King County Health Department Closes Southcenter Mall Restaurant

RENTON, WA - King County Public Health has closed a soup restaurant at the largest mall in the area.

The health department closed Cafe Pho II inside the food court at the Southcenter Mall on Wednesday for a number of violations including: Improper cooling of potentially hazardous food; inadequate facilities to control temperature of potentially hazardous foods, hot and cold holding; poor personal hygiene practices - handwashing; handwashing facilities unavailable; and food adulterated.

According to Yelp, the food at Cafe Pho II is not bad. The restaurant has a rating of three out of five stars after 88 reviews. Some negative reviews, however, do complain of slow service.

"I've come to this place a few times now and it's decent pho and convenient in the mall. This past time I tried the chicken Bahn Mi and it was surprisingly so good!!" said one reviewer, referring to the popular Vietnamese submarine sandwich.

"'I'm a pho fan and have tried many places but This is by far the best pho I have ever had. I'm very sensitive to MSG, so I can tell if the food was made with plenty of it," another reviewer wrote.

The health department will allow the restaurant to reopen once it corrects the violations. You can search for restaurant violations on the King County website.

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