Vina Pho & Grill

Great phở and service. Although they never answer their phone when you call for take-​out or just for general questions. I end up calling May Wah half the time and phở Vina ends up losing $$$. They need to get a better phone service or better servers who care about their business more.

Good Phở! Maybe not the best service like everyone might say, but when was the last time anyone went to phở expecting fine dining… Its phở. A few bucks cheaper and it would have 5 stars.

Uneven service. Uneven quality of food. Below average Phở experience. Certainly not a three-​star

This phở is good. The broth is definitely the best in Boulder but only better than a couple of the places in the Bloomfield/​Denver area. I only have two complaints.
The first is that the service takes FOREVER. I have eaten here many times and not once have I been able to dine-​in in under an hour. Phở should usually be pretty quick too since assumedly they have already made the broth. Spring rolls and coffee should also be pretty quick but then again I’m not a chef.
The second is that you don’t get a lot of meat. It may be nit-​picky but most places give you at least twice the amount of meat this place typically gives you. Disappointing.
Otherwise four stars. Everything else I have tried on the menu has also been pretty good as well.

One of the best phở places I’ve found in Boulder. They also have delicious flavors of boba tea!!! Mmmm

It is a shitty restaurant who has a bad service and who always refuses services to the customer just for some more tips. Also, he always excused that they had less employees for services to everyone. Plus the waiting time is too long, it will ruin your day! Don’t go there anymore!

BEST PHO IN BOULDER. However, I cannot give this place a 5 star rating for the following reasons.
The first being that they do not deliver. I mean, c’mon we live in 2016, if you can’t eat it in the comfort of your pajamas while watching Netflix, something’s not right.
The second being there is no happy hour. We live in a town of broke college students. Nothing’s better than good food and cheap drinks.
Other than that this place is real ⁵⁄₅. Best tasting broth in greater Boulder area at reasonable prices, not to mention their killer appetizers. WE NEED DELIVERY!

Normal PHO. Worst Service.
Had been here several times, always need to wait for super long time. Either order or check, it takes pretty long time. Please be patient.
Normal PHO as others, nothing special.

Disappointed that I couldn’t give this place a higher rating, but I have to take into account the entire experience overall…
The food, when it finally arrived, was delicious! We ordered the crispy vegetarian spring rolls and then 2 bowls of phở. The spring rolls were just as described: crispy, not greasy, and the ingredients inside were fresh. The sauce and veggies on the side were also very tasty.
I had the Rao phở (veggie) and my beau enjoyed the flank steak and brisket phở. Both had a flavorful broth and the texture of the veggies were just right. The portions of the sprouts and sides were plentiful, and Adam said his brisket was tender. We were pleased they had gigantic bottles of sriracha and hoisin sauce on the tables, otherwise, we would have been kept waiting 10 minutes to get these dropped off to the table!
In my opinion, Vina has better tasting phở then Black Pepper, however, the service was by far inferior. The main waiter was kind and apologetic when we saw him, but appeared to be manning the entire restaurant. There were about 15 – 20 patrons dining, and for one or two waiters to be serving that amount of guests was unacceptable. By the end of our dinner we were so thirsty I had to stop a young waiter just to ask for refills. He wasn’t as kind as the main waiter and almost seemed annoyed when I asked. Sorry dude — sriracha and jalapeños are spicy!
For 8pm on a Friday night, they should have been better prepared for a late night rush, rather than having guests wait 30 minutes to place an order, and another 20 just to pay the tab. Sadly, with so many options for dining out in the Denver metro area, we won’t be back to this establishment. Skimming other reviews for Vina, it appears the consensus is the same: good food/​not so good service.

This used to be the place for phở in Boulder for me. The food was always solid (I usually order phở or the Imperial rolls & grilled beef noodle bowl) and service was decent. However, my two most recent visits were both disappointing. The first time, I thought they were just having a bad day, we all have that once in a while, and I was quite understanding. The second time, it took so long to get our server to talk to us (it was not so busy that day, the restaurant was about 40% full at the time). Every time we tried to talk to him, he would just walk past our table. When we finally ordered our food, it took him over 15 minutes to bring it out — If you’ve had phở, you know that’s a very long time when they’re not busy. As for the food, I ordered a small P7 (rare steak, brisket, tendon and tripe). Upon arrival, I stirred it a little bit, and I was only able to find a tiny piece of tendon, and a string of tripe (see the photo, I promise I didn’t eat anything yet!!! that’s how much you get). The rare steak was cooked and not even a little bit pink.
It was hard for me to call that another bad day, and I am afraid that I need to start looking for another place in Boulder for phở, when I don’t feel like driving to Broomfield!

Came here on Friday night and while the food was good, service left a lot to be desired. Busy place and there were only 2 servers – so I guess I understand why it took about 30 mins to just get drinks. Place definitely needs to up their staff – especially on predictable busy nights (Friday)

Needs more than five stars!!! OMG. Best noodle bowl ever. Went for lunch with the intention of over ordering so I would have leftovers for dinner. That didn’t happen… Food was so awesome I destroyed all of it. Will absolutely be back. Maybe for dinner!!! The décor was lovely beautiful colors, open feel, very nice bar area. Service attentive. Everything perfect.

I think I need to always say that as far as phở goes, I have probably eaten it at over 40 different establishments around the Denver metro area. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I eat it more than once a week on average. So, I’ll just break the components down.
Broth is above average, especially for Boulder
Noodles are above average, they are typically firm and not too cooked so that they get soggy in the hot soup
’Additions’ are average because they NEVER bring enough limes (why broth isn’t great) and they do not being culantro (not a typo)
Meat is average cause they never bring enough in the soup…
I will never rate a phở restaurant on the service because phở is about phở and nothing else.
The noodle bowls are usually decent, I typically go for the pork and the imperail rolls are nice as well. Phở, phở, phở

This is a phở & imperial review only. And me coming from the Bay Area we were spoiled with all sorts of asian foods. This is a place we would definitely go back to for Phở! And I enjoyed the imperial rolls too. They were both delicious and tasty. For service, for us at a vietnamese restaurant there were only two people and they were working hard for a pretty fun restaurant on a Friday night. So thumbs up! Give this place a try!

The first chill of fall always stirs cravings for a hot bowl of phở for this Saigon-​born girl.
The Place: bright & warm space; 80% of tables filled by the time we leave; half of the tables were Asians, so I initially had my hopes up.
The Food: we ordered the Fried Calamari appetizer, Phở with Brisket & Flank Steak, Noodle Bowls with Fried Imperial Rolls. The bland & tasteless, heavily battered, rubbery strips of calamari tasted like it was from an old frozen bag that had been damaged by freezer burn. We returned it after the first bite. The Noodle Bowl had a generous amount of crispy, but marginal, Imperial Rolls & the fish sauce that accompanied it was too sweet for my taste, but overall decent. But the Phở is why we are here and why I might not come back. The broth was bland, nothing like properly seasoned & cooked for hours with beef bones phở broth SHOULD taste like. The noodles and meat were fine. Phở should be accompanied by a generous plate of sprouts, limes, peppers, & most important, various leafy herbs. Mine had 2 twigs of the same herb, which is indicative of the rest of their food… they are doing just enough to get by in Boulder, and it seems to be working for them.

The good: Food was amazing! The mature server (probably the owner!) is WONDERFUL!
The bad: Well, the service was pretty terrible. (The young guy)
Here is most of what the young guy did wrong:
He didn’t ask us if we wanted anything to drink. He didn’t introduce himself. He took our order AFTER the table that was sat after us. He never refilled our drinks. He didn’t pre bus our table. He never check on us. And he sat on his phone on the floor the whole time. (See photo as evidence)
We will return but we will ask to sit in someone else’s section!

Me and my roommate was looking for a good place to eat and we stumbled upon this place. I ordered the noodle bowl with grilled beef and imperial egg rolls. The portions are a little weak compared to other Vietnamese restaurants I’ve been to, but it got me full. The beef was tasty, the imperial rolls were not good though.
I saw a couple who ordered boba drinks and I got excited –boba?!! I ordered the Thai tea with boba and it was delicious!
Prices were cheap, $ 10 and boba drink was about $ 4.

This is my second favorite Phở place in Boulder. The broth is very average, but the service is great. I always come when it’s not busy so I don’t know how they deal with a rush, but I’ve seen them packed on cold days at lunch. Their stew is also very good. Not much to really say other than I dig it.
EDIT: for some reason they’re completely unwilling to do a half-​order of the spring rolls for one person who doesn’t really need to order the full six-​roll appetizer. After asking the server was really rude and condescending. Took down the star rating today after this experience, probably won’t come back here again. 5÷3÷15

I never leave Unilocal reviews, but I was shocked to see so many people hating on Vina Phở that I felt compelled to comment. I’ve spent a good amount of time in Vietnam, around six weeks total, and have eaten Vietnamese food everywhere from Bangkok to LA to Paris.
That being said, I can safely say that this place is GOOD. I have lunch here 2 – 3 times a week and the phở is honestly the closest I’ve found to authentic Saigon-​style phở in the US. The only disappointing dish I’ve had is bun bo hue but I’ve been very pleased with everything else.
Shame on all of these Unilocal reviewers with dietary restrictions, or who have only eaten here once, or who expected Applebees’ style service who didn’t like this place.
And frankly anyone who expects to receive a super flavorful vegetable phở at any restaurant is an idiot.

The service alone was barely a half star. We waited about 10 minutes or so to even get our drinks. We ordered 2 phở bowls and an order of spring rolls… coming from FT Worth, a city with a surprisingly high Viet population, I’m used to not so sanitary looking environment or great service because of language barriers but their food cannot make up for those items. It was barely decent & I was definitely craving a little more flavor. I’m sure there are better places off Federal or in Broomfield — make the drive!