Viet Kitchen — Restaurant in Santa Maria

I ordered two chicken pho and the pho tai (beef) with a Vietnamese coffee at 7:01pm to go. I was told the order would be ready in about 15 minutes. When I arrived around 7:12pm, I was told it would take about 15 more minutes for the order to be ready. I saw that they were very busy and felt it was understandable. The service staff frequently apologized for the delay, but did little else while I waited. Around 7:40pm I kindly let the waiting staff know that I was still waiting for the order and they assured me it would be ready real soon. Well, it took until about 7:56pm for the order to be ready. That's about 55 minutes since the initial phone call. Thus, I asked to see if the coffee could be compensated for the long wait time since I have experience working in the customer service industry and felt that is something fair for an establishment to offer for the inconvenience. The cashier said that they would check to see if it was something that they could do and returned back saying that the person in charge refused to compensate the coffee. I thanked the cashier for trying and hoped that the food would at least make up for the long wait time (I'm used to going to another Vietnamese Pho spot in Santa Maria where it only takes about 10 minutes to receive the same order that I place at Viet Kitchen. I would have gone to that spot, but they were closed due to the holidays). When I got home, I was unpleasantly surprised by the smaller portions (again, in comparison to the other restaurant). They only put one lime wedge in each sandwich bag and only provided two bags for the three phos. In addition, the amount of noodle was less. I did like that they have a separate chicken broth for the chicken pho and a beef broth for the beef pho. The broth was good, but the proteins were overcooked and dry. I would suggest (if they read reviews) that the beef be made medium rare and then allowed to cook in the hot broth. The Vietnamese coffee was bold and not too sweet. I would definitely be ordering Vietnamese coffee from...

Overall: I went on a Friday night at 5 pm, right when it opened. Service was speedy, probably one of the best broths I have had, too pricy for the quality, and the portions were small. :) If you are used to having good pho at a mom and pop pho place, this is not the place :). Next time, I wanna try Al Pho in Santa Maria. Of course, there aren't many options.

Food: I ordered the pho special in store and it was good. However, for me, the noodles were already stuck together and it was difficult to celebrate. I WILL say, one of the best broths I have ever had. It was mild but FULLL of flavor. However, I ordered extra veggies and the portions were still small. A little sad about that. I also took a chicken vermicelli home. Again, it only filled me up for one meal and the "salad" was just shredded lettuce. I am used to a mixed veggies in Viet food that makes it so healthy. +1 stars

Staff/Service: I got seated almost immediately. They got me water and my order quickly and my food was out within 5 minutes. They also got me my check pretty quick...almost too quick.... . They were nice and friendly overall, different from the other comments I saw on Yelp. +1 stars

Location/Ambience: Located in a small strip mall, plenty of parking. The inside was very clean with pretty lanterns and a part of the restaurant has big speakers...like it was for a big party. +1 stars

Price for Food: For the portion I received and the quality of the food, I don't think the price matched. I am used to eating pho in San Diego and Irvine sooo..it is difficult to compare. Lack of variety of veggies, and besides the broth (which again was one of the BEST) everything else was subpar and felt like it was more like a Viet food...adopted to American...

I have come here on multiple occasions and the food and the service has always been great with the exception of this last time I was there. We walked in around 5:00 on a Sunday and the restaurant was empty. We placed our order and my son ordered a kids pho. After we got seated and our orders were taken, the restaurant started feeling up very quickly. Long story short all of our party got our food except for my son. Needless to say, the entire restaurant got their food before my son did and we were the first ones there. They were bringing out pho to other tables so I don't understand what the problem was. I was livid and so was our entire party. They basically ruined our dinner because we were waiting for my son's food so that we could all eat together. They made us wait an hour and by that point everybody was in a bad mood and our food was cold. When the bill came, I was shocked to see that they charged us for it. If they would have not charged us for it we would have left them a tip. But you're not going to feed the entire restaurant, make us wait an hour for a soup and then not take that off the bill. It was over $120 and we didn't tip one cent and I don't feel bad about that. You guys need to get more workers. One person for an entire restaurant is not a good business model. I honestly don't even know if we're going to go back there just because my son was...