Staff: 5/5
Decor: 4/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Parking: 5/5
Price: 4/5
Food: 5/5
It was pretty easy to locate and get to Pho Ever. It's located just east of the Shell gas station which is right on the corner between NE 8th and 120th. At the time that I got there (approx. 1:30 PM on the Friday afternoon), their parking lot already had a few cars, which is a good sign. There are enough spots to handle a normal lunch crowd with maybe a few more to spare.
It's also a good sign when you see people already seated for the lunch hour. I went in at around 1:30 pm with quite a few people already eating and a few more people trickling in behind me. The servers were quick to greet me and I was seated very quickly.
So one of the first things that I noticed was that the table was stocked with your usual condiments plus a few more. There's your typical soy sauce and sorts but there was also hoi sin sauce and a bottle of hot sauce (possibly sriracha with the pepper seeds in it). And there was a stack of green chopsticks. That was.... different.
Ok, so the menu. Their menu is very diverse. They have a nice selection of pho along with a variety of fried rice dishes, fried noodles, appetizers, sandwiches (bahn mi), and boba. I ordered the Grilled pork with rice, a ham and meat load bahn mi, and honey boba. Their price were a little higher than some other places but it certainly wasn't a deal breaker.
I've gotta say, those orders came back very quickly, as in less than 5 minutes! The first was the boba which I saved for later. But it was excellent! It was like a milky/creamy honey, almost like honeydew but more honey flavor. You can order your boba in 2 sizes: small and large, and with or without the bubbles.The next was the ham and meat load sandwich. It was toasted so you can actually taste the meats and the cream sauce and hear the crunch of the bread. hmmmmm. I was a little disappointed that the bread/bun wasn't as fat as I've seen in other places but that wasn't a huge issue. I was also disappointed that I couldn't taste the pickled vegetables. There certainly was some but not enough that I noticed it.
Now, the grilled pork. The pork actually arrived on skewers! The pork was nicely browned, and well done. It was sweet and if you dip it in some of the provided sweet sauce, it'll taste all the better (although I didn't need to do that). The skewers also came with a small "salad" which is really a few small leaves of lettuce, a couple tomato slices, a few slices of carrot and maybe pickled daikon. That was all decoratively placed on the side of the plate. Oh, and you can't miss that huge serving of rice topped with green onions. Even as a Chinese guy, I thought there was more than enough white rice on that plate. Oh, and did I mention that they use square plates instead of the more common round ones? That's just something else that's different. All in all, the food was arrived quickly and warm (with the exception of the boba of course).
The service was great as well. I saw them walk around a few times, which is enough to show me that they're paying attention to the customers but not enough to say that they have nothing better to do than to constantly refill my cup.
What else was there? Well, there's a single flat screen tv on the south wall. It had CNN on. They also have a private room for a future small dining parties. I didn't actually look in so please don't take more word for it. Beside that, there wasn't much decor on the walls; they were nice and neutral. There was also ample space to walk around even if the place got crowded. The view outside was nice. You have a elevated view of downtown Bellevue so that's a plus!
All in all, I like their nice clean place. Service was great and attentive! read more