Pho'19 opening in Pahoa

[kalakoa]

Hopefully they don't need a urinal ... or it will be Pho'21.

[pander75]

I ate here last night with a couple of friends. I thought it was delicious. We had the Pho chicken (soup), and the cold noodle with spring roll & shrimp. Great dishes all around. Comes with the traditional sides of basil, mint, bean sprouts, 3 kinds of hot sauce, etc. The cold noodle was especially great - fresh rice noodles with lettuce and pour-over vinegar sauce, topped with hot spring rolls and very flavorful shrimp. My dream Vietnamese food! Very big portions... we all went home with full bellies. Quick service and everyone there was very friendly. Easy prices too. I highly recommend this place, it's going to be be one of my go-to favorites. And great addition to main street Pahoa!

[Lodestone]

Got take out there today; the noodle salad and beef stew noodle soup were good. But I was the only one there at 11:30 am. Literally, the only one: no cashier, no server, nobody. After bellowing "hello" and "aloha" and ringing the bell on the door for about 3 minutes, a woman appeared and gave me my order. It's not a good sign if they are surprised by the appearance of a customer (especially one who called and told them he was coming).

[Guest]

^ She was in the c.r.

and you were her firsy customer of the day .

[Lodestone]

They open at 8:00 am, but I might have still been their first customer of the day.

[terracore]

Yuck.

I really wish I had a better review than that. But that's the most concise word I could come up with.

Ate there with the wife today at lunch. First impressions were great! The place was clean and bright, just a hint of incense and cooking food aroma, all the tables were available for seating except for one that had two gentlemen enjoying their food. We were invited to select whatever table we wanted to, chose one, and it was spotless and stocked with various sauces etc.

We were brought some ice water and menus and a few minutes later a person came to take our order. While they don't have a banh mi on the menu, they do have it! It's called Special Vietnamese Sandwich. We ordered two plus spring rolls.

Food came out in decent time, but that was the last time we saw a server until the bill came at the end.

The sandwiches looked okay and were served along some pale, under cooked fries. Unfortunately, they did not taste good. The chicken, what little there was of it, had a strong, nasty fishy taste to it. On top of the fishcken was a thin layer of old, slimy vegetables, and the whole mess was swimming in mayonnaise. Sriracha to the rescue. I I was almost able to drown the slimy fish flavors away in hot sauce.

By this time my hands were all greasy and dripping and they hadn't brought us any napkins, nor could I find any by walking around the restaurant. The older lady that seemed to run the place finally came out and acknowledged me and asked what I wanted, and when I asked for napkins reached behind the counter and handed me a single napkin. I asked for a few more and she gave me a dirty look! And begrudgingly gave me 2 or 3 more like I was robbing her blind.

With our hands now wiped dry we started on the spring rolls. The vegetables they were served with were edible but did not look fresh, the cucumber was actually a little shriveled. The dipping sauce was great and a good distraction from the fact that the spring roll itself had no flavor whatsoever. But I thought it was fine for what it was. My wife on the other hand, was struggling to extract a long human hair from her spring roll. She finally gave up and set it aside.

I'm not sure we'll ever go back there again, but I do give the place high marks for cleanliness... except for the human hair in the food part. If we do go back, we certainly wouldn't re-order anything that we tried. What they were eating at the other table looked better. Looked like summer rolls and Pho.

[dayna]

Yeah, if we do go back I'm ordering the Pho for sure. Maybe thats what I should have ordered today instead of the special sandwich and hair rolls. I'm always up to give a place a second shot, as the other customers seemed super happy with their meals. I might have just had really really really really bad luck today. And I'll probably tuck a couple paper towels into my pants pocket before I leave home just in case.

Dayna

www.E-Z-Caps.com

[Guest]

So what did they say when you talked to them about all this ?

[terracore]

I got stink eye for asking for napkins. I guess you could say their side of the conversation was non-verbal.

[alaskyn66]

Best to just pack extra napkins in pocket. It does seem to create "friction" in some places. The next time you go in there they might be lazy with their food prep.