Pho 8 — Restaurant in Cape Girardeau

I have been meaning to drive out and try Pho 8 for over a year, and finally made it out yesterday.

The restaurant itself is beautiful. Despite its location in a strip center, it has ample seating with reserved tables for large parties. The menu is clearly listed on the wall behind the counter you order at as well as printed in a booklet in front of the register. They offer daily specials, which are also clearly advertised on the wall. They put a lot of thought into beautifying their space, and the effort shows.

I started with the fried tofu appetizer, which was fine. There are restaurants in the region that have better fried tofu if that's what you're after. I ordered the pho with meatball and medium rare beef. Personally, I think the meatballs missed the mark. They were a bit bland, which left a lot to be desired. The beef, however, was a generous portion and was very flavorful. The pho broth was fantastic, and personally was both mine and my husband's favorite part of our meal. All the additional sauces offered at the counter to doctor your broth to your preferences was a great sight to see.

There was a bit of inconsistency across our bowls. My husband's pho was full of full-length noodles, while mine was full of small and choppy noodles that had clumped together. It also seemed like I ended up with more noodles than my husband did, despite us ordering the exact same entree.

I was very disheartened that tripe was not an option for my pho. This is the only shop I've ever gone to that hasn't had tripe on the menu. They do carry tendon, but were out of stock when we visited, so we had to choose other protien options for our meal. Our entrees came with lime, jalapeño, and bean sprouts on the side, but no cilantro or Thai basil. In our experience, getting Thai basil and cilantro on the side has become a fairly standard expectation when ordering pho, so that left us a little disappointed as well.

Another thing that slightly bothered me was that when we ordered our waters, they came in a glass that was about equivalent in size to a rocks glass. We finished our waters before we finished our meal, and to be fair, while we could have asked for refills, I feel like we shouldn't have had to if we specifically asked for water to drink. I won't fault them for this because it is a counter-service restaurant, but as someone who prefers a glass of water when dining out over a soft drink, it is a little bothersome.

All in all, if I'm in the area again, I would probably stop in, but I don't think that I would make the drive from Carbondale just for Pho 8 again. Beautiful restaurant with good food, but it just misses the mark on food just enough to deter me from making the...

Food was great but the device was terrible. I brought my service dog in and was having a date with me boyfriend. We walk in and we are looking at the menu and when we are ready we walk up to order our food, the guy at the counter stopped me for I could order our food and asked if he was a service animal. That was no problem I told him yes he is, cool ok now that's over we aren't gonna get harassed right? No he came over to our table (we took one in the corner) he says "can you put your dog under the table? He's blocking the aisle." Sure no problem I can do that. I mean he's just cooling off on the ground. Now 2 visits in and I'm feeling uncomfortable and unwanted but I don't want to ruin this for my boyfriend and we have been looking forward to go here. We get our food and it was amazing for me my boyfriend said if tasted like dish soap.! Well while we are eating he comes back a 3rd time to tell me that I need to have a vest for him (the restaurant had no sign or anything like that and my service animal is a puppy he doesn't fit vests yet.) no top of the vest this he says "we don't want this to turn into a dog cafe ok?" I was visibly upset and is didn't seem like he cared because he smiles all weird at me. Im still new to having a service animal but I have his id on my phone because he's so little and growing. I don't know if y'all know how much a service animal is but they are not cheap, and neither is buy a vest every time he grows out to one. He had a vest on but no a service animal one. He was restrained the whole time and just layed down. We left and I promised to...

First off, the young man with all the tattoos that took my order was rude and rushed me to order as I asked questions about the menu. I wanted the pho soup and was served something completely different. After I explained to the gentleman that I wanted something other than what was placed In front of me he replied, “Oh, well that’s not what you said.” Turned his back to me and walked away very quickly. No apology or any type of explanation. Anytime I’ve ever dined in at a (decent) restaurant they make things right when there is a mistake or even a misunderstanding. I went ahead and tried something different and ate what I was served that evening. As I was leaving, the owner said to me “have to be berry specifically next time”. To my surprise she (the owner) was well aware I wasn’t happy with my entrée and appernly did not care to make things right. That’s just horrible customer service. I’ll never spend my money there again. The prices are way too...