Pho Alley — Restaurant in Cypress

Crispy fish roll with a rubber band🤮

Since 2021, every time we visited california, we have always looked forward to eating in this place. A family friend of my husband recommended this restaurant to us. we're looking for good asian food with a great pho,and yes! No mistake indeed its one of the best, but not until time December 16,my husband got a takeaway for dinner. Everything was good actually till i had a bite almost halfway off one of the crispy fish rolls and realized that something got stuck in between my teeth, and my surprised it was a rubber band! I called the restaurant,  staff answered and she even said she remembered my husband and she would get me a refund or new food but i have to come there myself. That call didn't really help anything about the situation, so i decided to go there myself since it's just 10 mins away from where we were staying. I went there very calmly and politely asked for the manager, but the person(said her name was Ann) at the counter said there's no manager or supervisor to talk with basically i have no option just her and since talkjng to her from the phone has no help at all,so i do not bother talking to her anyway, i told to her call her manager and let know that a customer wants to complain but she said thay the manager wont talk to me bcoz she/he have more important things, she even keep on insisting she wont give the manager's number or her personal number tho i didn't asked for. The tall girl,with short and green highlights hair was disrespectful and very rude(talking to me with both arms crossed/folded) unprofessional who did not even apologise for the inconvenience that it cause.  Instead she keep telling there's nothing she can do, i wasnt interested with the refund or even to replace my food but i ended up refunding it anyway bcoz arguing with unprofessional will do nothing good anyway, she took my number and said she will tell her manager but we never receive any calls. She becomes more rude when i asked her name and she doesn't want to give at first but i told her i have the right to know bcoz the incident happened on her duty,im not sure if the name she gave me even real. I feel sad about this incident bcoz as much i would like this incident to be dicreet and i come in peaceful way but it didn't right by me. Food in this restaurant is really good, but it seems customer service is being taken for granted. I hope that a restaurant with this kind of good food didn't compromise the quality of customer service.I had to rated this restaurant with 1 star due to this incident not with the food , mistakes happened everywhere, but being treated with disrespect...

Surprisingly haven't had pho in a while, so I was excited to try this spot out.

Parking: Free parking lot.

Ambiance/Environment: Once I walked in, I was asked if I was ordering out or dining in. The cash register is towards the back. They have a large space with a decent amount of indoor seating. No outdoor seating. Love the interior and lights. It accommodates groups of all sizes.

Service: There was one female server that assisted me. She was courteous and efficient. Throughput for food was quick; around 8 min after ordering. The drinks took a big longer for whatever reason. All the food came out before the drinks.

Foods & drinks:

House Special Combination - This is one of their specialty pho that includes bone-in ribs, rib eye, and brisket in beef broth. There was a generous amount of meats. The noodles were cooked well. The broth might've contained way too much MSG because I was constantly drinking water. Other than that, the pho was enjoyable.

Banh Hoi Heo Quay - This dish was recommended to me because it's their newest dish. It has pork, noodles, vegetables and nuoc mam. The nuoc mam was delicious. The pork skin was crispppyyy, and they give you a lot of pork! The vegetables were fresh. The noodles were organized into cute rectangles. Since the lettuce was chopped, I took pieces of pork, wrapped it in the noodles, and topped it with vegetables instead. I also poured the nuoc mam over the noodles for more flavor.

Cajun Pork Jowl - These were seasoned well, but I also think there was too much MSG. The creamy sauce made it more flavorful.

Egg Coffee - Their coffee was strong. The egg cream was thick and sweet. The cream and coffee balanced each other well.

Tropical Twister - This smoothie contains strawberry, pineapple, and mango. Absolutely refreshing!

Pricing: These prices are the new average prices for Viet food. I don't go out to eat Vietnamese food often because I grew up eating it. When I do though, I'm glad it's as enjoyable as...

This place is incredibly delicious.

Saltado with beef+garlic noodles $17. The filet mignon was super tender(as it should be), the fries were super crispy despite being coated in sauce, the garlic noodles were a little soft but incredibly garlic-buttery . The green sauce I think is parsley, fish sauce, sugar, lime, lemon grass, it's fantastic with the beef and fries.

Bone marrow with oxtail fried rice $15. This was really beefy and flavorful as well. It reminds me of the Chinese claypot rice where if you're into the crispy rice off the side of the clay pot, you'll love this because it's crispy fried rice.

Lemon Grass BBQ pork spring roll $7.50. To me, spring rolls to Vietnam is like tacos to Mexicans. There's no rules to what goes in a roll, this was a new delicious take for me. It's like eating a vermicelli bowl in a spring roll. The sauce was unique, the dipping sauce is a fish sauce based with more lemon grass, pine apple, oil, and chilies.

10/10 would come again. The food imo is a bit pricey, but it's worth the price tag given the quantity and flavor. Parking was easy, given the lot. The place was near capacity when we arrived at 6pm, but we had no wait. The service was top notch...