The Underground Asian Fusion Bistro

I recently found myself downtown for jury duty and wanted to wander down to Phở Hoa, an old lunch favorite from a previous life. I arrived to find that Phở Ha was no more, and that another old favorite, Marcus’s Martini Bar, was now a pan-​Asian bistro.
Despite being disappointed on both counts I decided that I’d come that far so I may as well check out the phở the Underground Asian Fusion Bistro had to offer.
The space is a cozy, familiar one, although the last time I was in there I was tipping Grey Goose martinis for happy hour. The interior is tastefully done and on the understated side of the Asian décor spectrum. I was the first person to arrive for lunch but by the time I left a small line was forming near the stairs, so they must be doing something right because it’s not exactly the kind of place you just stumble into.
Unfortunately, what they are not doing right is phở. I ordered an old standby of seafood phở and in very short order had a big steaming bowl of soup in front of me. The broth was rather bland, but a generous helping of Sriracha fixed that, and the plate of garnish was a pile of bean shoots (of which there were already plenty in the soup), three thin slices of jalapeño, one sprig of basil (5 – 6 leaves maybe), and a small chunk of lime — meager at best.
I set these initial let downs aside and dug into for some seafood. And dug. And dug. I tallied the actual seafood content of my large seafood phở, and it was as follows:
— (3) Shrimp, small
— (3) Fish balls, small
— (2.5) Morsels of imitation crab meat
— (2.5) Scallops, small
— (1) Green mussel, medium
Yet there were about eight large broccoli florets and a very generous helping of sliced carrot.
In summary, nice enough space, disappointing phở. Not inspired to give anything else a try.

It’s 9:30pm on a Sunday and as usual everything in Pioneer Square is practically closed and I’m hungry! My roommate and I stumbled across this place a few blocks from our place and it looked nice so we decided to give it a shot.
The place is underground as it says and it was practically empty so we were a little worried. We looked over the menu and decided to get something here since the prices were right.
It’s definitely family run as the daughter was our waitress and the boys were doing homework, 3 booths down but that’s no biggie. I love family run places!
I got pork teriyaki and he got chicken katsu. Even though we ordered small plates, the food was still abundant and pretty good. It’s certainly not the best in the world, but it’s tasty and good prices.
We will definitely go here again!

Nasty as hell. Never again… I would give this place a NEGATIVE –5 but yeah, no.

After taking a very underwhelming tour of Seattle’s underground, we decided that a hot bowl of phở was in order. We Unilocaled for anything nearby and found this place. It’s downstairs and when you enter the building, you go right for Vietnamese sandwiches and tea and downstairs for phở.
Like many place in Seattle, it is not handicapped accessible so use caution if someone is not good with steep stairs. Once downstairs, it is a lovely little place, clean and we walked in right after the rush because many of the tables had used dishes.
The servers were young women, not overly friendly but efficient and our soup was brought out in short order. We ordered regular phở and vegetarian phở, spring rolls and fried tofu. We are from San Diego and there are countless excellent phở places all over the city. To us, a decent bowl of phở is based on how fragrant and clean the broth is, this broth was good and very hot. The spring rolls were delicious and the fried tofu was hot and non greasy.
The prices were average (about $ 6 for the soup) and in a place as cold and rainy as Seattle can get, a good bowl of phở would be worth it’s weight in gold… this place is definitely worth it’s weight in silver: o)

Why 5 stars? Because they do phở really, really well. I have been here numerous times, and every time it is *consistent* — a huge issue with most restaurants. I have been there roughly 10 times so far, and will return many more.

Delicious. This place is no PF Chang’s — music and atmosphere may be lacking but I think the food is great. I order a side of tofu teriyaki — the sauce can be spiced to order and it is wonderful. I also order tofu spring rolls — excellent and always very fresh. The owners are hanging out with their kids, so don’t expect fine dining. But if you’re looking for good food and friendly owners you’ll probably like it.

I work in Pioneer Square and get Phở for lunch fairly frequently (always to go). I decided to forego my usual Phở Fuscia and try the Phở down the street at Underground Asian Fusion Bistro. There were zero customers there when I first arrived, which is usually a good sign when you’re trying to get something to go.
I ordered the Combo Phở, which is my appx. typical order at phở places. It took about 20 minutes to get my phở (compared to a maximum of 10 at other Phở places).
Once I got back to work, I was very disappointed with the phở. The broth tasted like very watered down, salty soup broth — not specifically phở broth, which has a much deeper and tastier flavor. The meat provided was less than half the amount typically given — there were one or two pieces of each type of meat. With phở meat being sliced so thin, this was hardly anything. There also was not any sauce or sriracha provided on the side, which is a staple of Phở.
Overall, this might actually be the worst phở I’ve ever had. After a bowl I usually feel full and satisfied, but I do not feel like I even had phở for lunch. I’ll have to wait until lunch tomorrow to satiate my craving at my usual spot.

The food was ok, nothing special at this place. I order order chicken phad thai with a five out of ten star. Was less spicy then I thought it should be. The food itself paired with the prices I would give a 3.5. The reason for the low rating, like other commentors, was the service. The service was very very slow, considering I went mid afternoon with the place being a little less then half full. On top of being slow, the waitress was very inpersonal. I do understand there may be cultural reasons for personalities and I try not to judge; however the waitress, even after I asked for the check, came back to give us more water without the actual check, five minutes later!

Straight off the bus, I asked my friend to take me to sushi. And she showed me this place. Hmm… I can’t say its anything special for the veggie sense. Mostly that I liked how the sushi was served. Not much for veggie selection sadly.

Sooo sloooow.
I’ve been here twice, and both times the service was slow, but the last time that I went, the service was unforgiveable and the food wasn’t much better.
The first time I went here, I ordered a lunch bento with Teriyaki chicken breast, a California roll, rice, salad and a drink for about $ 9. The Teriyaki chicken didn’t even taste like Teriyaki, more like a sweet gravy over the fattiest, gamiest chicken I’ve ever had. The California roll however was surprisingly better and cheaper than other Sushi restaurants in the area.
The second time, I went back specifically for a cheap California roll, but after I sat down, I was told: «sushi is closed today». I ordered tofu fried rice instead and received it about thirty minutes later. The fried rice was serviceable and the portion was huge, but by that time, I really just needed a takeout box to get back to work. That took another thirty minutes of asking and eventually chasing down the waitress to get.
The food is decent enough and fairly priced, but unless you have a lot of patience and a long lunch break to waste, I wouldn’t recommend it.

The phở was delicious, the sushi was not. The vietnamese sandwich was decent. I will be back for the phở. Service was great.

Worst phở in Seattle hands down!
I ordered the seafood phở and it came out with imitation crab and fish balls only when the menu said shrimp, crab, mussels, etc. I sent it back and ordered the beef stew which was a runny, tastely version of any other Vietnamese beef stew I’ve ever had — tasted like they put ketchup in it! And to top of the horrible experience, the owner made me pay for the seafood phở since it was what I first ordered! Terrible service and food.
Do not eat here!

This place is a little difficult to locate, and is in an unassuming location, but is a gem downstairs. I have been here multiple times for lunch, and each time has been a great meal. The phở is really good and plentiful, as well as the mongolian beef. It’s a good lunch spot to check out, but I have not had dinner yet here.

This spot was really close to work for me and I would pop down there occassionally for bubble tea, phở, or a banh mi.
Now, a disclaimer for a minute — I used to go to the previous resident of the address: Marcus’ Martini Heaven a lot. So it’s a little trippy to go from hipster martini bar with eclectic music to an Asian restaurant with Kelly Clarkson playing. But that’s my own bias I suppose.
The phở was always ok at best, the broth average but the chicken «breast» (that you pay extra for) was that weird composite chicken. It’s just not quite right. The banh mi’s were just fine for a quick and cheapish meal and the bubble tea was serviceable, especially when I would be nursing a hangover and needed something fruity and creamy.
My biggest complaint was with the time it would take to get my orders. I will say, I would go in mostly post-​lunch hour and there would only be one server on duty with a couple of tables seated. Still, I would often wait 15 minutes or so for a banh mi and a bubble tea and that to me is excessive for a sandwich and a smoothie.

This place is beneath a restaurant that is closed. I ordered a chicken Vietnamese sandwich to go. The place makes the sandwich fresh when you order it, as would other Vietnamese restaurants, so you may need to wait a bit. The chicken was not particularly flavorful. There are much better Vietnamese sandwich places nearby. A very unmarketable experience. I don’t think I will visit again.

Pluses: Food quality was fine. Soup was actually quite good. Décor and ambiance met expectations.
Minuses: Biggest problem was that the sushi was cut way too small — we could practically see through the slices of fish, as the slices were just that thin. The rice balls were Japanese-​sized, almost spherical rather than the elliptical paddies that are standard in the US. Now, one might say that small portions go with the low prices — but we were expecting good value (normal portions at low prices) rather than small portions to match small prices.
Up the sushi portions to regional standard, and we’d give this 3.5*. As it stands, it’s 2.5*, with better options available elsewhere.

Teri –YUCKY
When you try to do everything, chances are you really do most things poor. This new Asian restaurant conveniently located at King and Yesler offers Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, Japanese and Korean items.
I went with something easy, Chicken Teriyaki and was greatly disappointed. Instead of Teriyaki, the chicken was smothered in gravy and the teriyaki was brought out in a separate dish on the side. I asked the waitress about this peculiarity and was told that the gravy looking liquid was the Chef’s «secret sauce». Odd, as i didn’t order secret sauce! Whatever the secret sauce was, it was 100% NOT teriyaki and tasted quite bland. Overall, the meal was dreadful.
On the other hand, my colleague ordered the BBQ Pork Phở and loved it. As we were leaving, i noticed other customers eating Phở and think this might be the dish to order. Instead of trying to do virtually ALL types of Asian cuisine, this place needs to focus exclusively on Vietnamese food and tell the Chef to keep his «secret sauce» far away from customers.
Also, it’s located downstairs and lacks heat, so bring your jacket!!!

This place was a nice discovery on a Sunday night, when most of my other Pioneer Square lunchtime haunts are closed.
The menu offers a varied selection of standard Asian dishes — Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese. My meal — phở and spring rolls — was fine: everything tasted as it should, though I wasn’t served a side dish of basil leaves, etc., for the phở.
Service was friendly, but the restaurant lacked heat. The piped-​in music was execrable. Prices are reasonable. Considering there aren’t a ton of Asian options in Pioneer Square, I expect I’ll be back.

quick service and very good phở. I work in little Saigon in southern california and this is pretty comparable to the better phở places I go to. nice job!