Pho Ngon

An Update.
The invisible hand has spoken. Phở Ngon is now Phở Gone!

I tried the Vietnamese iced coffee:
Horrible. No better than regular coffee. And expensive: $ 4. Skip it!

I consider myself a Phở connoisseur. In finding that the best phở comes from ‘hole in the wall’ type places, we thought we’d give it a go.
WORST PHO EVER!
The «broth» tasted like dirty water. Didn’t even have a hint of the usual ingredients like star anise, clove etc. The only way to make it pallet-​able was to douse it with chili paste, siracha, hoisin, and anything else i could find within arms reach.
And then… I get home and begin to feel light headed. I look in the mirror and i had some weird swelling on my cheeks. Had to call in sick from work that night and of course no one believed me because thats the oldest excuse in the book. I wouldn’t call it ‘food poisoning’ but more like a ‘food rejection.’ I will listen to my body and NEVER go back here again.
BTW– besides the night market in Hanoi, i gauge all of my local Bay Area phở broth and base it off the broth at Phở To Chau in Mountain View

Good food bagette are REAL good a little pricey, music videos r cool

Slow service.
Non-​memorable phở.
Vietnamese sandwich lacking jalpenos, among other things, plus too much mayo.
Crab spring rolls made with fake crab.
TV constantly blasting Vietnamese variety shows.
Their grilled items smell good though. The ladies are nice, even if they aren’t attentive. The bathroom is always clean.
The sign says «cash please», which apparently doesn’t necessarily equate to cash only if you buy enough stuff, I think. We’ve used cards here before. How confusing.
It’s only okay, yet somehow I keep coming back here.

Ok. I’m not vietnames, But I’ve been to a few
of phở place. This is the worse phở I’ve had. The reason I gave them 3 tars because the service.

First of all, they took over ten minutes to take our order during the lunch hour on a weekday. C’mon! You know your customers have to go back to work and you’re going to take your sweet time to take our order?
I ordered a small bowl of phở ga. When the order came to me I thought the chicken looked a little funky. It didn’t look like the fresh stringy pieces of chicken breast that I’m used to. These looked dry and shriveled up so I’m going to assume they used frozen chicken. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and tried to eat it anyway. When I bit into the chicken, I had to spit it out. I’m being completely honest when I say that I have NEVER done that before. That’s how terrible it was. Not only was the chicken rancid, the broth was bland and lacked any kind of phở flavor at all.
I’m sorry but this has got to be the worst phở I have ever had in my life. Ngon means good/​yummy in Vietnamese, and this restaurant’s phở is anything but that.

I wanted to try a little experiment and give this place a shot without consulting Unilocal,so to avoid a bias.
I am by no means a Phở expert but on this gloomy, rainy, and cold afternoon all I wanted was a steaming savory bowl of Phở broth with noodles and beef meatballs.
The broth was flavorless. I had to load it up with basil, Sriracha, hoisin sauce, anything I could get my hands on to make it palatable! The beef balls were tough and had these disgusting clear chunks of tendon and fat. BLEH! I threw most of them out!
To give the business credit. the restaurant looked clean and the staff is very friendly. I also ordered the shrimp and pork spring rolls which were just OK. Needless to say, this Phở further Ph***ed up my already sad and gloomy day.
Unilocal, I’ve learned my lesson…

Lunch took an hour and a half. Not cause it was busy. there were a total of 3 tables. 1 was take out, 1 was already eating and the other 1 was waiting for their check.
My phở took 30 minutes to come out, and it had veggies in it. The soup was bland and there wasn’t very much of it.
I recommend the eggrolls though. Not alot of places can get them the way I like it!

We cheated on our favorite phở restaurant tonight. As we drove past Phở Vi Hoa, I ducked my head in shame and switched into the far lane on El Camino just in case the owners were to spot my car. I’m sorry, Phở Vi Hoa… can you ever forgive me?
I had a pretty bad feeling when I first stepped foot into this restaurant. Despite the lack of customers, we were ignored by the proprietors for just an extra couple of seconds to have made it a bit awkward. But, we powered on after being seated and ordered an iced Vietnamese coffee and a mango boba, which were quite good. However, our pork spring rolls were simply not up to snuff. In fact, the rolls themselves tasted more like a ham sandwich than anything else — and don’t even get me started on the «peanut» dipping sauce, which looked and tasted like rendered lard mixed in with enough food coloring to make a runny brown liquid.
The phở was also a disappointment. We ordered one bowl of vegetarian phở, which had reasonably fresh vegetables and tofu and a pedestrian broth. We also had a bowl of phở with tripe, tendon, and round steak. Let me re-​phrase that: We also had a bowl of phở with one tripe, one tendon, and one round steak. Yes, I understand that I ordered a «small» instead of a large, but the serving size here was ridiculously tiny, especially considering the relatively expensive prices they charged! On top of that, the broth was practically clear, lacking the robust beefy taste that was strangely replaced with a saccharine undertone.
I’d like to say to my first true phở restaurant, Phở Vi Hoa, these immortal words of wisdom from Wham:
Should’ve known better than to cheat a friend
And waste the chance that I’ve been given
So I’m never gonna dance again
The way I danced with you

For taste — 2 stars. The broth was sweet which is a major negative. BAD, BAD, BAD.
The sprouts, herb and lemon wedges were very fresh.
The service was fast but can’t say much else. Service was over after they delivered my bowl of Phở.

Since the phở place we wanted to eat at was closed for vacation for Sunday lunch, we came here. We found this place randomly, but we said to each other before we walked in «How can you mess up phở?»
We were wrong. It was chaos once we walked in. Despite the place being only ¼ full, most of the empty tables were covered in dirty dishes that hadn’t been bused. While we were waiting for a table (with no hostess present), we witnessed 2 – 3 tables leave without even placing their order since there was no service. One family even said that they had waited 40 min for their food, and still hadn’t gotten it, so they left.
Once we had gotten seated, the waitress was obviously pissed from the hecticness of the restaurant. She gave us attitude as we ordered, which was completely unprofessional and unnecessary – don’t take out your frustrations on other patrons.
Luckily, our food came out within 15 min of ordering it (although still relatively slow for a vietnamese place), but even so, the noodles were soggy, and it was a very small serving for $ 7. The broth was flavorful, but extremely oily.
Needless to say, I won’t be back. I was appalled by the service and the food was meh. This is also the first time I’ve given one star.

In all my years dining at various Phở restaurants, I can finally say I experienced the antithesis of what tasty Vietnamese food should be.
What’s there not to like? Everything!
My party of three walked in to this cold tempered restaurant at 7:10pm this past Friday evening to get some dinner. I was especially hungry since I chose to omit lunch from my schedule due to overwhelming work. We were seated immediately and given menus. After a few minutes, we were ready to order but no waitresses were insight. You could hear women speaking vietnamese language behind the partition separating the kitchen and the front room. After 10 minutes of waiting, one lady came out.
We ordered one bowl per person:
P4: Phở Chi; Well Done Beef Noodle Soup, small, $ 6.99
P10: Phở Do Bien Tom Cua; Seafood Noodle Soup, small, $ 6.99
B6: Bun Tom Thit Nung Cha Gio; Beef Shrimp & Eggroll Vermicelli with salad, one size, $ 8.99
1 Fresh Squeezed Lemonade, $ 2.99
20 minutes passed until my wife received her lemonade. The lemonade didn’t look yellow, but looked light orange with some pulp swirling around. It looked like they just opened a can of asian drink with pulp in it. Then 5 more minutes passed until we started receiving our orders. My B6 took a total of 35 minutes to come out. If I knew it was going to take this long, I could’ve had a quick snack next door at Subway. I’ve never waited no longer than 15 minutes at any other noodle restaurant for the complete order to arrive.
I couldn’t comment on the taste of each item except for my own order, B6, but the other bowls looked ordinary. The noodle broths didn’t smell pungent with flavor and my wife commented that it tasted too salty at first sip. Hot soup? Yes. Taste? Salty. Flavor? Dull. Broth? Clear like Water. Even wonton noodle soup has more flavor and taste to it.
My Vermicelli noodles were overcooked to a point they were too plump and stuck together in a clump. Even with the fish sauce dressing, still stuck. At least the vegetables tasted fresh. The grilled beef were in the shape of circles perhaps frozen at one point and were so thin I couldn’t taste any flavor to them.
I did notice the clean surroundings with off-​yellow painted walls and tiled flooring. The furniture looked like they were used from a different restaurant or the previous Mexican restaurant it replaced. I also saw a big flat screen tv playing Vietnamese shows. There was one waitress, one server, a few people in the back kitchen area, and the slowest service I’ve ever experienced. Even when it was time for me to raise my hands and quietly try to get the attention of the girl server for my bill, she was cleaning the next table across the way and she never looked up at me. Then I raised my voice to get her to look my way and all the other customers stared at me. That was the only way I was noticed.
When I received our bill, the drink said Orange Juice. Doh!, no wonder it didn’t look or taste like fresh Lemonade. Was it a language barrier? You choose. Total bill came to $ 28.36
Slow Service. Long Wait. Cold Restaurant. Bad Food. Wrong Order.
Nothing here to recommend and lesson learned. Believe me, you won’t miss a thing. Phở Ngon, I’m Gone and never looking back.

I went here once with a colleague from work, and it was the most disappointing lunch experience.
This place is dirty and smells kinda funky. The wait staff are very unffriendly, their customer service is POOR at best and overall the whole place is lacking in every way possible.
We both ordered vegetarian phở — my colleague received her’s with a big chunk of meat, which they wouldn’t acknolwledge as a mistake even when we showed it to them. Mine was very bland and had someone’s hair in it. The table we were seated at was sticky and when we asked for it to be wiped down, they said they would but never did. So i got phở with someone’s hair in it, my collague a phở with a pice of meat and they had the audacity to charge us for both without even replacing them for us. After much arguing and explaining (none of the people there spoke good english and it was really hard to explain to them) we paid for one phở. We left without eating and headed across the street to Whole Foods.
I will NEVER come back to this place.

2.5 stars. I’d highly recommend going to the nearby Phở Vi Hoa instead.
—-
Phở Ngon is located in a prime spot on El Camino Real across from Whole Foods. With long lines and accompanying wait time at Phở Vi Hoa, Phở Ngon would appear well placed to be successful and capitalize on the demand for a quick phở joint in the area. But a myriad of choices seems to have ensured this has not been the case and universally poor Unilocal reviews have followed.
Upon entering Phở Ngon, you’re greeted with the décor typical of San Jose phở establishments. Plain, with standard tables and chairs, and quiet, minus the television with Vietnamese programming. The «energy» and layout appears to be off with the busy El Camino intersection leading straight to the entranceway. On an overcast and foggy day, they left the lights off, which may have saved energy, but didn’t do much to help the poorly lit atmosphere. The interior was also chilly even with a sweater and, again, it wasn’t the best choice for uncomfortably cold customers, even if it did save on cost.
The menu was standard Vietnamese fare with a multiple phở soups but also rice and dry noodle dishes. On the wall, smoothies were listed in various flavors.
I opted for the Phở P1: the house special that included all meat cuts. Despite being only 1 of 3 customers, the order took longer to come out than I expected. Rather than the 5 – 10 minutes at many phở places, it took about 50% longer. When three more tables came in, things were even slower for the bill. The one employee at the front was obviously a reflection of the slow business, but had trouble keeping up with serving the food, taking the orders, and bringing bills as it got relatively busy.
The phở itself came in a large bowl and was accompanied by fresh cilantro and bean sprouts as well as the meat on the side that I had requested. The meat itself was a nice fresh red color, but appeared to be a different cut than the typical beef eye round steak at most places. If I had to guess, I’d guess it was flank steak, which was neither as thinly sliced and probably cheaper than the eye round steak.
The broth was interesting in that I noted it to be slightly sweet in an odd way. It wasn’t sweet from the beef, because it didn’t have the strong beef quality I’ve come to expect from phở broth, but likely derived it’s sweetness from an additive.
The real negative of the broth though was the temperature. Although the order took a bit longer than other places, the broth did not arrive boiling hot as I prefer, especially with rare beef on the side. Although very warm, the addition of the uncooked steak, cold bean sprouts, and lemon soon brought the temperature down to a tepid warm. The result was that the noodles, which typically cook further and declump with hot broth, remained lumpy and chewy. I was also disappointed by the amount of broth as soon my bowl had very little broth after it had been absorbed by the noodles.
I’ve always envisioned top notch phở places as keeping their broth on boil all the time and simply serving it quickly as guests arriving, ensuring both rapid service yet very hot broth.
My order also contained several other cuts of beef and a few tasted like shredded beef, more akin to the beef you find in Taiwanese beef noodle soup, than the thinly sliced meat of Vietnamese phở. Three half beef ball pieces were also included and very good, but the one star of the order was definitely the beef tendon. The two large pieces of tendon were succulent and surprisingly tender.
Overall, Phở Ngon was a forgettable phở experience and I’d recommend Phở Vi Hoa even with the wait. However, if Phở Ngon decides to invest in a few things for their restaurant (lighting, heat during cold days, better quality meat and cuts, more plentiful and hotter broth, and extra servers during busy times), they could carve themselves a niche given their prime location and be a more successful establishment.
Phở Ngon accepts credit cards, but not American Express.

I actually came here on a recommendation from a Vietnamese friend. And I didn’t order phở. They have a lot of non-​phở Vietnamese dishes which I would think are more worth trying. Besides, Phở Vi Hoa’s prices have gone up by 80 cents.
Anyway, the fish sweet and sour soup that I ordered was great. Piping hot soup, I had to wait about 20 mins probably because it was cooked fresh. Whole fish inside (the tail part, came with bones and all) was yummy and tender, plus lots of herbs and tomato and pineapple. Came with fresh bean sprouts, bamboo (or some cane of some sort) on the side. I guess it was a little more on the expensive side ($ 11 + $ 1 for rice, they gave quite a lot of rice, I must say) after tax, but I thought it was pretty good.

Came here with my coworkers, I ended up ordering the rice plate with chicken, an egg roll and two pieces of shrimp. I know I should have tried the phở because it is a phở place but sorry not part of my diet. I can say it was one of the worst rice place I have tasted. The chicken was so salty, egg roll was so petite (a little burnt), and the shrimp tasted undercooked.
I tasted the phở broth from one of my coworker and it seems decent. My co workers actually like the phở, but hek they’re not vietnamese. haaaa
Their customer services is pretty bad, didn’t even come around to refill the water or provide the correct utensils

Ngon in Vietnamese means Delicious, Yummy.
Phở Ngon = Yummy Phở. wow. what a joke!!!
Lesson to learn: any restaurant that claims YUMMY, AUTHENTIC, ORIENTAL, etc = STAY AWAY AT ALL COST.
Look at its rating statistics, that speaks volume.
Horrid service, bathroom with NO locks, watery bland phở broth, small portion, the only thing was BIG FAT HUGE was the PRICE.
gross!

Very clean new facilities, but seriously, $ 25 for two items of Vietnamese? No way.
The beef on the bun was tough, similar to beef jerky, spring rolls were fine.
The chick w/​the specs likes to sit and STARE at the patrons. Creepy.

New Phở spot in Mountain View, a block away from reliable Phở Vi Hoa. I’m not sure it’s much of a competitor though.
The pricey small bowl of Phở featured a light broth, light brown in color, slightly sweet, but the cinnamon didn’t meld with broth. Tasted like Mexican cinnamon.
Steak was properly served rare, but the soup came out rather tepid, forcing me to eat my steak medium. The flank had plenty of gristle as well.
Phở Ga is the all white meat variety and I also noticed a sour soup on the menu.