Pho La La — Restaurant in Lee's Summit

My daughters and I always choose Thai or Vietnamese food for our birthday dinners, always trying new places on the search for the best in the metro. Today was one of my daughter’s birthday and we chose Pho La La in Lee’s Summit to try based on the high reviews. First impression was not at all what I was expecting. Based on reviews I thought it was going to be a nice place, instead it is more of a hole in the wall type of place, very nondescript. It turns out it is very small, definitely can not have a large group - we only had five of us and had to sit at the largest table they had, which was no more than 10 tables. Next thing I noticed was, it wasn’t the cleanest, at least the chairs weren’t - when you have white and yellow chairs how dirty they are is pretty noticeable. No one took us to a table, just pointed to a table that was large enough to fit all five of us. It took a bit of time before someone came over to us and asked if we were ready to order anything and then told us we get our own drinks if we want water or soda. We always start with egg rolls and spring rolls to try. My husband isn’t a fan of most Asian food and so always gets fried rice wherever we go and they didn’t have any fried rice so we also got him some fried shrimp roll things (figured fried shrimp would be fine for him). Unfortunately both rolls were just eh. They were edible but lacking in the flavorfulness of Vietnamese food. The spring rolls had no herbs like mint or cilantro in them and the chicken in it was bland and dry. And then the peanut sauce they served it with was warm, which I’ve never had warm peanut sauce served with cold spring rolls. Weird. And then the egg rolls mostly tasted like oil, so again pretty disappointing. For our entrees, like I said, they didn’t have fried rice of any kind so he ordered a chicken banh mi (again weird, never had a choice on the meat before, it’s always a pork). I ordered the BBQ pork vermicelli, one child ordered the beef vermicelli and then birthday girl got the rib eye pho. (The third child is 5 and a very picky eater and they had absolutely nothing he would eat.) All food came out at different times. My husband got his sandwich first, only ate half of it and was already done eating by the time the last two of us got our food. He did not like it, as I said, only ate half of it. He said the chicken was very dry and had no flavor. He didn’t believe the jalapeños were jalapeños because there was no spice. Birthday girl was the next to get food, which was her pho. EVERY Vietnamese restaurant I’ve ever been to brings you s as bowl with the pho (broth, noodles and meat) and then a plate with all the extras - onions, jalapeños, basil, cilantro, bean sprouts, etc. There was none of that. Just the bowl with the broth, noodles, meat and onions already added. None of the extras! Both vermicelli dishes came out last and at the same time. They both came with a little cup of broth that I’ve never gotten at any other restaurant with that dish. The dish was decent. It had some freshness and flavor that it should but not as much as it should. Again, no herbs of any kind and the meat was pretty bland and dry. Our total cost was $106 which, for that price, I’d expect much better food. So basically overall, it was decent but definitely no where near the best and not a place we will...

Check your receipt!!! Waiter tipped herself without notifying me and kept the itemized receipt. My 2 kids (11, and 3) and I went to have dinner here at Pho Lala, the food was amazing. When it was time to leave i went to the front to pay, after seeing my total, i realized it was much higher than i anticipated but the waiter never gave me the receipt so I tipped 5$ and took the menu and added all the items i bought. My total kept coming to 63$ and I knew taxes should be between 5-8$... Confused at the total i went back and asked for itemized receipt. She took out a 18% tip. I didnt say anything not wanting to cause conflict , the following day i went back by myself ordered my food and payed and tipped.. I then asked owner if they take gratuity automatically. He replied only for parties 5+, and he gave me both receipts itemized and the one showing just the total. I left …still not wanting to cause conflict, i thought about it and went back 10min later and advised them that the waiter took a gratuity for just me and my two kids, he said he would investigate and give me a call, still no call. She stole from me because she didn’t think i would tip, my son gave her his dollar as a thank you and i was actually going to tip more, but the receipt total was not making sense to me. I had cash to tip but only left 5$ until i could see what i was charged for. I dont know if she is just a thief or if i was stereotyped or if it was racism, either way it was un-acceptable. I am a great tipper, but when the total was not making sense and i didnt get a receipt showing what i purchased red flags were coming up left and right. Please look at your receipts before leaving!!! We didnt have excessive sides (which are listed as a 3$ charge) nor did we leave a mess, i cleaned off table before we left!!!! This was just poor service on this lady end and their food was amazing. Glad to know they cannot be trusted!!! And i spent...

I honestly had relatively low expectations of this place but it was still WAY better than I imagined. I'm very picky about pho so I actually tend to ignore reviews because a lot of highly rated places are terrible. I was immediately put off by how limited the menu was, I don't think I've ever been to a restaurant with a smaller menu. Having tablet menus is also a bit of a questionable choice, some people (old folks especially) are gonna find them a little confusing and the cost to replace them is gonna be ridiculous compared to normal menus. Especially considering it's in a pretty poor location, I wouldn't have known this place even existed if not for Google maps. HOWEVER the saving grace is that the food here is AMAZING, and that is the most important thing for a restaurant. At first I thought it was strange I had to get my own...garnish? (Basil, bean sprouts, jalapenos, etc) but when I realized I could get the exact amount I wanted i realized I actually really liked it. I absolutely LOVEDDDD the pho broth SO much, and again I am extremely picky. I wasn't a fan of the fact that sliced beef is an upcharge when usually that comes standard, but they give you a large amount so I guess it's not too bad. Seriously, the pho was very good. I drank the broth down and left very pleasantly surprised at the quality of this...interesting little restaurant. I was not as blown away by the service, it definitely wasn't bad by any means but it was pretty much just... acceptable. The pho is an A+ though, expand the menu a bit more and maybe tweak some prices and I'll change...