Pho Viet Restaurant — Restaurant in West Des Moines

We get it, it's a grand opening, it's hectic. BUT when my family's order gets forgotten about and see the same servers passing by our table (glancing at our table but not acknowledging) and serving four other tables that were seated 40+ minutes after we've seated/ordered and they get served their drinks/food first within 15-min of getting seated and ordering, it's a HUGE concern.

The female server that initially served us disappeared and never came back to check up on us. We ordered combo phos, bun bo hues, fried rice, ca phe sua da's, and soda.

After we got our phos served at the same time with no garnish and still no drinks, we flagged down a server who kept passing by our table about our drinks and order, yet we were still not acknowledged.

It's my birthday, went out with family for dinner (5 total). We were seated quickly, given iceless waters so by the time we waited for our drinks that NEVER came for an hour, our waters were room temperature, but that's the very least of the issue. We have no idea what happened after the initial server took our order because we arrived ten till 6pm and after 40-min we still never got our drinks or food but observed several other Vietnamese families get seated quickly and got their drinks and food very quickly, within 15-minutes of being seated and ordered! None of the staff gave no care, no accountability of why our food and drinks weren't served in a timely, fair manner. Pretty sure tickets are made in the order it was processed accordingly, not ones seated/ordered way after. We tried to be patient, respecting the fact that it's a special day for them but an hour plus long of waiting and literally watching other tables get served quickly after us was ridiculous.

When we finally got our phos, they still forgot about our drinks and pho garnish until we asked for it, and by then we were annoyed to the max. They finally brought our bun bo hues 15+minutes after the phos was served so the family members were done eating their pho by the time bun bo hues was served followed by our ca phes fifteen minutes after. Our fried rice order still has not been served. By then, we had enough of the terrible service because they were serving their own culture (Vietnamese) with no issues what-so-ever while we observed a white couple get forgotten about for twenty-minutes in the corner near our table too, and we are an Asian family as well but I guess if you're not Vietnamese you'll have to wait when they feel like getting to you since they're too busy catering to their own people. We decided to leave and asked for our check and told the server to forget about the last order since they wanted to serve our dinner at different times when we wanted to eat together as a family for my birthday. It was after 7:45 P.M. by then. We end up going to another restaurant to treat our family members who did not get their food served in a timely manner.

To add salt to the wound, when we were first seated, we were told for the grand opening special that our drinks were free with our food except for boba drinks, yet we were still charged for our drinks! Again, least of the issues, and money is never an issue. We typically go to Pho 515 or Pho 888 for our soup cravings before getting essentials at the neighboring Asian markets, but they close at 7pm and it was nearing 6pm so they'd be closing by the time we arrived from Jordan Creek mall area. Hence, why we decided to try this new place out since it was a few minutes away from our current location leaving the mall. The bun bo hue and pho taste more authentic at Pho 515, and Pho 888 a close second than this place. I also prefer pho at Vietopia Asian Fusion, also just opened in West Des Moines at (Jordan Creek Mall/Scheel's on EP True Pkwy street side) than this place. We have never in our life had a terrible experience dining in a restaurant that made us feel discriminated, and we've been to myriad of grand openings. This place lacked even the most basic moral principles, at least to non-Vietnamese, in our experience. Zero stars if it...

Don't be deceived by all these 5 star reviews!

So far I have seen 61 total reviews on here and most of them are the first time writing a review and coincidentally all 5 star reviews? Sounds like a business trying to inflate their ratings to look better than what they really are. Let me tell how my service went because my reviews are not fake.

I am married to an Asian and we eat at Asian restaurants all the time. I have never felt more unwelcomed into a place until I came here.

After we got seated, a female server took our orders She explained to us that all drinks were no charge with the purchase of a main dish, except for any blended drink since they only had one blender. There was 6 of us total. We ordered 3 combination pho, a bun bo hue, 2 Vietnamese iced coffee, a rice dish, and a soda. The server was nice and I even complimented the unique menu cover they had. She brought us all back water to start and I noticed not a single one of our glasses had ice in it. I wasn't bothered about this just yet. After almost 30 minutes, we noticed the 3 tables seated AFTER us had already had their special drinks, their food, and their garnish. This is when I realized our waitress had not come back to our table a single time since bringing us water with no ice. I looked around and guess what I noticed in every other tables water? Ice!

We had FINALLY been served our food, well some of it. They brought us our 3 combination pho, no garnish. We had to ask another waiter for our garnish and he was really nice about it and brought it out. Unfortunately, the pho was not anything to jump up and down about. It took almost 20 minutes more for the bun bo hue to arrive. Still no iced coffee, no soda, and no rice dish. We were very frustrated now because we waited a long time and still we were not able to eat as a family. We had to speak up once again and mention our drinks and final meal. They bring out the drinks and we told them forget about the meal and just bring the check. Guess what we were charged? Yep, the free drinks we were told about was not free and was charged on our bill. I decided that was their tip for me being lied to. They did take 1 iced coffee off our bill and that was only because they brought us 3 when we only ordered 2 and we said we only ordered 2 and they were okay with it and to keep the 3rd one and they tried to charge us for it!

We had to have the male server keep helping us because the female server was doing everything she could to avoid us. I had never felt discriminated against anywhere I had ever been to until I stopped in here.

The sad part is my family has been waiting in anticipation for this place to open up and to watch the excitement from their faces turn into disappointment in the hour plus time we were there will assure me that I will never return...

My fiancé came back from Milwaukee where he had tried pho. He loved it and I’ve always wanted to try it. This place had mixed reviews, but I wanted it to be authentic and I looked over the reviews and it seemed like if you ordered the right things, it would be good. As we arrived, I couldn’t help but notice it ALMOST looked like a fast food kind of restaurant. Kind of like Tsing Tsao. We ordered SO many things to really try everything and find something we liked. Here are my reviews on what we ordered: Beef short rib: The meat was so delicious, however there was barely any meat on the ribs. Lots of bone, tiny bit of meat. Fresh spring rolls (pork belly): I’m not even sure how to describe these, as it didn’t taste that literally anything: Every bite was a mouthful of just lettuce and rice, so it was very bland. Added some soy sauce to it for flavor. So then it was just a very hard and thick outside with rice and lettuce and soy sauce. Not good. At all. Shrimp cream cheese: Shrimp was very chewy, but overall not terrible when I lathered it in sweet and sour sauce. Saved the worst for last… the Chicken Pho: PHOKING disgusting. The flavor of the broth was repulsive. It tasted like straight ginger with a hint of herbal tea. I tried to just eat the chicken and noodles in it without the broth and it was so bland! I ate maybe two bites. Also, not that this persuaded my review in any way, but you can’t serve “mocktails,” without serving cocktails… just call it juice at that point. You’re not “mocking,” any cocktails you offer.

The reason I am giving 2 stars instead of 1 is because of the portion size of the pho. So if I did enjoy it, I would have been in heaven! The server was very friendly, however I needed a refill on my sprite the entire time and she never stopped by to check on us, so I never even got a refill. When she did stop by at the beginning and end though, she was very friendly.

After this meal, my fiancé would not stop apologizing for even suggesting getting pho. He had ordered the same things in Milwaukee and said it was amazing. He agreed that this was terrible. We paid, walked out, and went and got drinks and food at Drought House right next door and it...