PHO! noodles & sandwiches — Restaurant in Fairview Heights

Ive been excited to try this new pho place on the illinois side of the river , ever since they opened. Finally got by today. i normally go to stl for bahn mi sanwiches and pho. the only other pho option in belleville area is saigon. and there really is no bahn mi option in metro east , except this.

decor was clean and simple , you walk to the counter and place your order and sit down and they bring to you . chairs and tables were very cheap and not so comfortable .

i ordered online to go , printed up my order number and upon arriving , they told me that their order system was down and i would have to reorder and wait. i only had 30 mins left for lunch and the cashier told me only 10 mins, so i waited.

20 mins later my order came out, too late for me to eat it , i had to go back to work .

no apology, nothing. just take your food and go .

the pho i ordered for lunch was the most expensive one they had $14.99

the broth seemed a bit too sweet for my liking , but after adding all the fixins , it turned out to be delicious, it was not hot however. and the veggies are severely lacking compared to stl places. and even saigon in belleville.

the meat was not the rare kind, but fully cooked and tasty. there wasnt a whole lot of it but it wasnt skimpy either. for $15 , tho , should have been more to it. that same bowl at saigon $10.

now the banh mi, the bread was soggy after i had a chance to eat it , but if was prolly crispy at lunch time. i got the roasted pork and it had to be the grossest bahn mi i have ever eaten . the meat tasted like slimy raw bacon fat. i pulled it out and it was pure fat. another piece pulled out , same thing. all the meat inside was disgusting. i have pics of what looks to be pink colored thick cut bacon fat. totally empty sandwich for $10. go to stl for a much better sandwich for $6 or $7.

this place would be worth the extra money if it were better, skimpy gross sandwich and overpriced , but tasty bowl of pho. which i will prolly eat again , its not a good value, but...

So as a hardcore Pho lover, I find it very challenging to find decent Pho outside of big cities. Well now I'm in South West Illinois at Fairview Heights which is near Scott AFB.

There's only a few places in the area to get Pho, and the others are Chinese or Thai owned. So the choices are slim!!!

As soon as you walk in the door, you smell cleaning products. Not food. Ok so the smells clean, I guess. You walk to the cashier,order you 16 dollar Pho, and have a seat.

Never gave us water. Only brought the tiniest amount of veggies.

Pho came out. Bowl was ok size. Soup was a bit sweet and tasted of beef bouillon. Did not taste much Vietnamese spices. Soup was ok and reminded me of my home made version of Pho.

The meat was good. Decent portions. Flavorful and tender.

The noodles tasted old, and were not chewy at all. Little disappointing since noodles are the 2nd most important item in Pho. They need better noodles or learn to make them fresh.

Lots of different kind of people in the restaurant. Great opportunity Here for them to introduce people to such a great Vietnamese staple, and make money. There's an advantage of not having competition.......until you do.

I won't be going back to this place. Will try St Louis area next. Can't pay all that money for weak Pho. I'd rather make it at home if that's the case.

If you never had Pho before, you might enjoy it. So it's worth a try. Or maybe I am being too harsh? Tell me your opinion.

I've probably eaten about 4,000 bowls of Pho in my lifetime, all over the world which includes two trips to Vietnam (just for...

This place used to be excellent and my family and i would frequent the restaraunt when i lived in the area of couple of years ago. Since then we have gone a few times and the quality and cleanliness of this place has steadily declined.

Today we go in and decide to give it a shot again for the last time. The place is not clean, it has a had the scent of a well used restroom masked with Fabuloso. If you think I am being harsh, go in and see for yourself. Be sure to look up at the ceiling, in particular the vents. If that doesn't do it for you, grab a seat by the windows on the sticky bar and have a look at the wall and outlets.

The service was alright, honestly it doesn't need to be anything special. The guys in there were polite, brought food to our seats, and I have zero complaints as far as that goes.

The food quality is poor at best. The meat quality is the Pho deluxe bowl and rare beef pho bowl was questionable. The broth and the noodles did not taste right in a subtle but gross way. My wife and I enjoy Pho and neither could eat more than a few bites. For me, hunger was preferable.

This could have been an off day, an off week, an off month, whatever. This was the third time in a row we have been in the past year that was unsatisfactory. Despite the rant, my expectations are not very high and I'm willing to let alot go for some decent food. Something has gone wrong with this place, the management needs to figure it out and fix it.

In the meantime i recommend saving yourself money and...