Phở Golden — Restaurant in Golden

This place is WAY over rated. With all the positive reviews I was expecting something far better. Service was subpar, and food was very average. Prices were higher than most other Vietnamese places, but the restaurant ambiance was nicer than most hole-in-the-wall Pho joints.

We went in on a Friday night with a group of 6 after climbing and were seated. $2 fat tire ales? Nice! My girlfriend wanted to order some crab wantons for appetizers. Being a little apprehensive of typical Chinese food fare, I peered at the menu and noticed from the picture that the wantons looked to be handrolled/homemade. Not so, they came out and tasted like frozen wantons from Costco. Next, when ordering our entrees, I ask the server if they have Pho tai bo vien (meatballs with rare steak). "No" she says. "Why?" I ask "umm we just don't do it." "Why?" I ask. "Because the meatballs are expensive." No offer to add them for a $1 upcharge or anything. Most Pho places offer this menu item directly on their menu. Next, they bring out our food and immediately disappear without bringing us any sort of utensils to eat our food with. Nothing is more annoying than when you're hungry and waiting for your food. Several minutes later, we track down our server and inform her that we need some utensils. She seems annoyed.

The Pho itself was pretty good. The broth was really flavorful, but for a medium $9 bowl, I notice my Pho is lacking in noodles and meat.

I've been there once before an ordered their vermicelli noodle bowls and was also underwhelmed. Portion sizes were small, and amount of ingredients and noodles were very slack.

I've given this place two trys and haven't been impressed either time. Probably...

Don't waste your time and money in this awful place. I tried to give this restaurant a third try because it's conveniently located near my house. But alas, they were once again very rude and told me I needed to go find another place to eat. I placed my order over the phone for the Brisket Pho and asked for extra toppings to go in it. When I get to the restaurant, I check to make sure that I have everything I want and I see I don't have any extra pho ingredients like lime and cilantro. So I ask the woman (who is always rude and has an attitude if you ask any sort of question) for more lime and cilantro. She literally points at my food and tells me that she already put extra in there. I then politely asked for more. She grunts and goes to get me more. The owner or manager or whoever he is then tells me that if I want extra, then I have to pay for it. I told him I don't mind paying for extra, but I want extra! He kept arguing and told me that I needed to tell the woman on the phone that I wanted more. I told him that I did tell her and he kept saying that I didn't. I'm sorry, I only remember talking to a woman on the phone, not him. So he then shooed me out the door and kept saying, "Thank you. Don't come back." All because I wanted extra lime and cilantro? That was the last straw and I can see that a lot of people are with me on this one. Don't go if you want watered down Pho and bad service! There is a new Pho place called Applewood Vietnamese. Go there! The service is always amazing and the Pho has so much flavor, it's delicious! Oh and they have Boba Tea, which this...

I have come here for pho roughly 30 times over the past 5 years and while I loved it at first, I have to say my experiences have been continually less and less satisfactory. The service is usually fairly quick but can be very slow at times and more often that not our server is in a bad mood. This alone isn't that big of a deal if it wasn't for the food itself.

The flavor of the broth is wildly inconsistent. At its best it barely hits a 6/10 and at its worse it tastes like somebody mixed a few cups of beef stock with hot water and salt and decided to call it "pho". Even the "hot water" part of that sentence is generous since about half the time it's only lukewarm. On top of this they almost always skimp out on the meat (assuming they actually bring you the correct meat you asked for).

I'm generally not that picky of an eater but pho is one of my favorite dishes and in the 20+ pho restaurants I've been to in the Denver area this one is hands down the worst by far. Which is a real bummer because it's way closer to where I live than any other pho restaurant but at this point I'd rather drive an extra 20 minutes out of my way than risk having another disappointing experience with this restaurant.

I gave this restaurant so many chances to correct itself and earn me back as a customer but given the continual downward spiraling pattern I've seen over the past year or two, I can safely say that I will never be coming back to this place. Hopefully we can get another pho place in...