Pho Kevin — Restaurant in Laurel

I wish there was a way to give negative stars. It was the worst restaurant service I ever experienced. I went to that mall today for a haircut but as it was so busy, thought I'll goto the restaurant next door meanwhile, as was told the wait is over an hour at the hair place. So I went to Chung King Restaurant and it was COMPLETELY deserted while the mall was packed. That should have given me a signal to step right back out but I decided to give it another try. Last time I was there was over 3 yrs ago, service was very poor then too but food was okay. This time the girl rushed me to a booth & another very bored-looking woman came and poured water into the glass without saying a word or smile & left. Meanwhile the young chubby short girl went a few booths away from me, sat herself down and went back to eating.

I waited for 5 long minutes looking around the empty deserted restaurant and the unhappy looking asian fella attempting to clean the empty bar area. Another girl came, plopped a menu with a very sad smile. No welcome, greeting or anything. I looked around at the menu and found on page 3 & 4 to have a big blob of emptiness, as something had probably stuck there and was torn off along with some descriptions of the foods n the menu. So I looked ahead to the woman who had brought the menu, (who was sitting & talking argumentively with the other girl now) with her back towards me.

I had to almost scream to get their attention to the creepy menu(that should have been tossed), so I got a new one and then she almost ran back to the girl until I asked abruptly whether she could suggest some food that may be low in calories.

She didn't look interested and told me it'd have to be steamed and it would have no flavour. Since I was extremely hungry and had to run back to hair place, ordered the first thing on the menu. Dragon & Phoneix (Shrimp & spicy chicken) & a Passion fruit smoothie.

Literally in less than 8 minutes, food was on my table which was good but looking at the blobs of sticky gooey stuff that had shrimp & chicken sunk in it,, I almost wanted to leave. But the hunger took over & I dug chicken & shrimp out & ate it with plain flavourless boiled rice. Smootie hardly had any passion fruit taste & was all pink with bad tasting ice cubes.

I thought I could perhaps get a desert & coffee to get that gooey taste out of my mouth, so I asked the waitress, if she could bring me the menu for desert, as I remember glancing on the desert earlier.

She said we only serve ice cream, with a look, that said you wouldn't want it. But I insisted if I could see the menu anyway, as I was still hungry. So she brought it and it had 6 or 7 items for desert, not one of them ice cream. At that point I decided to not be bothered with another fiasco of a food.

Now the girl went back to the other girl & joined in eating and even brought more food. It was 4 pm and perhaps they didn't have time for lunch, so that was fine. Except they were speaking chinese or something and pretty loudly while having their mouths full and the third cleaning person joined them on the back booth and they start talking almost over me in chinese. I was feeling not only vrery irritated but also had 3 pairs of eyes watching every bite I was taking. Very weird.

At that point, I put the fork down and simply started staring back at them, of which they hardly took any notice, until I asked for the manager. At that point it got ugly.

They said she is not hear, then I was who the owner is she is not there either. I asked if I could get their name. She said Soo yi, I believe. I asked them if they can write it, they didn't even budge.

I had enough I asked for my check and placed a big fat zero (which I had never ever done and felt bad doing it) but I had to protest & make a point.

SO DO YOUR SELF A FAVOUR, AND AVOID IT. Service is foreign to these people. Mahmood, owner of a neighbouring shipping...

Very authentic food and friendly atmosphere. Fried Spring roll or Egg-roll which its called here is one of the first thing you should try, a little tip is remember to ask for a fresh one and some lettuces is highly recommended. You will like the Pho soup and my favorite bowl is always Tai (rare steak), Gau (FATTY brisket) and an extra Bo Vien ( meat ball). They also offer a signature spice which is called Sate (hot chilly pepper sauce) and it is great to add to any dishes here. Another have-to-try soup is Bun Bo Hue (spicy beef noodle soup), which is outstanding and one of the main dish for mostly Vietnamese. It means the dishes is authentic and definitely worth a try. It comes with a bigger rice noodle but Pho-noodle is also a good option to go with. Pork chops over rice is another excellent dish here. It comes with two giant slices of pork chops, grilled to perfection. White rice is recommended but fried rice is also a good option for an extra of $2.00. Finally is the Banh Mi. It’s Vietnamese sandwich or many people call it Vietnamese Hamburger ^^. There are three choices of meat which are grilled pork, beef, and chicken.

Definitely it is the best Pho...

First of all, the service is the best, hands down from any pho restaurant you will go to. They actually checked up on us, & refilled our waters (which is so rare from where I come from lol, & been going to countless places since I can remember). The broth is tasty. I was very impressed how fresh all the side veggies were. I originally thought I had received the wrong type of broth since it tasted a little different to me so I wasn't sure. The owner came out and gave me a sample of the other broth so I could compare them. I had no issue with the broth but was very impressed how much they care about their customers. Another dish we got was the curry flavored chicken. It is now one of my favorite dishes of all time from this place, I can't wait to eat it again. I highly recommend getting that along with your pho. A tip, they have the best chili oil. We ate half of our pho without it, then added it in the second half, making it into a whole new soup. Usually when you get full, you start to get tired of the dish. Not this one. Each slurp & bite kept getting better & better. We are new to the area & are happy to find this place & will...