two years ago, when I ordered takeout. The container with my soup spilled all over inside the bag. The remaining soup did not taste very authentic. I had avoided Pho Nouveau since then, but had decided to give the place another chance tonight, since I really like Vietnamese food.

Regarding the confusions about whether I wanted "all my food when it was ready" - It seems like most restaurants will either start all of your food at the same time, and serve the appetizer and meal to you as soon as they are ready. Or sometimes they make your appetizer, wait for you to get close to finishing, then start your meal. I would have assumed that she was asking which option I preferred, and by answering "when it's ready", I was saying to start all of the food, and bring out each plate as soon as it's ready. In any case, I'm not sure why she would have thought anyone would want to wait 50 minutes before getting...

TL;DR - Its a charming place and the flavor of the food was fine, but service was lacking and the portions were embarrassing.

I have been to Pho Nouveau before, also for lunch, and have had good experiences with the Pho soup and a noodle dish (don't remember which one), so I thought I would try something different and order the Vietnamese Chicken Curry lunch portion.

I walked right in, took a seat, and ordered relatively quickly. Unfortunately it took nearly 30 minutes for my food to come out, and when it finally reached the table I received 4 chunks of chicken (large mouthfuls), 4 chunks of sweet potato, and 3 chunks of carrot in a watery yellow curry sauce with a half cup of cooked white rice on the side.

The curry sauce tasted fine, I've definitely had much better curry at less swanky places, but the chicken was overcooked and tough. I asked the waitress about the pitiful portion sizes and her answer was "Yeah, that's how it comes".

For reference, I have been using a calorie counting app for 4 months, and this "lunch" amounted to about 300 calories. This cost me $12.95 plus a tip, which I feel wrong for leaving any tip at all but more wrong for stiffing the wait staff.

I'm not swearing off Pho Nouveau entirely, but this is a great example of downtown Boise getting too expensive for restaurants to rent so they either jack up prices or castrate...

Good food terrible service.

Unfortunately this is one of the few places in Boise to get Pho.

On two occassions in a row I've ordered food and they've forgotten to put the order in. The funny thing is that the place isn't that big.

My girlfriend and I just ordered food and sat for 40 minutes with no one coming to check for water refills. After we realized that we had been waiting for quite some time I called the attention of the server and they told me that they completely forgot to put the order in and that the kitchen was closed. Keep in mind that there were only three tables that were occupied.

The server then proceeded to offer us a laughable $10 for waiting nearly 40 minutes (that's 80 minutes of life between the two of us) of wasting our time. and then finally offered us two meals after being corrected by another server.

If you do go in make sure to speak up when your waiters are helping other tables to give them a reminder that you still exist and that you plan on giving money for their service. Because they certainly don't seem to value your time.

Worst customer service experience...