Phở Kim — Restaurant in Portland

I'm glad to see Phở Kim reopened after closing down from a fire about a year and a half ago! My family and I have been supporting this family affairs for about 3 decades now. This location has its own private and big parking lot!

This family is one of a few original families that opened Vietnamese restaurants in PDX. They owned and sold a few of their original restaurants under various names. All I can say is their business and menu have seen better days!

The current menu is much smaller than it used to be, only double-sided 10x20 or so. Overall quality is solid! You can't go wrong with anything on the menu, yet they have lost their magic because they are not the only few Vietnamese restaurants in town anymore.

Service is always prompt and friendly! The owners will speak Vietnamese to you if you say hi to them Vietnamese first, and they greet you in such a way that makes you feel as if they remember you personally. I know this is not the case but I do appreciate the gesture!

My recent dined-in was an hour to closing for a quick meal and my craving of Cơm Tấm (broken rice). I love the fact that they still actually use broken rice for this original Vietnamese staple dish. And to top it off, they always included a size bowl of broth with it; this is how we Vietnamese people eat them back home! Even here in PDX, not a lot of Vietnamese restaurants use broken rice for this classic dish even though the name of the dish literally translates to Broken Rice, and for sure don't offer the size bowl of broth with it.

For my Cơm Tấm: -The rice was a bit overcooked because it stuck together instead of staying individual grain. -The shredded pork meat and pork skin (bì) were good but disproportionately in ratio because it was more skin than meat. -The grilled pork was cut into cheap thin slices of cut instead of pork chop with bone on it (sườn nướng). -The Vietnamese egg meatloaf (chả) thankfully saved the day because it still tasted delicious and moist at the end of the day!!!!! -2 slides of fresh cucumber and 2 slides of fresh tomatoes which is sufficient. I dislike the fact that most Vietnamese restaurants would fill this plate with lectures and veggies to give you less than what is supposed to be on the dish. -Nước Mắm (the fish sauce that comes with this dish) was a bit more on the sweeter side and did not have much flavor this time for me.

I also ordered Chè Đậu Trắng (sticky rice and kidney bean), the special dessert in the deli fridge. I asked them to heat up and gave me extra coconut milk. It tasted decent not too sweet which is my preference. The beans didn't cook fully to their softness so this made me think they used canned beans so meh.

Clean and open space sitting with a big foyer waiting area only Oregonians would notice and appreciate. Good for big groups and as I mentioned earlier solid food quality overall.

Bonus: Tiny cramp space for ladies restroom but they have toilet...

This place has gone downhill drastically since it first opened and tends to get worse and worse every time we go. We went for a Sunday lunch with our family. We are a group of eight, so we expected a wait. We had been sat quickly but with another group at their table. Super awkward, so I requested our tables to be separated. They obliged but when doing so the table promptly fell apart. Ok, freak accident. They moved us to another table and I noticed that in the back (the area that we normally sit because they have long tables for bigger groups) had three different tables each with only 2 people taking up the whole tables, one set not eating and appeared to be waiting for the rest of their group for 20 minutes that I noticed. Not great organizational skills but whatever things happen. Than the waiter never brought the stuff that goes along with our soup (limes, mint ect) for our whole table. When I went up to retrieve these items I was stopped and told they would bring it to me, fine no big deal I get it. Most of the plates didn't have lime and when I asked for more she seamed to get upset by my request. They forgot one of our drinks and when we brought it up he counted our drinks in front of our like he was proving a point than went to get our last drink. One of our waters tasted funny and the cook was wearing a "Pho Hung" apron, they are down the street so I don't know if they borrowed him or if the just recently hired him but still confusing. and last but not least while one of my family members waited in line to pay we got the rest of our family members out to our truck and the owner chased us out and said we forgot to pay. Super embarrassing. The Owner, his wife, and the newest hostess are normally super cool but the last few times we have attended have been super horrible and I kept giving them more chances because I really liked the place but, unfortunately, our family will no longer be...

Please Read. I ate glass!! There was a long line when I showed up, but because there was no sign in sheet some people got seated out of order. This was a bit frustrating. Most of the conversation about who was next in line happened in Vietnamese so I didn't have a chance to give input. After this,

It just gets worse.

I was served some water, fresh greens and a tea pot but no tea cup. I asked for the cup and was told he will get it later.

Then I was served a soup in a VERY dirty dish. When I mentioned it to the server he said, "oh that's ok, just dry blood, ok, yeah ok." I politely asked for the soup to be remade. I watched what they did because they have an open kitchen. They poured the soup into a different bowl, wait a while and brought it out to me. I was a little upset because the soup inside the bowl was probably contaminated, but whatever man, I'll eat it.

It still gets even worse.

As I was eating I noticed my spoon was catching on something at the bottom of the bowl. Didn't give it much thought and kept eating. The soup was delicious! As I got to the bottom, I saw what my spoon was catching on. A hairline crack in the bowl. Not enough to seep liquid through but enough for my spoon to catch and brake off tiny particles of ceramic (which is practically glass) from the bowl and eat them as I ate the soup.

In conclusion. I was seated out of order, and ate contaminated soup with glass shards in it. Oh yeah, the tea cup never showed up either.

I bet they won't take that broken bowl out of circulation. If you end up eating out of it please leave a review. I hope they get a food inspector to check this place out. I will never...