Pho Vi Hoa

Best phở I’ve had in the Bay Area. I took my Vietnamese parents here and even they approved. Yeah, the service is cranky even if you are Viet but you come here for the food. You can judge phở by its broth and my parents agree, it’s hearty and authentic. They’re pretty efficient operationally in getting the food to table quickly after taking your order.
I was vegetarian most of the time I was a regular here so mostly had the phở with tofu. It was a mild but flavorful veggie broth not lacking in the umami. Portions are huge and could take two meals, though phở naturally does not keep well. I used to love getting the veggie spring rolls which came with this crack addictive peanut sauce. Honestly the spring rolls were fresh but not remarkable, it’s the sauce that made it. I’d dip the bean sprouts into the leftover peanut sauce to use it all up.

Family loves the phở here. We come here because it is clean and friendly.
Wife loves the seafood phở and I enjoy the special phở. The plaza has a lot of parking spaces. The waitresses know us and they know our orders so we are in and out within an hour. If you show up during lunch time expect to wait.

This is probably one of the top Phở contenders in Los Altos and Palo Alto. But that is not saying much. There is not much competition and it would be close to the bottom of phở places if this were San Francisco or San Jose.
It has been several years since I last ate here — there is a reason for that. And the only reason why I went back yesterday is because my friend needed some place quick.
The broth has dramatically improved — it no longer taste bland. And they no longer serve soggy rice noodles.
Yesterday’s service was sub par. Within 25 seconds of being seated, the server came to take our order. I had not looked at the menu yet. The server impatiently left with an annoyed demeanor.
A few minutes later the server came back and was not paying attention. In spoke slowly and clearly but he could not get our order right. After repeating it several times the order was finally taken.
The lesson learned is that next time someone suggests this place again I will be sure to steer to a different restaurant.

Service: What service? Our server didn’t speak English at all. After some pointing at the menu, we thought we had ordered two bowls of phở and a couple of spring rolls. The spring rolls arrive, no peanut sauce. Had to flag another waiter who was speaking English to get that.
Then waiting and waiting and waiting… While we are waiting, we look around the restaurant and see tables piled with dishes for half an hour and not being cleared. In the meantime, there is a guy running around the restaurant with a cart holding giant container for dirty dishes (there is barely space for him to move between the tables). He runs around pushing the cart all the time looking super stressed out but the tables are still piled with dishes. Not sure what he was doing other than looking super busy without accomplishing anything.
Finally, our food arrives. But wait, one ONE bowl of phở. Apparently, after all the pointing, we had ordered one bowl. So now it has been 40 min waiting for a bowl of phở, really? Should we even bother asking for another one?
Moral of the story, if you are hungry, don’t come here. If you want to wait an hour for a bowl of phở, knock yourself out.
The phở itself was OK, nothing special. The broth was pretty bland. The spring rolls were no good, basically mostly rice noodles and not much else.
If I were passing by and wanted to wait an hour for mediocre phở, I might stop by which is never.

This used to be my favorite phở place in high school. However, the price went up by 2 dollars now and the services are pretty bad. When you need something and try to get servers’ attention, they tend to ignore you a lot. Other than services, the food is good. The phở soup #9 and chicken fried rice are my favorite here !

VEGETARIANS: There is a reasonable selection of vegetarian menu items. Basically there is a vegetarian version of everything they offer — vegetarian spring rolls, vegetarian noodle soup, vegetarian egg rolls, vegetarian rice, vegetarian chow mein. The vegetables are mainly bok choi with some napa cabbage, mushrooms, and carrots. The vegetarian broth was mild, but not bland.
The selection of meat is huge.
I ordered a lemonade soda, and it came with powder in a glass and a can of club soda — not bad, but probably not worth it. We also ordered a Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk, which was rich and strong — good, if you like strong coffee.
We ordered a couple minutes after sitting down, and our food arrived less than five minutes after ordering. The seafood broth was very strong and slightly too salty, and, again, the vegetarian was average. The noodles were good but not spectacular; both soups came with a decent amount of vegetables/​seafood. I also ordered vegetarian spring rolls, but they were mostly noodles and tofu and I would’ve preferred if they had more vegetables.
Overall, the food was good for the price and location, but not incredible. I would come back if I wanted quick noodle soup, but not because I was very impressed.

I’ve ordered from here several times and it’s always been spot on. The spring rolls are some of the best I’ve had. Fragrant Beef is definitely a fav. Their fried rice is also great, good flavor. The only thing I could ask for would be some mint sprigs in my vermicelli bowl.
The fresh lemonade/​soda is amazing.
I give them an extra star for giving me really good customer service when there was a delivery mix-​up through doordash. These guys made sure everything was right. I appreciate that.

Gosh, I was very unimpressed. In fact I forgot about this lunch until I just got reminded…
It’s dark and uncomfortably muggy inside. All the steam mixed with a high level of body odor. I know it’s not their fault, but it’s very uncomfortable. The tables are all pushed together and they really need to upgrade the ventilation.
The Phở is very unremarkable. The meat floating in the gray both is also gray. I couldn’t eat very much because the noise and smells are hard to take. It actually made me lightheaded.
The server was difficult to understand and could not answer one question. Plus, we had no idea that you have to go to the counter to pay when you are finished and ready to escape. We just sat there feeling claustrophobic and wanting to flee. She glanced over a few times but refused to come over and tell us how we could leave.
The cost for this lunch for two was $ 40.00. For that, I can think of so many places that are clean and much better food.
I do not see any event that could possibly convince me to venture here again.

Every time I am home to visit my family in Los Altos, I always make a trip to Phở Vi Hoa for a bowl of perfectly brewed piping hot phở. As with most phở joints, this is a no frills type of restaurant, and oftentimes when I am in a hurry, I do takeout here which is efficient and the food is packed securely. When I do dine in, you do walk in and seat yourself, but a waiter will take notice and bring a set of menus over. The food service is quick, expect your food to come out 5 – 7 minutes after you order. Even when the place is crowded at peak hours, the food is served promptly so that they can get people in and out faster. You pay at the cashier at the front of the store. This is a great alternative to phở in downtown mountain view because there’s always parking in this shopping center.
I usually order a large helping (#06 on the menu is my favorite) and an order of crispy imperial rolls. You can custom order the number of spring rolls that you want. Sometimes, I also order their honeydew boba drink which is not top notch boba, but hits the spot with a big heaping bowl of phở. Nowadays, with Teaspoon next door, I do have a tendency to go there to grab boba or a dessert instead, but the honeydew drink at the restaurant is a convenient in-​house substitute.
Would I come back? I’m a regular here, so yes, of course! Overall, efficient, delicious, and convenient, exactly what I am looking for to fill my phở cravings.

The ultimate comfort food. This place is great for any occasion — from a large family dinner to a quiet night with a book. There are plenty of tables, and the staff are friendly and super efficient. I go for the P-​02 Phở with steak and meat balls. Only $ 1 more for a large, so obviously get that — then you can have leftovers for lunch tomorrow (…if there are any). The soup comes with a plate heaped with crisp bean sprouts, sliced jalapeño, a wedge of lime, and a generous sprig of fresh basil. Throw it all in with some hoisin sauce and sriracha, and you’re off to the races! Yum yum yum.

Huge portions! I got a #13, and there were so many noodles and a really good portion of meat as well. And this was a small! I can’t imagine how large a large is. Three people can definitely share two smalls and be full. The phở here is actually quite good; the meats are good, broth is quite tasty, and portions are great. It’s a bit pricey at $ 9.52 post-​tax, but the portions and quality of the phở makes up for it. Service is pretty non-​existent; waiters stop by to take orders and serve food, otherwise don’t expect anything else. Pay at the counter after, and they take card. If you’re around the area looking for phở, come here!

PHO VI HOA BREAKDOWN:
THE FOOD:
Let me preface this by saying that Vietnamese restaurants in the peninsula need a separate rating system of their own. If we were judging this place against other Vietnamese restaurants only in the peninsula, then this would be getting a much higher rating. However, because I am rating this based on my experiences of Vietnamese food from San Jose, Sacramento, etc, It receives the lower rating. The food is OK. Nothing spectacular, but if you want Vietnamese and you’re too lazy or short on time to go down to San Jose, eat here — simple as that.
THE VALUE:
A little pricier than most Vietnamese restaurants BUT we are in MV. I’m sure rent for commercial space is also pricier. Our bill always comes out to be about $ 30 for two bowls of phở, spring rolls, & tip.
THE SERVICE:
Service is OK. They get VERY busy and not all the servers speak English, which makes it difficult when you want to know what happened to a food order that might not have made it to the table when 4 other people are sitting with their food waiting for you to get your food before they can eat. Trust me, I tried to tell them to eat first before it gets cold. Anyway, that is all.
WOULD I RETURN?
Yeah, I love soup and noodles. Phở is a staple in my diet, and this is the closest place that’s decent.

Fast and somewhat friendly service, as expected from a Vietnamese restaurant. The food is mixed feeling, I order my usual Vietnamese food which is the spring roll, rice noodles with grilled chicken&Shrimp&fried roll, and three bean dessert.
The spring roll is lacking in flavor, doesn’t smell fresh, and missing ingredient such as mint leaves but the peanut sauce is so tasty and packed with peanut flavor that I think it kind of save the dish.
The rice noodles was great with sauce but the grilled chicken is dry and hard, the Shrimp is so-​so, and fried roll smell great but lack salt in the filling.
The three bean dessert is a big gluey mess with kind of canned but not too sweet taste.
One complain is that both the spring roll and fried roll was not cut correctly, I need to put them with my chopstick to separate them, which destroyed the sharp of the roll, made all the filling fall out.

You can usually tell how good a Vietnamese restaurant is going to be based on how dirty the restaurant is. (And this place is pretty clean!)
The restaurant itself is pretty big with lots of regular tables and booth seating. Service is slow as molasses and almost non existent. People were seating themselves when they walked in! It was also weird that the workers were just walking around, not cleaning up tables or giving any kind of service to diners.
I ordered phở tai and meatballs (with the steak on the side). There were only 4 halves of meatballs in my soup, boo! :(You can add a side of meatballs for $ 1.50. The portions are smaller than I’m used to in phở restaurants in San Jose, but at least the broth was nice and hot!
Not a bad phở place, but I’d probably stick with better phở in San Jose!

Simple décor but flavorful phở! It’s usually pretty busy but it is so large that I have never had to wait and my phở always arrives miraculously quickly. Huge portions and inexpensive prices, you can’t go wrong by getting your phở fix here.

Totally hit the spot! We had gone all day without food and had a hankering for a nice hot bowl of phở. The broth was really flavorful and served hot.
We got the P-​13 and P-​12 on the menu. Yum!
A nice no frills place, nice casual dining. We went at 3:30pm and it was nonstop customers in and out.
Also a nice and big space.

The food here is very tasty, see the pics! Good portions, good food. Service is subpar, a bit slow and sometimes hard to even find a waiter to flag to get your check, but once you actually get someone’s attention they are friendly and helpful.
My roommates swears by the phở, which I haven’t had, but we both like nearby Phở Avenue and she feels the phở here may be even better.
I had the grilled pork over rice dish and it was on point. The chicken and shrimp dish was also very good.
For appetizer, get the fresh spring rolls with the peanut sauce. I love the peanut sauce so much I even ate my veggies (which I rarely do) by dipping them in the sauce. :)

I’m no expert on Vietnamese food – my ramen game is far stronger – but something about Phở Vi Hoa just makes it very tasty and I find myself craving their bun from time to time.
The restaurant has been around for a long time, has the vibe of a classic eatery (complete with the cray busy lunch crowd), and it’s essentially the phở staple in the Mountain View-​Los Altos area. There’s also the phở place in the corner of El Camino and Showers which seems to change owners a lot, originally Subway, then wings, then phở, and now phở take 2.
My go-​to is their grilled pork rice vermicelli bowl – flavorful (and non-​burnt!!) grilled pork over vermicelli, lettuce, and mint with chopped carrots, peanuts, and fish sauce. Mmmmm I’m getting hungry just writing this review. It leans on the pricey end though, especially in comparison to SJ, and growing up with this restaurant I’ve seen the prices get higher and the pork portions get thinner over the years. Maybe one day it’ll be like paper-​thin capriccio slices… but I will still be coming back for bun cravings P:

Been coming here for the last year and I’ve grown to love the place. It’s nothing like the phở up in Seattle, but it’s been one of my favorite phở places in the area (Mountain View).
Don’t expect too much from service as they tend to optimize on packing people into the store. Once I got my routine down, ordering was a breeze. I basically know what I want and once they sit me down, I ask them to take my order right away. This way I don’t get lost in the shuffle. If you want any extras, such as lemons, beans reports, spoon, etc… literally ask for it when you submit your order. They’ll bring the item (s) to you eventually, but you must be done with your food by then.

This is the closest Phở place to Stanford campus, so usually when I’m craving Vietnamese food, my friends and I go here.
PHO — I’m generally not a big fan of phở, so I usually don’t get it at Vietnamese restaurants. I have tried the phở here, and I would say it’s okay. The broth isn’t too flavorful or fatty. Since I think what makes a good bowl of phở is good broth, I don’t come here for the phở in particular.
BUN — So I come here for the Bun dishes. Bun is vermicelli noodles. I usually get the Bun Cha Gio (with eggrolls) until recently when I found out I have a shrimp allergy. Now I get the Bun Ga Nuong (with bbq chicken), which is pretty good! I think they give a more than adequate amount of noodles and the Nuoc Mam (fish sauce) isn’t too strong or light. I would recommend against the Bun Thit Nuong (pork bbq pork) because the pork is very bland and dry.
Overall, this place is A-​OK!