Pho 79 Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Hampton

I am a former employee at this establishment. I can say that the food is decent for the price, but the service leaves more to be desired.

Although, the employees are friendly and helpful, they are not well trained nor do they last long in their positions. The management makes sure to keep them down by withholding salary, wages and other funds for disobedience. Same same, Vietnam.

Employees with experience in service would avoid this establishment, but the kitchen staff is roughly the same as when I worked there over two and a half years ago. It's hard to replace essential workers, but superficial faces are replaced often.

This company is likely committing numerous labor violations according to federal and state law. However, few employees know the law, nor do they know that there are even laws that would protect them against such violations.

I have a pending labor claim against Pho79 and its affiliates, for the amount of $3000.

I worked 12 weeks in total. 5 days per week. Two shifts per day. 5 hours per shift. At $7.25/hour. I took two days off for illness.

That is approximately $4350 of gross wage that should have been paid without consideration for overtime.

I was actually paid around $1350. Or approximately 186 hours of labor at $7.25 federal minimum wage. There are 414 hours of wage missing from the rolls. Which is $3001.50 in stolen wages. That is approximately $2.25/hour that I was paid under the table in cash in unmarked envelopes. Same same, Vietnam.

I was never paid for overtime, though I was the first person in the door and the last one out, and also worked 50hrs per week.

According to Virginia Law, the over time rate is one and a half times salary. At that rate, I am owed an extra $435 for time worked without payment. But, I'm willing of course to compromise on overtime. That's fair right?

This business is extremely profitable and popular. The management thinks that they're invincible. They believe that someone won't speak out against their thieving.

They shouldn't have messed with a...

My husband and I came here last night. He ordered pho and I ordered Bun Bo Hue. This review is specifically about the Bun Bo Hue I ordered, which I do not recommend. If you want REAL Bun Bo Hue, I suggest you go somewhere else.

I was excited to see that BBH was on the menu and when I asked the waitress to remove the pig blood (which is normally one of the ingredients of this dish), she looked at me like I’m crazy and quietly said, “This dish doesn’t come with pig blood…” I immediately knew at that point that it wasn’t going to turn out to be BBH. * The broth should be red because of the satay which is made of oil from the amaretto seed, shrimp paste, pork bones, lemongrass, and chile paste!!! * These are the key ingredients that make this different from pho and also makes the dish very spicy.

I wish I took a photo of this dish because you can’t imagine the shock on my face when I saw the broth was almost clear. As soon as I tasted the broth, it was clear to me that they used pho broth. I then asked my waitress for the satay bc it was clearly missing. She then looked at me like I was crazy and stupid. I saw she was asking her coworkers about what satay is and I overheard one of the guys saying, “Oh she’s asking about the chilli oil”, which I already had in front of me.

She came back and asked me if I was talking about the chili oil and in my head, I was like “obviously not??? I have it in front of me already, why would I ask? I’m not stupid.” She proceeded to ask me what satay consists of and offered to just give me shrimp paste. Like ??????

A restaurant like this should really understand what the dishes they are making consists of and educate their employees, if they’re going to put it on their menu. Otherwise, take it off the menu.

The reason I have given 2 stars was because the extra star was more so for the service that we received overall, which wasn’t bad. I’m just extremely disappointed at the lack of knowledge with the dishes...

Broth was delicious. But I came here for the Ribeye pho and it was a disappointment. I expected large chunks of ribeye, and especially for the higher price, you'd assume you're getting something special compared to the other bowls. It was just regular sliced beef. I'm pretty certain it wasn't slices of ribeye (lean cut, maybe filet). Same slice you'd get on the regular bowl. Hear me out, I'm a ribeye expert. I cook this particular cut of beef at least twice a week. This was nothing special. In fact, get the regular bowl and ask for extra raw slices of beef. It'll be cheaper and you'd get the exact quality and quantity. The bowl wasn't even larger than the other bowl. So, there is no need to pay the increased price for nothing special. Broth is the same across the board. And again, it was delicious. I always try the broth first before adding anything, and I didn't have to add a single sauce (Sriracha/hosian). Again, if you're getting the Ribeye pho bowl, save yourself some money and just order the cheaper bowls and add the raw slice of beef on the side. I personally just felt I was ripped off, and it was false advertisement. If the owner is reading this, add real ribeye on top. I promise you you'd have a line...