Pho 79 Restaurants
| Address: | 2233 Energy Park Dr # 800, St Paul, MN 55108, USA |
| Phone: | +1 651-644-2327 |
| Site: | pho79.net |
| Rating: | 4.1 |
| Working: | 11AM–8PM 11AM–8PM 11AM–8PM 11AM–8PM 11AM–8PM 12AM–8PM Closed |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 6
JO
Jonathan Lin
My girlfriend and I were craving pho, so I decided to Yelp a pho place around the neighborhood. Ive been disappointed for the most part to what Minnesota has to offer in terms of pho, with an exception to Quangs. At first upon stumbling upon pho 79, I had some doubts due to its generic name.. pho 79, but due to its 4 star Yelp average, we decided to give it a try. Ive mostly had terrible experience at those generic pho stores like pho 38..pho 68..pho 88..pho 888. Ive been to so many..One of my bucket lists is to go to all the pho places starting from Pho 1. I must locate it! I would prefer to have started chronologically from 1, but hey, I have to start somewhere! Enough of the rant! Its review time. I gave this place 3 stars. We ordered egg rolls and 2 different phos. I got the usual: Number 1 on the any pho restaurant menu. I dont even have to look at the menu. I just say "Number 1!!" Its the pho with all the meats, tendon, tripe, meatballs etc.... You know.. the usual. My girlfriend got some other pho, that I dont quite remember. I think it was the one the straight up meat with broth. The food came quickly upon ordering! They had super fast service, as do most other vietnamese restaurants. The egg rolls were quite crispy and pretty decent. Better than some of the other ones around the Twin Cities area such as Bona and Trieu Chau. However not as good as Quangs. Next came our pho. It came shortly after we started chowing on the egg rolls. At first, the pho tasted good. However, a third of the way through, the broth started tasting a little bitter. Im not sure why, but both my girlfriend and I tasted a little bitterness. At that point I decided to squeeze the lime and add Sriracha to try and mask the taste. It did a decent job, but still tasted a little bitterness. Other than that, the portion was pretty good for the price. Its about or slightly cheaper than most other pho places around the city. The portions seemed to be bigger than Quangs, Bona, and Trieu Chau and Pho Tau Bay. Given all that, I probably wouldnt come back here again. The only place Id go back again is Quangs. However, Im still in search of good pho around the cities! Next up may be My Huong Kitchen or Lotus Restaurant. Any suggestions? Shoot them my way :).
DE
Desiree Hu
The food is great, if you can actually get it! The young man is great, but the old woman at the register was terrible. I was picking up an order at lunch time, I understood they were busy and waited patiently. There was 1 group in front of me when I walked in and another couple came up to pay for their bill. After she helped them, I thought it was my turn, she told me to wait, so I did, graciously, until she helped 3 other people that went up to the counter or came in AFTER me. When she was about to help the 4th person, I spoke up and asked if I could pay for my pickup, she looked at me like I was some crazy demanding person and was very rude. My food was cold because it was sitting behind her when I walked in and continued to sit behind her for more than 10 minutes before I got it. Too bad I was picking up for other people too, I wouldve left if it was just me eating. Not once did she make eye contact, Ive experienced bad customer service, but this is just down right discriminating and rude. This is the second time Ive had to deal with her, the first time wasnt much better, they were just not as busy. This place was a pretty popular place with our office, but we will definitely be looking for Pho else where now, even a chance of having to deal with her again is simply not worth anything they could offer.
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Justin Thao
Great food. But I can clearly see from other reviews that I am not alone when i say this. Poor customer service. The woman who took our order was RUSHING me. My friend ordered cream cheese won tons, and I ordered some too. Then the woman proceeds to ask me in a very cranky tone- what kind? cream cheese? crab? which one do you want? (and some other gibberish i couldnt quite understand. which is completely normal.) After I said clarified my order, she took our orders and i asked for a tri-color. She reviewed our orders with us and we finalized it and then she took off in a hurry. Food came very fast, tasted great... but no tri-color? I was quite disappointed despite the fact that i wanted my tri-color on such a hot beautiful summer afternoon. But i didnt get it, and i wasnt charged for it. Generally speaking, food is great- customer service was poor and rushed. the workers there seem like they dont even want to be there.
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Chiko Tort
To sum it up nicely... small restaurant, poor & selective service. Beware: If youre a white American you can expect to be seated fairly quickly, if you are of Asian descendant expect to be skipped over when theyre seating customers! This tiny restaurant that gets very busy quickly with all the industrial workers in the area. Knowing this, we arrived right before 11am opening to be sure we get a table. There were many ppl lining up as well waiting to get to a table for lunch. Unfortunately we were not greeted & not seated according to our arrival. Two other parties who arrived after us were seated before us. Why??? I hate to say this but they were white American patrons. (Some asian businesses feel the need to treat their American customers better.) This is not the first time this has happend at this restaurant. We no longer dine at this restaurant due to the way the owners choose to run their operations.
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johnathan lee
Pho and food was delicious but the old lady waitress service is just horrible. Me and my girlfriend went there for some dinner and as we were ordering of the menu, the waitress lady didnt even wait until I finish ordering and she was already rushing us, and we were the only customers there at that moment. As i was flipping through the menu book, her hand was holding unto my menu book as if I wasnt allow to order anymore. After we finished our meal and went to pay up front and the same waitress came up to ring us out, she didnt even wait for me to hand her my credit card, she just went over the counter to snatch my card from my hand as I was pulling it out from my wallet. As pissed off as I was, I chose not to say anything and walked out. Its a shame to have such amazing food with such poor customer services. The old lady is just too impatient and rude. Definitely wont be coming back unless its for a take-out.
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Trieu Nguyen
Food: We order the cream cheese wonton, Pho Tai (lean beef noodle), Pho Dac Biet (combination beef noodle minus the tendon and tripe), and Com thit ga and heo nuong (combination rice plate with grilled chicken and pork). The combination beef noodle had a lot of fatty meat. I couldnt smell the broth as it seems like they didnt simmer or cook the broth with a lot of bones for real flavor. They probably used a lot of msg sweetened the broth which is not good. Service: It looks like this is an all in the family run establishment. The mother takes the order and the son carries out the food items. This place is not too busy so youll get a table right away. You wont see that many Asians eating here because its not close to main artery like University Avenue and the prices here is a bit higher than other Vietnamese restaurants.
