Ri Le's — Restaurant in Tulsa

2-5-2022:

Five years following my first and only visit to Ri Li, I decided to try them again. We were greeted by a nice lady who sat us at a table around the corner from the front door. Water was promptly delivered to the table. An older gentleman came to the table to take our order. I ordered for my wife, she often tells me in advance, and then for myself. Pork chowmein for my wife and Vietnamese special beef soup no noodles, if you follow my reviews you'll notice asking for no noodles is very a thing with me.

Immediately after I placed my portion of the order, the gentleman mentioned to my wife a special or something along that line, but she opted to stick with the pork chowmein. After the gentleman walked a few tables away, he asked if it was chicken soup. He wanted to confirm what he thought he heard, and I corrected him, stating beef. After a few minutes, I tell my wife I bet he doesn't remember I asked for no noodles. Sure enough, my soup arrived with noodles.

After he returned with the pork chowmein, my wife mentioned I had ordered it with no noodles. He seemed taken back, and then, without saying much more, he grabbed my soup spoon off the table and placed it back on the plate that was under the bowl. It was very easy to tell by the way he grabbed the spoon and then the entire dish that he wasn't happy. As he walked away behind us heading to the kitchen, he made some remark. It was loud enough that you could hear him, the tone, but not the actual words.

My first reaction was to get up and ask what he had said and end our dining expierenced but I opted to let it go. He came out from the kitchen and walked part way to us to ask if I would like bean sprouts or something with it, which I agreed on more bean spouts. He may not have approached the table because the look on my wife's face wasn't pleasant. I will be fair and mention that the older gentleman was pleasant to us when taking our order. A younger girl brought my soup out to me the 2nd time. The soup itself had a pretty good flavor like pho would. The bean sprouts had a great crunchiness to them while the beef was tender. As for the value of the meal, the consumer gets the short end of the stick in several ways.

The biggest complaint I have was the size of the bowl, which they call a large is a small at other Vietnamese restaurants. The beef consisted of only brisket and round. Towards the end of my meal, I realized their cilantro, Thai basil, and mint were cooked into the broth(I assume) since they didn't serve it with jalapeños or additional toppings like most Vietnamese restaurants do.

My wife's pork chowmein was plentiful. The ingredients were fresh and cooked nicely. I felt the sauce was missing something. It wasn't bland but just needed a little something more. There was a small saucer of sauce that looked like what was served with bun cha gio. It was too sweet for my wife's liking, so she didn't add it to her dish. The dish also came with steamed white rice that was cooked properly.

In conclusion, I would've bumped my review up a star because the pork chowmein was great. I expected the beef soup to be like traditional pho and come with more varies of beef, including meatballs. Bean sprouts, jalapeños, and lime slices are typically served with traditional pho, which leads me to think that's why they call theirs a soup and not pho. Unfortunately, between my meal not being served as ordered and the gentleman's actions/behavior, a 1 star review suits the experience.

Picures: One phote shows the beef soup with noodles and one without. The other photo shows you the pork chowmein and side sauce.

11-1-2017: My original...

Had a craving for pho on a Monday. My usual to go to places are closed on a Monday. I've decided to go give Ri Le another try, as it has been awhile since I've been here. Went there at 4pm and there were no more than three tables occupied. Good for us, I thought. Got seated within seconds. Another positive. Server brought us waters without ever asking if we wanted anything beside water to drink. That didn't bother us though. Ordered couple of soups (pho combination) and a chicken lemon grass... Let's talk food: chicken lemon grass arrived first (see attached picture). This was like no lemon grass chicken that we've ever seen and for a good reason. The veggies looked like they had a freezer burn on them and just got dumped from a frozen bag into a wok and then onto a plate. Before letting my kid try it, I took a bite and almost spet it out, as the corn, which I've picked to try, has gone bad! To my amazement, not all of it was spoiled. Veggies almost had no sauce, not even enough to pour over rise. Thank God, my kid likes rise. Didn't bother taking leftovers home. That should tell you something about that dish. Now onto the soup. Soup was pretty good. But I've never been to a Vietnamese place where pho did not come with bean sprouts, basilica leaves and lime in addition to the soup, as sides. When asked for those items, was told they are already in the soup. True, they were in the soup, but in the amounts that one had to look for it. Over all, could have been better...much better. Sorry, but...

Have you ever had high expectations of a place and left a bit disappointed? That's how I felt about this place and let me go into details why.

First of all, I would like to say that the service was good and that in itself is probably a worthy note, but let's be honest here, we go to a hole in the wall restaurant for the food while having the service at a distant second.

We ordered the spring rolls, lumpia dog, small and large Vietnamese beef soup which is their pho at 5 and nearly 10 dollars respectively.

The spring rolls were okay and was definitely lacking in size and ingredients. The lumpia dog was literally a hotdog wrapped in eggroll rice paper and deep fried (refer to photos). Both which did not deserve the 5 dollars price tag.

The pho... It tasted okay and the portion is extremely small for the price you pay. 5 dollars for a small that is the size of a sauce bowl (refer to photos). The large is a small at best at any other pho place (my hand is larger than the diameter of the bowl). The meat is a thicker chunk rather than thinly sliced and of course missing meatballs and other assorted meat you would expect in a hearty bowl of pho. This might be the reason why it was not called pho in the menu, but is called a "soup" instead? Or perhaps their target audience isn't someone like me? This is south Tulsa afterall and it is located right across from a Whole Foods.

My verdict? Possibly the worst...