Lotus Tea — Restaurant in Dickson City

I’m gunna be honest.. Not good unfortunately; I LOVE pho & I LOVE trying new places to eat it. I had high hopes for this place & had been waiting for them to open for roughly a year at this point.. got to try their food for their grand opening today & here are my thoughts:

To start off, the atmosphere is quite nice, open windows so you don’t feel crammed in the building, modernized design as far as the layout goes with some nice seating & tables around the location. On the right is where they prepared the teas & sandwiches as well as a electronic menu above. To the left of that, is where you order for dine in & pick up food to go; this isn’t like the traditional pho places I’ve been to where they come around & ask you for what you’d like to drink or eat (more about later). They also have a TV with what appears to be a food channel playing which is nice for ambience.

As far as the service goes, the workers are friendly & were in high spirits today which was a good vibe to be around. When ordering, you must go up to the pickup/order in desk & someone takes your order using a machine where you can clearly see everything they are charging you for. The lady that took our order was nice & they gave me the option to get chicken on the side so I could put it in my pho (I ordered the pho with extra veg & no meat then asked for chicken on the side which they charged $4.99 for). The total for the extra veggie chicken on the side pho including my fiance’s bahn mi & tea was $28.83 (after the 30% discount btw).

After that, we sat down & waited for our food to come out, which the lady brought out on a cart after a good 10-15 minutes. The pho had a light look almost like chicken broth in a medium sized bowl (kinda skimpy amount of broth the bowl was only about half way full) with a pretty little amount of onions/veggies (extra veggie btw). As I waited for the chicken to come out (they brought it out separately), I realized that I hadn’t gotten a drink with my order (usually pho places give out water & someone comes around to fill it) so I went up & asked for a water…. $1… they wanted to charge for water lol, the only reason they didn’t was because it was 30% off atm. While I was waiting for my water, the employee brought my chicken (which is the same chicken they used for the Bahn Ni) came out at to the table.. it was honestly super fatty, a little pink in places & looked like I’d been given the remaining scraps of a chicken lol. Overlooking the disappointment of the presentation, I decided to give the broth a try it was decent, not too salty but didn’t really have much of a ‘punch’ to it.. it was just ‘OK’ imo. My fiance’s Bahn Mi came out, the bread looked good (they bake it fresh apparently) however there was barely any content inside of it; it was like ‘would you like a little Bahn Mi with your bread today?’. All & all.. very disappointing with the only saving graces being their bread & tea (the Blushing Dragon was the tea my fiance got). The food overall was extremely skimpy portion wise & just not good quality ESPECIALLY for the amount I paid for it ($28.83 & that was 30% off too.. jeez).

Idk if we’ll be back unless some dramatic changes happen with the food, Lotus Tea gave me a kinda ‘fast food pho restaurant’ vibe all around; they definitely have work to do especially when it comes to food quality, portion sizes, & hospitality (nobody came to check on our food or ask how it was, they were all kinda sitting in the corner of the restaurant chatting I saw other customers leave & the owner didn’t even thank them or anything which is why I say it reminded me of a fast food restaurant) it’s not really personable more like a business. The difference between Lotus Tea & Scranton’s Saigon Corner is night & day to me; the food is the focus & you can tell the owner genuinely cares about her product at Saigon Corner (she is constantly improving & changing her foods & has asked for feedback every time we go there) while Lotus Tea feels more like an after thought/business who are just trying to make...

My friend discovered and told me about this place today so we stopped up and tried it together. As a pho fanatic I can say the Pho Special was delicious. Light broth, subtly seasoned, decent portion of meat, perfectly chewy rice noodles, generous portion of bean sprouts which I love—it was great. I also got a honeydew smoothie which was absolutely fantastic and actually fairly priced. The inside of the restaurant is very new, clean, and comfortable, and the staff were great.

So then why the three? One word: price. My bowl after tax was just over $20. The competing restaurant in Steamtown Mall undercuts that price by 25%—and in Maryland (more plentiful Vietnamese restaurants yet more expensive ingredient and real estate costs) a large bowl of pho typically runs you $13 or less. Charging $19 pre-tax for a bowl of pho as a newcomer in an area where there’s an established restaurant charging $15 is a bit asinine.

Once the business owner gives their menu pricing a once-over and comes to the logical decision of reducing the price of their pho, I’ll likely return. But with the pricing the way it is now, despite how much I enjoyed the food and experience, I unfortunately will not be returning. I know that business owners gotta make their money, but there’s markup and then there’s price gouging: this place falls into the latter territory.

EDIT: after reading the rest of the reviews, I can see all the negative ones also concur with the pricing, while the food continues to have mostly positive feedback. Lotus Tea, I want you guys to be successful, I’m not here just to pitch a fit. But with the way everything is priced is now, I’m clearly not alone among the customers you’re pricing out from returning. Please take heed of these price concerns from us seriously. I’d hate to see this place fall...

I've been eagerly awaiting to try Lotus Tea alongside others in my circle who've been very excited to see a Vietnamese restaurant hit the local area. I will say, I have had my fair share of pho on my travels, but I had my eyes set on the Bahn Mi when we walked in today for the official grand opening so I didn't hesitate when it came time to order. I also decided to try out one of the many teas they offer so I went with the 'Blushing Dragon' which is a pineapple/lemonade with chunks of pineapple and an orange slice. Definitely sweet, but refreshing, and the amber color is so inviting on a warm day. The atmosphere inside the restaurant is modern and elegant. Noticeably clean and I appreciate the calming nature it gives off. I do think my favorite part about Lotus Tea really is the tea itself. I've never seen such a vast menu that wasn't specifically a Boba shop. I could definitely see myself driving by and dropping in to grab one when the urge hits since there are many alluring options I can see myself trying. I will say, the food was decent, but leaves much to be desired in terms of portion size. I can't lie and say I wasn't a bit disappointed when my sandwich was put in front of me because of it. The chicken that WAS on it was a bit chewy as well. We did receive a discount due to the opening special so it wasn't necessarily something to gripe about, but it's something I needed to mention. I can absolutely appreciate the bread being baked fresh however, and it showed. It was delicious. I think people who haven't had a taste of Vietnamese food will...