Nam Son — Restaurant in New York

My boyfriend introduced me to this restaurant and we frequent it whenever we are in the Chinatown area. His family is Vietnamese Chinese and so he would rave about how good their pho was. Interestingly enough the one time I picked up the bill and tried to leave an 18% tip my bf told me not to worry about it because "even the native people don't leave 15% tips and just to leave $2". I still left the 18% tip because I believe that workers should be paid livable wages and I don't know the personal struggles of my fellow human being, so tip accordingly. I digress, today I took my family to his restaurant and long story short when my cousin was paying the bill one of the head ladies comes up to us looks at our bill and demands that we pay $4.00 tip. I was really shocked and could not understand why we were receiving this kind of treatment. And I did not want to even entertain the idea that, because we were non Asian that we were receiving this kind of treatment. I called my bf and asked him and sadly his reply was "she was being racist", and never in all the years that he and his family had eaten at this establishment had they ever witnessed people of Asian descent being told they needed to pay a specific amount for tip. I personally will not be eating at this establishment ever again. I think discrimination of any kind is disgusting and abysmal. If people want to practice discriminatory behavior that's fine. Money talks. So I will not be taking it upon myself to support others/ establishments who...

UPDATED 12-05-2024

Google wants me to update this review so here goes... I think I'll stick with an overall 4-star rating. Not much has really changed - which is not to say it's a bad thing. Just not "great". I was just there tonight, in fact. I still like going there - it's spacious; location is convenient for parking; food is pretty good and lately, the service has improved (no long waits or any need to catch the eye of any wait staff). I may not be the best customer to write a review for this place because they have a fairly large menu and in truth, I mostly order only a few items (beef cube rice, the 3-topping rice and of course the pho). It's a good place to go for yum Viet food and I fully recommend it!

Food is pretty good, portions are fairly large. Priced a bit more (maybe $1 or so) than neighboring places but IMHO, well worth it. I usually order the "pho", which is excellent. Occasionally the pork in other dishes can be tough, but marinated very well. Had the fried shrimp dumplings last night, which were only OK. Too many pieces of shell and the skin was a kind of too well done (like it was left in the fryer for a too long). Service can be "challenging" at times, as in you may be waiting for a while to place your order or to get your check. But that's a testament to how busy is the place. I've rarely waited for a table but larger parties may need to be patient. Separate bathrooms for men and women, but single use. Recommended and...

Came here for lunch. Place is spacious. Workers are courteous, polite, and efficient.

We had the typical pho and had the vermicelli noodles with fried spring roll and beef. The pho soup base was just alright. It's usually the soupi that makes pho really good. Felt a little watered down and it didn't taste like the broth was cooked for hours to get that hearty/flavorful soup taste. It's definitely not the best. The portions are good for both dishes. However, the vermicelli noodles aren't the typical ones that I'm used to back in CA. The noodles are a little thicker than usual. I don't think they are using the "correct" noodles.

The reason for the 4 stars for this place was because of the service and their green coconut jelly, red bean drink (I don't remember the name, the tri-color drink). Food came out extremely quick. The turn around time is fairly quick at this place. Quality of food is on par, but that's it. The best thing about the tri-color drink was the added peanuts. I've never had it made like that before and it adds a new freshness to the drink. I would definitely recommend coming here for the drink. From all i can recall, in CA, none of the vietnamese places add peanuts to that tri-colored drink.

I would definitely come back here again. You get your food really quick, quality is just okay, the drink is excellent. You can be in and out in less than 45 minutes. Great if you're on a...