Da Vàng Restaurant — Restaurant in Phoenix

I swear I was being punked. It was like a bad episode in real life. I love Pho and so I looked this place up in a Google search for top 10 pho places in Phoenix. This was a meet up lunch with my girlfriend and her toddler. Myself and my toddler arrived a little earlier we got a table, and I asked for a high chair. They brought the highchair (dirty with grime and sticky stuff all over) no big deal, I had disinfectant wipes. I cleaned it up and sat my kid in it. As I sat down myself, I realized my chair was wet. I immediately stood up and noticed there was a yellow urine like puddle under the table. I told the waiter staff and they just replaced my chair, claiming it was just water spilled. It def smelled bad and it was not water. Whatevs, I went into the restroom and wiped off whatever it was with soap off the back of my jeans. My girlfriend and her kid arrived so they asked for another highchair. Another dirty highchair was brought. I handed her the wipes and she did her thing. We ordered our food, which took a little while Pho Ga (chicken pho) and a sandwich for our kids to split. I tasted my Pho and it was descent, however before I could take a 2nd sip we looked over on the wall by our table and saw a cockroach just passing by like we were in his territory. This is when we got up and walked to the cashier and told them what's up. They thought we were lying or something. I walked them over and pointed at the cockroach. At this point they just started cleaning up the table and muttering something under their breath. That's cool. I walked back to the cashier and his response was "Don't worry it's on me" .....I paused with silence and had to make sure there were no one jumping out with cameras telling me I was on an episode of some sort of disgusting restaurant joke. The most horrible restaurant...

So today on my way home from work, I was starving and I HAD to have a bowl of delicious pho. Of course Pho Thanh is closed on the days I crave it the most, so I settled for Da Vang Restaurant which was conveniently around the corner from them so I made that my next destination. From the outside, it didn't look great. From seeing other Vietnamese restaurants I've come to ignore that because what I REALLY care about is the FOOD. As soon as I walk in to the restaurant I was hit with a wall of odor, I am guessing it was a sewage leak from the restrooms. I've seen this before. So they seated me at a table on the north side of the building.. right by the restrooms so I kindly asked to move to the other side of the building because the smell was unbearable for me. Very unpleasant smells before a meal. I was brave however, and as mentioned very very hungry so I couldn't turn back then. While I tried forgetting the smell I ordered a bowl of pho. The staff is very attentive which is good to see. One young man was very watchful for water glasses, big plus for a thirsty guy like me. Shortly after my pho came and to my pleasant surprise, it was great. The broth had a very pleasing smell, the meat was tender, the greens were to my liking, the noodles could be better, but at the time of my meal I could not complain. I believe if I went back to Da Vang on any other day my experience could be much much better after they fix whatever leaks they have in the back. Today was not a good day to walk in for sure. With all this said, I'd choose pho Thanh any day of the week provided they're open. I'll come back in a few weeks to da Vang and hopefully my visit will be pleasant from...

This parking lot is super small and tight. We got lucky because we have a disabled placard. Otherwise you would probably have to park in the street. In the middle of the lot is one of those refill water stations so you had people blocking the driveway while waiting for their five gallon to fill.

The restaurant was busy during prime lunch hour. Lots of take out orders. We got seated right away but by the door.

We order Hu Tieu wonton extra bowl to share. First of all, they don’t make extra large bowl but they made that for us using the pho large bowl. Second, we forgot to specify the wide flat rice noodles nor did they ask us. So it came out with this extra large bowl and vermicelli pho noodles!

Imagine wonton soup broth with pho noodles! It was rather not appealing to the tummy. Too much starch and too much noodles because they are thin.

It came with a plate of veggies and a crispy fried puff ball. That was the only thing that tasted good.

Service didn’t seem quite friendly so we didn’t send it back. Plus they made us the extra large bowl. That would go to waste. We tried to eat it. My mother and I rarely ever waste food. This would be the time where we didn’t finish. We ate the wontons, char Siu, squid, and fake crab. But couldn’t finish the noodles. It’s just the wrong noodles to pair with this broth which makes a huge difference.

If you go here, stick to pho or their rice dish. If you get hu tieu, be sure to ask for wide flat white...