Pho 81 — Restaurant in Germantown

Ok so I give this place 3 stars for a couple reasons. I placed my order on the phone for pick up. A small #10 pho, an order of summer rolls and Thai bubble tea. I asked for extra peanut sauce. I was told it would be ready in 15 minutes. I got there 14 minutes later and there were 2 young ladies (teens?) working at the counter and an older lady also. I saw that it was moderately busy - maybe half the tables were seated. There was one other customer at the counter already but she said she’d been helped. I stood at the counter for a bit and no one said anything as one of the young ladies was filling water cups. I finally said “ Hi, I’m here to pick up an order.” And gave my name. She said ok it is going to be a minute. I said ok. Then I watched her fill up more water cups, go to the tables to take orders with the other young lady and come back to the counter a couple more times. Finally I asked how much longer will it be? The other customer was clearly frustrated and told them that she’s been waiting for her order also. The young lady said , “It’s going to be at least 5 more minutes because I still have to make your bubble tea”. It has now been well over 20 minutes but I still waited. She calculated my order and gave me the total. I handed her my card and she said, rather abruptly, “We don’t take American Express!” I said fine and handed her my visa. I reminded her to give me extra peanut sauce and even told her to forget the tea if it wasn’t ready. She asked if I was sure and I said yes. But just then the older lady came with my tea. The cashier struggled with the register tape and changed it twice. Finally I signed my charge and left with my order. Never got the extra peanut sauce as I asked. The pho was just ok. Not bad but not worth all the hassle. And the summer rolls were much smaller than most places. There was a lot of ice in the bubble tea but it was ok. I don’t know if I’ll go back here. There are many other pho places around with better service and great pho and...

Service was friendly enough, but with a limited menu, the hope was that the food would be above average. Unfortunately it was disappointing and even a bit infuriating considering the price point. The summer rolls were bland and dry, with the lettuce and rice paper (!) being the worst part. They were obviously prepared ahead time which dried out the rice paper and the peanut sauce was practically tasteless. We ordered the beef pho and vermicelli. The pho broth was most certainly chicken, which for a chicken broth would have been fine and passing. If it was indeed beef broth, it was truly the worst "beef pho" as it did not have the depth of flavor other Pho places in the area have. The vermicelli, which was more expensive than the pho, was fair at best, except the quantity of meat given. It was a joke compared to how much meat there was in the pho, making it feel like a rip-off (I would assume a comparable amount of meat would be provided). The fish sauce was also rather tasteless and of course the terrible lettuce from the summer rolls made an appearance here as well.

The food was truly mediocre and maybe we caught them at a bad time (7 PM on Sunday), but overall would be hard pressed to recommend to anyone who has had Pho at any other Montgomery County...

Just had the worst experience ever with the cashier guy that takes the order. He’s a younger tall Asian guy not sure if his name but doesn’t speak English to well. Just describing him as best as I can to warn people about him.

There was maybe 5 tables with people and we were the 6th and he was the only one taking orders.

I’ve been here a million times and this was my favorite pho place in the area so I walked up to the cashier area where he was standing to tell him what we wanted to order.

When I walked up he told me before I could speak “I don’t care go back and sit down”.

My mouth dropped. I’ve never been talked to like that before in my life at a restaurant. I asked him if he could repeat what he said.

He repeated exactly what he said with no fear or remorse. I waited for a manager and told him I will never go back to that establishment ever again because if the experience I had with that man.

It’s unfortunate because the food is very good but the customer service has down down since that guy started...