Clay Pot Restaurant

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

I am a big fan of Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. This restaurant offers items from both and has an alluring atmosphere, so of course I decided to give it a try. The water served was Waco tap water, which was the most disgusting, dirty water I have ever tasted. I cant believe they serve that to people. Get a filter! I then ordered tea, which (of course) had been brewed in the dirty water, making it undrinkable. Luckily, they had bottled water on hand. We had spring rolls as an appetizer. I adore spring rolls, but these were some underachieving variation that gives them a bad name. They were no thicker than my middle finger, but used the same amount of rice paper. Rice paper is practically flavorless, and is supposed to be a thin casing for a flavorfull filling. Their method made the casing too prominent, thick and chewy. And inside was little more than a mass of flavorless vermicelli, along with a tiny bit of tofu and lettuce. They had NO flavor, and the peanut sauce served with them was watery and lifeless. As an entree, I had their "Pat Thai." It was nothing more than flavorless rice noodles tossed with apples, cucumber, tofu, and a watery, vaguely peanuty sauce that tasted of the tap water. It had no flavor, no interest, no anything. The tofu tasted as if it was thrown in at the last minute, and was even still a bit cold. This is why people hate tofu. When you cook it properly, its delicious, but youd never know it at this restaurant. This restaurant has an interesting decor, creative decoration, comfortable and atmospheric seating, and really well-designed menus. But it seems they put all their effort into looking "cool," and forget about serving *quality* food. They make Thai and Vietnamese cooking look bad. When I complained, the manager was abrupt and a bit rude. He cut me off to snippishly say "This is Waco, theres nothing I can do about the water." Well, sir . . . if you know the water is bad, FILTER IT, or serve the customers bottled drinking water. Dont serve dirty tap water! He only charged us for one of the meals, but I feel even that was too much. And 3 times during our dining experience, he came to our table to remove a chair or cutlery set, without asking our permission. What shocked me was that this place is extremely popular! There was a *packed* house while we were eating. I guess Waco doesnt have much to offer in the way of foreign dining, because I have to believe that if there were a better alternative, this place would be out of business. I would never visit this establishment again, and I dont recommend it to anyone.

SH

Sharon Dooley

Food was okay. Service was down right terrible. I heard great things about the place from some coworkers and was excited to try it out. We were actually about to get up and walk out after having waited 15 + minutes just for someone to come over and greet us and take our drink order but they were to preoccupied with busing other tables and waiting on a party of 6 at the table directly next to us... they kept passing us by with out even a word of "be with you in a minute"... having never been there we asked what were some of the more popular dishes.. waiter didnt help answer that at all just said why dont you take some time to look over the menu then Ill come back and take your order... ummm trust me we had more than enough time already. We ordered sake and water for drinks...Never got the sake, did get the water but it was never refilled and our glasses were empty before entrees even arrived. Only when he came to the table to read over our check and take a cc payment did we remind him to remove the sake and he said oh let me go get that for you now... and we politely declined several times seeing as we were more than ready to leave. Food as I said was okay. My dish was very bland, I believe it was called stans clay pot. It had no real flavor. It basically was rice, broccoli, chicken and a ton of melted cheese...and the cheese was the only taste you could distinguish through the whole dish but the menu read that it was supposed to have a spice to it... my spouse had the pork vermicelli which was good but he did kick it up a notch by adding some spicy sauce to it cause he said it was a tad bland as well. Overall, I wish we had tried somewhere else for our date night because this place was a big disappointment.

TI

Tina Tran

This is probably the saddest excuse for a Vietnamese restaurant. It seems that 5 years ago it was good but I think the management or ownership is different now. It looks as though the place is run by an American family now and not the original Vietnamese family. The service was mediocre, it wasnt busy, there were only three other couples in the restaurant and we stood at the front waiting for a seat for about 5-7 minutes. It was very confusing. The decor was all off, most of it was Japanese... The food was also off and was absolutely not worth how much we paid for it and did not taste Vietnamese at all. The portions were small and expensive for what you got. I ordered a turmeric clay pot fish and it tasted Indian. It came with five small pieces of fish and small amount of vermicelli and a large amount of lettuce.Vietnamese food is pretty simple and they messed up a classic with confusing spices and way too much thyme. The egg rolls we ordered were a little burnt and tasted like buffet egg rolls, nothing special about them. And if you want amazing pho or even ok pho, please go to Austin or Dallas. The pho here is all wrong. So wrong. Im embarrassed that this restaurant claims it is Vietnamese. I grew up with amazing Vietnamese food and this food was nowhere close to any Vietnamese food Ive had. My grandma, mom, dad, and even I can cook better Vietnamese food than this. I will stick to eating homemade Vietnamese food from now on, unless Im in Dallas or Austin. I would suggest that people take their money elsewhere.

HI

Hilton Maddox

Unfortunately I am going to have to say that I was not at all please with my experience at the Clay Pot in Waco Texas. I cant even say how the food was cause we didnt get that far in to my dining experience. I read the menu and was excited by what was on and looking forward to trying the Pho. As I walked in I was great by an employee who was sitting down at a far back table and was waived over towards his direction. He proceeded to talk to me from the seated position and direct me to a small table in the back corner of the restaurant. Very rude and unprofessional!!! At least stand and approach me when talking to me. I politely informed him that I didnt want to sit at a small table in the back next to where he was sitting "Eating" I felt cramped and like I was being put out of the way. Now so you know... It was not busy... Only two tables were occupied... One of which was this employee the other was a table of three. and the table in the front of the restaurant had kids playing around it on the floor. He then gets out of his seat and directs me to another small table at the front. Again I asked for a different table and he informed me rather shortly that they saved those for larger parties.... Well that was it. Again they werent busy and I told him I would go somewhere. Now I understand why they werent busy. He was rude and unprofessional.... I travel all the time to cities and work all over the country ... I have never been refused a table cause I was only one person.