Pink Bellies — Restaurant in Charleston

Went in for dinner around 6pm with high expectations. Restaurant was clean and well decorated. Food was interesting with Vietnamese dishes that had other influences mixed into it to create new flavor profile or other dishes with Vietnamese flavors thrown in to mix it up. Some a hit some a miss.

The good: Yuzu mocktail was refreshing and tasty. Garlic KFC chicken wings were delicious, crispy, and had a great fusion of flavor. Homemade blue cheese sauce was a nice touch. The Pho Cocktail was very surprising and best of the play on Vietnamese flavors presented in a new and unexpected way.

The not so good: The Cha Gio Ssam was pretty legit and dipping sauce was spot on. Where this fell down was that about 1/4 of the lettuce had black wilted rot and had to separate out. Not pleasant at all.

The General Gerry Chicken was fried beautifully and has that seemingly forever crispy element to it. The sauce was on the salty side and flavor wise wasn’t by design. The rice was surprising. It seemed like the rice similar to Hainanese Chicken Rice but lacking the flavor and aroma.

The OG Garlic Noodles were good but just good. It had a lot of elements there that were done right and seemingly a lot going on but the flavor was surprisingly one note and somewhat muted. The presentation was the most memorable thing about it.

The low review was for the service. We got there early and even though we didn’t have a reservation, we were still seated but it seemed like they were doing us a favor the entire time. All of the food came out at one time and nothing was coursed so it was a little packed and as we finished a dish we stacked the plates. They weren’t picked up until we were asking for some boxes.

Boxes were brought out and a check immediately dropped without us asking which was a little surprising since we weren’t offered dessert and the cheesecake looked really appetizing.

I asked for a side of rice to go when asking for the boxes. We sat for another 10 minutes or so after we had paid waiting for the rice and a bag and came out a while later. Mind you, I understood there was a charge for the rice and that is totally fine but not sure why it took so long.

There was little interaction with the staff compared to how they treated other guests. Maybe they had reservation. I don’t know. Overall we spent a little over a hundred dollars for two people, felt rushed, and left there feeling kinda empty.

It’s worth checking out but I probably won’t...

Popped in for a quick bite and have heard a lot about this place. Very cute and vibrant place with lots of pink! 💓 I was greeted quickly and sat right away when I walked in. The servers were all very helpful and seemed to work well together. I asked about the sweetness in the hot n spicy noodles, he did tell me that it is very buttery sweet and not that spicy. I did end up asking for less sauce during the preparation.

I started off with the Sui cao pork dumplings. This was a solid 5/5, good texture and chew, loved all the scallions on top and the sauce that went with it. I pretty much drank it all lol!

I decided to try the hot n spicy chicken noodles. Upon seeing them I was definitely excited to dig in. For my personal preference I like my stir fried noodles to be more Al dente so these were a bit over cooked and too soft, especially with how much sauce was coated on them. The initial flavor with the savory, buttery and sweetness was good. But it’s one of those dishes that the flavors got very overwhelming after a handful of bites. It was just SO rich and I understand that is what they were going for. So for me I liked the components of this dish, but for my personal preference I didn’t enjoy it as much because of how rich and sweet it was. Like my lips felt very greasy the whole time eating it. Overall I would still give it a 4/5 because it still had good flavors.

I’ve had the OG garlic noodles togo with the pork before and I really enjoyed those. The pickled onions did it for me because the acidity really complemented the other flavors. I think having those onions in the other noodle dish could’ve helped with how rich the flavors were as well.

I know this place is definitely going for that elevated yet eccentric take on Vietnamese food so if you’re looking for something different this is a great place. If you’re looking for a more classic and traditional approach on Vietnamese food, this would not be the place. But overall, a solid menu...

As a loyal customer since their beginning, I had high hopes to have OG garlic noodles the first night takeout was open to the public.

After repeatedly trying online ordering, no answer on the phone/ invalid phone numbers , and no update on Social Media as to the status of their ordering, I decided to drive to the restaurant.

I asked the FOH associate if I could order and she said "only online", to which I reply I tried, to which she said "we had to turn it off because we were overwhelmed". I said well I have cash and I'd like to place an order here, to which she said "I can't do that".

I go home, order delivery from another local popup-turned-restaurant, and as soon as I'm done eating, I see Pink Bellies post that they just reopened online ordering. NOT ONLY had I been posting/DMing to their account, but they totally ignored me.

UPDATE: I was blocked by Pink Bellies on Instagram and I'm assuming my comments were deleted. I tried to reach out to the owner Thai on his personal account and was also blocked! I am in awe. This is not how you treat customers.

Is this the age we're living in? Where social media influencers and egomaniacs run businesses solely on hype and viral praise?

REPLY to Pink Bellies: I was not disrespectful, I asked questions and I waited in line to speak. No one would give me any answers; all you had to do was communicate that you were going to start taking orders again. Stop trying to spin your lack of service and communication skills against my experience at your restaurant. I worked F&B through high school and college, from counter service to fine dining, and I have never been more disrespected from a business than from Pnk Bellies. I'm happy to provide references, and maybe offer some advice on how to...