PhởHolic Taste of Vietnam — Restaurant in Duluth

Edit: Was never given a resolution for this behavior. Will never be giving them our business again. End edit.

I hate giving bad reviews, especially to small businesses. But my first trip to Phoholic with my partner was deeply disappointing on a matter of principle. The good first! The food was good, and my partner enjoyed theirs a lot! I'm not a big Vietnamese food person and even I enjoyed my dishes. However, the service was not good. The table across from us was getting friendly service from an employee, while our server gave the vibe that they didn't want us there. We had done nothing but sit quietly and order lunch and a Vietnamese coffee. The major problem was when we got the bill. We're very low income and had a budget for our lunch so I wouldn't overdraft. The coffee was 4.50 on the menu. We were charged 7.25. I tried to get this corrected at the checkout, where I was told 'these are kind of old menus, we started using bigger cups and charging more.' Neither of us were told this when ordering. I asked if they could fix this, and they refused. Normally I would ignore a slightly cold server. But false advertising is illegal. And that is what this was. I don't care if they are old menus. Telling people the price of the coffee is different than on the menu is free and takes 2 seconds. Or you could manually correct them. Or put up a sign saying the price is wrong. There are many solutions. But them having the wrong price and charging us more than advertised is a crime and were it not for us not wanting to damage a small business, we'd raise a fuss about it on legal grounds. Instead, I needed to warn people and state that this behavior is not okay, and a more petty person would raise far more of a stink to get their bill corrected. I shouldn't /have/ to raise a stink to get my bill corrected. Our Valentine's date was... Pretty sullied by this. A real let down, because we were excited to try this place out. We won't be going back. This was a poor first impression, and I don't enjoy being scammed by a local eatery. It doesn't matter what the dollar amount was. It's...

Okay, let me start by saying parking is extremely challenging It's so tight it's almost an accident waiting to happen. When we walked in we were sat and greeted by a woman who gave us all water and said our server would be with us shortly. The server came a young man and he asked what we wanted to drink, so my family member both ordered their drinks and for our appetizers, we ordered the fish meatball skewers and shrimp spring rolls.

Things started to take a turn for the worse when I asked my server if they had lemonade, and he said no. I then asked if they had bottles of water and our server said no. Instead of telling me what they had to offer since this was my first visit he just looked at me. So I kindly asked for the menu again so I could see what I wanted to drink. So we placed our orders and I ordered the chicken curry with shrimp, and my girlfriend ordered the Chicken Pho with Shrimp. And for my drink, I ordered the strawberry smoothie with no boba I told our server I didn't want any gellies in my drink.

The food came out the appetizers were mediocre and the spring rolls while good were very small compared to many other Asian restaurants I've been to. The spring rolls looked like they should have been on a kid's menu. The chicken curry would have been a lot more enjoyable had it not been for the huge pieces of chicken in my bowl. I had to try to cut the chicken and not spill anything on me which was a challenge. Also, we had to constantly ask another server for things and she would bring them and tell our server, not sure if he was new but the service was subpar at best. I don't see myself returning here, too...

A genuinely stellar restaurant. As my wife and I have said in boasting of PhoHolic to friends and family: "This place is amazing... and not just for Duluth!"

This is hands-down the best pho I've ever had anywhere. No sauces or additives needed. This is the first pho experience I've had where the broth alone flavored the noodles so richly that the noodles could be a meal in themselves. Served with the usual accompaniments but also a few sprigs of thai basil which few restaurants in our area offer!

EVERYTHING I've had here has been spectacular. My wife loves the noodle salad with pork. I ordered a side of roasted pork for $2.50 to try it and got an appetizer-sized serving of scrumptious, tender pork just bursting with flavor AND topped with crushed peanuts and slivers of fried garlic as a garnish. ERMAGERD, SO GOOD! The marinated lime chili beef appetizer is also to die for. It's similar to laab moo and we adore it. Big enough to be an entree but with rice crackers to share with all!

So so so so good. The only drawback at this moment is parking. Their lot is small and the neighboring businesses are clearly jealous of their success because they will tow anyone who parks in their empty lots.