Pho Au Lac & Steam Pot — Restaurant in Winter Springs

Mediocre Vietnamese in a town with incomparable options. Was excited to try this close to my house option and checked the menus out online. Many menus were posted so it seemed they have changed menu format a lot. Was seated on a bench that had some hoisin already on the bench I had to clean off. No big deal. Table was unbelievably sticky. No problem, don’t need to touch the table. Then the relatively simple menu was $15 tom yum soups and other overpriced items, but hey tariffs, no biggie. I ordered garlic edamame and pad cee ew. The edamame was quite good. A bit greasy but I was starving and the fried garlic was good. A few bites into my appetizer they brought me the main dish, kinda early. I noticed it was pad Thai. And said that, this is not pad cee ew, a wide flat noodle which looks and tastes different. They looked dejected and as if I didn’t know the difference. I explained the noodle shape I was expecting and then they blamed the chef for making a mistake and asked if I wanted to eat it anyway. It looked delicious but greasy and not what I ordered, so I looked at them and shared my taste and interest with the wider flat noodles that I had wanted and ordered, so they offered to make it right and left me to finish my edamame. The pad cee ew (chicken) came just as I finished my app, good timing. The dish looked right and they confirmed with me that was what I ordered (duh) and it was glistening with oil pretty intensely. Asking for fish sauce, they were able to bring it. Then my first bite was unfortunate. Undercooked noodles. Typically they’re just soaked and then stir fried, so likely not soaked long enough, but now I’m two dishes in and certainly couldn’t complain. Chewing on semi crunchy fat noodles wasn’t as awesome as a perfectly prepared dish but the flavors were pretty good, and I finished my meal. As I paid $30 for one main and one app it seemed like the new normal of high prices, and went to leave I noticed others’ dishes that also glistened with excessive oil. Would probably not come back given better options a bit further afield, so would call this a general “meh” and can’t...

9/6/24: It's been four years since I last been to Pho Au Lac. Pros: Stir Fry Udon Noodles with chosen protein (shrimp and tofu) - kids and I enjoyed the sauce and the chewy bouncy udon noodle texture. It would be better if they didn't put raw green bell peppers into this dish. The raw bell peppers turned me off. My specialty fruit tea was the winner of the three beverage ordered. Place is clean and interior design is cozy and welcoming.

Cons: I used to love their Tom Kha Soup because it has a nice aroma of kaffir lime leaves when I last ate it four years ago. But today the soup is just loaded with lots of scallions, mushrooms, and onions with chosen shrimp as the protein. It tasted more watery and milky rather than creamy as I remembered it. This time the soup contains cheaper ingredients for a higher price which lacks quality. I will definitely won't be ordering the Tom Kha soup again.

My daughter always order Thai milk tea everywhere that offers it but this place made it so watery and milky with the lack of Thai tea flavor. It's the first time my daughter said she dislikes Thai tea.

Overall, if you are going for an authentic Vietnamese restaurant, I can't recommend this place. I do would come back for the stir fry udon since that's what my kids like. Based on the ingredients used in their store fry udon, their price is much higher compared to all other restaurants that makes stir fry udon just as good or better.

Note: The server is not familiar with the entrees when I asked if the cuisine contains white or dark dark meat chicken, or what kind of beef cut is used in a particular cuisine. Those are just very basic questions I always ask before I order at any restaurants for my kids since overcooked white chicken or cheap sirloin beef cuts are trashy meat to us so I have to make sure to avoid ordering items with that...

I really wanted to like this place because we haven’t never been and we like to support small business. The decor is really nice, very inviting and stylish. The service is a little slow, it took 10+ minutes for a server to come to the table to take our order. I think there were only 2 servers for the whole place but it really seemed that the food took long to come out. We came about 45 minutes before closing which seemed reasonable especially because they were hosting a spirit night for our school. We ordered brown sugar boba milk tea, dumplings, fried tofu, and Bao buns. They were out of boba which was disappointing but understandable considering the time of day. The dumplings came out after ~15 minutes, at which time I put in a take out order for an order of 2 more Bao buns. Around 5-10 minutes after that (now at least 20 minutes since we placed our original order), the server advised that they were totally out of Bao buns, so couldn’t fulfill our original or take out orders. We of course were disappointed but were understanding and still wanted the fried tofu. The dumplings were ok, a little wetter than I’d prefer but the ponzu sauce was tasty. The fried tofu was just ok, it was cooked nicely but the coating did it have a ton of flavor. The sweet chili sauce was pretty good. The server brought out 2 Bao buns that she said were the “last two in the house” so that was a nice surprise after being told they were totally out. I ate to say it but the meat was dry although the toppings were fresh and flavorful. I am hope they can improve their communication in the future and figure out what’s in the kitchen quicker so customers aren’t left without...