Pho Saigon Garden — Restaurant in Midlothian

update I tried emailing before posting this review, and again after Pho Saigon responded and asked me to email. The email they are posting is bouncing back -- there's no way to get in touch!*

We recently ate at Pho Saigon Garden on Friday, October 25 in the evening. It ended up being an unsafe experience.

I have Celiac disease, which makes my body incredibly sensitive to even small amounts of gluten, so I asked a lot of questions before ordering. Your staff initially seemed knowledgeable and knew immediately to avoid soy sauce, which is usually a good sign for me. After multiple questions, the server assured me the seafood Pho was safe and contained no gluten. I thanked her and asked her to ask the kitchen to please take extra precautions like changing gloves or washing hands again before preparing my dish.

The food smelled amazing when it came out. I ate a few spoonfuls and some noodles before discovering that my dish contained fake crab meat -- which is usually made with wheat starch (aka gluten). I immediately stopped eating it and asked about it. Our server asked the kitchen and came back with an unacceptable answer -- the chef had just changed suppliers and didn't know if it had wheat or not!

I asked for a new bowl without the problem ingredient and decided to hope for the best, that either the crab meat used a non-gluten binder or the exposure would be minimal. Instead, my tell-tale digestive symptoms flared later that evening. There was certainly gluten in the seafood pho, despite reassurances that it was fine.

Celiac is not a fad diet. Thankfully it doesn't come with anaphylaxis like allergies, but it can be crippling in its delayed onset of symptoms, not to mention its lifelong complications.

I accept the risk of cross-contact with other gluten dishes every time I eat out. That's why I ask so many questions, hoping to be as safe as possible or even leave if necessary. This is an acceptable risk to me.

What is not acceptable to me and absolutely should not be acceptable to you as a restaurant is to insist that a dish is gluten free WHILE THERE IS AN ACTUAL GLUTEN INGREDIENT IN IT. And no one, not the server or the kitchen, caught it. I didn't catch it either, because your menu item simply said "seafood pho" -- no further ingredients listed.

If someone says they have a dietary issue, please take them seriously. I know it's extra trouble (we try to account for this with good tips). But if you can't accommodate, please say so. I would much rather not eat than get sick later.

I paid for my meal even though I knew there was the possibility I had been glutened. I wanted to assume the best. I should have asked...

Honestly, I’ve only tried this place about 3 times. It was Christmas today when we visited, but it was just 3 adults and a child. Two of us ordered pho, and as someone who LOVES it... I am completely baffled as to how it was served without cilantro... or like most places, given cilantro on the side. Also! How do you serve pho without bean sprouts, Thai basil, limes and jalapeño on the side? We had to ask for it.

I have a menu from a few months ago and the prices went up by about $2.50-$4. This would be okay considering covid, but isn’t because the servings were smaller. A veggie pho shouldn’t have 4 thin slices of tofu for $12, and a “shrimp broccoli” should never be $18 with only 10 pieces of medium size shrimp. To make matters worse, most of the food had little to NO FLAVOR. And we were told that we couldn’t have the house chili oil based on covid restrictions, but they could serve fish sauce and peanut sauce from the kitchen?

I never tip under 18% but today I did because of all I said before. And also because of the fact that when I asked for a Togo cup for my friends coke, I was told we couldn’t. You have to drink all of it in the restaurant. As a very seasoned restaurant employee of several different places, I know that this is not okay. Fountain drinks are already high at 2.50 or so a piece, and no refills were offered at the table.

Honestly, this place was never all that great. But somehow it’s managed to go deeply down hill. For great Vietnamese food, please go to Viet Huong or make the trip to my...

I will start off by saying that the food here is delicious and satisfying. It is a shame however that this review will be mostly negative due to the account of the serving staff. I've eaten at this establishment a few times and it has always been very quiet and calm, and it was no different this time except for the unprofessional server who I had. My co-worker and I called ahead to see if we could put our order in ahead of time, so that when we came in, the food would be ready and we could save some time. Service was sub-par, there was no real communication between us and our server. However, at the end of lunch, when asked about the check, we requested to have the check separated in which our server loudly expressed a very aggravated "SIGHHHH" in the rudest way. That was the first time that something like that has ever happened to me and I was shocked- it was almost comedic. I understand there are sometimes things you don't want to do but if you are in the service industry you should expect to do these routine tasks. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that she was having a bad day, but running to the back and complaining out of sight of customers would be the better option. I do not want to feel bad for asking for a simple request as well as after paying for a service. This may not be a big deal to most, but I don't want to spend my money in a place where unprofessional servers are working at. I will not be returning to...