PhoNatic Vietnamese Restaurant

We ordered the Round Eye-​Brisket Phở and a Salad Vermicelli bowl, take out.
The Round Eye-​Brisket Phở without noodles, and extra meat & bean sprouts. (as expected, extra charge for extra meat & veggies) was good. The broth was a little bland, but easily spiced up with hoisin sauce, chili, cilantro and jalapenos. Despite ordering extra meat and bean sprouts, I felt like the portion of meat was rather average, and the amount of bean sprouts I received was extremely small.
The Salad Vermicelli bowl with marinated pork shoulder (sans noodles) was an overall delicious dish. The pork was tender and perfectly marinated.
Phonatic offers a self serve toppings station, which includes green & white onions, limes, jalapenos, and cilantro. I really like this feature because it allows you to customize your phở.
The service was friendly and informative. Phonatic is a rather expensive for a Vietnamese Phở Restaurant. For both dishes, the total was $ 24, which I think is expensive for beef Phở and pork Vermicelli (no drink). Our food was ready relatively fast, and packed nicely to-​go. This location is relatively new, and the décor is nice. They do seem to be a little understaffed, as there were numerous tables dirty from previous customers.

I wasn’t really hungry earlier, so I asked the manager for a recommendation. He told me to try «Chicken and Cabbage Salad», which I did. Darn! Phonatic never disappoints me. It’s really good.

The first time I come here I was very impressed with the food. Although if you do not like modern takes of Vietnamese food I do not recommend you come here.
I have ordered quiet a few time «The 403» Vietnamese classic soup and it it delicious!
The only thing I do not like about it is the inconsistency of the presentation of the food or the flavor. Sometimes the soup is very full and contains an adequate amount of protein and noodles. But other times, it’s very empty and tastless. This is why I am giving this restaurant 3 stars.
Another item on the menu that I would recomend are the sliders. The flavor combination on these is great and very balanced.
One other item on the menu that I recommend is the Avocado Smoothie. It is sweet and very smooth. I highly recommend it be tried at least once.

I really can’t say this is my favorite. Depending on the day, either the broth is oily or not. There is this weird slimy mushroom thing that comes with the vegetarian option. Just underwhelming.

Uh oh. 10 minute wait at 1:15 for an order of bánh mì sliders. (It’s been a couple months since I’ve eaten here due to my own health issues.) Really good flavor with a BUT… the small individual piece of meat in each one was not just cool but cold and the usually delicious Vietnamese «bread» was cool and stuck to the little serving plate. I might be wrong but thinking maybe sat too long before brought out? Disappointing.
Did not see any familiar faces. Perhaps in Round Rock now. Staffing in general in Cedar Park at dining locations is challenging on both sides– for employers and customers!
We had ordered a small chicken broth and noodle only bowl of phở, no chicken, no veggies. It arrived with chicken, which I encouraged my dining partner to tell the staff and return however he refused and just put it aside as he ate. He said the flavor was «ok».
I ordered the regular size phở, beef broth and oxtail (as I have mentioned in the past, difficult to find) without cilantro. It was very good. In fact the flavor was better than the last time I was there.
It’s really too bad the service was so incredibly slow. One of the great things about phở is that usually it’s a pretty quick meal to get without a long waiting period, before being served. It was well over 15 minutes and likely close to 20 minutes before we got our bowls.
There were not a lot of other customers as we had waited until after 1 PM to go for lunch to avoid the lunch crowd, parking issues and extra wait time. So my update only constitutes three stars this time due to the service and the bánh mì sliders.

Expensive
18 bucks for a bowl of phở, spring roll and small drink
Bland
The phở was very blah. Not even close to a great bowl of phở
To make it worse. The side of sprouts and stuff you add in was small enough to be served as an infant portion
So disappointing
Conclusion. EXPENSIVE, Bland and blah
Sorry. I hope it gets better but for not this isn’t «it»

My life wasn’t complete until I had the Lemongrass Beef. It is simply amazing. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water! My picky-​eating kids love to go here and I know they’ll always clean their plates. Service is always A+ and the staff doesn’t get annoyed when I sit there with my girlfriend for 2+ hours during lunch rush.

They changed menu a couple of times… Now it is expensive. A bowl of phở costs over 8 dollars, and the same dish in other places costs 6.

Wow 20 min for our food and my son had to wait to get his food. we had to get a refund so he ate mine. Oh and they brought 1 of the three drinks 15 min after our food. I had to cancle my sons dinner and get a refund on it. Never again first time and last time to eat here. Oh while we are waiting 6 people and 4 to go orders before we even got our drinks. Thank God we ordered the soup we could drink that.

The worst service I have ever witnessed in a service establishment. One incompetent cashier who messes up orders, a kitchen that is way way behind on orders and two wait staff who are left to deal with angry and disappointed customers. A 45 minute wait on a Thursday evening… not acceptable. Also an order placed at 6:52 pm and not fully received by 7:45 pm… not acceptable!

I love Phonatics! The food is so good and the service is always great! The order always comes out fresh and hot. And it’s easy to get to. Right next to Torchy’s Tacos, another one of my favorite places. As often as I come here and with Torchy’s next door, makes me wonder why I ever leave! Lol

I have been to this places several times in the past and like the Phở soup. So I came again today. The waitress brought the bowl out. To my surprise, I only saw 4 pieces of meat. So I asked if that all the meats I got for a bowl of Phở (8.50) The waitress said check the bottom. I did and saw 2 more pieces and still did not see the beef stripe I asked for. So the waitress said sorry and took it back. Later, a guy came out with the bowl with more meat. He explained that hr weighted 4 oz. of meat for every bowl. I told him I saw a lot more meats in the past. He said it did not matter how many pieces of meat I saw, he always weighted 4 oz of meats. So here is my suggeation: it is matter and you should not even said it didn’t matter to the customers who wonder about the differences between the past and what they got now. Poor response!!! The wiatress is very polite though.

LOVE this place. Definitely some of the best phở that I’ve found, but IMO they’re slightly overpriced. (Especially compared to other Vietnamese restaurants.)
I just wish they wouldn’t have changed their menu and removed shrimp from the build your own phở.

Probably my favorite Phở place in Austin. It’s super clean, and they give a lot of meat if you order it in your phở. The broth is sometimes a bit too salty for me though.
I’ve also had their rice and beef combo that comes with an egg roll. Super good!

I like Phonatic a lot, especially their giant, fresh bun bowls. It’s clean, family friendly and good service. I also like the beef phở but avoid the oxtail, it’s not that good, my husband says. Their egg rolls are always hot and crispy, my 3 year old loves them!
I do agree the parking situation is annoying so I avoid it during the week.

Their bun bowls are really good so when a phở craving hit me last week I thought, why not come back and try it here?
I got the vegetarian phở bowl and the broth was extremely bland. Their house sauces fixed that though so it wasn’t a deal breaker for me. What was were the actual vegetables. It had a combination of broccoli, carrots, baby corn, onions, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts… but they all tasted either straight from a can or freezer bag. I guess I expected more since they have a fresh topping bar here with green onions, bean sprouts, lime, jalapeños, and cilantro that is always good.
I was also sad to see that they no longer serve Maine Root sodas on their fountain! I will still come back for their bun and awesome shrimp spring rolls however. We tried those for the first time this past visit and both really enjoyed them.

Update: I’m gonna go ahead and update this because someone wants to call my review stupid. Apparently, I’m one of those fake Unilocaler people that are unfair. Honestly any place that I go to could have great everything but if the good is terrible to ME, obviously I won’t be back. This is my own opinion. Don’t get upset because we don’t have the same tastes buds.
While everything else is great about this place, customer service, quick, efficent, has a bar for extra things like onions, green onions, cilantro, etc.
I order the create your own phở with beef broth, meatballs, steak, and wontons. It was probably my own fault but it didn’t occur to me that the wontons have some type of seafood in it. Now if you know me, I don’t like FISH AT ALL. It made me soup tastes fishy and when I bit into that wonton, I almost threw up. I got all the wontons out of my soup but I felt completely sick afterwards. I couldn’t even finish my Phở. Especially having that seafood hint to it. Unfortantely, left to get the nasty taste out of my mouth with some Wendys. I hate to leave a bad review beacause I’m sure it’s great for people who do like seafood. Just wish I was aware of the wontons being seafood-​ish.
I won’t be back. By far the worst phở I’ve had.

I really want to learn how to order here…
I have eaten Phở for years but only the same thing (on the east coast, there were only a couple of things to choose from). This place gets the thumbs up because the missus LOVED it.
Plentiful. Flavorful. Clean.
Seriously… no complaints.

Please be advised that I think they use mind control drugs in their Banh mi sliders. What! You don’t believe me! Here is my proof.
First time I order the Banh Mi sliders, eggrolls and spring rolls. Get home and try the slider first. OMG, I couldn’t devour it fast enough. The flavorful pork with crispy vegetables, okay I removed the jalapenos. Egg rolls and spring rolls were also tasty.
Second time, I planned on ordering something different. Walk up to the counter and asked what I would like. My mouth opens and out comes Banh Mi sliders. That is not what I planned to order. I ate them anyway and enjoyed every bite.
Third time, I am prepared this time. Wrote down Mi Bo Kho (Beef and carrot stew) Up to the counter to order with my note in hand. So what did I order? Mi Bo Kho and Banh Mi sliders. I swear I was not going to order the sliders again. I shared the slider with BF and he raved how good they are. The stew was interesting. I would definitely get this again.
Now I have resigned myself to getting sliders every time I come in. Phở and sliders, Com and sliders, Bun and sliders. I even slipped the cashier a note that said, «Do not feed me sliders.» And still ordered them.

The parking is still horrific during lunch rush. I’ve had a chance to eat pretty much the entire menu and find most of the food to be mediocre. The Americanized phở and the spring roll is the best dish and is fine if you are craving phở and don’t want to drive to the Chinatown area. Everything else is mostly sweet and lack any depth.
If you want to pay a lot of $$ for sitting in a nice, clean restaurant eating Americanized Vietnamese good, Phonatic is the right place.