Madame Pho Lisburn

1. I came here after going to the Belfast branch which was top notch. I was so excited to go! The staff are really friendly and greeted us immediately and we were straightaway taken to a table.
   The table was very small to the point where we had to move the cutlery and the sauces onto the seat beside us.
   This is a bring your own booze establishment. They do sell two beers in bottles, but they were described as a ‘sweet beer’ and ‘just a lager’ so we decided just to go for soft drinks.
   We ordered the chilli prawns and the chicken dumplings for starters. After placing the order, it was only about four minutes until the starters came out – which obviously was a red flag, because we all know that means… the food is frozen! Regardless of this, the starters were really nice very flavourful good temperature. It was great at that point; the food was delivered with a smile etc.
   It was it was about the time we finished our starters we noticed this incredibly weird ammonia smell. We could not place our fingers on it, but it kept wafting towards us, especially because the front door was open. The smell was absolutely disgusting, we even overheard the staff behind us saying ‘oh, that smell is back again’. I thought it may be in the toilets because the restaurant is very small and the door to the toilets was left wide open, meaning that the toilet basins were actually visible, but it didn’t seem to anybody else was complaining about the smell, except the staff. it very much felt like we were sat in a takeaway or Nando’s. Obviously I am aware that this place is partially a takeaway, but we were sat in the restaurant.
   We waited a little longer for a mains to come out, but when they did arrive, my food was served separately from my meat, which I assume is to make sure that the park stayed crispy. My partners food arrived a couple minutes later and the waitress put it down in front of him and tilted the broth so close to the edge of the bowl that my partner jumped out of his seat because he was worried that this boiling hot soup was going to be spilled all over him to which she replied ‘you made me jump’ and then walked off. He was obviously quite annoyed by that, but we were starving, so we didn’t think too much about it.
   I ordered the crispy barbecue pork Pho, which came completely flavourless. It felt like I was unsalted water with some coriander on top. I added some Sriracha and some hoisin sauce, just give it a bit of flavour, but it didn’t help. The barbecue pork was not barbecue at all. There was no hint of any flavourings, it was completely bland.
   My partner ordered the 13 hour brisket Pho, on the photo on the menu, it was pictured beautifully pulled apart, spread on top of the meal, but when it arrived, the brisket was in little cubes that were chewy, and not easily pulled apart. It tasted like an unidentifiable meat, like Spam! His broth was exactly the same as mine – bland, no flavour, no salt, no spices, no nothing. As someone who has visited a lot of Asian restaurants, been to Vietnam and tried the food. This was soooooo disappointing.
   My partner ate some noodles and left everything else, he didn’t drink the broth. I had maybe three mouthfuls and didn’t eat the rest of mine. So when the waitress came up and asked what was wrong. I told her that the food had no flavour and I wasn’t going to eat it to which she replied – ‘’Oh, I’ve tried everything off the menu but not the pho,do you want me to tell them?’’ I said ‘tell who’ and she said the’’the chefs’’. After I could see she didn’t care, i said don’t bother.
   As somebody who previously worked in the hospitality industry for 8 years. This is not the way you handle a customer complaint, especially if they haven’t eaten the food and no check-back was done during the meal!
   she did not return to the table.We got no apology; a side eye from the chef, nothing taken off the bill. we paid the full amount and left no tip.

2. Had a lovely meal with great service.
   The chicken wings were the ultimate favourite of the night, with the spring rolls, bao bun and mochi also being big hits.
   Our waitress was super friendly which is always appreciated. See you soon!

3. After hearing such positive reviews about this place I was highly underwhelmed. As a fan of Vietnamese food this was quite disappointing. I ordered the beef brisket pho which is one of my favourite dishes. The beef had more fat than meat. To me it seems they use cheap meat with poor quality. If i known the dish was going to be served like this, I would have ordered a vegetarian option. (Photo attached of the fat I removed from the bowl of Pho)

   No one came to check to see if everything was okay. The young waitress had a bit of an attitude. When she came to the table to collect the plates she never asked if everything was okay with our meals. I let her know there was a lot of fat in my dish and not a lot of beef. Her actual response was – ‘well I don’t eat meat so I couldn’t tell you.’ Not a nice reply at all and no apology for the poor ingredients. I told her to give my feedback to the chef. The worst pho I’ve ever had with lack of flavours and disgusting fat. Won’t be back as her attitude was I couldn’t care less.

4. Absolutely stunning restaurant and takeaway. I am a regular here, if you haven’t tried Vietnamese, you should!

5. Had the most wonderful experience tonight for my birthday in the Lisburn restaurant . Staff were so helpful and knowledgeable about the menu.!!! Really enjoyed all the food . This was my first experience and will definitely be back .

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