Houa Khong Restaurant

The place is a hole in the wall and it doesn’t have the best ambiance but I only come here for the Phở.
I always order #8 combination phở with extra meatballs and thick noodles. They always make it just how I like it. The broth is usually consistent and on some days it is absolutely amazing.
I have tried the egg rolls, chow mien and Thai tea and they are pretty good.
My sister and I are regulars here and have come to know some of the staff who are usually friendly — BUT sometimes the service has been horrible but like I said I love the phở.
Pro: Try their phở dishes with some Thai tea.

Not as great as everyone makes it out to be. I’ve been here years and years ago. We tried both the ka soy and phở and everyone agreed that it was too sweet. The wide noodles for ka soy was not fresh ho fun and therefore was not worth the cost. It was the dried kind being used and there definitely was a difference. I’m also not used to having cabbage with my ka soy and I felt like a quarter of a cabbage was used per bowl. The phở broth was nothing special. If you’ve had phở in Fresno, Sacramento or the bay, it can’t compare. Service was slow and they forgot that we were there and didn’t take our order. Miscommunication between servers. Also order papaya salad and never received it because waitress forgot to write it down. The best dish we had was the beef larb but we also agreed it’s not the best and didn’t have enough spice to be even considered mild when we requested medium. My BIL loves the raw larb here and consistently orders for take out but anything else… nah go somewhere else but then again maybe choices in Merced are limited. Quality of food is not worth the prices being charged.

Great place, coming here since HS when a hmong friend brought me over here. Usually get the Pad Thai, Phở and Chciken Saatay. Not alla t once though… well sometimes haha.

OMG, the Wings
I’m in love with some of the soups, but I’ve had 5 or 6 other things on the menu that were super also.
One of my favorite Thai joints ever.

Delicious food. My bf and I come here whenever we visit. I swear everything tastes delicious here… I wish they opened later though

The Only Place Where I Will Get My Phở Fix. A Lot Of People Do Not Like The Phở Here But I Love It. Even Though I Live Closer To Houakhong2 It’s Not As Good As The Original Place. This Will Always Be My To Go Spot. Plus They Have The Best Raw Larb In Town! :)

Great place to have lunch! A gem hidden in Merced! Prices are great and customer service was awesome. Parking is a challenge as there’s only a few parking spots in front of this restaurant. I recommend this place!

a converted house in the hood. overall, food wasn’t bad. calamari was chewy and lightly breaded. pad thai was too gooey and sauce was heavy. fried rice was also a little overcooked. spring rolls were fresh, but the meat was a little unusual — can’t put my finger on it. sweet and sour chicken was deep fried in a light breading that is not typical. i liked it.

They took over an hour to bring our food it was phở and a few other things… and the whole restaurant was empty! They didn’t bother to check on our table to see if we needed refills etc. I would not recommend coming here… go else where bad experience!

Wow what amazing food! We were searching for some phở on our way to San Francisco from Yosemite Park and came across this place on Unilocal.Cannot express how impressed and happy we were with their food quality and service! If you’re looking for some authentic thai food by thai people, definitely give this place a shot. My husband has been to Thailand numerous times and commented that this was spot on! You won’t regret it!

The foods good but the customer service is terrible! What happened to the the waiter guy that works or use to work there? when I came I didn’t even have to order he just knew what I wanted loved that! The waitresses today where just the worse service I’m cool off going again. I’ll go to Sam’s from here on out

Service is beyond horrible but the phở is amazing. If it wasn’t for the delicious phở I would have never returned.

Grew up eating at this place. Tons of memories were made here with my family! Phở is delicious and really worth it! Customer service is a little off, and the bathrooms are a little outdated. But it’s a great place :) Really quiet and peaceful. Exactly what I like after a busy day!

I’ve lived in Merced for 34 years and have gone to every Thai restaurant available in the area except this particular one, I didn’t know even existed so my review will be 100% completely unbiased.
I ordered the spring rolls to start off with since spring rolls are a staple amongst Thai restaurants and a favorite of mine… You get 4 large rolls stuffed generously with pork, shrimp, and vegetables. These massive rolls I would rate as «ok». At $ 7.95 an order I found them to be a bit expensive BUT would rate them 4 of 5 stars because the peanut sauce was delicious and the portions were large. In addition the veggies were fresh. Downfall of them was that they included so much noodles inside it, it was almost overwhelming and they were rolled super loose to when I grabbed them, they wanted to constantly fall apart.
Next I ordered the «Beef Salad» because of a review I read on Unilocal… Well… I don’t want to make the ungodly error in comparing it with my favorite Beef Salad (which comes from Bangkok Thai), but I would rate this «Salad» 2.5 of 5 stars. This wasn’t a Beef Salad by any means, in my opinion a salad should include lettuce. This so called salad had ONE yes ONE single lettuce wedge and a pile of hard, furthest from tender meat on top. Seasonings on the Beef were tasty but my jaw bone is still sore from the chewing I had to endure to finish.
Last but not least, I had an hour to eat and get back to work… Plenty of time right??? WRONG! So my girlfriend and I are the only initial table in the place… 5 min after being there a table of 7 came thru the door sat and ordered their food approximately 10 min after we did. Can anyone explain to me how all 7 people in their party got served before us two? Needless to say, we were there for 55 min and ordered 1 spring roll order and 2 «Beef Salads» oh, we ordered immediately upon sitting down by ourselves sour rounded by not a soul. Because of this I was thinking about 2 stars… Thanks for reading my review.

Took us 30 mins to get our food, service was not professional, and when we got home And checked our food the portion we got for the beef and broccoli was so small for what we paid. Probably won’t be going back.

Best place for Pad Thai with tofu and spring rolls. Best service in town because my favorite waiter always remembers what I always order even if it’s been 3 months since I last ate here.

Everytime I come down to my hometown, I always have to come here for phở. Regardless of how hot the weather is, this is a MUST! My boyfriend and I are literally in love with this place.
Ever since I was young, this was my go-​to place for my family. My oldest brother knew the owners of this restaurant. Their son was friends with my brother. Besides the point, they’re always so welcoming whenever I come.
Place is quite small and there’s no actual central AC, but they have wall plug in fans. Lucky for those who live out in the north area, they have opened a HouaKhong II near Merced College. The 2^nd restaurant is owned by the daughter and her husband. Still amazing food, but customer service is HORRIBLE!
When I come here, I always order their beef noodle soup and my boyfriend always orders their combination noodle soup. I have also tried their chowmien (AMAZING!), their chow fun, lard na, drunken noodles, fried rice, three colored drink, eggrolls… oh my, I think I probably tried almost every dish! But the one dish that has others coming back are definitely their phở. Hands down, the best phở I have ever had in my life! :)
Anywho, for the past couple of years, their servers have changed. Customer service needs to change a lot! The owners are always so nice, but when it comes to those taking our orders, they’re not too friendly. That is the only reason I was not able to give this restaurant 5 stars. Other than that, come try this place out. It’s literally the spot for Merced folks!

Service is bad even for Asian restaurant, to be honest. The food was okay. I probably wouldn’t go here again because it’s a little out of the way for me, but wouldn’t have a problem with eating here again.

Definitely a hole in the wall kind of place, but give it a chance and I think you’ll enjoy it.
Their pork egg rolls are very similar to my grandmothers Vietnamese recipe so I was very happy with that. Also loved the tasty little peanuts added to the filling sauce. Nice little twist. The guy there told me they make everything there from scratch which made be very happy!
I had the mixed beef Phở (as always) and the soup base was killer. Sometimes the soup base can be a little bland and I have to add lots of saracha and hoisen sauce but this was very tasty, just needed to spice it up and my eyes and nose was running towards the end. Perfect! If your not scared off by a little tripe (once you get past the texture tripe is actually really tasty!!) you should go for a combo beef over just the steak… The added meatballs are so tasty too. Don’t forget to ask for the Hoisen sauce for your meat, it’s not on the table.
The Thai iced tea was great and everything was so quick. We came towards their closing time to get a quick dinner and they got us in and out. Great timing!

I keep giving this place so many chance and it just seems like the food and portion keeps getting worst. I ordered pad Thai, fried calemari, and spring rolls. The pad Thai taste like dirt couldn’t finish it. The portion of the fried calemari kid you not only had about 10 pieces for the price of what it was, was a total rip off. I’m just gonna stay at my regular place and that’s New Thai.