I must've had a very different experience after seeing other people's reviews, but the pho that I had from here was pretty damn good. My mom recommended that we go here and I trust my mom's taste in good pho. Their menu was full of the likes of fried rice, crab rangoon, spring rolls, and for sure, that's what many of the patrons were eating. Their menu catered to the kind of crowd that they get and I wasn't interested. We ordered the Pho Dac Biet (special) and some had Bun Bo Hue. The soups were very well seasoned and the meat was delicious. I really liked their meatballs. My BF's bun bo hue soup was not as good Cafe Hoang, but it was pretty tasty too. The service is slow and our waiter kept barking out viet to someone while he was taking our order.
I say, skip all the fast food chinese and go straight to the pho if you come here.
I apologize for not ever updating my review on this place. Apparently, the restaurant is under new management and has been remodeled. However, this does not yield for a fantastic service or food. I can barely say that the pho is decent. I mean if you want decent pho, you're better off going to Pho xe Tang (Pho Tank) and you know I'm not a fan of that place, but this facility makes their food seems like a goldmine. If you're not familiar with the way things are in the back kitchen and believe eating here will satisfy your quick fix for asian food, by all means, go for it. However... I'm warning you to eat there with caution.
Review Source:A little under a week ago, my parents came down to the city to hang out and go out to dinner. After suggesting a number of places, I remembered passing the Viet Bowl on my way home from work earlier in the day, and noted that the atmosphere looked pretty nice through the window as I walked by.
Dimly lit. It looked like a nice dinner place, or even somewhere you'd take someone on a fancy first date.
Once I mentioned I'd never had Vietnamese food before, it was decided. We walked a couple of blocks over, and as we approached, I noticed a few things.
1. The lights were actually quite bright, kind of diminishing the atmosphere I'd noticed as I'd passed by earlier. Maybe it was just that it was dark at this point, where as it had been light when I went by earlier, making it look darker inside than it really was, or if they didn't really turn out the lights until later to save on power or something. It doesn't really matter, and wasn't really a big deal. Not quite as much of a fancy first date restaurant as it seemed at first, though.
2. There was a take out counter, with a bunch of people waiting in line to get their food to go. Not at the front counter or anything, but there was a section of the place divided off by like a half wall where people would go up, order their food to go, and wait around for it to get cooked for them. Again, not really an issue to me, except that if it was a little earlier in the day, it coulda killed the ambiance a little bit more, I guess. But this kinda struck it off the list as a place I'd go for a special occasion (birthday, anniversary, first date, or any of that sorta stuff).
3. It was actually really modern, clean, and had pretty nice decor, especially considering that it's right below the Wilson Red Line station, on the corner of Wilson and Broadway. There were some giant flat screen TVs which kinda gave it more of a sports bar feel, but after like 5 minutes, kinda forgot about 'em for the most part.
Oh. And the bathroom was REALLY nice too. It was big, and REALLY clean. Though you had to ask for a key from the host/waiter to get in, but that wasn't really a big deal. Probably a lot of why it's actually so clean.
So. After a lot of ranting about ambiance and such, onto the food.
At first, I thought the prices looked a little high, but after a quick glance around at what other people were eating, I noticed that the portions were HUGE!
So. I ordered the Vegetable Soup Bowl, my mom got a Large Vegetable Egg dealy, and my dad got Crab Rangoon and BBQ Pork Fried Rice.
We also got a pot of Jasmine Tea, and these two slushy things --Coconut and Mango--, and we got the HUGE PORTIONS of the drinks.
And we were thinking "Okay. Thats huge. I could probably get full offa just this."
And then they brought out my Vegetable Soup Bowl.
The thing was as big as my friggin chest, I swear to god. I'm not even kidding.
Same thing with the small order of Fried Rice and the Egg dealy that my mom got.
I didn't really look at how big the crab rangoon was, but uh...
The bill (after tax, pre tip) came out to about 40 dollars.
But uh... after I ate maybe twice as much soup as I should have, a giant slushy, and enough leftovers to last us each a day or two, that's not bad.
Ok. So we've got atmosphere, portion size, but what about quality?
The food was okay. The vegetables were fresh-ish, but they just kinda had a funny taste. Maybe it just wasn't a great day, but... I dunno. I reheated some of my soup a few days later, and it wasn't so great reheated.
The waiter was helpful when we had him, but he didn't really stop by to check on us, and wasn't particularly friendly, but he wasn't particularly rude either, so, maybe he was just shy? I dunno.
The high point of the night was when some lady came in off the street and asked us for some change. Kinda killed the mood of the evening for a little while, but not in some horrible "Our night will never recover from this" sorta way, but more in the "Well... this is a little awkward" sort of way that you forget about before the lady is even back out the door.
So yeah. Decent food, decent price, huge portions, mediocre service, good decor? If you're in the neighborhood, go ahead and stop in, but don't go too far out of your way.
3 stars because it wasn't bad enough to deserve two. If it improves, even just a little bit, I'd give it four.
I'll go back again, for sure, but it's not gonna be a favorite.
Oh. The menu is a little confusing too.
I've debated between giving this place two or three stars, but the quality of food and service just don't warrant a higher grade. The atmosphere is perfectly nice -- very clean, modern, and welcoming. On the downside, the service is abysmal, even for a high turnover Asian restaurant. My server couldn't even be bothered to say hello, much less do anything beyond take my order in the most perfunctory way imaginable.
The pho was decent, although the broth wasn't really particularly flavorful. The noodles were decent, but nothing spectacular. On the other hand, you get a solid portion of meat with the soup, although it's not as well-spiced as other restaurants that specialize in pho.
I've also ordered their Vietnamese egg rolls, which were enjoyable but just served with two ketchup packets of sweet and sour sauce...not really what I would have expected.
Not a bad place for a quick meal, but hardly worth a second visit unless their service and quality of food improves dramatically.
i came here with my family after my dad saw a pretty good review for this place. Â unfortunately, our experience was not very pleasant. Â the restaurant is further away from the rest of viet town, so you do not have to deal with as many poor drivers, but the food does not warrant coming back.
my family ordered pho bo vien, pho tai, pho dac biet.  we also ordered sua dau nahn and ca phe  sua da.  i'll start with the drinks.  the sua dau nahn was really sweet, which it should be, but it was almost too sweet.  it threw off the rest of the meal, but at least it was fresh.  the ca phe sua da tasted like chocolate milk, which it should NOT.  minus 1 star for both drinks.
the service was not good, but not terrible. Â the waiter was not very attentive and our drinks took a while to come out. Â also, the plate of bean sprouts, lime, etc did not come out until after we all got our bowls of pho. Â not good. Â the veggies should come out before. Â it's standard. Â come on, now. minus one more store.
now on to the pho. Â of course, it was not nearly as good as when my dad makes it, but it was palatable. Â the bowls were HUGE. Â the broth was slightly bland and a touch on the oily side. Â however, they did use fresh banh pho, which is a nice touch, and they were not skimpy with them at all. Â i thought we were going to get the crappy dried noodles. Â the beef was tough and not very good. Â the bo vien had a poor meat to flour ratio. Â all in all, not awesome.
however, $7.95 a bowl is not terrible for the amount of food you get. Â i just don't think this is anything to write home about.
I go to Truman College, so I thought this would be a convenient place to grab a quick lunch before finishing up finals.
I always forget that convenient doesn't always mean good! The restaurant itself is really cute. I only ordered to go so I can't really comment on service..
However, I didn't realize that vegetable fried rice was a code name for mushroom fried rice? I really hate mushrooms, and that's what half of my container was. I got it medium spicy because I think I would die with the spicy. The rice was just ok overall, but my dog sure did enjoy those mushrooms.
For $5.50, I wouldn't go back.
This place was pretty good. Stylin' certainly - cool place, although not in the warm and cozy sense, more modern-cool vibe. Â I just had the vegetarian pho, which was quite yummy, although I've had better on Argyle. Â Still, it was good, came super fast and the wait staff was friendly and prompt. Â They didn't check back on us, but were keeping their eye out for us and if we needed something (like the check), they were right on it. Â It's more of an international-flare for service, that being don't disturb the eaters unless they request it. I'm fine with that.
Review Source:So many contradictory experiences I'm going to have to take a nap!
A beautiful new restaurant in the less than beautiful under-the-redline-uptown area. Â So that's either a pro or con depending on how much you love being hobo adjacent. Â
Some real effort and skill went into the renovation here, from beautiful pictures on the classy looking wall to the Horton Hears a Who looking flower in the vase on my table.
Also in effect were two 48" flat screen tv's showing "Maury".  Ugh.  I thought  it was rough having to watch football during brunch. Â
The pho (can we have an election to decide if we're going to pronounce it properly as 'phuh' or the more american sounding 'faux') was among the best I've had from the broth the the brisket and tripe. Â Not too much fat in a very clear broth. Â Just delicious.
It was, of course, maybe a dollar more than I wanted to spend and two bucks over the cheaper places elsewhere but in a giant bowl I can't really complain. Â Delicious hot green tea as well.
The deliciousness was greatly tempered by the poor and inattentive service. Â We placed and got (most) of our order quickly but the spring rolls never came. Â It took a good 20 minutes to round up the waitress again to get the check (we weren't in a rush so we just waited until she reappeared instead of hunting her down personally). Â Fortunately the erstwhile spring rolls were not included in the check.
I'll be back in the near future to give them a second chance. Â I love pho and they did it right, just hoping they figure out the Maury and service issues.
OK, I thought I had hit the jackpot for the best pho in town. On the initial visit, I was very impressed. The restaurant was very clean and the decor surprisingly modern. The broth was light and flavorful, the meat very tender and the noodles fresh. It wasn't busy so we got served quickly. On my next visit with 4 other friends, the pho was just as fulfilling, but service was horrendous. Granted, it was a busy Sunday afternoon, but all my friends were half way done when the server finally remembered my order. So, the final straw and the reason I would never come here again (and I always mourn this loss whenever I have a pho craving): both my girlfriend and I found gnats in our pho. Talk about wanting to hurl up your food.
Review Source:I Have been to Viet Bowl 3 times now. The initial time it was just out of lark because I wanted some fried rice. I ordered the vegetable fried rice and vegetable egg rolls. Both were really good and that is absolutely the only thing I have ever ordered there besides a 7-Up. The portion of fried rice is huge and I usually get it spicy and it is just that, really spicy!! So spicy that my nose started to drip a little.
At first I thought that the workers kind of had attitudes or something, but after going today and shaking who I believe is the manager/owner's hand since he remembered me and began smiling as I came through the door, I had perfect service. They rarely check on you however. They will fill up water randomly but I guess they figure that if you are eating then everything is fine.
I've been here once for lunch and another time for dinner. On both occasions the pho was above average and tasty. The spring rolls were fresh. Unfortunately the service blows. Blows hard, blows often. They won't check up on you: you have to flag them down. Even if you're the only people in there.
Last night a young African-American man took our order, and he acted either extremely tired, or bored to be assisting us. Later, *long* after we were finished, the four of us would stare at him, begging him to come back and help us. He'd make eye contact with us but would go help another table (the only other group in the place.) We ended up flagging down another waiter who similarly blew hard. It took nearly 10 minutes to run our cards. We ordered bubble tea and there were no pearls. We asked for pearls and they forgot about it for five minutes, until we all went up and stood near the bar.
Two strikes, yerrout.
My boyfriend and I tried out Viet Bowl for the first time a few days ago, and were both impressed! Â It was very clean and new (it's only been open for 2 months now), the decor was fun. I had Pho, the broth was very tasty, which is always the key to good Pho. My bf had combination fried rice...the portions were very generous.
The staff is very nice! We would definitely come back again!
I was anxious to try Viet Bowl after reading several glowing reviews on Uptown Update. unfortunately, I found the experience disappointing. While the restaurant was aesthetically pleasing, the food was no great shakes, and expensive, to boot. Spring rolls were so tough it felt like two layers of wrappers were used instead of one. pho was adequate, but considering that most Argyle businesses charge $6, not worth $8. finally, the drinks were not that good (lemon with soda and Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk) and I was given tonic with my lemonade instead of club soda. I would have complained, but it didn't seem worth it, since according to Uptown Update non-alcoholic drinks are complimentary for the first month. we were therefore quite surprised to be charged $3 for each one, but at this point we were desperate to get out of there and just paid up. service was passable. I'm willing to give them another try in a month or so in hopes that they've worked out some of the kinks, since so many other people seemed to enjoy their experience.
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