The Noodle Vietnamese & Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Chicago

A little backstory: My hubby and daughter had just gotten back from a 200-plus mile bike camping trip. She was craving Pho. The closest place to where I was picking them up was this spot in Chinatown (I did not want to make the trek to Argyle). With that, this spot had better reviews than the other spots around the area, plus they are open on Mondays. We ordered what we normally order: Brisket Pho, Banh Mi, Spring Rolls, and Mango Smoothie with Boba. My criticism is the following: There were very few pieces of beef in the banh mi. Actually, there was very little of anything in the sandwich. Maybe two slices of cucumber, a sprig of cilantro and a couple of small slices of the grilled beef. The bread was not up to par, it seemed to be on the older-side of "fresh". The Pho was a big disappointment. When the brisket hit the broth and sat for a few minutes it turned iridescent. And not just a little twinkle of iridescence but A LOT of iridescence on both sides of the meat. The family picked out the meat and tried to eat around but they had lost their appetite. Nobody finished the soup. I knew going in that this would not be an amazing dinner but I was hopeful that it would help satisfy my daughter's Pho Itch, but I really felt hosed. $85 for dinner totally down the drain-just like what we had to do with the soup. I live in the Western Suburbs, it would not be easy for me to pack everything up and bring back to the shop for my money back. Long story short: don't go to Chinatown for...

We are from out of town and this was the place I found that had high reviews. Sad to say we left highly disappointed in our food. My pho did not taste authentic, but I should have known when we were greeted by a rude hostess and our waiter also didn’t know what a pho dac biet was. This was when I realized it wasn’t an authentic owned Vietnamese restaurant. No worries - we still stayed to give it a chance since everyone in the restaurant was enjoying their food. Maybe the owners have perfected their recipes. Wrong…

When we finally recieved our pho and our com suon (grilled pork chop and rice). It was lacking flavor. My pho was tasteless, almost like I was given noodles in water. It was missing tons flavor and possibly missing MSG. The broth from instant ramen packets would have tasted better than this. As for our pork chop, it was not marinated the way com suon usually is and was basically just a fried pork chop. We’re from Philly and travel frequently, however this is the first time we were disappointed in a pho restaurant. We’ve also eaten pho at non-owned vietnamese restaurants but they were better than this place

Looking back again, I notice alot of their good reviews are from folks who are not asian. But to each their own. If you are used to authentic vietnamese food please look elsewhere as this is not the place and you’ll leave disappointed...

Came to Chinatown because I had a hankering for Vietnamese food, but didn't want to travel allllll the way to Argyle. The prices were good, food decent and portion sizes alright, but I've had better elsewhere...my friends and I ordered:

1. Pho with beef
2. Rice noodle dish with pork and shrimp
3. Combo rice plate with pork chop, shredded pork and egg cake

I felt the pho broth was lacking serious flavor and wasn't very authentic. At least there was plenty of ingredients accompanying the broth. The rice noodle dish was pretty good, but I've been to other places that were more generous with the portions, but at the same price point. I got the combo rice plate, which is my favorite and I always judge Vietnamese restaurants by this dish. It was alright...did I hate it...no, but would I come back just to have it again? ...probably not. The flavor of the pork chop was missing something and I really wish that they would've used broken rice that many other Vietnamese places use. Overall, it was just A-OK!

Service was pretty standard to for Chinatown and there's street parking. I guess I'll have to continue my search in Chicago for the best...