Terrible experience from start to finish. The restaurant was filthy — dirty menus, dirty tables, and an overall gross interior. The bathroom didn’t even have hand soap, which is a clear health code violation under both Illinois Department of Public Health and City of Chicago regulations. When we pointed this out, the staff casually offered hand sanitizer instead. Completely unacceptable.
While we were seated, the server carelessly placed a tall, unstable stack of hard plastic cups right next to our newborn’s bassinet (our baby is only 12 days old). The cups nearly toppled onto her. Zero awareness or concern for safety.
The worst part? We found a dead bug floating in our soup. No apology, no concern — just quietly handed us a new bowl without even replacing the soup. Beyond disgusting.
The food overall was terrible. The Thai tea was overly sweet and undrinkable. The pork chop was soggy, poorly cooked, and tasted awful.
We will never return and strongly encourage others to avoid this place. Also, based on the suspiciously repetitive tone of the reviews here (lots of similar wording, mostly from accounts with only 1-2 reviews), we suspect many of these “5-star” reviews are fake. If so, that’s dishonest and...
Read moreA nice restaurant and will definitely be coming back for more great, authentic, and delicious Vietnamese food!!
A little tricky to find. To keep it simple: --Don't enter Seafood City main doors. --Entrance is to the right of Seafood City. --Use doors under the sign "Elston Place Market Mix"
The food was great and right for the price. Got a few things and shared with the group.
The Pho Special (P11) is a large serving (great for the price). A nice variety of meat, tendon, tripe, etc. Everything was cooked well; the broth and meat were delicious.
Loved the Vietnamese style coffee w/ milk. Strong but a nice sweet and authentic pairing.
Never had Vietnamese Crepes (S15) before but friend said we had to get. She wasn't wrong. The fish sauce went perfectly with it and the shrimp and crepe went great together.
Finally, got the S16 - Bò lá lôt - grilled marinated beef and pork wrapped in an aromatic Hawaiian Leaf. Wife ate most of these (I was full at this point) but she cleaned the plate and said she loved it.
Again - highly recommend you check out. The staff was friendly. Food was delicious and well priced. Happy to have an authentic Vietnamese restaurant and food close by that we can get more...
Read moreSmall-medium place, almost like a cafeteria, and not in a good way. They have one TV touring Vietnamese streets showing food stands, no music, very quiet. They also have stock like soda can boxes and other junk along the booth-side section. Probably the worst atmosphere yet at a pho place, and that's the privilege of going to better locations.
Service was fine, waiter seemed to want to get done with work, but I ordered for takeout, so I just hung around until then. Our waiter brought over plastic cups that just looked and felt dirty, not to mention the pitcher feeling the same. Got my pho tai bo vien and went over to seafood city.
Meatballs were standard, and raw flank was somewhat cooked before I poured the broth in my bowl. The amount of soup provided was enough to fill my bowl twice which was nice. BUT the pho was bland. It was disappointing considering the name of the location, and this is at lunch I ordered. If the Pho was made fresh from the previous night, it should have been more flavorful.
A place to get Pho when you are in a tight pinch, but would avoid for Pho...
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