Clay Pot Restaurant — Restaurant in Waco

My husband and I always try a new pho place in every town we visit, so when this came up with 4.4 stars out of 1000+ reviews, we were happy to try it.

The restaurant is clean, and well decorated. I know because we stood at the host's stand for over 5 minutes without a single person even acknowledging we existed, so we had plenty of time to look around. Two of the employees were clearly busy, while a third stood at the back counter for the entire duration of our visit, and apparently it wasn't their job to assist the other two in any way.

We finally got sat, and the person who sat us literally just grabbed menus, had us follow them, and then told us the server would come, but not once did they even make eye contact with us? Weird, but not really a big deal in and of itself. Except then we sat, and sat, and sat.... Finally a server wandered up and half-assedly took our order. The whole time we watched another couple standing up front just being ignored.

Our hot tea came out first, but with no sugar, offer of sugar, and our table didn't even have condiments. My husband had to grab a set of everything off of a nearby table. And the person who prepared the tea just dropped a tea bag into a pot of hot water, instead of pouring the water over the tea bag, so it was really weak, even for a jasmine tea. Food came out in a reasonable time frame and was served, and it was ok. Not great, but certainly not the worst pho we've ever had, except it came without chopsticks or veggies, so we had to sit and wait for those to come out separately.

We ate, and never saw our server back at our table the entire time we ate. We did watch multiple groups wait at the front being ignored. Some waited, some left, and some seated themselves. We were pretty close to taking bets on which one it was going to be, when our server finally reappeared and we asked for our check.

They... Don't do checks? He picked up a hand-held thing, read the total at us, and stuck it out for us to put a card in. That was it, and then he looked annoyed when I had it print a paper check, instead of text one. Except, we get our paper check (after we've paid and can't make corrections), and it turns out they double charged my husband for the meat in his pho. We just left at that point.

Pho can be really hit or miss, but this place was...

Update:

I returned to their new location with my family and friends and tried them out again. The pho is ok now. It is not very flavorful but it is better. I suggest adding a decent amount of hoisin sauce and sriracha sauce. Everyone I went with agrees that it is ok Vietnamese food at best and would rather travel elsewhere to get Vietnamese food. I think most people that come here have not been exposed to how fresh and amazing the flavors of traditional and authentic Asian food can be and find that Clay Pot is great! So in my opinion it can be a hit or miss for a wide range of people. This place tries its best to cater to the large American target market. Overall, my visit this time was much better than my last! Wait staff was more attentive and the atmosphere was brighter and more welcoming, but I still wish the food was more flavorful like I know Vietnamese food can be. I suggest trying them out and seeing if they satisfy your palette.

Old review from old location:

This is probably the saddest excuse for a Vietnamese restaurant. It seems that 5 years ago it was good. The service was mediocre and slow, it wasn't busy, there were only three other couples in the restaurant already eating and we stood at the front waiting for a seat for about 7-10 minutes. The food was also off and was absolutely not worth how much we paid for it and did not taste Vietnamese at all. The portions were small and expensive for what you got. I ordered a turmeric clay pot fish and it tasted Indian. It came with five small pieces of fish and small amount of vermicelli and a large amount of lettuce. Vietnamese food is pretty simple and they messed up a classic with confusing spices and way too much thyme. The egg rolls we ordered were a little burnt and tasted like buffet egg rolls, nothing special about them. And if you want amazing pho or even ok pho, please go to Austin or Dallas. The pho here is all wrong. I'm embarrassed that this restaurant claims it is authentic Vietnamese. I grew up with amazing Vietnamese food and this food was nowhere close to any Vietnamese food I've had. My grandma, mom, dad, and even I can cook better Vietnamese food than this. I will stick to eating homemade Vietnamese food from now on, unless I'm in Dallas or Austin. I would suggest that people take their...

I gave Claypot a try last friday, after years in Waco. they have nice menu but the items aren't numbered and their staff doesn't know their own menu well.

ordered bánh khot, bún moc from Saigon (though I believe bún moc is a northern dish), pho combination (with rare beef, brisket and tendon), fresh soy milk, and bubble tea for to go.

bánh khot is more like mini bánh xèo, small portion, ok dipping sauce. bún moc and pho aren't bad, but not great. no lime, chili, hoisin sauce or herb included. rare beef isn't rare at all, and tendon is overcooked too. and all green onions, bean sprouts are put into the hot broth, all of them became way too overcooked by the time we ate them. fresh soy milk is ok but on the expensive side ($2.99 for small/regular size), bubble tea isn't bad but not that good (but better than other places in town).

The price for foods is reasonable and nice decor at their new location. I might come back for bánh khot and soy milk.

Then I came back 2 days later for banh khot, this time we called to order to go and of course their employees still had a hard time to find banh khot on their own menu. they asked for the name and phone number, said the dish would be ready in 20min. after 30 min, my sister went to pick up. it took them a couple min to check on the dish, then gave my sister 3 boxes. later when we came back home, we found out they are all veggies and dipping sauces came with banh khot, no banh khot to be found. we had to drive back to the restaurant, then we learned that they knew the problem but couldn't catch my sister as she walked out the door fast. they took our phone number but didn't bother to call, all we got was, a lot of so "sorry" (but maybe not sorry?) and "do you still want these?"

we took the banh khot with us and left. while eating them we found out 5 out of 8 banh khot in one portion were burnt. I was so too tired and annoyed to drive back and talk to...