Pho Cuong Restaurant — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

Below is my old review, tried this place again for some ignorant reason. I called and asked how much for a pho bowl to go. I was told 13 dollars. I knew it wouldn't match the online price. I said great let me get two. And one order of fried egg rolls. Gf gets home with the food. Broth is barely room temp. Hand SME no receipt, said they didn't offer one. I said how much was it. 38 bucks! Two bowls to go, and two cold egg rolls? You are alit of your mind. Then they gave us a super thin slice of lime each, and some sad excuse for sauce packages. It's simply not enough. And the hoison was decrepit and old. Look at the picture! And a single spoonful of meat?! You guys are cheeeeaaapp. Cheapscates through and through and you will never get my business again and I'll be sure to mention you guys as the worst one in town. I believable.

Use to be my favorite place. Dang, what happened? Where to start.. we were seated by the window during sunset so it was extremely bright and hot. We asked the waiter to put down the shade and we ended up doing it ourselves. Now you are offered zero service. You have to order at the counter when you are ready to order after you are seated.. wth?? They got all three of our orders wrong. Never checked on us, or filled our waters. What's worse is when one of us went to place the order the waiter was rude and demanded we bring the menus back when ordering. They also charged us for each to go container by 50 cents! That would've been good info before hand. Three large pho soups, one appetizer almost 50 bucks. Last, but not least, the soup was mostly all broth, and only one big spoonful of meat. Also the broth was watered down flavored, I couldn't put enough salt in it. Didn't taste hardly any spices..iIt was by far the worst broth I've ever had hands down from anywhere. So disappointing. Never again sadly....

So here's my history with this place, I don't know the family that owns this place but have conversed with them during my visits. I've eaten here at least 10+ times since 2019 through 2024. 8 out of 10 visits were 4 stars or higher while the other two times were 3 stars or less but overall it's always been an above average dining experience with my order almost always put out quickly while tasting great. I've seen staffing changed yearly/seasonally, which I haven't met or seen issues with bad staff or incidents. The atmosphere is a modest and casual restaurant where there's ethnic decorations with prestigious news articles/awards amongst the walls.

Some observations/speculations:

Since this is one of the highest rated Vietnamese restaurants in the city and has become so popular that it's gotten attention in the media (Andrew Zimmerman from Travel Channel), you can imagine how much work it takes to strive for 5 stars from each customer in every visit. Prior to the 2020 pandemic, their food prices were more affordable, portions were bigger, tables were always available, staff/service felt relaxed. That's changed since 2019.. ingredients are more costly, social distancing meant less seating available, more staff turnovers, and so on. If you're coming in to dine and looking for "main character, first priority" treatment, don't expect that. Treat them with respect and friendliness and they'll do the same.

Any reviewer for any type of business should understand this: Timing of your visit matters, your (and your party's) attitude towards the staff matters, frequency of your...

OKC native here, this is one of the few local restaurants always on my regular rotation. It's pretty inexpensive and the large is a good portion, I can never finish it. This is the only pho place in the area, to my knowledge, that has a vegetarian pho on their menu. I love the mushrooms and baby corn in the vegetarian pho, and there's also a vegetarian vermicelli with tasty tofu and a really nice sauce. The single element that compelled me to write a review is how good their boba tea is-- for whatever reason this place actually has the best boba tea I've had anywhere. It's very creamy with a strong flavor, not weak and watery like many places, and they offer whipped cream as a topping and it's just amazing. It's owned by a family and the workers are always friendly and welcoming.

To the one star review before me: I think you can find things to complain about at any place if you're actively seeking out the negatives. Is this an immaculate fine dining experience for a fancy date or an executive business meeting? Nope, but I don't care about that and that's not what it's trying to be. It's a small business with a tiny staff, and their aim is to simply serve good food. If you're the type of person to blow your top about a lime looking slightly browned, this might not be the place for you; "no frills" is an accurate expectation to set for this restaurant. I love this place and I'm never disappointed with the quality-- the dishes are very consistent and I've been coming here for over a year....