Pho Bistro — Restaurant in El Paso

I am shocked at all the good reviews. The pho was inedible. The broth was weird. It tasted like there was soap water in it and at the same time had a very watered-down flavor, meaning they did not use enough beef and bones when making it. They over did it with the star anise and cloves but didn't put enough fish sauce and rock sugar. It was an interesting combination that yielded an awful result. I lived in San Diego for many years, half of my family is Vietnamese, and I myself make pho. I have never had a worse bowl of pho in my life. I can only think that the great reviews were from people who don't know what pho is supposed to taste like. Or I was actually served a bowl with soap water mixed into their pho, which I really hope was not the case. The one pro of this place is the nice server. Very polite and attentive. I didn't have the heart to tell him how awful the pho was. I would've given this place 1 star, otherwise . Maybe their other types of dishes are more their strong suit, I'm not sure. This was my first time trying Vietnamese food in El Paso. Unfortunately, I will not...

For El Paso, the Phõ is alright. Reasons for star deductions: (1) even when they are not very busy Phõ Bistro will not permit you to call in a dine in order ahead of time, which stinks when you hungry and in a rush; (2) when I asked for extra noodles the waiter said it was $3, most places charge $1.50 to $2 for extra noodles, and some even do it for free (I ordered a large Phõ, sooooo I ask rhetorically "really two pounds of rice noodles is $4.50 a pack locally"); (3) the service took awhile, which irritated me even more when I knew if they had taken my order over the phone my ten minute drive would have made the wait much shorter; and (4) as I said the food is alright and I was even pleased by the amount of meat..... BUT then when it came time to pay even though I never asked for extra meat and said no to the extra noodles when the waiter said the price, the waiter charged me for the extra meat?!?!? While it was a healthy portion of meat it was not would I consider double, but the point is I did not ever ask for it and got...

I have eaten in the East side location of this restaurant many times and service and food was both excellent. I really don't know what happened to your Mesa location. I ordered my food for pick up, I was told food would be ready in 20 minutes. Arrived exactly 20 minutes after placing my order and was made to wait another 20 minutes. I finally got tired of waiting and asked the waiter again for my order which told me it was not ready yet. I asked him if I could please just cancel the order and he told me ok wait a second, went to the back and came back to tell me that the order was ready after all. So after taking them about another 10 minutes to pack up the food, I get home and my food was missing and my husbands order was wrong. I spent $47 and almost an hour of my time to not even have any dinner to show for it.... Never eating from this place again. Owners should pay more attention to their staff at this location or you will continue to...