Pho Tan My — Restaurant in Timonium

TLDR: Tasty Vietnamese food offerings in a casual environment. Come for the pho and the newly offered banh mi.

Vibe: 4/5. Located in the Padonia Shopping Center, Pho Tan is a small restaurant offering both dine in and takeout. Since it's located in a strip mall, parking is easy and readily available. Inside, Pho Tan has around a dozen 2-top tables and several 2 tops pushed together in the center of the restaurant to form one large table. Both seating options allow them to handle both small and larger group dining. The restaurant has a no frills interior, however it is very clean and each table has all your pho accoutrements waiting for your slurping needs.

Service: 5/5. The staff at Pho Tan have always been great on every visit. They are warm as their pho broths and welcoming from the moment you step inside the restaurant. Orders are taken punctually and your food typically hits the table within 10 minutes of ordering (perfect for the lunch crowd). When it's time to settle the bill, you simply pay at the counter which is again great for the work lunch crowds with splitting bills.

Food: 4/5. On the several occasions I have dined at Pho Tan, I have always left satisfied with my meals. Some of my favorite items to order are the seafood phos, both the specialty and regular as well as the #1 all beef meats house special pho. On my last visit, they have started to serve banh mis. I opted to try the roast pork banh mi and it was well executed. The French baguette was perfectly crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside with plenty of flavor from the roast pork and veggies. My only gripe with Pho Tan would be the pricing. From the several pho restaurants I have dined at in greater Baltimore, their pricing is on the high side. A small bowl of pho will run you around $11 (large $14) and the banh mi are priced at $8. I understand that all restaurants are raising prices to offset operational costs, but they seem to now be at the higher echelon. In the end, this won't deter me from stopping in, as they are one of the only pho options in the Timonium/Cockeysville area, but definitely has been noticed. Overall, I highly recommend stopping by Pho Tan for a bowl...

We got lucky here. Flew into BWI Christmas evening, hopped in a rental car and headed North. Then tried to find a place to eat. Pho Tan My, was the only place we could find. Asked what on the menu was vegetarian an were told #11. We'll... Ok 4 #11's then. We ordered 2 large and 2 small. The large is giant! Could have done with 4 smalls. Side note: I've been vegetarian for a long time, I'm not the type who's delusional enough to think the BK Impossible Whopper is actually vegetarian, you will never catch me in line at a BK... So I won't go so far as to certify the #11 as vegetarian it may very well have had a bit of fish stock in the broth, who knows. Now back to the review: The #11 is a pho with loads of fresh vegetables, the rice noodles were really good, and it was served with a heaping pile of fresh bean sprouts on the side. It did have some weird spongy fake ham in it, so if you're not into the fake meat thing you can probably ask them to leave that out. The people working there (I think the owners) were really nice, asked about our trip. All-in-all, I'm glad we had the chance to find your restaurant....

By far the worst Vietnamese restaurant experience I have ever had. The beef pho I ordered was extremely disappointing. It took almost 40 minutes before we even recieved some of the food we ordered. Half of my noodles were hard and stuck together and the broth was bland as if it was watered down. I mentioned to the waiter about the issue with my food and asked if I could get a new one. He didn't even respond with words! All I got was an eye roll and a sigh as he turned and left. I had assumed he was telling the kitchen to prepare a new one for me since we were still waiting for the rest of the order. It took another 20 minutes to get everything else and I never got a replacement for the bad bowl of pho. I ended up losing my appetite from frustration and lack of respect to a PAYING customer. The rest of dishes that my family and I recieved were also bland and was sloppily thrown together. I understand the restaurant was a little busy, but to say the sheer neglect of service and the poor quality of the food is an under statement. WE WILL NOT BE...