pho hai yen (seattle)

a 2. no, a 4. no, a 3. no, 3.25. no, 3.5. no, a 0. maybe a 5?

oh pho hai yen, how i want to love you. how i want to tell all 3 people who read this blog how they should run, not walk, to buy your bahn mi and fresh spring rolls. the bahn mi are the best in seattle, and come in a pork or chicken option. the pork, depending on the day, is either a thin-strip-less-tasty-but-still-good variety, a la the spring rolls, or bbq - which is excellent.

alas pho hai yen, i cannot. why? no, not because your pho is little better than average. or your bbq meat noodle bowls are likewise only 'good,' but because i cannot trust how you would treat my friends and strangers. your prices are an ever moving bullseye that i cannot comprehend.

your bahn mi, and spring rolls, have cost me a myriad of amounts. your menu says one thing, you ring up another in your register, and in the end it almost seems you're adding a 25% tax. an idiot tax? but i can count! your food is still a good deal, but the practice is dishonest. and i don't like it.

there is no real way to justify it. i have asked you more than once. you have shorted me an order of fresh rolls that i called in, and later when i told you (and had paid for it), you acted incredulously. you then did nothing. my last visit, you overcharged me a phantom $4 on top of the overestimation of tax and rounded up price rates. $2.75, for example, becomes $3.00 at a minimum.

so what do i do with you? first, i reflect upon my experience with other vietnamese people. while certainly a generalization, and maybe unfair, i have never met a group of more chinsy and schiester-y folks. always trying to get one up on you or cheat you (not all, but many), it's not like a flea market where it is in your face. it's not an indian or iranian rug merchant, or american used car salesman, or chinese herbalist. nay. and i have had no such problem with most thai folks, or filipino or malaysians, so it's not southeast asian. no, this seems a vietnamese thing. maybe a hold over from war-era animosity in the north (from whence pho came) or french colonial days. who knows! i expect you to make faces when i ask for sauce containers, and to give me one, or two, when i order 5 or 6 orders so i have to ask for more like the ugly, sauce-whore american that i am. but to so blatantly overcharge me, and different sums, every time?! even when your hand has been caught in the cookie jar? many times! i wish you'd learn, so you could earn the accolades your bahn mi deserve.

pho hai yen
810 rainier ave s
seattle, wa 98127
(206) 323-5570
4.5 of 5 (bahn mi and fresh rolls)
3 of 5 (pho)
2.5 of 5 (overall)