Pho Mi Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in Miami Township

It’s been a very very long time since I had my first experience dining out at a Vietnamese restaurant. So long in fact, that I don’t recall the name of it. I do know it was on Colonial Drive in Orlando Florida and I visited there with my husband sometime around 1990. For all I know it doesn’t even exist anymore. They have had hurricanes go through there. But even though I don’t recall the name of it, I know it was late and my daughter was asleep in her car seat in the back. Mu husband had gone in and just got a few things and we ate in the car. Sometimes young parents do what they have to do. So it may not have had the ambience one might expect. I had never actually eaten Vietnamese before that but I did adore Asian food. So when I opened my plastic box and dug my fork into the noodles that lay inside, it was quite a revelation. Cool, with crispy pork and bean sprouts and herbs and fish sauce and sambal…oh my. I am gushing!

Suffice it to say that I have eaten a LOT of Vietnamese food since then. Being a fan and whatnot. It comforts me.

So recently I had a chance to pop in over at Pho Mi with my husband. We go there occasionally for dinner or to grab carry-out and sometimes just to have a snack around tea time. Very comforting indeed.

The restaurant in itself is in a building that used to house the old India Palace restaurant. Before that it was probably something like an empty Taco Bell. So don’t expect a whole lot in terms of decor when you go in there. Converted fast-food buildings are like that.

The staff is friendly enough. I have never had any issues.

The menu is pretty typical. They offer a lunch menu with appetizers, bun/vermicelli salads, a variety of stir-fries both with and without meat, various types of noodles and entrees, as well as pho. You can also get banh mi sandwiches any time. The dinner menu is similar but also includes an expanded selection of offerings. There are a variety of soft drinks including Asian ones such as boba tea and Vietnamese coffee, and also a number of beers available.

This review covers two visits: once when we went in for a snack, and another visit for an early dinner. All of those are shown here:

Snack Meal: Fresh squeezed lime drink (1.75): 5/5 stars fresh squeezed lime drink

Mango boba tea (3.50): 5/5 stars mango boba tea

Goi cuon / shrimp summer rolls (1.50/ea): 5/5 stars goi cuon shrimp summer rols

Thit nuong / lemongrass shish kabob (1.95/ea.):4/5 stars thit nuong lemongrass shish kebab

Dinner meal: Green tea boba tea (3.50): 5/5 stars green tea boba tea

Vietnamese hot coffee (2.50):4/5 stars vietnamese hot coffee

Cha gio / crispy fried spring rolls (1.50/ea.): 4/5 stars cha gio crispy fried spring rolls

Coconut pancake (2) (3.25): 5/5 stars coconut

Bun tom xao / lemongrass shrimp w/vermicelli (7.50): 5/5 stars bun tom xao lemongrass shrimp with vermicelli

Hu tieu tom thit sate / shrimp and pork sate noodle soup (7.95): 5/5 stars hu tieu tom thit sate shrimp and pork sate noodle soup

We enjoyed our visits there very much for both snacks and dinner. The tally on the ten different menu items comes to: 47/50 for an honest review average of 4.7, rounded up to 5 stars which means we find this restaurant to be excellent (can they come cook for us at home?) But that being said, and as much as we love it we still do not find this restaurant to be the very best of the Vietnamese restaurants in the Dayton/Cincinnati area, but it does stand head and shoulders about restaurants of all types.

Excellent! (Can you come be my...

I came here because I was craving Pho on my way down to Cincinnati. I saw that it had good ratings So I took a Gamble. Initially, I was impressed by the soulection they offered. I then quickly learned that some of the dishes probably weren't up to the hype because they don't use some of the more important ingredients that go inside of them if you were hoping for an authentic dish. I figured that I couldn't go wrong with their specialty Pho dishes (since it's in their name). So I ordered the pho Tai. I was quite disappointed by how long it took me to get my food. Typically when you are pretty much the only other Patron that is in the restaurant, they should be able to serve this dish rather quickly. The only other table was eating pho too. It took about 15 to 20 minutes in order to get my noodle soup. unless they were boiling the broth from refrigerator temperature, slicing my meat to order, washing the bean sprouts and cilantro to order, it really should not take that much time to make this dish. unfortunately, even when I was very hungry and craving the dish, I was rather disappointed by it. The flavor was odd and the noodles tasted like that plastic taste when it just came out of the bag.... and had a texture of brittle rope. I guess it was all right since I was very hungry. So that being said, if you're super hungry and you really wanted to stish, come get it because there aren't that many around within 7 miles. the price is somewhat reasonable. Sorry, I guess I'm just very picky when it comes to Noodles since this is what I...

Good food, large menu to choose from, slightly expensive, slower service

We came in at 8, about an hour before closing. The place was still somewhat busy. This has been my second visit to this place, first time it was a meal-sized soup and the second time it was a meal. Both tasted good, not too spicy (i.e. you can tell it's spicy, yet still taste other flavors than just "heat"). They provide a pepper mix and other condiments on the table, so you can mix a quite tasty extra sauce by adding their soy sauce "gel." I'm saying gel, because I've never seen a soy sauce that thick (almost solid, like a gel) before, but it actually worked quite nice, because then you don't have soup, but actual good dipping sauce.

Both my wife's meal and mine were tasty, not swimming in soy sauce, actually had good flavor and didn't taste too oily.

We tried the bubble tea as well, it's funky, but definitely good. We split it with my wife, one for each may have been a little too much sugar.

Couple of complaints I have would be the pricing and service. They're not too expensive, but 2 meals and one tea for two ran us $31 after tax, that's slightly steep. The service speed is not the best. Don't get me wrong, the staff is very courteous, polite and nice, it's just the rate at which empty plates disappeared from our table after we were done was not the greatest.

Will definitely become our place to go for Vietnamese...