Phở 60 Cafe — Restaurant in Bon Air

Let me emphasize: the 3-star rating is NOT because of the food. In fact, I plan on going back at some point to try more of the menu. It's the other stuff.

I got the large #1 pho — really enjoyed it. It came out quickly and steaming. The broth on its own is meaty and so savory, and there was enough meat and noodles to fill me up despite my not having eaten all day.

The staff was fairly brusque, though, and pretty much sat me and forgot me. No check-in, and because all utensils are at the table (no forks — you may want to ask when seated or when your order is taken for those) I guess they see no reason you'd need anything. Although the person who brought me to my table brought me ice water without my asking (awesome!), I had to find someone to flag down to ask for more water long after I'd run out.

I learned from the cashier (you will have to get up to pay, you're not brought a check) that 3 people recently quit — a loss for sure, as I watched people pile up at the door and eventually leave when they got tired of waiting. So this might be a reason for the service, but I can only report my experiences.

As far as the atmosphere — it's quite odd to sit in a clearly gutted Famous Dave's. There's been very few alterations to the space, with a barbeque pig hanging near the door and Native American photos in the bathroom. And I don't know what music was playing, but I felt a little like I was in a horror video game 😬 Very odd overall, but at least while eating I was entirely focused on how good...

I visited with my husband for dinner on a Saturday evening. Considering that they've been open for a couple of weeks, I didn't expect it to be as busy as it was. The food was excellent! I had pho, and my husband had a vermicelli bowl. Where the experience fell apart was in the service. I watched a table of five seated next to us have to repeatedly ask for service, first for menus, then for their order to be taken. After a period of time, it became apparent that their orders had never been put in and they had to have their orders taken again. We also observed other tables take a long time to get their orders taken. In addition, my husband didn't receive the sauce to add to the noodles. We tried for a long time to get someone's attention before we were successful. We really want this restaurant to be successful, so I'm hoping my comments will be taken into account. The staff needs to be more organized, and I think with additional training (and maybe more staff), that can happen. FYI - when you are ready to pay, note your table number. Go up to the counter to the left of the restaurant, and provide that to the cashier. The ticket will not be delivered to your table. It's fairly common in pho restaurants but each place has a slightly different procedure. Edit 3/26/24: we've been back several times now. The service is great, and has been consistent...

Finally made it to try them out and things didn't go the best. The service was great they got the food to us fast and checked on us starting out but no one told us how to pay. We kinda looked around and no one ever brought a check so I ended up going to the takeout counter and found out that's where you go 🤷🏾‍♂️. We both ordered the pho with brisket and eye of round. The broth was pretty good but mine had these long strings of thick rubber band type tendon I guess which I have never seen in pho in my 15+ years of ordering it almost weekly. My wife's had almost a chopped up version of it that had meat randomly attached to it. Due to the amount of it in mine I stopped eating it immediately and just started pulling more and more of it out. Normally when we order egg rolls at a Vietnamese restaurant they come out piping hot but these came out immediately after ordering as if they were already made and they weren't hot at all. They tasted ok but just warm. Overall I'm not sure if I would go back and def wouldn't make a special trip to go there. Maybe I caught a bad day because I've only heard good things. Give it a try the picture with the bean sprouts has the tendon stuff I was talking about. That's when I first started...