New Pho — Restaurant in Long Beach

“Voted best Vietnamese food” in 2021, I had little reason to expect what came next…

Immediately felt dingy inside on a bright day. Unclean bathroom.

There were bananas (on the floor) in front of the register. Sometimes you see little altars at pho places, but this was strange.

After reading into altars, I can call it foreshadowing: “Whatever and however we treat our altar represents how we are and what we do. It’s a mirror of yourself.”

We were the only customers, and made our presence known at 2:30pm on Saturday.

They had many coin machines for children’s trinkets. Despite being kitschy, it made me nostalgic. The machine we used promptly ate the quarters and returned nothing. Another bad omen.

Two people appeared to be on staff, and interactions were weird. We needed 2min to decide. After 2min, the server paced and passed the table saying something like “I’ll take the order now” — not really directed at us, like she was talking to herself. Then she walked off before returning for the actual order.

I can’t speak to authenticity, but I can speak to the relative quality, value, and service. I moved from CO with a large selection of Pho, introduced to me through my Vietnamese friend.

First, the positive: the rare beef and brisket pho tasted good to me. I will note the small portion of toppings (2 jalapeño slices and a few basil leaves) and lemons instead of limes.

I only ever use a small portion of the toppings. Also, I like lemons. Others may prefer otherwise. The toppings weren’t extremely fresh, but ok.

I got Thai iced tea w/boba. It tasted good but the boba quality was low.

I missed breakfast and started to eat. My company didn’t get food until I was done. When the beef vermicelli came, the “beef” was scarce, black, and burned.

Simply mentioning “beef” prompted the man to say it was “pork”. We ordered beef. He changed his mind to “beef”, and needed to confirm with the only other worker.

I presume he was the cook (maybe one of 2). I passed the tiny kitchen earlier. That he was confused at all about what kind of meat he was serving didn’t bode well.

My standards for presentation are low (as long as it tastes good). I even tried to defend the dish; however, the more we examined, I had to admit it was bad.

We mentioned it was burned, and they…. well, they thought nothing was wrong, but took it back before anything was eaten.

Did I mention we ordered Spring rolls. After taking the already-late vermicelli “beef” dish, we received those.

They were thin and limp, with large gaps in the rice paper, cilantro missing. The rice paper was thick and too chewy. Something was off about the flavor — maybe the shrimp. The peanut sauce was bad and didn’t mask the problems.

As we reluctantly tried to finish these, I was half-expecting Gordon Ramsey to come out, Kitchen Nightmares style.

When they approached the table after this, they awkwardly laughed, presumably to preempt awkwardness.

The meat was not burned twice, at least. The person with me does not like to add sauces with sugar, but the server tried very much to force them to mix the sauce in — as if that would make it bearable.

We informed her it had to do with sweetness. There was a strong fish sauce on another table, but the server presumed we wouldn’t like the “fishiness”.

I told her this was preferred before she handed it to us. The egg rolls on the dish were now missing. I believe this was due to a language barrier when we questioned the beef. I think they assumed we didn’t want them and left them out.

We both tried the new dish and decided it was terrible. The meat tasted off, and was overall unappetizing. I started to question the freshness and quality of items already eaten.

Service was confusing. At one point the server tip-toed to the table to place 2 mandarin oranges. Dessert? I think she went outside to get them. We left them and most of the vermicelli dish. We fed the remaining meat (whatever it was) to our dog.

I want this restaurant to improve if it’s somehow one of the best-rated in my new home of Long Beach. They can do so...

I went here because I was feeling under the weather and wanted some broth from the pho soup to sooth my sore throat only to leave disappointed and disgusted🤮 As I already been sipping the broth and had taken a few bites I noticed something black hanging in the noodles and I almost ate it only to look closer it was a big dead fly 🤢 as if I wasn’t already sick this just made me feel more sick😭 I called the guy who I think was the owner over to show it to him and his reply was “ oh you know there’s flies everywhere we have no control over them “ to which I understand but that still doesn’t make it ok for it to be in the soup that many people had already eaten. They’re are many ways to prevent flies from going in and on food. Who knows how many flies were in my soup before I ate it or other customers who had showed up before or after me. After telling the worker he told me they would make me a new bowl to which I rejected because I didn’t want to eat anything else from this restaurant from being disgusted because I just ate fly soup 🤢 I took a picture and my flash turned on and he seen it and he rushed back over to tell me if I was done because he was low key trying to rush me out before other customers can see what was going on and they would lose business. I honestly feel bad for not telling the other customers but I was so sick to my stomach I just wanted to get out of there. Attached is a photo and the fly on the top right...

I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I was wrong. The food wasn't bad at beginning. I normally ordered chicken breast pho. The last time that I went to this place they mixed dark meat with white meat and it turned off my appetite. I told the lady in charge that I had ordered white meat, but that I could see dark meat in my pho. She insisted that it was white meat, which was a lie. The last three times that I visited this place I also ordered a Thai tea. The Thai tea doesn't look nor taste like Thai tea because she fills up the glass with half and half and ice, hardly any tea. The last time that I was there I ordered a Thai tea with very light ice and half and half so I could have a Thai tea and not milk with ice. She told me that it was going to be sweet with light half and half and light ice. I clearly replied to her and I made sure that she understood that that was the way a Thai tea was supposed to be made and that it was the way I like it. She turned around to talk to another employee in their own language and then she went ahead and gave me once again milk with ice, hardly any tea. She completely disregarded my request and made the tea her way. I am completely fed up with New Pho and their lack of customer service. I wish to be able to give them a minus star, but, unfortunately, I can't.clace. I wouldn't recommend this...