Pho Viet Noodle House & Restaurant — Restaurant in West Melbourne

This restaurant has been in Melbourne for as long as I can recall. Now that I have eaten there, I regret not going sooner. The whole experience was a pleasure, from the setting and service to the food. I had the Combination Stir Fry, Thai Tea with tapioca pearls, and a soda.

I'll start with the tea. Normally I would have been turned off by anything with tapioca in the name having worked at a nursing home in my teens but my friend has been here before and suggested I try it. The tea was iced with milk and came with an over sized straw. I punctured the top and got quite the surprise on my very first drink! The "pearls" come up through the straw when drinking which is very disconcerting the first [few] times it happens. One doesn't expect to have to chew after they drink from a straw but that is exactly what this beverage makes you do. Once I got over the uniqueness I thoroughly enjoyed the refreshing drink and recommend anyone who hadn't tried it should do so.

The Combo Stir Fry was very good. I ordered it with noodles and they were cooked just right, with the meats and veggies laid on top nicely. The meats were all very tender and the veggies were a little crunchy which I'm a big fan of. The flavors of everything on the plate complimented each other making this a filing dish that left me satisfied but not feeling stuffed.

Three more quick notes: The menu is written in Vietnamese which gives the place even more authenticity. There are English translations and/or numbers for those, like me, who don't want to risk trying to pronounce a language you aren't familiar with. The dining room is clean and well lit from the floor to ceiling windows on two sides but I'm sure it fills up soon being that it seems to sit about 30 people. If that is the case they do offer take out too. Lastly, the inhuman soda consumption habit I have. Since I drink soda at restaurants as if I will never get it again that gives me a good baseline to judge the service at restaurants. No matter how many times (I think it was 6) I drained my cup there was someone there to have it refilled. The really impressive part was that it wasn't always just our server. Good teamwork to ensure every guest is taken care of.

I will be returning to try the cavernous...

I have waited to leave a review for this restaurant in hopes that my experience would improve over multiple visits. After 3 occasions, I think my opinion is fully formed.

The food here is very good - my good friend (and Pho connoisseur) tells me they know of a place in Orlando that's better, but in all honesty this food tastes just as good in my opinion. It was also served in a timely manner.

My rating for this place falls to a 3/5 due to the staff. One man in particular, really. In our first visit, this man did not say anything. He approached our table and stared at us (no pen, no paper, nothing) - frowning. We politely gave him our order, giving him the benefit of the doubt (maybe he doesn't speak English and he's having a bad day). That thought quickly went out the window when I made my order with "no hot sauce, please", to which he hit me with "Why?". After elaborating by saying spicy food just doesn't sit well with me, he said "it comes with hot sauce". At this point it's clear he speaks English fluently, and he's being a dick on purpose. This kickstarted an almost comical evening in which he:

Dropped off our food and about-faced immediately Looked away from our table every time he walked past Smiled and chatted with other customers Dropped off our check without asking how our food was or if we wanted any boxes

Honestly, my girl and I had a good laugh about this. His attitude was so blatantly rude we couldn't help but laugh at it. This attitude continued throughout our next 2 visits as well (I now am spared the philosophical debate when I order without hot sauce, instead getting only get a glare). When telling my friends about this, I've had some of them speculate he's displaying racist behavior, but honestly in my experience I'm not sure that's it at all. In any case, we were able to get a good laugh out of the experience, and it hasn't hindered us from going back at all. I do think this would deter others from becoming returning customers, which is why I include it in my review. If that server ends up reading this - I hope you're having a...

I come here a lot, the summer rolls with peanut sauce and combo pho is always great. The only negative is the attentiveness of the waiters. I always sit at the bar and you would figure being at the bar you would get more attention in getting your drink refilled. Seems like this attentiveness is getting worse. There were 3 waiters working and none filled my water at anytime until I finally told one it would be nice to have a refill. I mean the girl at one point was standing in front of me looked at the empty cup and then walked away. She looked new as I had never seen her before. Needless to say no tip was given. I am disappointed as this place serves good food. Maybe I should try their other location on Babcock. Hopefully they have more attentive waiters. The guy with the grey hair needs to be fired. He has an attitude. Customer came in and order a milk tea and he proceeded to mock her cause he didn't fully understand her. Plus he needs to pull his pants up, so unprofessional.

As usual nothing changes. Food still excellent, but waiter fails to refill my water. No tip for you.

Hadn't been here in a while. Came here as the buffet next door doesn't have lunch anymore(at the time). Food, good as usual. But the Grey haired guy is still up to his same customer bashing. Observed a guy come in for take-out or Uber, I don't know. But as the guy was leaving the Grey haired guy was like wait here's your tea. And as the Grey haired guy walked by me he said that...