Pho 8 - Cape Girardeau

I have been meaning to drive out and try Pho 8 for over a year, and finally made it out yesterday.The restaurant itself is beautiful. Despite its location in a strip center, it has ample seating with reserved tables for large parties. The menu is clearly listed on the wall behind the counter you order at as well as printed in a booklet in front of the register. They offer daily specials, which are also clearly advertised on the wall. They put a lot of thought into beautifying their space, and the effort shows.I started with the fried tofu appetizer, which was fine. There are restaurants in the region that have better fried tofu if that's what you're after. I ordered the pho with meatball and medium rare beef. Personally, I think the meatballs missed the mark. They were a bit bland, which left a lot to be desired. The beef, however, was a generous portion and was very flavorful. The pho broth was fantastic, and personally was both mine and my husband's favorite part of our meal. All the additional sauces offered at the counter to doctor your broth to your preferences was a great sight to see.There was a bit of inconsistency across our bowls. My husband's pho was full of full-length noodles, while mine was full of small and choppy noodles that had clumped together. It also seemed like I ended up with more noodles than my husband did, despite us ordering the exact same entree.I was very disheartened that tripe was not an option for my pho. This is the only shop I've ever gone to that hasn't had tripe on the menu. They do carry tendon, but were out of stock when we visited, so we had to choose other protien options for our meal. Our entrees came with lime, jalapeño, and bean sprouts on the side, but no cilantro or Thai basil. In our experience, getting Thai basil and cilantro on the side has become a fairly standard expectation when ordering pho, so that left us a little disappointed as well.Another thing that slightly bothered me was that when we ordered our waters, they came in a glass that was about equivalent in size to a rocks glass. We finished our waters before we finished our meal, and to be fair, while we could have for refills, I feel like we shouldn't have had to if we specifically asked for water to drink. I won't fault them for this because it is a counter-service restaurant, but as someone who prefers a glass of water when dining out over a soft drink, it is a little bothersome.All in all, if I'm in the area again, I would probably stop in, but I don't think that I would make the drive from Carbondale just for Pho 8 again. Beautiful restaurant with good food, but it just misses the mark on food just enough to deter me from making the drive again.

The beef pho was excellent. Very flavorful and plenty to fill my stomach.

The last couple of times I’ve ordered from here I have had missing items or the wrong order. I order Chicken and Rice with no slaw or peanuts and Fried dumplings every time. I order nothing else. Today I again received no dumplings and slaw which would have been manageable as the chicken and rice is good enough but i open the container and it is noodles. I simply fail to understand how hard it is to read an order to me noodles and rice don’t look like similar words and since the slaw and peanuts are added after it’d be less work not adding them. The bag was sealed so it wasn’t a delivery error the items were simply incorrect and not there. Tough honestly.

Got the Beef Pho and it was so good loved the beef broth and everything in it. Will be coming back to try the Bahn mi sandwich!

Go for the Bành Mi sandwich. Go back again. Keep going back because... that sandwich.