Pho Tuong Lai Restaurant

This is a divey Vietnamese restaurant with No accompaniments along the dishes. For example, there were no herbs/​mint or greens served with the Cha Gio, no culantro/​saw grass or other herbs with the phở, no lettuce or herbs with the Vietnamese pancake/​crêpe.
As far as the flavour of the dishes — good to very good. However, the restaurant needs a good cleaning and utensils need to be replaced. I felt like I needed a good bath after visiting and dining here.
The place seems to be loved by locals/​regulars. Often, people came in and their dishes brought to them without a word from patron to owners. It portrayed a neighborhood joint where everyone knows each other. Sometimes it is at the expense of the other diners. The conversation was often loud and from one table to another and deterred the owner from being attentive to other patrons.

If you’re looking for a pretty place for a date then it’s not the place… But if you want some banging, ethentic Vietnamese food then come here! Love their mi ga (chicken noodle soup — egg noodles, chopped chicken dark or white meat, and hearty broth)!!! And try their soybean drink

This is one of these Vietnamese Mom and Pop that I love to go too. I am Vietnamese so it is hard for me to find a place that remains me of my parents cooking.
If you are looking for great services and a welcoming experience this isn’t the same because it is run by a Vietnamese family that isn’t fluent in English but they are very nice and kind people. I have been coming here since they open. On Sunday their Mi Ga (Chicken egg noodle) and on Saturday their Bun Bo Hue (spicy pork noodle) is the best. Phở is good 5 7 days a week.

On recommendation from one of my coworkers, I figured I’d give Phở Tuong Lai a try since I’ve been to a number of the other Vietnamese restaurants around the West Hartford area. This place is small and parking can be limited since you may have to park on the side of the road, but if you pull into the Bow Tie Cinemas parking lot across the street, you can safely park close by.
As mentioned before, this place is small, as in it probably only seats about a dozen people. We were welcomed by a super friendly older gentleman who seated us, gave us menus, water, and told us the special of the day. He had a super thick Vietnamese accent, so listen closely, otherwise he was awesome and even joked around with us throughout the meal. We all ended up with phở bo, I got a large while my two friends got extra larges. I also placed an order in for shrimp rolls while my other buddy got egg rolls. I assumed the shrimp rolls were spring rolls since they were listed under the same category as the eggs rolls, but I misjudged it when the dish came out deep fried. Regardless, the shrimp rolls were pretty solid, a bit greasy, but great flavor. Soon after, our phở dishes came out. Huge, and I mean HUGE portions. The large I ordered could have been considered an extra large, especially at the Vietnamese restaurants I frequent around my area. And for $ 8 – 9, how could you go wrong?
The broth wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t bad either. There was a good body to it, I just didn’t find it super flavorful. To tackle that, I added in some chili oil and a bit of sriracha sauce. The pickled Thai chilies we got with our condiments were also a nice touch, spicy yet faintly sour. The phở bo comes with both beef and beef balls, something I’m not normally used to since at most places I’ve been to you either have to order standalone beef, or beef with beef balls. Judging from how much we were paying for phở with beef and beef balls, I’d say it was very reasonable. We walked out paying about $ 12 a piece for lunch, not bad at all.
Solid phở joint in the West Hartford area, stop by if you’re in need of a fix!

Dishes have to be cleaner. At beginning the food were good and now they more like slacking of making them. In order to have more customers, they have to be more consistent. Make sure you dump all of the left over like hot & sour peppers etc. They will bring it out for the next customer. Sometime there is hair in the food.

Phở: the soup is too bland, not hot enough, the beef is too soft, overcooked. The beef balls have no taste, the tendons are too hard, not edible.

Try this place today with my friend. I really like the place. The server there was very nice. This place really give a sense of nostalgia. Shrimp rolls was banging. But do order with caution ladies, my friend blame the deep fried shrimp rolls for massive break outs on her face a week after.

I love this place for traditional vietnamese food. I’m not a huge Phở fan but my friends are and they think it’s one of the best phos around. but i love the spring or shrimp rolls. Make sure you say fried or you’ll get the summer rolls well good for most I’m not a big fan of the texture. But the shrimp and spring rolls are double fried and served with a sweet and spicy fish sauce that goes on anything! The shrimp fried rice iis perfectly cooked just had a little sirracha for heat and it’s perfect. The combo pancake is also amazing crispy and stuffed with chicken, pork, shrimp, onions and inside cold crunchy bean sprouts YUM! They have a filet mignon in house sauce, water crisp, rice and tomatoes also very tasty! If you don’t mind a bit of a hole in the wall and people who don’t speak much English give this place a try it’s worth it trust me!

The phở was pretty good, but I have to give them 2 stars because everything else was lacking. They don’t have a veggie phở on the menu, so my wife ordered the veggie lo mein instead, which was very greasy and gave her an upset stomach.
The service here is strange. The host hovered over our table from the moment we sat down. He was a little pushy and kept making suggestions, when we just wanted a minute to look over the menu by ourselves. Overall there are much better options for phở in the area, and I don’t expect to come back to Phở Tuong Lai.

Phở Thoung Lai is definitely a hole in the wall type of establishment. The people here are hard workers who don’t really understand the key elements of operating a successful phở restaurant that will attract people. I met up with a friend on Saturday for a quick bowl of phở. The man who helped us was nice in a cute way. I think he thought I was Vietnamese because he supplied us with reading material.
Now onto the phở, the bowls were huge. Tons and tons of broth and meat. The broth was okay IMO, I didn’t like that it was salt based. When I make phở myself I don’t add salt, I use roots and spices to season the broth. Broth that is heavily salt based isn’t made with care. Another thing I didn’t like about the broth is that I had to put effort into dressing it up before it tasted decent. Any phở place knows that if an Asian is out having phở they are too lazy to dress up the broth themselves. The broth here reminds me of the phở broth you serve children, bland and uninteresting.
The meats were all pre cooked. I have no major gripe but I prefer a mixture of fresh and cooked. Bean sprouts could have been a tad fresher. I’m particular about the freshness of my sprouts, they’re so cheap at 75 cents a lb any good restaurant should be able to afford to stock up on fresh sprouts– even if you have to make a daily trip to ADongs each morning it’s essential.
I had limeanade and well I think she didn’t mix it well enough for me because on one side all I can taste was sugar. Next time I’m keeping my $ 3. Total bill came out to $ 10 a person. Not bad but I didn’t feel photastic afterwards so I won’t be adding it to my rotation. As much as I like to distribute my earnings evenly amongst the phở joints in the area this restaurant will be low on the list.

Much better than Phở Boston!
Yes, it is a small place, yes it is cash only, the service is what the service is (just like at Phở Boston) but their food is soooo much better. Better tasting, better quantity.
Good bye Phở Boston /​Helllooo Phở Tuong Lai

I am all for hole-​in-​the-​wall type places, but that is no excuse for cleanliness. The phở was pretty good-​perhaps a little oily for my taste.

I have eaten at most Vietnamese restaurants in the area and think that this has the best phở around. After traveling to Vietnam just a few months ago I think this is one of the more authentic restaurants around.

This Phở Place is across from the large movie complex on New Park in Hartford, near the West Hartford line. I stop in for lunch a couple times a month. I have taken a few people with me, and they have liked it. Not the greatest quality, but they serve me rapidly and if you are having Phở the Bowl is gigantic and certainly on the low end of the pricing scale. This owner used to be located over on Park Road (Phở 206) across from Green Man Tattoo, I believe she explained to me when she first moved there that the rent was too high on Park Road. I have to say I prefer it to Phở 206. This lady can cook! I do like the yummy broth.
It’s kind of a different experience there. I just walk in and kind of wave at the woman or the quiet man. They know what I want. The woman speaks a small amount of English, the man I believe to be her husband. He probably speaks very little English although he will bring out Phở and ring me up when I leave. On the weekends the place is really packed with Vietnamese folks. I think this is a good sign? The TV is usually playing some Chinese DVD or Asian satellite program. I assume that if the food were not good, they would hot have such a big Vietnamese following. When I am done I just go up and pay and one of them rings me out, I have been visiting since they moved /​opened. I tip well. They are very nice, smiling at me warmly. I have taken my family with me there and they have been quick serve us.

I was excited when I bumped into this phở restaurant, but my disappointment came when they ignored my presence. It was obviose they did not want to take my order as they continually passed my table serving others. If I was Vietnamese, would it had been different?

I was having a rough day at work, which sometimes leads to a craving for one of my favorite comfort food, phở. This would usually mean going to Phở Boston or Phở 501. So why did I came here? Just to be the FIRST reviewer, which I will admit that’s a little lame. Just like the phở here.
Phở Tuong Lai is the proverbial hole in the wall. All the tables were full except for one covered with newspapers and dirty children’s toys. This not so fine table afforded me a nice view of the kitchen. I saw a little too much microwave action in the kitchen. Which made me nervous.
The service was quick, and the extra large bowl of phở was massive. It was a lot of beef, that was a little fatty. However, it was too well done for my liking. Maybe it was the microwave? The meat was inferior quality and I chose not eat all of it. This phở left a funny after taste in my mouth. It was disappointing bowl of phở on a my day of disappointments. My next bowl of Phở will be elsewhere.