Pho Viet — Restaurant in Manhattan

me and my friend went yesterday for dinner and immediately got this weird attitude from the guy who seated us. the last time i came was shortly after opening. but this was my friends first time. i asked the waiter if they had boba yet (again i hadn’t been since they opened) and the waiters response was “we’ve been had boba”. i then explained above and then was nervous to order boba as he was watching me get flustered bc of his response. he then gave us a few minutes (literally a few) and came back with water and asked if we were ready to order. my friend and i looked at each other for a second to see if either were ready to order and he said “i’ll give you more time” walked away. by the time he came back again, we were ready to order and I ordered for my friend because she has a hard time speaking and I guess he didn’t hear me say that I was ordering for her and got an attitude about it? (we were splitting the check) he was pretty rude after that, never came to check on us, refill our waters, ask if we needed anything etc. the food came out very quick and the person who brought it out was very nice. once we got done eating, I decided to Wait and see how long it took for him to come by and ask if we were finished. From the moment we both got done eating to the moment that I got up and asked for our checks. It had been 30 minutes and we had made eye contact multiple times in that 30 minutes and he still didn’t come by. we were one of four tables at the time. I walked up to the bar, asked a girl for a couple to go boxes and our checks and then he proceeded to come by and ask if we were finished like someone didn’t just tell him we were done and wanted our checks. he handed us the handheld tablet to pay and was a little snarky and told us it was self-explanatory walked away, came back. I was trying to put our food away and he asked if we were done yet and I said no just a couple more minutes I think, and then he proceeded to stand there and watch us as I tried putting food in our containers so I just stopped and payed. I didn’t get his name, but if you’re reading this, you know who you are and I really hope that you don’t treat other customers like this...

This could have easily been a 4 - or 5-star review.

We were a party of three, seated near the front door at 4:15. A few minutes later, a staff member told us that it was going to be a long wait and brought us water. He came right back and took our order, telling us that he may as well take our order now because the wait would be so long.

The other two ordered pho, and I ordered #24 - grilled chicken with lemongrass rice and a spring roll.

The staff member was not wrong... 35 minutes later, our order arrived. I would accept that there was a backup on orders, except I observed two tables that were seated well after us receive their meals while we were waiting.

When our meals were served, both bowls of pho were streaming and clearly hot. My meal was not. The rice was luke warm and hard, as if it was hot and left on the counter for a while - the chicken was probably below 100 degrees. While these are not great qualities, I was prepared to write it off to international food ignorance...so I went to the cashier/bar tender(?), and I asked about #24.

When I asked him if #24 was served cold or hot? He told me that it was served cold. When I repeated his response, he affirmed that it was served cold. I then asked the original staff member, and he went to the kitchen to check - telling me that the rice, chicken, and spring roll were supposed to be hot. Which made much more sense according to the menu. They offered to recook my meal, but we had a later appointment that we couldn't miss, so I declined.

When I paid, I asked the staff member why he had told me what he did, and he stared at me as if it didn't matter. And it didn't...

This is why this is a two-star, instead of a five-star review. The food was very tasty, and at least one staff member was conscientious, but the lack of integrity and professionalism is unacceptable in any setting. He could have checked. He could have acknowledged his mistake, and he could have at least offered some offset - but he did none of these...

Five star review and sharing some constructive criticism because we went for the first time and we know that everything is very brand new!

The owner would not take any of our names down on a waitlist. She said she didn't like waitlists because she would call people and they'd say they were 5 minutes away and to hold their place, then they would arrive late. Simply call names of those waiting outside, and if they don't show up, jump to the next person on the list. I noticed a review yesterday (since deleted) that someone else ran into the issue of another party being called before them. This almost happened to us when we went and we would have just left and never tried again. A simple waitlist with names and numbers of guests would make a huge difference in the chaos that was trying to get a table. Our waitress skipped coming to our table to order and the groups that got seated the same time we did had their food brought out significantly faster. Total accident but definitely put a dent in the experience.

Second, I noticed a review a day before that the broth was flavorless. This was not our experience. It was awesome!!! The food was great although I wish we would have been offered more toppings. They did not offer us cilantro as a topping which usually comes with pho. Maybe they were out or maybe they aren't offering cilantro as a topping. Unfortunately, our broth was SO flavorful and salty that both my husband and I suffered a huge headache on the drive home. I thought we ate something funny but I think the broth was just too chock full of salt - maybe a compensation for the bland broth review. Maybe drink lots of water and don't chug the broth like we did 😅

Otherwise this place is very cute, worth a try if you missed pho...