My friend S. and I regularly meet up to have a meal and talk about work, family, what's wrong with the world, etc. One of our frequent haunts is
Pho Ben Thanh at 10 Pinebush Road in Cambridge. Ben Thanh isn't far from where either of us live, but it is technically in another city, so naturally we were quite excited to see that a location was opening at 500 Fairway Rd in Kitchener. I thought it would be prudent to let them get their bearings in the new location, so before we investigated, I spent a good month daydreaming about my favourite BT foods first: crispy shrimp cyclone rolls, yellow curry vermicelli, warm mango sticky rice and sweet Japanese green tea bubbles, which tastes like green tea ice cream with tapioca pearls in it.
This week we went to the new location, initially marvelling at how chic and classy it looks inside. I looked down at my hoodie shirt and jeans, and looked up at their chandeliers, recessed into the ceiling...
Our visit began rather unfortunately, we came in for an early (5pm-ish) dinner, and found the place empty except for two other tables. Our host seemed confused about where to seat us (so many empty tables!!, so many choices!!).
Once we were seated, I requested a pot of tea (which generally arrives unasked for at the Cambridge location). Our server told us the tea selections, and when I asked for Jasmine, he said, "oh did I say Jasmine, yeah we don't have that". It was then I noticed that a pot of tea at this location costs $3.95. Forget that. We decided to order specialty drinks instead, S. having her usual coconut milkshake, and me a green tea bubbles. To eat S. had the stir fried lemon grass chicken with rice and I ordered a rare beef pho.
Our perplexed server trundled back to the kitchen, and then arrived at our table with a different drink than I had ordered, placing it on the table by saying "This isn't what you ordered, is it?"
Our meals came shortly after I sent him back to try my drink order one more time, S.'s Chicken dish consisting of some bell peppers, 4 pieces of chicken and an entire white onion, cut into enormous chunks. Bravely she picked at it for awhile, before giving up, stating "This is terrible, don't even bring this home for Argie!"
My beef noodle soup had the aroma and flavour of leftover dishwater, sparingly seasoned with thin sliced beef and onions. The worst part was that I couldn't even douse it in hot sauce, because the
sriracha had been carefully plated on a small saucer.
This is the first time I have posted a negative review of a place. I am reluctant to do so, because taste is relative, of course, and everyone has different expectations for their dining experiences too, but from start to finish this was a pretty crappy meal, that could have been saved if it wasn't for the inattentive (and not terribly knowledgeable) staff. I would have been much happier to make concessions for the food quality if I thought I was a valued customer. As it was, we didn't even stay for dessert.
Armed with this knowledge, I can safely say it continues to be worth the drive to head to the Cambridge Ben Thanh!
P.S. I would like to apologize for the lack of photos - I was so surprised by the whole meal that I forgot!
