Bambu happened to be open on Labor Day and our usual pho spot was closed, so we decided to drop by. We had a group of people, so we already expected to have to wait a while for our food. There were 10 of us, two of them being toddlers. We got there and were seated at around 11:30 AM. There was a group before us that ordered first. We knew on our part that our food was going to come after them, while incorporating more time for the preparation of our food as well. We were okay with that, since we wanted to try Bambu and their pho with our family.
All went well until 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes passed. Obviously with the long wait, we were upset and hungry. Keep in mind that the other group and others who came in after us received their pho and rice dishes already. In fact, the group that came in already left before all of us received our food. When they DID bring us our pho, they only brought 3 of them for our 8 orders, since the two toddlers were sharing a dish from their parents. We waited an additional time for everyone to receive their food. It does not take 50-60 minutes to assemble all of these dishes if their pho broth is ready to serve.
I have 4 years of waiting experience. I understand the stress of being both busy and understaffed. I hate to be the "Karen" in this situation, but the way the waiters responded with our simple questions of, "when is the rest of the food going to come out?" and, "how much longer will we have to wait?" made us shocked. Keep in mind, we have already waited almost an HOUR for our food to come out. One said, "I don't know, there's nothing I can do," and the other said, "why, are you in a rush?"
What the heck??? Never in my life have I responded to a group of customers with such hostility before... EVER! The audacity! We were trying our best to be polite and not raise our voices at the busy waiters, but this was appalling. Even after those confrontations, we didn't even have the chance to get angry because of how SHOCKED we were at their responses!
Once we FINALLY got all our dishes, the waiter said it took so long because they ran out of pho. First off, if you ALREADY knew that there was not enough soup after serving the first group, you should have communicated that with us that our wait time would have been longer than expected. They had an hour to communicate that with us, but they decided to tell us once we got all our food. Not even a single apology throughout the whole confrontation... Wow. They finally communicated that they had to, "boil more water" for us. Okay, wish that they told us that during the hour we waited? We would have been understanding if they were apologetic and communicative since it's Labor Day and whatnot, but they weren't. Even if you're upset or stressed, you should NEVER be rude or hostile towards paying customers... I'm truly disgusted both as a customer AND as an experienced waitress.
And secondly, the pho was the worst I've ever had; obviously so because pho broth is supposed to be boiled for 12 hours like they've advertised on their menu, but they just "boiled more water" for us. Being Southeast Asian myself, I've grown up eating pho all my life and was ultimately disappointed with both their service and pho broth. I would have been okay with the mediocre pho if the wait staff weren't so rude, but here we are.
Again, I want to emphasize that me and our party did not once intend to be rude or demanding and this was how we were treated... Thank goodness my auntie and in-laws were there with us at that moment, because I would have given them a piece of my mind. Instead, I sat there silently to see how they were going to react, and they did very poorly.
First impressions matter greatly, and with that being said, I will never set foot back into Bambu. Like I've stated before, even with the bad food, I would have been alright IF the wait staff weren't so unprofessional and rude; but BOTH the food and service were horrible. DO NOT waste your time or money here and support other small businesses that deserve it. Hong Yen is just 4-5 minutes away and their service and food are always top tier and DEFINITELY worth your penny compared to Bambu. read more