Young Brothers Pho — Restaurant in Kirkland

I'm going to be in the minority on this place. To me, they committed several unforgivable sins of food service and each took away from their rating.

First, the place was dirty. I had to wipe down my own table that was covered with sticky goo from a previous customer. This wasn't the only dirty table, and the floor needed a sweeping badly, too. The hard chopsticks were upside down in the holder, meaning everyone else who had been at the table had pawed through the food-touching side of my chopsticks. The chili hadn't been refilled and there was fish sauce in a soy bottle. All around, they fail big on the cleanliness score.

Service was lackadaisical at best. The cook and server were both having lunch when I arrived and it was food that, frankly, looked better than what they served the customers. That's always a bad sign. Especially since whatever they were eating wasn't on the menu. Every time I had to interact with the server he made me feel like I was wasting his time.

The decor is nothing to write home about. But one low, low point was the forced tipping required by the point of sale software as the server stood over me. This is unforgivable in my opinion. Software should suggest, but not FORCE a minimum of 15%. In order to undo that minimum, you have to delve into a sub menu and shame yourself in front of the watching server. He got a 15% tip, but lost any future business from me.

Finally, the food. The broth was incredibly bland even for phô and the meat had a funk to it. It took a lot of doctoring to make the phô edible.

Yes, it's a large.amount of food for a decent price. But that doesn't excuse every other problem mentioned above. I'll take my...

TLDR: homey bowl of noodle soup.

Let me just start off by mentioning the fruit flies hovering about, despite the excellent food safety rating. It is slightly unsettling to think about, especially in the back where we can't see. Regardless, the food tastes good and seems fresh.

Shared parking lot. If you park shop front, there is a 30 minute time limit.

Typical pho diner setting. Utensils and sauces all provided at your table.

Service: seat yourself, you will be watered, order taken at the table, walk up to counter to pay.

Spring Rolls with Tofu: pretty good lettuce to vermicelli ratio. Generous thick cut tofu. Pretty filling app. Kudos to them for using romaine lettuce and not iceberg. Peanut sauce is ok--I've had better but it still tastes good.

Pho #9: soup is a bit on the bland side but is more palatable when you add the basil and lime. A good "home cooked" feel as opposed to the overly flavored soups from other places. Amount of noodles is really generous and the lime is oh so juicey--if you've read my previous reviews about limes, you'd know how I feel about a good fresh lime slice! The basil is also very fresh with no imperfections...

Best pho in the area but not perfect. I've been coming here every couple weeks for a year and the standards have lowered (new management?) in the last couple months. I tried six competing pho restaurants but none were better than Than Brothers Kirkland. I'm going to keep looking for another place, but in between I'll go here. What has changed: the beef slices are thicker and once I got gristle, the bean sprouts aren't fresh, and you have to ask for cream puffs (used to be automatic). What keeps me coming back: Broth is wonderful (no minty smell like other places, usually no blobs of oil), very fast service, quality meat, the restaurant and the dishes don't smell like dishwater (like a couple competitors), napkin dispenser on table, multiple chopsticks and spoons to choose from, family atmosphere,...