Phở Tran88 — Restaurant in San Marcos

My sixty three year old mother (who may possibly the nicest person alive), and I went to this restaurant for lunch today and had an awful experience today. My mother ordered Pho Trans Kalamari, and found it to be too chewy. She almost didn’t say anything but decided we could trust the restaurant to understand she was dissatisfied with how chewy it was. My mother, basically whispered to the waitress how she didn’t care for it, that it was very chewy, even trying to make it her fault (my mothers fault) for expecting it not to be chewy. The waitress with the thinning hair came over to our table and LOUDLY, with many hand gestures calling attention to our table explained that she would take it off of our bill but that many other customers order it and love it; and that yes fine she’d take it off; but not first without a big demonstration villainizing my mother for having an opinion she politely and quietly shared. I was FLOORED. As paying customers, who paid almost $70 for mediocre food, no matter how many people come in and like it, if one person says they don’t, the right thing to do is to refund the order, or offer something else in its place. Between my mother and myself, we share 80+ years serving customers, and her behavior was wholly unacceptable and rude. After her interaction with my mother, she tried to avoid our table and treat us as if we didn’t exist sending a boy less than 18 to our table who simply did not speak English putting this poor guy in an already uncomfortable situation. I asked to speak with her myself to smooth over the interaction and explain how the interaction could have gone better, suggesting that the customer is any companies best asset. She continued to talk over me; make big demonstrations with her hands and suggest that, “Customers like to try food, and say they don’t like it, then we lose $16 worth of food!” Apparently; having an opinion in this restaurant, and losing $16 is worth losing good, well paying, and generally well tipping customers. Just one more thought for the manager/owners; would you rather lose $16 and provide a better product or $70 per meal? Her behavior ensures we will...

Absolutely abysmal service. My parents were in town so I took them there for food. I should have taken them to Taiwan Bowl instead. The woman who served us was exceedingly short and rude the whole time. Some of my mother's chicken was overcooked, but she didn't make a big deal about it until a few minutes into the meal when she realized it was almost all of it, save some larger pieces. The server, an older woman, hadn't come to check on us since taking us the food so my father went to tell them the issue. We could see that our server was arguing about it, and he came back without having anything sorted out. A few moments later she walked over and argued some more about how that was just the way it was and it couldn't be redone, with a belittling attitude the whole time. She finally reluctantly offered to replace the dish with something else. I was offended and surprised by how bad the service was, considering the almost 5 star score. Suffice to say that they don't deserve it, and the food is a 3.0 at best. I convinced my parents not to leave a tip, something they were still considerate enough to want to do. Were it up to me, I wouldn't have even paid.

tl;dr: Don't waste your time here. The servers are rude and the food is mediocre. Go to Don Japan kitchen or the Taiwan Bowl instead. Both have tasty food and...

While I am not thin skinned, and often have a soft spot for service workers as I work in Customer service, the lady with the thinning hair who works there is completely unprofessional. When I went there, I was rudely told there were no options for substitutions and also told I could not order side dishes for an additional cost. She was curt when she took our orders and when we received our appetizer and complained about how not fresh the food was, we were told loudly in front of the whole restaurant; “That’s how this is made, the chef ate it and said that’s how it’s supposed to taste!” I do not expect everyone to have the same decorum I would in those situations but it only got worse when I politely tried to explain why we were bringing it to her attention. She became louder, defensive, and said other people in other restaurants or there like to go around trying to food and then saying they don’t like it and asking for a refund. We had order meals AND appetizers, and though none of it was worth writing home about, we only sent one thing back that was ACTUALLY inedible. The embarrassment, the yelling at customers and VERY average food made this a place to avoid. I’d be inclined to call the health department. That kind of defensiveness seems like more than just a food issue. It’s likely covering for a...