Pho and Rice — Restaurant in Cleveland Heights

I ordered from this place on doordash and it was overall NOT a good experience. First the good things were the food tasted good, the broth for the noodle soup was good. However I have serious questions on how they decided to pack the rice noodles for the noodle soup in a sandwich bag type of plastic bag. Is it even safe to pack the hot noodles in a plastic bag?! The noodle was like a bar of soap, like a brick. I let it sit in the soup hoping it'd help loosen the noodles. It really did not work. I used my chopsticks and a lot of patience to loosen the noodles to the best of my ability. There were still some chucks of noodles as you can see in the pictures. Also the noodles I was able to loosen were mostly broken little pieces even though I took time to slowly, gently loosen the noodles. I will never order any noodle soup to go from this place as they do not know how to probably pack for to go. Also I ordered a Thai tea bubble tea and it came in a dome lid even though the drink wasn't a frozen drink. I was shocked to see the nickel size hole on the lid was not sealed/covered in any way when now every restaurants are putting in effort to ensure their foods are probably sealed. They also did not give me a bubble tea straw (bigger than normal straw for the tapioca pearls). The sauces for the apps were in tiny sauce containers which made dipping difficult.

Response to the restaurant's comment: I guess it's okay for you to stand by your choice of how you pack the noodles and defend yourself just like I have a choice to not give you my business. I have ordered pho to go from another restaurant and they packed their noodles with the sliced onions and herbs in a styrofoam bowl container and guess what? The foam did not melt and the noodles weren't stuck together...

I recently brought a party of 10 here for a birthday celebration. My daughter requested pho and so I obliged. The original consensus was to go to the more well-known and dependable Superior Pho, but I vetoed and decided that we should try our local Pho & Rice, which is a lot closer to home.

Seeing as we were a party of 10 and knowing that they only have a small dining room, I called ahead for courtesy to ask them if they could accommodate our party at 3pm on a Saturday. I figured this would be their least busy time. I was put on hold, then was told no as they do not take reservations. Was a bit put off by this as I at least would’ve expected them to respond with “I’m sorry, we do not take reservations, but as long as we’re not busy we will do our best to accommodate you when you arrive.” Their response was nothing of the sort.

I was a bit put off by this, but was resolved to try our luck anyway. We arrived at 3pm and there were only 2 diners there. So we put tables together for our party right in the middle of their dining room. I was pleasantly surprised by their budget-friendly pricing. You order at the counter and they bring your food to your table. I raised an eyebrow when they brought our pho in disposable plastic to-go bowls with plastic spoons, along with the bean sprouts, mint, and lime tied in a plastic bag. I looked at the other diners and saw that they had larger real bowls. I doubt that it was a matter of running out of dishes because we were the only ones there, so that was perplexing.

Overall, the pho was decent - especially for the price. Not a place that I would tell others is a must try, but decent enough to go back if you’re craving pho and...

Not sure what happened to the business (I'm sure COVID has shifted some priorities for finances sake), but this was like a different restaurant from my past regular visits.

I dined in and ordered a P1 today (everything pho), and it was served in a small plastic bowl that was so small, there was almost no broth (just noodles and ingredients packed in, so if you lift the noodles, you see there is little broth underneath). I used to come in regularly during my lunch break, and the lunch portions used to be bigger than what they were serving for dinner today. If they had bought those cheap disposable bowls for COVID reasons, I understand, but please, for the future of your store, invest in some bigger bowls because Pho is not just about noodles and meat, it is all about the broth. The current bowl wasn't big enough. I could barely pack in the beansprouts in that small bowl, when it should naturally just submerge under. (I almost wonder if Pho and Rice might offer more broth if you do take out, putting a full soups worth of broth in those cylinder Tupperware).

Still, there was almost no flavor in what little broth was there. I usually don't expect Pho and Rice to wow me with their Pho, but it used to always be a dependable pho spot in the Heights on a cold day, where the broth was still decently flavorful (and will fills you up!). I used to come because it's closer to the Eastside than having to trek to Asiatown or downtown for places like Pho Thang, Pho Lee, or Superior Pho.

Unless things improve, I may skip Pho and Rice all together, even though it is nearer on...