Hot As PHO — Restaurant in Seattle

I have never written a food review no matter how good or bad a food establishment was. But this one is worthy of one.

My group of 4 was disembarking from the Holland America cruise for the day, and we were all craving Pho. We yelped and thought we’d give Hot as Pho a try due to the WALKING distance from pike place and the dock. As we head to the restaurant we bumped into 4 other people we had met on the cruise from Vancouver, also craving pho after having 3 days of buffet style dining on board. We said we were on the way to Hot as Pho, so they followed us there.

We entered the restaurant and the waitress asked us how many people. We said there’s 8 of us but we’ll sit in 2 separate tables of 4. We were all chatting about the cruise while waiting to be seated ( it’s a little awkward sitting together as we’re not that close).

Both groups requested to sit at separate tables BUT the waitress said for us to wait a minute for her to put 3 tables together for 8 people. We again said “Please! We’ll sit separately!” She then said ‘No! It’s more convenient for us!’ We were all confused as she moved a table of 4 and 2 together and proceed to ask 2 existing customers to move so she could strategically put them all together. If we were a family or group of 8 I would really appreciate it. But we weren’t, so she put us in a weird position of sitting with a group of acquaintances. (I’m sure they wanted their privacy as well)

Now, for the food. We all lowered our expectations and standards because we were downtown and all the authentic Pho restaurants are in, or closer to Chinatown.

Their broth is watery and clear with lots of MSG and salt but lacking the aromatics of the spices (cloves, fennel, star anise, cinnamon, ginger etc..)present in a delicious bowl of pho. Hence, the reason why other reviewers would describe as BLAND. With our lowered expectations, we honestly agreed that it was subpar at best. We were disappointed but we were ok with it due to the walking distance from the dock.

When the bill came, it read “party over 6 is charged 20% gratuity” which is fair for finer dining or higher end establishments for big parties. BUT 20% for a noodle restaurant is gauging and unreasonable.

This was the reason why she refused to listen to us to be seated separately, and so adamant about seating us all together.

We paid and I walked up to the cashier and told her in private that we had no problem giving a good tip if the service was good, but we never wanted to sit together in the first place, and she had insisted on seating us together just to charge the 20% gratuity is not good business practice. One of the waitresses behind the counter immediately got defensive and retorted ‘’THIS IS EXACTLY HOW WE RUN OUR BUSINESS WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT! EVEN IF YOU SAT IN 2 DIFFERENT TABLES, WE WOULD STILL CHARGE YOU THE 20% BECAUSE YOU KNOW EACH OTHER!”

WTH!!!…the audacity of her to be so blatantly greedy and unreasonble.. especially towards a customer. Both waitresses came out around the counter, one extremely rude, the other trying to justify the charge. It is unbelievable the length they’ll go to charge the extra tips. Enough said. STAY AWAY!! There are a few more Vietnamese pho restaurants nearby. We just unfortunately took our chance with this one. If you have a car, go to the more authentic ones near Chinatown… or...

Honestly it was a disappointment. I don’t normally submit reviews but I had to for this. The meat was extremely over cooked (for a pho place) even tho the menu said to was rare beef (server didn’t let us know in advance and when we asked her said it’s cause soup is hot). Very small portion for the price. Don’t get the viet coffee it is not the usual drip one you expect. Felt like I was drinking condensed milk.

Edit: not sure how to respond to the reply from the store so here it is. Any feedback is feedback and not an attack on someone. I provided my experience and thought in an honest matter. To respond back throwing terms about food safely guidelines or telling a customer to go learn food handling is a little unprofessional. Not giving a business a hard time just Sharing my opinions. I didn’t tell ppl not to go I just simply shared my experience. But now I see their unprofessional and somewhat mean response, if anyone ask me for a recommendation I don’t have any but I will say prob not this one if ur want rare meat and the Dripper...

Stopped in here one cold December evening for a quick late lunch.

Food: I ordered the fresh spring rolls and taro bubble tea while my husband ordered the pork banh mi and Thai tea.

Everything was delicious. The spring rolls were perfectly balanced in flavor (just the right amount of noodles, prawns, and lettuce). The banh mi bread had a perfect thin crisp outside and soft inside. Pork was well seasoned. It was my first time trying a taro bubble tea and I enjoyed it. The flavor kind of reminded me of popcorn more than a sweet potato. The thai tea was okay- had more spices in it than we're used to, but we liked that it was less sweet than other thai teas we've had.

Ambiance: In my 25+ yrs of living in Seattle I had never stopped by this shop, probably because it looks so unassuming on the outside. Inside is small with enough seating for maybe 24ish people. The walls looked like they could use a new coat of paint and floors/windows a good scrubbing, but it was fine for the short amount of time...