The Pho House - Viet Kitchen and Cafe — Restaurant in Hot Springs

Updated on 11/02/2023

The owner of this facility is very good in managing people perception. He has standard way of starting rude and name calling people to hide his narcissistic behavior and when you prove him otherwise he will keep deleting his comments completely and post more refined and polished comments. I have snapshots of all his rude comments. Please do not fall for clever social media manipulations.

Original Post:

This facility doesn’t like to serve families with little children. Here goes how they handle families with little children - They will make you wait in the reception completely ignoring you for a long time. They will pretend to be busy walking left and right. Will children understand this tactics? Children will become restless because they are hungry and made to wait in a small area for long time. Mr. Louis the great hearted manager will use this as reason to throw you out. Long live such human beings. Would you like to support such business?

Added these points below after reading the reply from the Owner

Do you mean to say only a particular group of people have racist attitude? It exposes your narrow mindset and profiling mentality. If you read my post i did not call you a racist in the first place. 2, Do not try to hide behind “I am Asian too”. Your failure to allow people to dine and trying to justify your narcissistic attitude speaks volumes on your moral values. We have dined at many American restaurants with white waiters servicing us and they have treated us with utmost respect. We never had to write ill about anyone so far. But your attitude was so deplorable that we had to take time to write this in a public forum with our names appearing in public and not pesudo-names. You are unapologetic of the way you ill-treated people who came to dine in your facility and now you are lying. We can prove this is the first time we came to your restaurant. Can you prove we were here before as claimed by you? You might have had some bad experiences with Indians earlier but it doesn’t give you license to profile Indians nor people of any ethnicity.

Edited this post on 10/08/2023 based on the second reply from the Owner

Please do not try to whitewash your sin by deleting your previous rude replies in this forum. If you had even one bit of truth in Whatever you said and did, there is no need to delete them from this forum.

You are in service industry. There is no excuse for failing to serve when we were in your facility as your GUEST. All that we experienced were pre-meditated rude behavior from the moment we stepped in.

You mentioned the situation could have been better handled from both sides but you need to do soul searching now - Did you give us an opportunity? Your manager Louis who was absent all along to receive us was so happy to appear to call us out of restaurant to say he is throwing us out. It was us who handled the situation well when we walked out without making a scene in your premise in-spite of the pre-meditated ill-treatment. The motives for this is known only to you and your staff.

You mentioned somewhere we should have come with a Reservation - Was there someone in the Reception to say we need reservation? I am searching your website as well to see if “service by reservation only” policy is mentioned somewhere but couldn’t find. This is where i call your integrity to question.

As i mentioned before, we are real people and not fake trollers. The people in our circle of influence know what kind of people we are and the values we stand for. Yes, we are definitely upset because our children have experienced how your treated us and have so many questions. Can you make amends for their...

This is my absolute favorite place to eat in Hot Springs whenever I visit my parents. I'm in town four or five times a year for a week (or longer) at a time---and sometimes we've gone at least twice in the week I'm there. We usually go in the late afternoon (my parents are senior citizens, so early dining is to be expected, right?), so it's never been crowded any time we've been there. And that means that we've received excellent and attentive service from the staff. We're greeted like old friends when we arrive. They're always willing to answer questions and explain menu items (or ask someone else if they don't know themselves), and our food has always arrived quickly and just as ordered. My favorite dish to order is the Bún (vermicelli noodle bowl) with char-glazed pork, sometimes with the sliced egg roll included (#B7) but usually without (#B3). This dish is SO addictive that, even though I promise myself I'm going to try something different whenever we go, I almost always order this! They're also willing to be accommodating with special requests (such as my mom ordering the Bún served hot instead of its traditional "cool" temp). The serving sizes are generous for the exceptional value of the prices, too. Oh, and the nước chấm (house-made fish sauce) is a MUST. I use the entire dish they bring with my Bún to dress it, then mix it all together.

We also always order a pot of hot tea for the table---the floral jasmine blend adds yet another delicious note to a fantastic meal! Even my nephew who isn't very adventurous with food enjoyed...

I’ve eaten here before and wasn’t impressed. I had seen some posts on their social media that they were improving their menu. I decided to give it another chance. Just for the record, I am a complete Pho snob and have eaten at Pho restaurants from California to Texas to Florida and everywhere in between.

The few issues I have are food related. The service, the waitresses, and the atmosphere and decor were all perfectly fine. The Pho broth is my biggest concern. Anyone who’s eating at a really good Vietnamese restaurant knows that they’re supposed to be a glossy sheen over the top of the broth with little bubbles of fat from boiling down beef bones all night. This broth tasted more like beef bouillon and cinnamon boiled in water for a few minutes. Another oversight is that there eggrolls, which were decent, came with a little bit of lettuce, but no daikon, carrot, cilantro as is usual at most Vietnamese eateries. I came back because I wanted to like the place after hearing they had made some changes and improvements to their menu. Unfortunately, the broth is a deal killer for me. Also, one bowl of Pho, one order of egg rolls, and a glass of water was nearly $30 with the 18% tip. If the Pho was great, I would have no problem with the pricing. Since it is very bland and basic for Pho, I think it is...