Pho Tam

I wish this place would re-​open soon! Miss the Phở!

Phở Tam to remain closed for the near future, until the owners undertake a renovation, according to what they told officials from the Central District Health Department.

It has been 3 years since I have eaten at Phở Tam for good reason. The food was good and I never got sick thankfully but I saw the way food was being handled in the kitchen that really frightened me. That being said this article on them being shut down does not surprise me but it does relieve me that something is being done about sanitary conditions there so people don’t get sick. Time to clean up your act Phở Tam.

This place is back in action so I decided to update my review. The girl that cooks and works the front is killing it for them. It’s nice to be able to modify my order slightly and it comes out perfect.
Love the spicy chicken, fresh rolls and the spicy beef phở!
Definitely worth coming back if you took a break when the quality of food declined.

The food is great. Patience is a virtue. Order anything in the menu. #7 keeps me coming back. The beef noodle soup has great flavor. The more traditional Asian fare won’t disappoint either. My only disappointment is the service when it’s busy but I try to avoid those times anyway. Enjoy.

Love a good hole in the wall! Eat here every chance I get! Like walkin through the back lol

This place took a nose dive. Filthy… Last time we were here we couldn’t finish our Phở. It was off and we found numerous hairs. If you walk through the backdoor and observe the filth, you will walk right back out. It’s a reflection of their lack of pride in their establishment and food. It’s gross… Everyone loves a dive, but a clean dive.

Good Vibe. Great Service. This is the second time I have been by. The 1^st time we had the beef phở. It was the first rain of this fall & it really hit the spot.
Yesterday came by to try the bahn xeo. It was a bit of a disappointment. I have had it many times before & this was not what I expected. It looked good on the plate, but it was so heavy & it did not have the light crispy edges I was looking forward to. It was also served with iceberg. I was looking forward to the same greens that are served w/​phở soup. The taste was in there somewhere. It was hard to tell because it was so greasy. I did notice many people looking over at out table and asking what we were eating. I would venture a guess that it is not ordered very much, so the cooking technique required to pull off the light omelet I was expecting is not practiced often.
Also, do not bother to order the «Japanese kabob.» Being Japanese myself, I could tell that the sauce was from a bottle for it was too thick and cloyingly sweet. The meat was dry, lacked any seasoning & it had celery on the kabob. Really… celery?
The people that run the place are very service oriented. They figured out that my friend and I were sharing a plate & offered, after our order was placed, to split the oder for us. It was lunch time and pretty busy. I felt that one gesture, was going the extra mile for their customers.
Hopefully, they will read this review and take this critique to heart also.

Bun no hue was nice and spicy, broth was very good and the noodles/​veggie balance was decent. Café sua was good too. Would definitely go back but wish there were more options on the bun choices and maybe a vegetable broth option for vegetarians.

I have eaten a lot of Vietnamese in my life. Honestly this is the worst I have ever eaten ever. The phở was a joke and the ingredients were little and cheap. I have never seen so little ingredients in phở ever. There was no flavor at all in the broth. To meet used in both products tasted very old, and to be honest with you I’m exercising my faith and hoping that I do not die food poisoning. To call this place a Vietnamese restaurant would be like saying Pizza Hut is fine Italian food. If you’re looking for a good Vietnamese restaurant do yourself a favor and look elsewhere because quality and quality are both absent here.

Disappointing. Banh Mi was sad. Stingy with the meat and the pickled veggies tasted off. Too heavy on the mayo. I’m surprised that anyone who has ever had a decent Banh Mi would rave about these. My friends had the grilled pork rice dish and wouldn’t order it again. This is the first Vietnamese restaurant we tried in Boise, and I’m hoping there are better options. The hostess/​waitress was very friendly and gave good service, though. Truly baffled by the 4– star rating.

Did something stupid. Walked in the back door past the kitchen saw all manor of filth, grime, grease build up everywhere. Further down the hall a bowl on the floor in the middle of a door jam full of some kind of liquid (leak in the roof? mid hall grease trap?). Walked further more dirt, grime grease everywhere. HEALTH DEPARTMENT WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU??? Still not done being stupid my wife and I order. Some PHO? which turned out to be some kind of soup kit and a couple of sandwiches. I ordered a beef one that was sooooooo sweet I took two bites and chucked it. My wife ordered a teriyaki chicken and could not find any chicken in it looked like beef? pork?. The soup even though it says beef had ultra thin slices of some kind of unrecognizable (I guess) had tripe and I really don’t know what all else. In all it was just flavored water. We ordered «to go» so like I said they gave us several bags of veggies and other stuff that we weren’t sure what do with but guessed you;re supposed to throw it all in the broth??? No instructions but thought it had way too much of a lot of spices we don’t care for.
Just hope we don’t get sick. ¾s of it all went in the trash.
Stupid stupid stupid. Could’ve bought almost 4 gallons of gas instead.

Such good food. Thoughtfully prepared and well balanced menu. Only really tried the Phở, Vietnamese pancake, and salad rolls. All very good. Comfortable vibe and great service. Switched one of the TVs to Disney for our three year old without asking. Very good prices too.

Dicey looking exterior in strip mall right on North Orchard with perilous parking in front shallow lot. Would have driven right on by but for some very good Unilocal reviews.
It got better when I opened the door to the small space with formica tables and vinyl chairs for the promising ahhhh… roma of a SE Asian kitchen (4 stars). Hot oil, fresh chili peppers, grilling meats, cilantro, fish sauce and simmering broth all perfumed the air.
Very friendly hostess behind the counter (order there for take out) invited us to take a seat anywhere, brought us menus and cheerfully took and delivered our order (4 stars).
The food (2 stars) didn’t live up to the aroma for my husband and me. Maybe it was simply what we ordered. Probably very good as Vietnamese fare goes in Boise and authentic if the roughly one third of diners during a brisk lunchtime being of SE Asian heritage with some speaking Asian languages are any gauge. But we had in mind other wonderful Vietnamese food we’ve enjoyed in other locales.
All in all we’re glad we went in once but this fell short for us. Still it is worth a try keeping in mind the following:
NO FRILLS AMBIANCE
No frills is not uncommon in our experience with small ‘mom and pop shop’ Vietnamese restaurants so no worries about that. This is the kind of place where the dirty plate and leftover bussing tubs are on a cart which gets wheeled around to tables while you are eating with dirty plates scraped into it. Again no worries if you know that going in. But we saw as drawback from windows to floors to table tops to condiment bottles on same, everything looked a little in need of cleaning.
FOOD
We didn’t even need the menu to know what we wanted when we saw Banh Xeo ($ 5.99) on the board on the wall. This rice flour and egg Vietnamese «omelet» typically filled with bean sprouts and pork or shrimp or both is one of our favorites and not often found. The protocol we were taught by a Vietnamese host in times past to eat it is you tear it with your hands, roll it in leafy greens that come with it, add Vietnamese herbs as provided and dip it in nuoc chom (the salty, sweet, sour fish sauce based addictively good Vietnamese food staple).
While the nuoc cham was very good, the Bahh Xeo was greasy compared to other places where we’ve enjoyed it. It came with soggy pieces of iceberg lettuce offered as the green that were literally so dripping wet we had to dry them with napkins at the table to use them. The only herb served, cilantro, was a bit past prime.
We also had spring rolls ($ 3.50 and two generous sized to the serving); while clearly freshly made and served with peanut dipping sauce, they were missing anything in the way of herbs but cilantro.
We also tried the grilled pork and vegetable banh mi; perfect texture to the sandwich roll, great pickled veggies with a kick of hot fresh pepper, lots of cilantro and yummy grilled pork, although very little of it. But at a mere $ 3.50 for the sandwich one can’t complain when ingredients are smaller as we’ve paid more than twice that for banh mi in other locales.
Tables around us seemed to be focused mainly on ordering noodle dishes, phở or bun, so maybe our food experience would have been better had we joined that trend.
PRICES
Prices ranged from roughly $ 3.50 to $ 10.00 with only one item, a seafood soup at $ 19.99, going above that threshold. A bargain.
CHINESE & JAPANESE ITEMS ON MENU
Chicken pot stickers, «Japanese kabob» (per menu), Crab Rangoon, Lemon Chicken and a few other Asian but decidedly not Vietnamese dishes on menu.
LIBATIONS:
Soft drinks, a handful of beer options and Café Sua or Den too… yahoo for the two latter Vietnamese coffee drinks.
THIS N THAT:
1) PARKING
The small shallow lot to which this little strip mall located restaurant fronts is tough to pull into tougher to back out of. Note there is parking in the back as well and you can enter there couple of steps into the back door of the space.
2) ACCESSIBILITY
Front door requires step up from the front parking lot onto a sidewalk. Makeshift and in disrepair cement ramp is blocked if parking space it empties onto is in use. Two steps up to back door. All one level once inside. All tables standard height. But those steps may as well be the Himalayas to Yeeps and other Peeps who use wheelchairs and knowing before one goes is key.

Recently, I made a rule that I wouldn’t post a review unless I had visited the restaurant at least twice. However, the exception to the rule is spelled P-​H-​O-​T-​A-​M.
Worth the gamble…
Winner. Winner. Viet Dinner.
The service? Prompt. Courteous. Just right.
The neighborhood? Ignore it. A true diamond in the rough.
Don’t be put off driving down Orchard Street, thinking that Phở Tam is just another one of the dozens of dive joints in the area.
The focus here is on the food. And if I had to break it down to just one word…
Unrivaled.
Now, I’ve been around the Boise food scene pretty hard core for the past year. And in that time, I’ve been a little let down by the fact I wasn’t writing home to momma about the Vietnamese fare in this town.
Sad face no more. Break out the pen and paper, folks…
Dear Mom,
I have some amazing news to share with you!
Today, the most glorious banh mi sandwich was in my happy face, my oh so happy face! And as if that wasn’t enough, finally, I found the goose that laid a golden bowl of phở on my table.
And guess what? I ate that, too. All of it. In the same restaurant. In the same meal! Like whaaaat? Yeah. Crazy, I know.
But it’s okay. A small bowl and a sandwich was only 10 bucks. Enough left over to put gas in the car.
Anywho, love you to pieces and miss you, too!
Your Always Hungry Son,
Treasure Valley Chef

I order the phở tai once a week and it’s consistently excellent. Broth is rich but not too salty, beef slices are tender and rare, side of sprouts basil, peppers and lime are always fresh and crisp.
The fresh rolls are really fresh (not pre rolled and soggy). Peanut sauce is best with so chili paste added.
The service people are friendly and swift. Price inline for Idaho phở.

Bun Cha Gio is my favorite. It has a lot of veggies, Vietnamese egg rolls, and fish sauce. Great for hot days because it’s so fefreshing. The flavor from the fish sauce (mixed with hot sauce, rice vinegar, and sugar) is so tasty. The Phở is also good. My boys always order #1. It has everything in it. Our most favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Boise area.

There’s gotta be something about Boise and Crab Rangoon. You see it on the menu of almost every self-​purported Asian restaurant, till you start to question whether your Chinese mother had spoon fed them to you as a child, or whether they are an invention of some American with a cream cheese fetish.
Yes, Crab Rangoon is on the menu here, but that, thankfully, doesn’t detract from the other «Vietnamese offerings» Phở Tam has to offer.
Had the Phở Ga and a sandwich. Both were very good by Boise standards (average in any other Asian-​influxed city). The Phở came with a helping of the usual sprouts, basil and lime — though all were looking a bit sad, as they’d been sitting around for a while. Broth was flavorful and not too greasy. The sandwich was a great deal — $ 3.50 and it came warm with flavorful beef and fresh veggies.
The restaurant set up is a bit off putting when you enter — the server (a CAUCASIAN female — an absolutely FIRST in any true-​blooded Vietnamese restaurant that I’ve seen) — sits despondently behind a counter with a lit-​up sign of all the most popular dishes Phở Tam has to offer hanging above her head. You can either order at the counter or sit down and she will bring you menus and take your orders.
On the early Saturday afternoon we went, the place was quiet and service was fast. Most people were getting take out.
The menu online is misleading, as it mentions rice noodles (my favorite), which weren’t on the menu in the restaurant. This was odd, as Vietnamese grilled meats and seafood are usually some of the more popular items. Instead, Phở Tam crams every kind of Asian into its menu, with a lot of Chinese and rice dishes and some sweet ‘n sour concoction. Can’t blame them. It’s Boise, after all, where ANY kind of Asian is few and far between.

I have come to enjoy the very diverse flavor profile of the «phở» dish. Slightly different everywhere you go, Phở Tam is one my favorite. The one thing I have learned by eating phở is that I should order the small portion, I took the advice of my gut this time and ordered a small #1 which comes with the Vietnamese meat ball, tripe and strip steak. It was very good, I prefer fatty tripe over the stringy kind but no complaints here. I also ordered a small order of the chicken pot stickers (fried) they were also good but I think the oil needed to be changed in the fryer. However that did not compromise much of the flavor. I received a generous portion of mung bean spouts and Thai basil to accompany my dish which was appreciated, I love to fill the bowl with the veggies. Takes phở to a whole new level. I love the fact they offer all of the sauces to add to my dish on my own such as the chili sauce, Sriracha, and fish sauce!
Service was good for what is expected in an Asian restaurant, they want to get to business and make your food because they know that’s what makes you happy, no fluff just get to business. People often perceive this as rudeness which isn’t true, it’s a culture thing, they know that what truly makes one happy is a full stomach. A stomach full of delicious food and that’s what they provide. Phở Tam, a Boise Staple and a must have.

This was the worst «Vietnamese» food I’ve ever had. The phở was not even close to traditional. Who puts lettuce in their phở? Yuck. And the pork and shrimp phở ended up with something chicken like, wanna be calamari (I’m sure it wasn’t) and Chinese BBQ pork?! So random. The cha gio was also bad and made in won ton instead of rice paper. Terrible.