PHO MAI — Restaurant in Chandler

Showed up on Saturday at 4:30pm. A paper sign on the door read "Closed on Thursday". The place was mostly empty. One couple eating at a table and my self & my son. No other customers. The food didnt take long, around 10-15 minutes. The food cost was $49.

I ordered. Phad Thai, Orange Chicken and their appetizer platter.

Pad Thai with Chicken: I asked to please make it spicy. The chicken was very bland, I believe it was simply boiled in water. It had no color or seasoning. The noodles were also very bland. I found a glob of what looked like laoganma chili crisp under all the noodles, not tossed in at all. The dish had little to no egg in it. No green onion or cilantro, peanut. None of the accoutrements you typically find in a pad thai. These ingredients shouldn't be an up-charge. It should come standard with Pad Thai.

Orange chicken: Fragrant and flavorful wonderful sauce.

Appetizer platter: Crab rangoon and egg rolls were fine probably store bought, not made in house. Pot stickers tasted very watery and looked store bought. The shrimp was simply a shrimp wrapped im a wonton wrap, no real flavor or distinction.

I was excited to try Pho Mai. It was a disappointment this time around. Maybe I'll try again later...

The experience with Pho Mai was alright. Now, let me start by clarifying that this was a to-go order. The ordering process and the staff were fine. They were very polite when I placed the order plus when I showed up for my pick up.

The drive from the restaurant to home was only 10 minutes long. However, when I got home, the pho and spring rolls I ordered both tasted…old. The pho soup tasted too acidic (like a bunch of lime pre-squeezed into it with too much fish sauce), the spring roll skin was tough, and the peanut sauce was soupy with the layer of oil separating from the actual sauce.

Please help me understand if I should not have ordered Vietnamese food 45 minutes before they close, or this is how authentic Vietnamese food actually tastes like? Should I not have ordered to-go and try to dine in instead? I have...

Went here a few days ago for the first time, It was highly recommended.

My husband and i came at lunch time (around 11:30/noon) there were two other ppl here (already half way through their meal). (Not busy at all)

We ordered water , an appetizer and one pho.

Our water didn’t come out until 10-15 mins later (while the employees were gossiping behind the counter ) my husband’s pho came shortly after.

Meanwhile my appetizer (crab puffs) didn’t come out until my husband was more than half way done with his meal.

Crab puffs were disgusting, and the yellow/orange oil for dipping was nasty.

I will never come back here. There’s a lot of better places to go to and spend my money.

Ps. There was also a very annoying fly 🪰 hanging around our table … and if you’ve ever seen kitchen nightmares 😬😬😬 that’s never...