Tan Lac Vien Vietnamese Bistro — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

To start, I will say I have no idea how this place has a 4.4 star rating at all. What I ordered was the Pho special N1. The beef broth used was mediocre. It tasted like it had been there for the last month and the flavor was bland. Whatever seasoning they used on the top of the broth definitely did not feel appropriate. It tasted like it was trying to compensate or cover something up with the Pho. The vegetable toppings? Absolutely shameful. You get a few slices of onions that attempt to save the absolutely pathetic broth, but all it does it float there with it's other onion siblings wondering why there's so few other onion slices. This is before we even get into the other vegetable toppings though, because there is no basil or cilantro. You get a few spring onions but that is it. The missing cilantro and basil are even more disappointing than the onions because not a single bit of it is found. This is before we even get into the meat though. You get tripe, beef, flank, tendon and what seems to be approximately 1.5 meatballs. For what has already been a severely disappointing dish, you would at least think they would try to save it with the beef or something, but it's like watching a dumpster fire. It keeps burning itself and there's nothing you can do as you force yourself to eat what seems to be a few slices of beef and flank, about 2 strips of tripe and maybe 2 slices of tendon if you're lucky that day. The beef and flank are major disappointments because they're not just thin, but feel frozen because they're a giant mess inside the bowl. As if it was previously ice that was just thrown into some hot broth or water to melt the ice away but they forgot that when thinly shaved meat is frozen and defrosted quickly, the meat will tangle with other bits of meat and you get a mess of beef that you cannot figure out how to eat because you now have bits of broth dripping down into the broth and meanwhile you try to eat it without flinging the broth onto yourself and the table. The tripe itself is also something to forget about because you basically forget about it the moment you eat it. You look around in the bowl and realize that was all you had. Then you decide to look at the 1.5 meatballs that are aimlessly floating around wondering what purpose they serve in the bowl and realize at least they're there unlike the basil or cilantro. The flank and tendon are also something to forget about because wow, it just keeps going downhill. The noodles just turn this dumpster fire into a landfill fire. They taste horrible, the texture feels like rubber and there's just a severe lack of noodles. They are way too thick for something like Pho, yet with the amount of surface area of the noodles they don't seem to hold any of the broth or the oils together either. Honestly after eating this Pho, I can safely say that the only thing that may not have been frozen was the broth unless they decided to food prep the broth in containers too. Here is my overall recommendation, avoid it. Unless you are craving for Pho and this is the only place open or decide to avoid eating instant ramen, there is no reason to come here. I have been to many highly rated Pho places around Pennsylvania, and this is only slightly better than Two Sisters on the other side of Pittsburgh and Two Sisters was only slightly better than this because they didn't freeze their broth. Take your money and dignity elsewhere and grab ramen from across the street or something because the interior of the restaurant isn't that great either. The HVAC doesn't run, there's insects flying around and for something that has a decent amount of interior room, they make a very poor use of space so please I beg of you, avoid this place. There is no employee attire so you don't know if it's a waiter or some stranger from across the table walking up to you. This place is basically what you would expect an owner with no passion or food to run. There is no love, excitement or drive to make good food. The food is as bland as...

I think that I just do not understand Vietnamese food. I had dinner at this place with a couple of friends. Besides us, throughout the meal, there was only one other non-oriental group throughout our time there and there was a steady flow of people coming to eat. Normally, that tells me that what the restaurant serves must be pretty authentic. However, both myself, and one other of my friends came away saying that the food was pretty bland and not really interesting. This was also not my first experience with Vietnamese food in other cities and I had the same reaction elsewhere.

Now, the restaurant itself was fine. It’s on Murray Avenue and is small. The staff was hustling. There was one waitress who was handling all the table, answering the phones, and taking care of pick-up orders. Even with that workload she gave us the time we needed and answered our questions and was patient with us. She did make one mistake when she delivered our food and gave the wrong dish to the wrong person. Since we did not know any better, we started eating what she gave us. When she came back with the other dish, she immediately realized the mistake, owned up to it, and fixed it appropriately. Kudos to her for how she handled it. So, no deduction in points for that.

But, as I said, the food itself was not that interesting to my palate, nor to the others. The Lemongrass Chicken stir fry and the Bun Honey Chicken Bowls were pretty bland. Each table in the restaurant had big bottles of Sriracha and Hoisin Sauce available and we used them – liberally. Looking around at the other diners, they were using them too. However, that’s not a good thing. Our third member ordered Chicken Pho. He claimed that it was a decent chicken soup, but again, it was just decent – not outstanding.

Prices were very reasonable so all in all I think this place deserves a three-star rating. I still am not sure about Vietnamese...

I ordered one $16 bowl of vegan pho. The dish was tasteless. I was sick the next few days. Not only that, but they charged my card an additional $100 that I didn't find out about until I checked my credit card statement. I wish I had googled the restaurant before eating there, because I would've seen the CBS article "Pittsburgh Vietnamese restaurant shut down after inspector finds imminent hazard, rodent droppings and roaches" published on November 11, 2024, and skipped it.

The server was friendly enough, but they were the one I handed my credit card to, so they must've been the one to run the fraudulent charge.

From the article:

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A Vietnamese restaurant was shut down by the Allegheny County Health Department after an inspector found rodent droppings, roaches and fluid "seeping" through the basement walls.

The health department shut down Tan Lac Vien on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill after an inspection on Thursday.

The inspector reportedly found a case of daikon radish with rodent droppings "on many, if not all, of the individual" vegetables. The inspector said the entire case was contaminated and thrown out. There were also rodent droppings in other areas like inside a fryer, behind pots, in a storage room and in the men's bathroom.

On top of the rodent droppings, an inspector said there were roaches throughout the basement, a problem that's exacerbated by "persistent water on the floor."

The report lists several other high-risk violations, which could lead directly to food-borne illness or injury, according to the...