Pho 97 Restaurant — Restaurant in Pinellas Park

The last time I ate there was with my family and relatives more than 8 years ago. It was below average so not until today that we decided to try again as my mom heard it's a different chef now. At a glance, the place doesn't look too pleasant if not dirty with worn out/peeling of faux leather chairs. As usual, my brother gave me some disinfectant wipes to quickly clean the chair for my 3 year-old girl. There were bits of rice grains and who knows what kind of food left on that nicest-looking chair. The lady owner of the place rudely criticized my action which looked offensive to her as if she should done a better job. I tried not to get upset, but she went on with her unwelcoming/mocking comments, making sure about 8-10 present customers take a weird look at us. Of course I did not even sit down and got super annoyed, said "SERIOULY?!" before we marched out of that place. Even without the COVID thing, I am the type of person that must at least do a quick wipe before I sit down in regular restaurants (which doesn't happen too often as I'm very picky and we cook well at home.) Never before did I get mocked in such a narrow-minded manner. Obviously the owner showed poor professionalism in conducting her business. See you never again! Wish there were a zero...

I've have tried a lot of Pho restaurant before, but this is the worst experience that I ever have in a Vietnamese restaurant. I’m not a local, went there because my friend recommended for me. I came in and ordered a combination Pho, asked for extra veggies. And they charged me 1$ extra without letting me abt it. Then I asked the waitress for an “electronic receipt” then she gave me a handwritten paper :)) I told her that was not what I meant about a receipt. I used to work in a restaurant industry, i knew that there were so many tricks to scam customer but all I need is just a receipt. She gave me an attitude, and even other employees gave me attitude too. Yell at me even though that I did nothing wrong, just asked for an receipt. Then another young man explained to me that they couldn’t give me the electronic receipt because they don’t have it. Wow, that’s so weird. But he handle the situation very well and polite too. I would gave him a praise for the professional. Customer service is so important, after all I explained one more time to the old lady in the front that “Pls don’t give me that attitude because all I need is a receipt” Then she didn’t listen to me and walked away. That was so annoyed. I ended up leave the store and never...

TL;DR: Pho has overpowering clove flavor and low-quality meat.

High points: The banh mi was insanely good. Absolutely one of the best I’ve had in Pinellas. Fried egg rolls were also decent. Low points: Pretty much everything else. They were mopping with a very powerful-smelling chemical when we came in around 6, and that was off putting. We would have left but had already been to two other restaurants that evening with poor results. So we dealt with it. Spring Rolls were whatever, but not great. The worst was the pho itself. Noodles were old and broke easily. Meat (chicken and beef combination) was super low quality even for a pho. And the broth was overloaded with cloves to the point that it made our lips tingly. If you’ve ever smoked a clove cigarette you know exactly what I’m talking about. After we discovered some tiny bones in the chicken we gave up and called it a night.

Overall, that banh mi was so good it’s very disappointing that nothing even came close and some was just not good. Wouldn’t recommend overall but would suggest you stop by and pick up a banh mi with, as they said, the...