Pho City — Restaurant in Methuen

have to leave a review here because i lied to the waiter straight to his face when he asked if i liked it

credentials: i’ve had pho at 9-10 places in Massachusetts. pho is my comfort food since i was a kid and as a vietnamese i’ve had the opportunity to try out a variety of pho restaurants. i only care about pho and pho only (a lot of reviews talk about drinks/appetizer). this review will be about the store with focus on the meal

pros: nice layout / spacious lounge with a huge picture of Hoi An i think, booths are a plus in my book servers are attentive and polite, a little too attentive for my sake. i guess they are trying to improve their servers skill after the last reviews about serving customers non sequentially good distribution of fat for beef slices. i ordered a ‘steak, flank, beef ball’ pho to be specific base of noodle bowl doesn’t cheat like most. if you don’t know what i’m talking about, a lot of stores has bowl with high base so the broth level is closer to your face aka appears to have a larger portion but it’s deceptive. this store doesn’t do that and i appreciate it cool water glass / bbtea style songs on the aux is good, not many pay attention to giving us some dining vibes

cons: take surprisingly long for the meal to come out. i’d say in my case around 15 minutes when i counted. there wasn’t much rush around the time i was there. given them benefit of the doubt, maybe they forgot about the order or the bowl was sitting there in the kitchen for quite some time before servers took them out, which brings me to my next point. noodles break too easily in comparison to all other pho. when you eat noodles, you bring it up with your chopstick and usually they will hold their shape but this noodle is like too fragile, for a second it looked like it was cut up by scissors requested by parents so their kids can chew better. i had to eat with the spoon or hold my face down closer to the bowl. not a fan. my guess the bowl sat for too long and it withers the noodles bowl size is rather disappointing for the price point. you will see a lot of people crying about the 25 bucks bowl even when there is cheaper options (oxtail and ribs are expensive in this economy stop crying). but having one size bowl is unforgivable when it comes to pho because of preference broth is not as rich as i would hope it would be. take this with a grain of salt. personally i think it’s not flavourful, rather standard. when people tell you it’s good broth it’s rather ok broth because ultimately there’s no bad broth unless it’s not pho altogether not very generous on amount of meat portion in relation for the price point. i’ve seen more meat at other stores. if you’re a protein eater they’re just robbing you. this happens when they are intentionally cheap on their cooking approach or just bad eye balling. this you’ll have to eat here a lot to dictate

verdict: 6/10. if you live near this area, go for it to save gas. if you’re looking for awesome pho, this...

I know this restaurant just opened, but to be honest, they're not ready to be opened yet. They have no menus available to go (still being processed), they have no beverage menu (still being processed), and their kitchen and service is a mess.

Service: I walked in, got sat almost immediately, and then I was left to just sit in my chair for almost 20 minutes with my menu. I saw people walking in after me that got their orders taken before me. I was getting hangry, and I tried to flag down any available waiter, but they all sort of looked like they were trying to brush me off. I was finally able to flag down a waiter and he took my order down. Attentiveness to service was non-existent and my waiter did not try at all to check on me throughout my meal. I had to check in with them lol.

Kitchen: I ordered an app, a drink and then pho and then one other noodle dish. I got my pho first. Since when do apps come out after the main meal? And I had to flag my waiter down to remind them about my missing app. By the time my pho was done, my drink and my noodle dish still haven't arrived. At this time, the manager swung around and asked how everyone was doing and I notified her that my meal was practically done, but I have yet to receive my drink and my other dish. I asked her to pack them up to go. I have lost my patience and willingness to deal with their growing pain.

Oh, but boy was my check quick to arrive! Haha. Great service there.

Food: Not bad. It tastes like normal Vietnamese food to me. Not too salty, not too sweet. Just decent. And unlike the Vietnamese restaurant closest to Salem, NH, they at least provided decent servings of meat to soup/noodle ratio.

I am a long time Vietnamese restaurant patron. I know what food I like should taste like and I know what service I should expect. The service here is very spotty (waiters not checking in on customers). And the kitchen is negligent with orders (forgetting multiple orders.) I probably won't come back to visit any time soon until they get their processes straightened out.

Edit: Also what's up with these flowery reviews lol? This restaurant takes you to "exquisite journeys" or valleys or whatever the heck they want to call it. This is a regular restaurant, folks. Not upscale dining. Geez.

Extra Edit: Ok Pho City, I see you with these fake reviews. Everyone from the last few days ALL had one liner reviews, 5 stars and just so happens to have 4 reviews total. C'mon, let's be a little...

Subpar for any Thai restaurants and absolutely terrible managers. Honestly worst thai food overall I can remember having for a while and I've been to dozens. Francisco (manager) will not give you at least a full refund even if you nearly choked on a large piece of plastic in a Pho bowl (literally the size of my thumbnail in my photo). It's the least you can do for almost causing a customer a trip to the ER, but they could care less. Will gaslight you by tricking customers into getting partial refunds and claim you said the food was "fantastic" (even after being very clear for a full refund on emails prior). My throat still feels scratchy and I may have swallowed smaller pieces. Like, how do you consider giving someone partial refund first instead of a full refund for nearly choking on your food or causing internal injuries? Crazy. That's like buying a pack of soda and finding a rusty nail in a can, but they only partially refund for that one soda instead of the whole pack. Greed and insensitivity all around.

So if you care about your health, don't eat here unless you want to ingest microplastics in hot food as they use cheap plastic ladels to stir them (and I microwaved it in my food at home on top of that since I got takeout). And FYI: Microplastics can harm your insides and literally cause cancer in the long run. Highly recommend Lots of Eats Thai Kitchen, which is 12 minutes away from them. More Google reviews and better ratings. All Hispanic servers and managers at this dump serving Thai food instead of Asians that know what they're doing, should always be a huge red flag. Check other 1 star reviews. Will be filing complaints, especially to CFSAN for foreign object in food &...