Pho Quan

Straight up buddies, the food here isnt amazing but you get a lot for the low price. The little old lady is very sweet, and once you know her back story a little it makes everything taste better. Basically she is a widow and we believe lives in the back, just a sweet lady trying to get bye. the interior can best be described as an a employee break room at a restaurant or a not so great dining room at somebodies house.
its all cash

It’s a dive, but an authentic vietnamese soup experience. Affordable prices, large quantities, cash only, a family owned business, been around for over 20 years. It’s our favorite place to dine out for asian. IT’S NOT OPEN ON WEDNESDAYS.

I really wanted to like this place but after eating here a few times, I just can’t vouch for it. There are so many better places for phở in the area. There are a few redeeming qualities of Phở Quan: you get a lot of food, super cheap prices and the old lady brings you tons of fresh beansprout, jalapeño and basil. Also if you are into hole in the wall restaurants, this is quite literally the definition.
Hours of operation? Who knows? The place seems like it is open whenever they feel like it. I have walked by during the day and it will be closed, sometimes it is open late at night. Inside the space is cramped and dirty. During my first visit, there were lots of flies and they made no effort to hide the fly tape. There is a little old lady hiding behind a fort of cardboard and metal. She doesn’t speak English all that well, but there aren’t many options to choose from so it doesn’t really matter.
The chicken meat looked somewhat discolored and there was lots of cartilage (according to my brother), I stick with the beef. The beef phở comes with a heaping slab of thin cut meat in boiling broth. Make sure you stir it around until it cooks or you will be eating raw meat. The broth just doesn’t do it for me, it’s extremely bland and tasteless.
I wish someone would help the lady clean up the place. That and the broth for the phở needs more flavor.

If you want an authentic & unique experience for ph, this might be an option. From the battle-​weary space, to the ghetto-​fied interior, to the old woman whipping up the food in the back, I could easily picture this hole in the wall on a busy street corner in ‘Nam as well.
Once you get over its ambiance, there is some charm here. The old woman who took my order didn’t seem to know much English, but she could see me (like an Navi), and could tell I was fighting a cold. She knew I wanted a ph-​remedy. She was super sweet.
I had my ph to go — I was setting up our booth at the nearby Convention Center and walked here to get some cultural and inner healing.
I took back my soup to my booth and devoured it. Now the ph wasn’t extremely flavorful, but it was very tasty in its simplicity. I had chicken ph and I really could feel it healing me. I think it was the chicken broth and the super cheap price of the food which helped.
If you’re downtown and want a nearby cool experience for cheap. This is worth a try.
Solid 3.5 Stars.

I walked in at 6:55 p.m. There was a middle aged woman and a 20 something guy sitting down. The guy was eating. I asked to be seated. They both looked at like «huh»? I tried again. Nothing. The place was open: sign on, doors unlocked, lights on. Just a completely unresponsive and/​or uncaring couple of people.
The food might be good but I’ll never know because I’ll never go back. Places like this crater and they can’t understand why. Put some asses in the seats and you can actually sell some food.

Phở place that is open in the middle of the night! Craving phở at 4AM? This is the place for you! It’s a dive. Phở is good. Absolutely not a date place and some folks might not even eat there since it looks like a hole in a wall. Phở is good. You might spot the cook sleeping when you walk in late at night.

The Atmosphere: Phở Quan is one of those places you’d probably never find if someone didn’t tell you about it (and even if you managed to find it, I don’t think you’d actually go there without a recommendation). It has a tiny, handwritten sign outside the front door. The first time I went, there were boxes of pop stacked in the entry way, so you couldn’t see into the restaurant even when you stepped in, and you had to slide past the stacks sideways. When you get in, there are about 4 or 5 tables, total, and they look like the wooden tables in a high school lunch room — if you didn’t know it was a restaurant, you might think you just walked into an old office break room. There is one lady that runs the place and she is always there. And it’s cash-​only. A number of other commenters have said that Phở Quan is the definition of hole-​in-​the-​wall, and I’d have to agree.
The Food: At Phở Quan, you order Phở… or if you want to be different, you can order the equivalent of Phở without the liquid. The portions are very big and the prices are low. The Phở is very authentic — you really need to turn it over to make sure the beef cooks itself in the hot broth. Also, be prepared to do things yourself — you’ll be served a heaping plate of sprouts and herbs, which you can add in to your soup, and there is a wide variety of sauces and spices to add in — so create a mix you like, and put it all in. I’ve eaten here a couple of times, and really enjoyed the meal both times! And I’m sure I’ll be back!

Spectacularly humble digs with extraordinary phở. This is the real deal. If you don’t like it here, you wouldn’t like it in Hanoi either.

They pretty much only serve the phở Vietnamese soup, but I ordered the only entrée I could find listed on the «menu» on the wall, fried rice noodles with chicken. The chicken was really poor quality, the noodles were tasteless, and it was mixed with a wealth the bean sprouts you find in phở soup, which isn’t a good mix (it also had lots of broccoli and cauliflower).
So go for the soup, please, just stay away from everything else.

I ordered the large phở with combination meat and it horrible. The soup, which is the most important component, tastes bad, so bad that I needed to eat something good later to flush that bad taste out. The shrimp did not taste like shrimp. The pork did not taste of feel like pork. The beef was barely acceptable. I think they just soaked everything for way too long.
I also ordered the vegetarian spring rolls. The rice wrapper tasted and smelled stall. I couldn’t finish it.
The place is also very dirty. They don’t clean the tables well and you’ll spend your entire time swatting away flies. Seriously, they would probably get shut down if the restaurant inspectors stopped by.
If I could, I’ve would give this place 0 stars. Avoid.

Ok this restaurant is about Phở and this review is about Phở too. Just like the other reviewers said before me, it is a hole in the wall. It is grungy, dirty, and tiny. The signs literally are written on big paper and duct taped up onto the wall and they aren’t all even straight or even close to being straight. But who cares, all I care about is Phở. And if you agree, then you should go here; if not, skip it.
The Phở here is delicious. And isn’t that the main concern? You can choose from 3 sizes and they are all big. My boyfriend and I (he can eat a lot by the way) both took home leftovers; he got extra large and I got large. Oh and did I mention how cheap it is? The Phở here is cheaper than at other restaurants and better than other places I have had Phở at in Minneapolis, which includes Quangs, Jasmine Deli, and Phở 79.
They even have vegetarian Phở. I haven’t tried that though because I kick all morals to the side for Phở and go straight for beef. I mean Phở is hard to make and very time consuming, if it wasn’t I’d make it at home and be satisfied having used meat from a farm that I support the practices of. Yes, I could and should get the veg but I just can’t bring myself to it when it comes to Phở. I mean it really just isn’t Phở in my mind. But for all the strict veggies out there this is an option. But I would probably take David P.‘s advice about the soy sauce. I didn’t ask about it but the sauce was definitely either not soy sauce or was watered down soy sauce from the looks of it. I am assuming he asked about it or tasted it so I bet this was what it was. So yea, veggies beware of that. Oh and I did not have broccoli in my Phở, so not sure why Laura P. got this in hers or if this is common in one of the other types of Phở, as I said I had the beef.
Also, the woman who works here and makes the Phở (probably owns it too, or is one of the owners, not sure??) is very nice as well. This is always a plus.
Lastly and very importantly, bring CASH or you will not be able to eat.

My friend lives a block away, he has always been the adventurous type (when we were kids he used to refuse to eat anywhere where he could pronounce the items on the menu). He dragged me along one day and promised me the best food I had ever had. I am quite picky so walking up to a corner store the size of a dorm room with no address and nothing but the promises of the best Phở in town, I was a bit skeptical. The seating area was very small and cramped and cluttered with newspapers, magazines and random decorations.
An old woman, whom I believe to be the store owner, came out and took our orders, not knowing what to order I just had my friend order 2 of whatever he was getting. When she brought the food out it didn’t look too bad but it tasted even better!!! This is definitely one of the best meals I have ever had, in probably the scummiest, most 3^rd world country looking restaurant I have ever been in. The term «don’t judge a book by it’s cover» definitely applies.
Be sure not to use too much of the red sauce! I found that out the hard way.

This is how I learned to love Phở, and by this standard, I judge all Phở.
Order ample amounts of Phở – all sizes are more than enough, add your sides, including the fresh-​cut peppers, eat and slurp to your heart’s content, pay cash at the kitchen, grab your to-​go container, rub your belly, and be satisfied.

Okay, hole in the wall, literally. But this is some of the best and the cheapest phó I’ve ever had in my life.
Wandered past a door with no address, only a hand written (and messily so) sign that read «Best Phó in Minneapolis.» I haven’t had any other Phó in Minneapolis, but this among some of the best I’ve ever had in –any– city.
Totally messy and cramped room, calendars with half-​naked Vietnamese women on the walls. Menus on dry erase board hung crookedly on the walls. Three options: small, large, super. Got a large. SO filling. Can’t imagine the giant who would be able to consume a super.
I got beef Phó. Delish. Comes with all the right sides.
No address, no phone number, no business card, no reciepts. Just pay cash and enjoy the fact that you’re full and happy for the rest of the day.

I was squired to Phở Quan by locals, because it doesn’t really have an address or a phone number and if you didn’t know what you were looking for, you’d walk right on past the scuzzy screen door on account of you believing the place was shut down. Needless to say, this is the jankiest place in which I have consumed a meal, EVER, including my meager forays into international travel to third world countries.
I understand that Phở Quan is beloved among Mpls residents because they serve vegetarian mock duck phở, and usually the rule is that the groatier the phở house, the more delicious the food will be– if they aren’t spending any effort on the ambiance, presumably they are putting all of their keen efforts into the meal. I wish I could say this about Phở Quan, but after surveying the plate of beat-​up bean sprouts and eating up a bowl of slightly sour phở that had broccoli in it (yeah), I will have to make an exception to that rule. Sigh. Thanks for spoiling my faith in the order of the world, Phở Quan.