Roll Play: The Happy Eatery

Ordered delivery, thank you UberEats, from this location and my pho arrived piping hot. The veggies and herbs were super fresh and the noodles were bountiful. I love their oxtail broth, especially when I'm under the weather. Service is always top notch regardless of the RP location. I haven't had the opportunity to visit the brick and mortar but online pictures present a beautiful decor with plenty of seating.

Located next to the bustling Rosslyn Station, Happy Eatery is a modern take on classic Vietnamese fare. Situated in a sleek building with floor-to-ceiling windows and colorful floral murals adorning the walls, you enter and walk up a flight of stairs to the counter where you can order. There's plenty of seating around a corner, and once you order, you can sit wherever you'd like: the layout of the space is a bit odd for now, as it seems they are doing some construction. At around 7pm on a Friday night, the space was around 3/4 full, but not too noisy at all.The menu is great in that it offers a range of Vietnamese fare that's highly customizable: you can choose from some pre-set specials like their Spicy Oxtail Pho or Seasonal Salmon Rice Bowl, or create your own bowl/soup/salad/sandwich from scratch. While this isn't necessarily the most authentic place, I really did appreciate how I was able to tailor my order exactly to my preferences. I ordered their Spicy Oxtail Pho with Chicken ($12.50 for base pho, +$0.99 for spicy oxtail flavoring, +$1.49 for chicken) and Low-Carb Noodles (extra $2.99), and it came out in less than ten minutes! Just as a side note: they are a partner of the inKind/noshd apps, but if you'd like to use those to pay, you have to order directly through the app. The pho itself was surprisingly good, coming from a frequent diner of Pho 75 (my barometer for authentic, cheap pho). The broth itself really did taste of the richness of oxtail, and the spice was a perfect level to be just hot enough to feel it without being overly spicy and unpalatable to most people. The chicken itself was generously portioned: they say it's a quarter pound of chicken thigh, but I think they gave me more! It's quite well-seasoned, tender, and juicy. Lastly, the low-carb noodles were surprisingly good at replicating the texture of real rice noodles: they were a bit bouncier than the real thing, but I didn't mind at all (I love a good QQ texture!). One thing I didn't love was that the pho came in a cardboard bowl, so it went cold fairly quickly. Overall, Happy Eatery is a fun modern take on Vietnamese cuisine, and while it's a bit pricier than your average pho place, I think you're paying more for the ambiance, customizability, and quality of ingredients. I'm looking forward to stopping in again to try some of their other menu items!

This time around I tried the new Beef Brisket Pho and let me tell you, the brisket alone makes it well worth it. Fatty cut and generous helping, each bite of the pho surrounded by the trademark oxtail broth and other fixings made forget the frigid weather outside. I unfortunately had to take this to go because of work, but the restaurant has such a cute seating area with a nice window. Also did you know, the happy eatery has a deal if you order on uber eats to buy one get one free? I cannot imagine a better deal when we are talking about this level of flavor.

As a Pho lover, I'd been eyeing The Happy Eatery for quite some time now. Finally got the chance to pop in on a Wednesday afternoon.I ordered the Spicy Oxtail Pho and was very excited to dig in. However, the broth and pieces of meat were mediocre. Not too much flavor and not particularly spicy to my taste buds. To drink, I got the Vietnamese cold brew with matcha cold foam, which sounded great in theory. However, the coffee was WAYY too bitter - I prefer my coffee on the stronger side, but this was not enjoyable at all.For this bowl + cold brew coming out to nearly $20, I did not think it was worth the cost. However, the staff was very kind and let me exchange my cold brew for a classic Vietnamese Iced Coffee.The ambiance is a beautiful high rise - one that never gets old! I would come back to Happy Eatery to see if the pho has improved, but this would not be my first choice for a good bowl of pho while in Rosslyn/DC.

Was in town for an event and this was the closest place that wasn't a fast food joint. They're renovating but the upstairs is pretty nice considering. Also- tho they have counter service, if you're dining in, you can just go to the table and scan the QR code to order. I ordered at the kiosk not knowing and they still brought the food out to me. Great service. I got a signature bowl with a mix of braised oxtail and lemongrass chicken. It was delicious. Will def be back!

Extremely nice establishment, although pricey in my personal opinion. The banh mi tasted good, but I personally found it too soggy. I had my banh mi with braised oxtail meat. I also had the Vietnamese coffee, which was very good, but too small in my opinion. Otherwise, the service and the establishment itself was great.

I was really looking forward to trying The Happy Eatery's pho. Unfortunately, the whole experience was a bit disappointing. To start, the restaurant was dirty, the wait time felt like forever and they weren't even busy. We ordered the beef and chicken pho. The broth was too sweet for our liking, couldn't be fixed with Sriracha sauce. The beef was tasteless, and had a weird texture. The chicken was over seasoned, not like traditional white meat chicken breast. Sadly, we will not be returning.

This place has amazing food and spectacular deals! My friend and I ordered here twice and the first time we loved the food so much we forgot to take pictures!Here's the run down:Thai basil chicken: YUM Veggie Pho with spicy broth: Yummy and very plentiful! Nice portion of broth, noodles and tofu. There were lot of white onions when we first ordered, so we omitted them the second time.Veggie spring rolls: delicious! Good crunch with delicious sauces. My friend and I loved the Sriracha aïoli! If you order off of Uber there are a lot of buy one get one free options for various items. And if you order during happy hour, you'll save money too. :)Definitely a win win!I'll be ordering from here again!! I hope to go to the restaurant too!

FOODWe ordered their popcorn chicken and spicy fries. Both came with sauces (selection of hot/sour, sriracha aioli, etc.) and complemented both items well. The fries were particularly the star of the show-- crispy on the outside yet soft on the inside. The chicken was a little gristley, which I'm not a fan of but was still pretty solid.DRINKSWe ordered their strawberry matcha dalgona, which was absolutely delicious. I do wish the dalgona-to-milk ratio was a bit more even.SERVICEThe staff are really kind and friendly! My friend didn't want matcha on her drink, and they accommodated with extra strawberry topping.AMBIANCEThe interior is very modernly decorated, and there are different types of seatings available depending on what you're looking for-- seating pads on a elevated platform, standard tables for working, and counter seating.

I would like to thank the crew at the Happy Eatery for being so accommodating after such a disastrous evening. I had placed a large order of food to be delivered in anticipation of inclement weather. Unfortunately Uber Eats completely messed up the delivery. When I opened up the bag that was delivered, I found only a few containers of soup. The rest of the order had been left behind. I called the Uber eats delivery guy to ask him to go pick up the rest of the order, and he refused. The staff at the eatery also tried to get him to come back for it, but to no avail. His excuse was that he was already too far away. When I tried to contact Ubereats on their app to explain the situation, they gave me a $5 credit! This was totally unacceptable since I am now out a bunch of money with no dinner. Not only that, this whole ordeal with calling back and forth, etc took up 3 hours with money spent and no food in sight. I called Happy Eatery and they said that the order was still there and that I could drive over to get it. It was a bit of distance for me but I made the drive and not only did I get the original items, they generously provided additional food to compensate for the inconvenience. I was famished at the end of this ordeal, but I was thankful for the kind customer service I received at the Happy Eatery.