Pho Kim 88 — Restaurant in Castle Shannon

TLDR: Very rude service, almost nonexistent. Food is still decent. Place is often times dirty. We were given our food with no utensils, then our food was spilled on the table and there was mold on the wooden chopsticks. Highly unhygienic and very disappointed. The server has been very rude to us in the past as well. Also has mold. Price and value is good.

Note to owners: please stop putting the paper menus on top of the plates. It’s super unhygienic. Make sure the food is hot when serving.

Went here several times for the past few years every time I visited Pittsburgh but the last few times haven’t been a good experience. Very rude service, almost nonexistent. Food is decent. Place is often times dirty. We were given our food with no utensils, then our food was spilled on the table and there was mold on the wooden chopsticks. Highly unhygienic and very disappointed. Food takes a long time to come out as well. I remember the quality being much better but now the sushi rolls aren’t properly made and the pho comes out cold. Servers ignore you. Never coming back here again. I gave it many chances even after being yelled at because the food was usually good with big portions and the price was good but now it’s...

I was excited to try this place after seeing that it was reviewed so well, but I was HIGHLY disappointed.

The cups and water carafe that were brought to our table were cloudy and felt like they might not have been cleaned very well. The cheese wontons had a decent flavor, but tasted like they were fried in old dirty oil. My husband had pad Thai, and while he said the noodles and flavor was good, he told me afterwards that the meat tasted a little strange and sour, which didn’t surprise me because my meal, (Pho dac biet) was easily the worst I have ever eaten. The broth tasted like anise water and had none of the other standard flavors in pho broth. The ‘rare’ beef tasted old and was very tough, the brisket tasted like it was on the verge of going bad, and it did not have any tripe even though the menu listed tripe as one of the ingredients.

We both ate what we could as to not be rude, but we’re also crossing our fingers that the beef was not spoiled as we both did eat some of it before deciding it would be safer to eat around the remainder.

We definitely will not be returning and I personally am a little concerned about the standards of the reviewers who said that the food...

I got some sushi and a Banh Mi sandwich.

The sushi rice was quite large, which is not standard but okay. Nice little seaweed wrap around them like you only see in a high end sushi restaurant. I got unagi (eel), shrimp, and crab stick. Crab stick and the shrimp are nice, again, a large block of rice. The eel was good and huge pieces of eel, which is very nice to see, except it had a sickeningly sweet sauce on it. The sauce that comes with the eel should not be anywhere near as sweet as this. It ruined the dish.

Then I had the Banh Mi. Worst Banh Mi I’ve ever had. Now bear in mind I've been to Vietnam several times, lived in Southeast Asia for 20 years, so I know what a Banh Mi tastes like. They put a sweet brown gravy that absolutely ruined the Banh Mi. There's no sweet sauce that goes on a Banh Mi. Completely out of place. The pickled carrots and radish were almost nonexistent and no cucumbers, fresh chilies or cilantro. This is NOT a Banh Mi. I wish I'd eaten it in the restaurant so I could have sent it back and not paid for it.

Add to these issues that the Vietnamese waiter was more interested in the ball game than doing his job. All in all,...