Pho Tastic Vietnamese Restaurant

An amazing place, so close to home too! I have been looking for a Phở place and very happy to see it come around. Our server, Andy, very energetic and amazing service. When I asked for a Vietnamese coffee his eyes lit up and we talked for a while!
Quality of food matched the service and the phở was exactly as I imagined. Had the spring rolls as an appetizer and they were loaded and delicious! Looking forward to my next visit!

Shrimp dumpling appetizer has mint in it, yuck.
Crêpe appetizer had a metal lock washer in it. WTF?
Noodle shrimp main #18 was greasy. Like burnt oil. Never again. But staff was very friendly
Tip, bring metal detector and your own cork screw if drinking wine.

All I have to say is FINALLY! I have been patiently waiting for a Vietnamese place to pop up nearby… waaay to many chain restaurants around here if you ask me.
I have been to many Vietnamese restaurants on the west coast and throughout the country and this one manages to compare equally to the others and exceed expectations.
I’m quite specific with my orders when I go out to eat but they had no problems accommodating my requests. We ordered the egg rolls to start (I recommend these), then I ordered a chicken broth Phở with grilled shrimp instead of the usual steamed, less noodles AND on the side, and with no cilantro… aaaaand it was absolutely perfect. My boyfriend ordered #19, Pad Thai with tofu, and it too was excellent.
Family owned, friendly staff, quality food, great portions, great prices.
We will be back, many times!

I was hesitant to give this 4 stars, because it really is very good. So I want it to succeed in this town plagued by an infestation of chain restaurants. On the other hand, I feel compelled to give an honest review. Call it the age-​old conflict between self interest and integrity. Not that I claim to occupy any lofty moral highground. Lend me some $, and you’ll see that severely put to the test :) But this is serious — it’s about good eating.
But I digress. Back to my review of Photastic. My GF and I went both went for the Phở. She ordered the #8, or «The American», as I knicknamed it. Nothing too strange in it, like tripe, tendons, or Vietnamese meat balls f’rinstance. Slices of eye round being the only protein. I had the#7 which does have the necessary «nasty bits» like the before mentioned tendon, tripe, & flank (no Vietnamese meat balls unfortunately) — this is more authentic Phở in my opinion. They were both very good — not 5 stars by NYC standards mind you, but considering that we’re in Brick…
Finding Phở with the“nasty bits” is an accomplishment in itself, since some so called Vietnamese restaurants won’t even offer it fearing that it won’t appeal to American tastes, and in some locations they are no doubt right.
The one disappointment was the spring roll. It was basically, shredded lettuce wrapped in rice paper, with hints of shrimp deftly hidden inside, and it was under salted, although definitely better UNDERSALTED than Oversalted.) Hence the 4 stars.
I saw someone gave this place 3 stars, deducting 2 because they don’t serve Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwiches served on a French baguette). I love Banh Mi as well, but to take stars off because an item is not served, makes no sense. It’s like downgrading a French restaurant because they don’t serve cassoulette or crepes.
Overall, this place offers very good Vietnamese cuisine at great prices.
I would recommend trying it.

Oh man, here it goes the first guy to give this place something thats not a complete 5 stars! After living up north and being a student at Rutgers, Vietnamese food was always around the corner. Their was no shortage of Vietnamese food in Edison/​New Brunswick, so it was easy to get a good vibe of what was good and what down right just sucked.
This restaurant on the other hand was on the brighter side of things, offering Vietnamese food in an area that lacked a multicultural presence in cuisines. But alas, I must give my unbias review of my experience.
For the price, this place is great! Usually Vietnamese places are cheap, so if you happen to go to one with Phở prices around $ 10+ or more, than you went to the wrong one! The prices of Phở range from $ 7-​$ 9 and rice dishes from $ 8-​$ 11 minus their specials.
The atmosphere is what you’d expect for a Vietnamese place, nothing exquisite and nothing terrible, just good ol’ seats! My girlfriend and I ordered the Phở special broken rice with chicken.
The Phở was big, had delicious broth, good noodles, and good amounts of meat. Also the main thing with good Phở is that it was not oily, lower less maintained broths usually have more oil and taste like it came from stock, but this was not. So the Phở get’s an A+ in my book. The broken rice with chicken did not, the portion was a little smaller than usual and the reason for the one star less review was because my chicken tasted dry and tasted like they reused it or reheated the chicken. Or something along the lines that it was not fresh, but it was definitely dry and chew (not in a good way).
Normally I’d mark this down to 3 stars, but I’ll give them the benefit of a doubt since their a new restaurant and come back again since winter right around the corner! And plus, who could resist a nice hot bowl of Phở in the winter!

After what seems like an eternity, my little hometown FINALLY gets a little shred of culture in the form of a downright tasty Vietnamese restaurant — a refreshing change of pace from all the big-​box stores, burger places, and chain food garbage that seems to constantly pop up here. «Phở Tastic» isn’t a huge place — it resides in the same location as the former 25 Burgers /​«Burger 25», and an incredibly short-​lived Portuguese (?) restaurant of some sort. But don’t let the small size fool you, there’s some pretty big flavors inside.
When I first walked in, I was greeted by the incredibly friendly staff, and grabbed a seat. There’s a decent selection of phở (noodle soup) to choose from, as well as rice and noodle dishes, and a few appetizers. Unfortunately for me, all but two of the apps had shrimp in them, so I had to pass — though the egg rolls DID look pretty tasty. Hopefully in the future they add some of those tasty pork-​only rolls to the menu. No big deal, I was here for the phở anyway.
I ordered myself some phở bo vien (meatball), and a little while later, I had a nice piping hot bowl of the delicious stuff in front of me. For those of you who have never had phở — it’s a rice noodle soup served with a flavorful broth, meat (some of which is served rare and cooks in the hot broth), and is served with a plate of bean sprouts, basil, lime, and hot peppers. The broth is then altered to a person’s own tastes by adding any combination of those things, as well as hoisin (sweet plum) or sriracha to it. Let me tell you, I didn’t really need to «doctor up» my broth too much here — it was pretty damn tasty as-​is. Portion sizes and price was about the same as most of the places I’ve been to, with a hot bowl of phở costing about $ 7.99, a good bargain.
The service was fantastic, with the owners here clearly caring about their customers. If you’ve never had Vietnamese, they’ll gladly explain to you the dishes, and it’s very clear that they care about the food quality. I’m really glad this place opened, with the weather getting colder, I can see myself here time and time again for a nice piping hot bowl of deliciousness.