Pho diner vietnamese cuisine — Restaurant in Gloucester Point

Dinner for two at 8PM recently. Only three other tables were occupied. We were waited on right away by Bella and the service was excellent. Unfortunately, we did not care for what we ordered. We started w/ two appetizers: A1-Spring Rolls which are served cold with a transparent wrapper that is tough/chewy and it was tasteless except for the peanut dipping sauce. Maybe it was our fault for not realizing what we were ordering. A7-Shrimp Tempura did not appear to be whole shrimp. Each one is very thin. They were fried and tasted good, but not worth the price so would not order that again. Our entrees were R7 and R8, Pork and Beef Fried Rice. The meat is served separately, not mixed with the rice as a Chinese restaurant serves it, and it is sliced in almost paper-thin slices. It's impressive-looking when served, but I wouldn't order it again. As it cools, the meat loses its juiciness. The fried rice was hot, tasty and a large portion, but nothing special. This is my third time eating here and the other two I enjoyed. I won't be back again on my own; only if with others who want to go. This restaurant has been open for almost two years, I believe, and I drive by it several times a week. A temporary promotional banner sign staked in the grass along Route 17 has been an eyesore for a year. It's torn in two, flapping in the wind and not even readable. The owner is onsite every day and ignores it. How hard would it be to remove it and throw it in a dumpster? If I could find out who the management company is for this shopping strip I'd call...

Here’s the rub:

Decided to take a ride to this place off of RT. 17. It had good reviews, and we decided to give it a go.

PRO’s:

-The food is very good. The vegetable spring rolls, sushi, and soup were very delicious.

CON’s:

-Service was lacking. Two couples left while we were there because their drinks and food were taking too long (a manager came over and apologized to them, and offered a free meal the next time they came, but really gave them no proof that it was actually going to happen in the future). The place was not packed, and they seemed adequately staffed. Our server also initially got my order wrong, but realized her mistake and corrected it. Our service seemed okay, but clearly that wasn’t the case for everyone else.

-When the server corrected my mistake, I asked for more vegetable spring rolls (as they are very delicious!) to go along with the sushi roll she forgot. This came out in a timely manner, but were definitely different spring rolls that contained meat. They were also tasty, but not what I asked for.

-We were excited by the drink options. There was a milk tea with a non-dairy cream that we were interested in trying. We asked what the non-dairy cream was, and they told us half & half, which is definitely a dairy creamer. We were approached by another server, and we asked them the same question, and got the same answer, and they looked at us like we had 7 heads when we tried to explain that their non-dairy creamer was in fact a dairy product.

3...

Met my son for lunch. Nice waiter. Everything was going okay until my son found a hair in his food. I spent 7 years in Asia, so I know the difference between good food and bad food. This was not good. Dry rice. Bland flavor on the chicken. Which, okay, whatever. My son took the hair up to the waiter and politely told them what happened. He said no charge for lunch, which we thought was decent. We left. We were standing outside by the car talking when I noticed the Vietnamese guy from the restaurant come out, lit a cigarette and started videoing us. It was so obvious, it was almost funny. I asked him, “hey, are you actually taking a video of us?” My son went over and had a word with him. The guy left a short time later. Then as we started to drive out, he came out again and videoed my son, including his plate. I sat in the lot and just stared him down until he went back in the restaurant. Something real wrong...