Lotus Pond Vietnamese Cuisine — Restaurant in Seattle

I have no idea how this places has 4.6 stars. It deserves NONE. However, on Google Maps, it's the highest rated in the area, so I decided to give it a try. For the record, I love Vietnamese food, and I’m not picky about it. I wanted to go in for a bowl of pho, but immediately upon entering (just after 5pm) they told me they were only doing take out. Bummer, but ok. Since I think pho isn't as good when it's take out, I order the pork salad and pork skewers, and ask for both no onions (allergic). They take note. At this point, just after l've paid, a family comes in and sits down to eat. Why wasn't l allowed to!?! That's all I wanted was to sit down and eat a bowl of pho in peace. I had asked for change to tip them, and they only give me big bills which they take back way too quickly, not really giving me a choice. Then I realize after they give me my order that they forgot an item and I have to go back in and ask for it. Anywayys, I get home and unpack the order- and it's labeled with the correct menu numbers... and the salad turns out to be just a pile of RAW pork COVERED in onions, literally nothing else, and it smells rancid. Definitely not a salad, and entirely inedible. I open the grilled pork skewers, also covered in now multiple kinds of onions. This one is partially cooked, and also mostly raw, but it is so soaked in seed oil, it feels like drinking it. The smell again is rancid but masked by the cheap seed oil? Disgusting. I love Vietnamese food but the smell of the food they game me was alone enough to indicate that eating it would make you sick for DAYS. I'm sorry to write a bad review, but I feel like I just got taken advantage of. $45 + tip... for nothing even remotely edible and a terrrrrible experience. Trash. I feel like people should be aware. This place is NOT 4.6 stars but more like 0.

I’ve literally never in my life been so disgusted as by the food I was...

I've been wanting to try this place for a while because of the high ratings and good reviews. I was surprised to find the prices are pretty much the same as Ba Bar's (Ba Bar's only around 50 cents more usually). We ordered the fried spring rolls, crispy garlic butter chicken wings, and lemongrass beef vermicelli.

The first thing I noticed was that I couldn't taste any fish sauce with the fried spring rolls or vermicelli. I even got another round of fish sauce for the vermicelli, but still couldn't taste any fishiness. I could smell some fishy smell wafting through the restaurant, though, before my food arrived. The fried spring rolls at Ba Bar are slightly over $1 more because they come with vermicelli.

The menu says the wings would be in savory garlic butter, but the garlic (burnt pieces) was just spread on top and fell off because they had nothing to stick to. I felt the wings were too dry compared to the description, and I had to keep drenching them in the sweet and sour sauce. I could only taste garlic when I ate the garlic pieces that were sprinkled around.

The lemongrass beef vermicelli was the most disappointing because I expected the beef to be in lemongrass sauce. I could barely taste the lemongrass and already couldn't taste any fish sauce. I'm used to the meats being cooked in lemongrass sauce wherever I've ordered lemongrass vermicelli before. The beef was also chewy, but that usually happens whenever I order beef.

Another thing I noticed was when people ordered pho, the bean sprouts provided were only a handful - way less than I'm used to seeing. Perhaps people could ask for more, though, and this way it prevents people...

I'm used to be a big fan of this establishment, but have to post an honest review. Over the past year, I have to say that it's been trending downwards. I used to order frequently and they were very consistent and even recognized me as a regular (I only did take out and never actually dined-in). However, I'm not sure what changed the past few months but things have changed.

Food - it still tastes the same, but I can see that they no longer provide the same volume of food from a takeout perspective. Which I guess is not a big problem, they it's hard to reconcile this with the fact that they raised the prices.

Service - the takeout service has significantly degraded. They've gotten my order wrong a few time, which I've had to correct when i picked up. And honestly, this last pick up is what triggered me....I corrected them and to my surprise, they immediately brought out my new order (it was the P4 Pho short rib ,which i thought was strange), and when I checked after getting home, it was just a couple cold bone and no meat. I'm not paying $20 for just pho noodles and literally no labor (it seems) since they brought it out as soon as I mentioned it.

I also, did not appreciate the fact that the lady at the counter didn't even acknowledge that they got the order wrong and only cared about the fact that it's the "same price".

I would've expected more from a place that I frequent so often. And so, as much as I like this place....I don't think I'll be ordering from...