Watapho & Grill

So sad because it would have been great to have a good phở place in town. The food is bland, portions are small, and the restaurant smelled like cigarettes. The staff was well meaning and eager to please but not familiar with Asian food. Someone experienced should have been around. The bun was served without the ubiquitous fish sauce dressing that always (well not at this restaurant) comes on the side. The bahn mi was served on a grinder roll not in a baguette. If you serve it on a soft grinder roll, it should at least be toasted well. We left hungry and dissatisfied.
This place might be ok for people who have never had authentic Vietnamese food. If you have had the real stuff, then go to one of the Vietnamese restaurants in Bridgeport.

Having grew up in LA where phở restaurants are as common as fast food joints, I’ve missed having a hearty bowl of phở and just couldn’t pass on trying this place out. I ordered the beef phở, the gold standard in the phở game and I wasn’t disappointed. My bowl came hot and steamy with a decent portion of beef and phở noodles. All it took was a couple of sips of the broth to remind me of one of the dishes I have missed the most from LA. One suggestion I would make is adding more sauce options to the phở like hoisin sauce.
This place is perfect for quenching any phở cravings, and very convenient for getting a quick, filling meal. Will definitely come back for the phở and also try out the beef and chicken plates.

Love this place! Vietnamese food with a twist, that’s great. Nice cozy place to get your Vietnamese fix. They have phở, rice dishes and banh mi sandwiches. The spring rolls in rice paper wrap are deep fried taste great! Been there several times already. Seems that they are adjusting their menu. Staff is very friendly as well.

The food is amazing! The Bun Noodle salad as well as the Beef Stew Phở are must have!

A poor imitation of Vietnamese food.
While the staff was friendly, the place was clean, and they have a big window so you can see the kitchen– the food was not good. Chicken in the warm (not hot) phở was a rock. Even the cup of water had a funky taste.

I’m so glad I stopped by for lunch.
I has beef Bahn mi which was as good as I had in Hanoi. Larger sandwich than I’ve had anywhere in the US or Vietnam. Two unusual ingredients tomato slices and iceberg lettuce. They were fine.
I also had the fried spring rolls. I don’t get them often, I don’t like fried foods. Nevertheless they were frat. I wish the lettuce with them were larger pieces so I could wrap them in the lettuce that radio all Vietnamese way. Also be aware that they call nouc cham by some different English name fish chili sauce or something like that.

Banh mi was the Burger King version of banh mi, sorta similar, but not really. None of the veggies were pickled, there was a siracha mayo instead of fish sauce, massive grinder roll instead of baguette, and uninspired meat. It didn’t taste BAD, but it just wasn’t the authentic banh mi I wanted. Girl at the register had no idea what a banh mi even was despite there being like 7 items on the menu. Location was empty and it looked like I was the first customer of the day.

The ambience in this place is lovely– cute décor, chill music, and we were hit by a very clean smell as skin as we walked in. However, the staff was a little disorganized– they confused our bahn mi order with a bun (noodle salad) order. That said, the food was absolutely delicious, and the bun ended up being out favorite party of the meal. Will definitely be coming back!

Very simple, unimpressive Vietnamese cuisine. The summer rolls were small and the rice paper was dry. The vermicelli bowl was bland and the little beef that was included was dry and not very well seasoned. The phở was poor; it was cold, had little broth, and was lacking in any substantial flavor like everything else. The employees seemed disinterested and lazy — I overheard them confused about what the orders were and how to make them.
The place is small and seems more oriented for quick take out, but there are better options out there, both for a quick meal and for Vietnamese cuisine.

We had a wonderful lunch in this amazing vietnamese place. Food was delicious and authentic.

Yummy Vietnamese food. Small cute place. Wish it had a bigger menu but all choices are delicious and authentic. Only real issue is that they need more staff… Not sure if it happened to be only the day we went but there were only 2 people during lunch time working — a chef and a girl doing everything else.
The young girl who takes the orders, works the register, and cleans the table was belittled often by the cook. Not sure if they’re related or not but it was very sad to see. The food service was slow that day but a bunch of people walked in at once from different parties and a few orders were forgotten at first or I believe misinterpreted. Knowing there is a possible language barrier, it is always wiser to point to what you want on a menu instead of criticize a young waitress/​cashier/​bus girl for taking a wrong order when it may very well have been an innocent mistake or your own wrong pronunciation. But then again the menu is quite easy to pronounce — it’s just many variable dishes for phở, bun, etc. The young girl is doing many many tasks including answering phone calls for orders in between. The cook is only one older woman who does all the cooking and she is the one who messed up our order because I heard the girl verbally give our full order to her from reading off a paper she wrote on when taking our order and then hand her the paper. The cook made it seem like it was the girl’s fault and said sorry at least 10 times to us for the mistake and more to other customers who were waiting a long time or had an error with their order. Also, food is served as it is done so everyone eats at different times in your group unless you let your food get cold. It’s not about pointing blame, but it’s about respect and perhaps it is a cultural thing but this is America and no employer should treat a worker like that. I understand the chef (who is probably the owner) may be wanting to promote a positive business image but berating and belittling your worker isn’t the way it works here. Again, not sure if they’re related but nonetheless inappropriate behavior from the chef. Still 5 stars because it’s clean, great food and the girl who is ordered to do everything except cook works hard and was very polite. They need another chef or two to make things run more smoothly and get someone to answer phones and stay at the register so the other worker can serve the food and clean up.

Went there with the family for lunch today not knowing what to expect. We had a steak summer roll, beef phở, chicken phở, and chicken rice plate. Delicious! The phở stock is flavorful and the meats have a great grill taste. My son was a big fan of the extra tender chicken (he doesn’t like chewy meats) and the sweet clear sauce that came with the rice bowl.
Food came fast (10 minutes). The place is small and simple, perfect for a quick delicious bite. Will definitely be back whenever I want a phở fix. Will try the banh mi next time too.