I’ve come up with some great pho play on words in my posts reviewing pho restaurants around the world. Hits include Pho in the Morning, The Phoking Tour, Seattle SuperPhonics, Pho-sters Australian for Beer, and Pho-nix Hotness. Having said that, I would never name my pho restaurant something as terrible as Poh’ Nomenon unless I had LL Cool J as a spokesperson. In no way is this clever marketing. The only reason I stopped in for a hot bowl is because it was freezing outside.
The horrible name was just the beginning of the experience at Pho’ Nomenon. The person who I presume to be the owner was not especially kind. There was no attempt to be cordial. “Go sit there,” she said as I arrived. “We only have one size,” she quipped even though the menu says extra broth for $2. “We have $10 minimum on card,” she declared as she dropped my card back on the table. “Then charge it for $10,” I quickly replied. The bowl was $8.62 so with tip I would’ve met the $10 threshold, an arbitrary, stupid, nonsensical, antiquated number that many establishments in the area use to offset the fee charged by the credit card companies. If small businesses are concerned with this fee then build it into the cost of their products or services in advance instead of telling me there’s fee charging ATM nearby. If you are one of those shady establishments that is cash only, TPOL is willing to accommodate this with his credit only tip policy. If you’re not going pay Uncle Sam, if you’re going to deny the convenience of credit cards to your customers, you surely will not be receiving even more tax-free money from me.
As far as the pho is concerned, it was decent. The beef was good. The sprouts were plentiful, but the bowl should have more broth. Beyond that I’m not going to elaborate because the merchant was so unwelcoming. Sorry Pho’ Nomenon, you aren’t worthy of my artful analysis.
