La Sen Restaurant

My pork sandwich from a delivered lunch was so delicious, but unfortunately there was a piece of hard gray plastic in it. This hurt my tooth and I’m thankful I didn’t swallow it. Accidents happen I guess… at least it was just the one piece? Excepting that, would eat this again…

I had to take one star away because this place has changed. Food wise it’s still awesome. The feel of the place has gone down a bit, though. It looks like they took some dining space away to add what looks like part of an office. They also decreased their business hours which makes it harder to eat here. I really hope business picks up for them. Would be sad to lose a favorite.
The business hours I saw posted in their window…
Monday-​Thursday — 11:00am-2:00pm
Friday — 11:00am-7:00pm
Saturday — 11:00am-3:00pm
Sunday — CLOSED

Update: still love the food but they open when they want to. Supposedly they’re catering but who knows if that’s true.

I grew up in East San Jose where legit Phở eats are a dime a dozen so it is nice that Fremont has something close to me.
Also, I grew up in a home where authentic phở was made often so I have to give this place three stars. That’s as good as it gets with my experience. (not a pro but I am a foodie)
Phở broth — On point, dark and tasty.
Fast service — yes and they refill my waters often
Nuoc Mam — delicious! I ordered it so I can have that with my spring rolls in addition to the peanut sauce.
I will be back as I usually am! :))

3 stars for the food and 0 stars for service. The food sanitation is also questionable. Although I have not seen them do it first hand, there were vegetable peelings in the bathroom sink, so I think they wash their vegetables in the bathroom.
The bald guy at the front who takes your order is one of the rudest people I’ve ever met and he clearly hates being there and dealing with customers. I ordered the seafood noodle soup and asked if they could substitute the squid with the other items (either shrimp or pork). He said that he would tell the kitchen, but then sat down after I paid. So I asked if he was going to talk to the chef and he rudely said that shrimp was more expensive and that he already typed in the request. But I watched him type in the order and he did not type in any special request. He was blatantly lying to me and could’ve just said no substitutions.
I’m never going back here again and will stick to my tried and true Phở Saigon Pasteur on Grimmer Blvd.

5 for the FOOD — literally this lunch made my day!
Dishes I’ve tried:
Shredded Potato Stiry Fry
Vegetable Vermicelli
Pure Amazing:
–The tons of peanut crumbles on top. Crunch. Peanutty richness.
–The onions (shallots). I don’t know what they do to these onions, but I’ve gotten two dishes and my taste buds always plead…“More onions!”
–Fake meat. I’m a vegetarian, but honestly don’t eat much tofu and am not keen on re-​creating the taste of meat. No «fakeon» or «chik’n» for yours truly, BUT I gobble the fake meat up here. This is a testament to the dishes.
–Sauces and spices are SPOT ON. There is some mint included and not overly sauced. Most importantly, (a pet peeve of mine that almost every restaurant hits on) their food is not dripping in oil. Save some for the cars.
Only complaint is the potatoes were a tiny bit too raw. Considering I loved every single other aspect of the dish, I’ll let this pass.
A blast of flavor — each combines to create — each bite is an experience for the tastebuds. That’s what makes this place so good.

I really like this place I always get the same thing (14B) but the bald guy (I’m guessing he’s the owner of the place) always seems he’s in a bad mood.

This is perfect example of how good a family run restaurant food tastes like.
Only problem is they close/​open whenever they want to.

This is a real gem, in Concord. Why drive to the City for good French food? First, the appetizers are outstanding, including a traditional escargot, along with a great calamari with strips of onion and bell peppers. The mains were great too, including coq au vin, duck breast, and lamb steak frites. Too full for dessert, but had them on previous visits, also quite creative and tasty. Nice wine list, including their bubblies!!!

They wouldn’t make the spring roll without pork and shrimp for me. They make the spring rolls fresh to order, but they wouldn’t do it for me. So I ordered the Vegetable Rice Noodle Soup and it was absolutely delicious.
The owner/​waiter could be a lot friendlier… the guy doesn’t smile or even try to be friendly. I love the food though

Surprisingly, Fremont doesn’t have many selections when it comes to great phở restaurants. La Sen is decent as far as Vietnamese food goes, but convenient for those in the tri-​city.
I came here with a group of friends and we ordered the phở ga (chicken phở) and goi cuon (spring rolls) among ourselves. The first thing that stuck out to me when our meal arrived was their presentation. It is absolutely rare for me to go to a phở restaurant that spends more than a second thinking about how the dish should look. I’m glad the price for presentation was not included in the price of the overall meal seeing as how you can still grab a budget lunch here that not only tastes good, but looks good too.
As for the phở, I have had better elsewhere, but I do like how their broth is on the lighter side. The freshness of their ingredients speak for themselves and are not masked by the synthetic flavorings of msg – or at least not that my taste buds could detect. The goi cuon, on the other hand, is quite dependent on the peanut sauce.
The most amazing part of our luncheon was the fact that my friends and I stayed here 30 minutes past their closing time without a single budge out the door. When it was clearly getting too late (and people have to go home!) the waiter respectfully informed us that the restaurant had been closed. I seriously have never experienced such an occasion before and am absolutely wow-​ed by their courteousness. That alone gives them an extra star in my book.

There are just too many choices around Fremont to put up with bad service and below average food. If you muster up the energy to drive to San Jose for Vietnamese food, the possibilities are endless .
With that said, I agree with many reviewers this place used to be decent when it first opened. As years passed, something happened to the management of this restaurant. It started disrespecting its customers and provide poorly made phở.
Do yourself a favor and go elsewhere. Too many places to go around the area to put up with this!

Must try it if you live in this area. Very delicious. Both of us enjoyed our meal a lot.

I went in there with my girlfriend to enjoy some phở together and it turned out that the women’s World Cup was on there too, so all the better.
We ordered right away and after craning our necks for a few minutes asked to be moved to a different table. The waiter then tells us that he can’t move us because «we’re already in the system».
This restaurant has a handful of tables and only a couple other customers leaving the vast majority of the store empty. Firstly, how complicated is this «system» for such a tiny restaurant, and what’s the big deal when the table we are asking to move to is one of many empty tables.
I ask again, thinking perhaps I have been misunderstood and I get the same response.
We cancelled the order, even payed for it even though it had been ordered mere minutes before, since they said it was «already made», just to avoid dispute. After standing there for a couple minutes longer, trying to wave down a waiter, two, actually saying that they could keep the money, we didn’t want the «already made» food anyway (one of which straight up ignored us, the other simply put up a finger) we left.
I have no opinion about the food. Hopefully your experience as a customer is better than mine. What happened to «take care of customers and business will take care of itself?» These guys seems to have it the other way around.

Ok, here’s the deal. I am usually pretty forgiving when I find thing in my food that are not supposed to be there. I get grossed out, order something else to eat, and then maaaaybe will come back a few months later if a friend suggests it. But this place pissed. me. off.
I came here last week with my cousin for a late lunch (2pm) and we both ordered a bun bo hue. Halfway through the meal, she found a hair (maybe 3 inches long) tangled in her noodles. I brought it to the attention of an employee there (the bald guy) and the first thing he said was (in a very accusatory tone), «Well it’s not my hair.» Let me reiterate. The guy was bald. He told us it was not his hair. We didn’t want to make a big deal about it, so we just asked for a replacement bowl. They took the noodles back, and told us they couldn’t make us another one because the kitchen was closed. Then the guy proceeds to tell us. are you ready for this. «When we get the beef, the cows still have hair sometimes.»
REALLY. Where are you ordering your beef where the cows have human hair on their bodies. Were they wearing a human hair wig for a special occasion, or are you just refusing to take responsibility for your food having hair in it? Seriously, if they just had just said sorry, we’ll take it back and we’ll take this off your bill since it had a hair in it and you didn’t eat it. everything would have been fine. They did end up taking the noodles off our bill, but not before refusing to admit fault and treating us like we were criminals trying to cheat them out of a bowl of bun bo hue.
We will be taking our money elsewhere.

Service was quiet… Décor was cute… Food was not impressive…
Overall: Forgetable!

Contributing another 1-​Star Review for this place, solely for their irregular hours.
I came to grab a bite early Monday night because I was extremely ill and just needed some hot soup and noodles.
Lo and Behold, this place was closed, with all the lights turned off, for no apparent reason.
Don’t know how good this place is, but I definitely don’t think it should be the top-​rated Phở place in the area if their hours are this irregular.

Convenient location in the neighborhood for a bowl of Phở. Quality, decent.
Cube steak was a big disappointment for me. I think if they cut the beef in bigger cubes the texture may be more juicy and less salty… Should go checkout cube steak dish from Ta Restaurant in Milpitas for reference. Just my two cents :)
Egg rolls, quality definitely need to improve as well…

Short Story:
The best phở place in Fremont.
Long Story:
I’ve been here several times and each time I’ve always been happy with the food. I usually order the phở with wontons or meatballs. Sometimes, I’ll order their spicy lemongrass chicken.
The prices here are a bit expensive for what you get, but they do make it good. That’s the good news, and here comes the bad. The service here is a bit underpar, even for a phở place.
Also, the place closes sometimes for catering events, but it’s sporadic. You have to call ahead to see if they are open. This sometimes sucks because while you understand restaurants have catering events, you don’t expect them to close the place down. I’ve been disappointed by them a few times by driving there and seeing they are closed. Still the food is very good and that keeps me going back.
Verdict: I’ll call ahead next time…

I had phở and bun bo hue here. Both were good, but bun bo hue was way too spicy for me… I ate like ¼ of it and stomach was burning. I wanted to eat more, but I was scared of the aftermath. I would tell them to make it mild next time.

Went here twice but sad to say I was disappointed both times.
Firstly, their food is relatively pricey compared to other restaurants around. $ 7−15ish.
Secondly, the food is DULL. Not much flavor in anything at all. I had a chicken phở and my mom had the shrimp fried rice.
LITERALLY shrimp fried rice cause she got ONE PIECE OF SHRIMP. Lolllll La Sen you tricky bastard
My soup barely had any flavor at all, very disappointed.
Service sucks. If you want anything done, you need to ask them yourself and trust me they will not come up to you…
If you want some good phở with good prices, you’ll have better luck at Basil Leaf or Vung Tau