Cali Noodles & Grill

Received a wonderfully bright welcome upon entrance.
Very clean and well kept. Even the restroom kept well (usually the first thing I check to make hygiene judgement).
Staff was very polite and the ambiance was neat. The broth was a bit light and lacking of flavor but it was in-​line to my tune of a typical Phở experience so I won’t dock them on that.
The servers checked up on me to verify that I was okay and the food met my expectations. They also immediately served a water and a menu upon sitting.
They even gave me a free passion fruit tea for checking in (which Unilocal activated). This helped bias my review a lot!
Overall… Good Job.
Great Establishment.
I’ll likely be back.

This place is DELICIOUS and has AMAZING service. FOOD is fresh and always cooked to perfection. I started working in Orange County maybe about 2 months ago… Google «Phò» and this restaurant name caught my eye. Decided to try it… and mannnnn let me tell you. It’s great I love the food #shirmpspringrolls are a for sure #musttry there huge and filling, the terriaki chicken or grill chicken salad on the menu is so good.
If ur around the area… definitely stop by and be the judge for yourself. I rarely post anything unless I feel it’s worth notifying my #foodyfollowers.
ENJOY!!! N GIVE YOUR FEED BACK OR LIKE MY PICTURES IF U COME CHECK OUT THIS PLACE AND U AGREE.
THANKS.

The food is amazing, food is great, overall vibes are pretty chill. Be sure to say hi to George he is so nice!

The food always so fresh. The phở is so good have a lot flavor. If your not in mood for soup they have this rice plate that always good.

Place had a friendly atmosphere. Food was bountiful. I recommend their shaken beef, it said it was their specialty and I agree. It was really good. Their service was extrodinary. And I would definitely come back again.

There was a Groupon deal and my friend and I went to this place. Food was fantastic. We had a mixture of phở, dry noodle, and spring rolls. No complaints. Located across the street from St. Joseph.
If I was at St. Joseph, I’d come here to eat. Feels more healthy than the other options within walking distance.

Came here for lunch with my co-​workers and was pleasantly surprised! First of all, everyone is so nice and attentive! We were a group of six and our servers, George and another waitress (I didn’t get her name), were AWESOME! I would just come back because of them. I ordered the filet mignon phở and a strawberry mango green tea with boba. Both were really good! My other colleagues liked what they ordered too. We all look forward to coming back and trying their different meals and drinks. Yum!

My initial review of this place was one star out of frustration that they have limited hours of operation.
Now after eating here a few times, I am very happy to bump the review to 4 stars for food quality, value and quality (cleanliness) of restaurant; but, they lose one star for closing too early on the evening.
Cali Noodle is limited to a lunch time and early supper type of establishment. I assume they get sufficient traffic from nearby Children’s Hospital and St. Joseph’s, as well as the neighboring buildings which prompted them to maintain primarily luncheon hours.
The Food is quality and generously proportioned. The broth for the Phở noodle soup is excellent and very savory. It’s hit or miss sometimes when you order the filet mignon phở, some days are generous and some days are average.
The grilled meats are reason alone to visit here. Absolutely fresh in taste and tenderness. It has become our local phở noodle house, only wish they were open for evening dining.

We ordered the dry noodles with chicken and pork, the combination filet mignon phở, and grill pork balls for appetizer. We also got a Mango fusion green tea and a regular milk tea boba. Everything was delicious and service was fantastic. Will definitely be returning soon. Lots of options to choose from so we must come back to try other dishes.

Choose the rice plate. Comes with plenty of meats and an egg roll. Im a regular at the west covina locations so when im in town, its nice to know that i have a cali in the oc. Spring rolls are also good but extraordinary with lots of peanut sauce! Gave the service some slack cause i could tell they were new.

Worst place EVER! We go for dinner on a Friday night,
and even called earlier in the day to confirm their hours. Unilocal indicates they close at 8pm and the lady we speak to says they close at 7:40pm. Arrive at the restaurant at 6:55pm and they’re closing up shop saying they ran out of food. What properly operating restaurant closes over an hour before their posted hours of operation, and better yet what restaurant runs out of food before 7:00pm on a FRIDAY NIGHT!!! I would give «0» stars if that was an option. Absolutely Ridiculous!

Great food and okay service. We had good service but I can tell why people are frustrated. They’re definitely understaffed and need to hire extra wait staff
Context: Came here on a Friday lunch with three other coworkers. We work at the building next door. This place is packed with so many offices nearby as a pre-​warning for those coming in at lunch time week days!
Food:
* Filet Mignon phở (Phở Tai): Rare sliced beef! I really liked this dish! The broth was delicious, plenty of meet, onions, and topped with my favorite raw bean sprouts and lime!
* Bun: Coworkers all had the fried rice noodles with the choice of two sides. They all really enjoyed it and it looked so tasty!
Environment/​Service: This is where it gets strange. Half the staff is waiting on you, then processing to go orders, and taking phone calls. And with so many companies taking lunch breaks here it is chaotic.
Our service was good but it’s because we had to flag down the girls to help us. Other people probably have to wait longer because they’re busy doing so many things.
Advice to management: just hire one or two more people. Great food but slow service. It can be great…

Conveniently close to St. Josephs hospital. Tried this place out since I was in the area scoping out my delivery hospital. I had the free range chicken phở. Not bad. Def hit the spot. Also had the Taro milk tea w boba. It was a delicious meal. The waitress is nice and the area is open and clean. I’ll be sending my honey over here for some chicken broth when the day big happens!

Place empty, except 1 gentleman at a booth. Had to wait for a booth to be cleaned. Employees are complaining loudly near the register about a lady that was here. The beanie guy was using the F word too. You should not talk about your customers in front of the entire restaurant, even if speaking Vietnamese. People may look white, but don’t assume they don’t understand you. Also, employees shouldn’t stand around complaining about their day and working 2 hours by themselves. It’s not professional, take it to the back after work or on your break. Food arrived, but still waiting for our drinks. Had to ask for someone to bring them. We were the only other table, the other 1 was 1 gentleman.
Ordered Vermicelli with pork chop and beef. The meat was not cut and had to ask for a knife. I understand the pork chop being whole, but the super thin beef should have been cut up already. Pork chop was flavorful and moist. The beef was very tough, lacked flavor, and had to be cut and ripped to break it into bite sized pieces. Egg roll was good.
He ordered Filet Mignon Combo phở. Only 1 meat in bowl, and not a lot of stuff in it, unlike other places. More broth than anything. The broth had a good flavor, but the bowl was a bit small for the price. The green tea was great, very flavorful. Did not order a smoothie as they use powder and not real fruit, even though their story states they use fresh everything here. The server did say they are trying to transition to real fruit.
Server came and asked if we wanted our check or just wanted to hang out. What? Maybe ask, would you like anything else and if we say no, bring the check. Then he cleared the table and didn’t even ask if my hubby wanted his water refilled, as it was empty. We had to ask him.
We may come back again, if we are in the area and can’t find anything else. But, we would probably go out elsewhere as hubby was not full and said it was just ok. He said he would come back if he was in a time crunch and desperate. Staff does not smile, especially the guy wearing the beanie cap on this 92° afternoon. Seem they are not very happy here.
Some people just sat down and cook looking guy went over and put menu on table and didn’t say a word to them. Another walked in and server said something and the guy said we have been here before and server said, oh well I have never seen you. Customer said, well I have been here, guess you weren’t here. Food 2.5 stars, service 2 stars, cleanliness 4 stars. Overall, 2.5 stars, but will give 2, since I can’t do 2 and a half stars.

I would love this place if they were consistent. I rarely get the same portion of meat and it drives me insane when they don’t devein their shrimp! YUCK!!! NO ONE WANTS TO EAT SHRIMP POOP!! It also freaks me out when the dipping sauce for the To-​go orders stains the plastic cups and it looks like they’re days/​weeks old. Stop cutting corners and people will come back! They got points for price, flavor and speed.

Service was less than mediocre. Appearance was deceiving because the establishment it looked nice but was stuffy and warm without A/​C (red flag). Which makes you wonder of food spoiling and freshness. Drinks were late. Crispy egg roll meat inside was pink? (Questionable)
The broth in the grilled chicken phở was actually good. The noodles and soup were yummy. However the crispy wontons were over priced and over cooked. The spoons and forks were at your table and in a cup (not sure about this).
My family had stomach aches after we left. The staff spoke in their language after they spoke to me several times making me wish I understood Vietnamese. I will not return to this establishment.

Go here and ask for the chicken/​beef broth if you’re looking for something tasty for an expectant mother at St. Joseph’s Hospital across the street. My wife loooooves phở, but (technically) couldn’t eat any solids while she was in labor, so I asked the cashier if they would just give me a big container of chicken broth. Keep in mind, this was at 7:55pm on a Thursday night – 5 minutes before closing time. The cashier and a guy who I’m guessing was the manager (owner?) were very nice, completed my order, put a menu in the bag with the broth and welcomed me to bring my wife when she was able to eat again.
My wife loved the broth and got excited about eating at Cali Noodles when she saw the menu. We’ll definitely be eating at the restaurant soon.

I give the food 3 stars, and the service 2 stars.
We had visited a Cali Noodle restaurant in West Covina several months back and enjoyed the food so when I noticed another one of these restaurants was in the area via Unilocal,we decided to give it a try.
We ordered 2 rice dishes-​one with chicken, and the other with steak and pork meatball, a plain phở, and a shrimp and chicken noodle bowl.
The rice entrée dishes come with a small green salad, white rice, and an egg roll. The chicken was tender and full of flavor. The steak, however, was small in size, extremely thin, had a chewy consitency and didnt have much flavor. The pork meatballs were more 2 small, thin slices of spam-​nothing special.
We also ordered 1 plain phở-​just broth and rice noodles. This isnt on the menu, but they allowed us to make this special order. A decent sized bowl was only $ 5. The phở was alright. The broth was semi sweet. There was a decent serving of noodles.
Finally we ordered a grilled shrimp and grilled chicken noodle plate. The portion size was generous. The chicken and shrimp were fresh and full of flavor, but like the rice plates, the dishes lacked overall flavor.
I asked for thai basil, lime, and sliced jalapenos. After adding these items my noodle dish was bursting with authentic flavor.
Now what bothered me just as much as the bland food, and the two toxic cleaning chemicals at a childs reach next to the toilet on the restroom floor, was the fact that the 2 wait staff spent more time talking to each other than tending to guests. We had to flag down our waiter two times. Plus, my son had to walk up to the cash register to ask for the bill and had to return to the cashier to submit the credit card… mind you only 2 – 3 tables were occupied in the large restaurant. It was by no means busy!
What also upset me about the service is that as I checked in on Unilocal and was entitled to a free egg roll. However, we had to remind staff to give us the egg roll, as it was not brought out with our meals.
Overall, I was disappointed with our experience with this restaurant. We won’t be returning soon.

New Spot. So happy that they had a Vegi option. Vegetarian Phở was on point. Great Customer Service.

2^nd time visiting. The first time had been after purchasing a Groupon. 20 $ worth for $ 14. I love Phở, especially spring rolls.
My first visit was a disaster and I left annoyed however, it was (in theory) my fault. The cashier was nice and tried to put a good spin on it. He said hey this means you can come back on the weekend with your family. I wanted to redeem the Groupon and was told that the fine print stated dine in only, no exceptions. It had been a long day at work and I just wanted to get some food and leave. I ordered the crispy wontons, spring roll, pad Thai. I hated the pad Thai it was just a bunch of noodles and 4 shrimps. I tried giving it to my dogs and even they wouldn’t eat it. The won tons where so-​so however, I loved the spring rolls.
Came back a 2^nd time determined to use my damn Groupon. This time I wanted to order the special Cali Phở. (Couldn’t they where sold out) ended up with veggie phở and requested shrimp to be added, spring rolls and hot tea.
Ate the rolls in a blink of an eye. Pretty much left all of the soup. It was bland and the noodles where mushy, ewww gross, the presentation was beautiful it just didn’t stack up. If I needed to walked to get food this would be a good place for rolls. Def not impressed with anything else.
The staff (I have only interacted with 1 cashier) was super nice and friendly.
I
Suggestion to management… Don’t blast your TV when people are trying to eat. If you do you might want to consider a channel that your guest can understand. It was annoying.

While visiting a relative at St. Joseph Hospital, we decided to stop by for a quick lunch at this restaurant since it has 4 stars. I ordered the shrimp & meatball phở and my husband ordered the spicy lemongrass phở and we shared some egg rolls. We both couldn’t finish our food because it was so salty!!! Very disappointed at this restaurant and we could of driven a couple minutes more to little Saigon to have the best Vietnamese food.

The three dishes that I’ve tasted have been very good. The food is fresh and tasty and the prices are reasonable. My husband enjoyed the Phở Chicken especially since he could ask for grilled chicken to go with it. I enjoyed the Pad Thai. We will be returning again soon.

This is amazing restaurant, everything come as quick serve. Pretty good atmosphere and the team are so kind and friendly!!! I love to come back here soon.

In terms of customer service they were really polite and quick with their service so I have no complaints about that. I’ve tried the beef combination phở bowl, chicken phở, and the beef& chicken vermicelli with an egg roll. I’m a huge phở critic and I’d say the beef phở isn’t too bad (average if anything) but the phở ga was just straight out horrible. the chicken meat was dry
like plain baked chicken breast and the soup base was a disgrace to all authentic chicken phos out there. Maybe to a person that’s never tried phở before it would pleasantly tasteful but no, not me. The chicken with vermicelli was actually pretty decent, enjoyable that’s for sure, but maybe an extra egg roll would even things out. The drinks were pretty darn good though. Despite all that, I still find myself getting lunch here.

Got the filet mignon phở, tasted good as expected. Service was great, broth was lighter but still good. Boba drinks are premade so sweetness can’t be altered.
Manager/​Owner (not sure which) kept his presence in the front which is nice.
Great atmosphere!!!
Definitely go here!

Its not bad but of course you cant compare this to real Vietnamese places in Bolsa/​Garden Grove area. Its close to work and there’s really not much competition out here. The food and the prices are decent.

So glad this place opened up next to choc so I can have lunch here after my mothly meetings there. The spicy lemongrass phở is awesomely but it really is bun Bo hue. While the name is incorrect the flavor is right on for my taste buds.

Prompt service, very helpful staff, clean, delicious food.
My guy and I shared crispy egg rolls and they were very fresh, nice and crispy. I tried the shrimp meatball phở’ which is in a tomato broth and it was SO GOOD, very tasty. This dish alone is a reason to come back. My guy had filet mignon phở’ and he loved it. The mango smoothie is delicious, too. Try this place! I’m sure you’ll like it as much as we did.

+ Quick service
+ Very spacious and nice amount of seating available
+ Very clean
This review will reflect my experience with ordering to go. Now, I received flyers from this new location and caught a bit of interest. Then one night on the way back from work, my mom called and asked if I could get some to go for her to try. So here I came. ordered the seafood combination as well as some Thai tea with boba.
Service was surprisingly fast! I only sat down for maybe a couple of minutes after ordering and my name was called. When I took it home, they provided all the essentials. Broth was pretty good, as well as the whole phở bowl itself. I’ll probably be going back again just because it’s really close to home, and they’re still new. So I’ve lots to try from there.

First time here. Clean place… great portions… awesome egg rolls… good Bobba drinks too. will definitely be back.

My daughter is a huge fan of Phö, so we had to check it out. It was FabULous!!! So fresh and staff was so friendly. We went during lunch hour, and even though it took a little long, it was totally worth it. This one sweet girl came over to our table to personally apologize for the delays, talk about great customer service. We had Chicken Phö, Filet miģnon Phö, spring rolls, and Shrimp (huge and plenty) and sausage fried rice. I highly recommend this place and I wish them well. Keep up the good work and I can’t wait to try all of your specialty drinks.

Why would someone give this place 3 stars and up? Omg… I went to this place 2 months back because it’s a new Asian franchise. When I got to the register I was not greeted right away by a male cashier because he was busy chatting with a female waitress. He greeted me shortly after about a min and half. I asked him if their coffee taste sweet or more of coffee. He offered me if I wanted to taste before ordering. I tasted the coffee and asked if I order can he add more coffee to my drink. His responded that it was pre-​made, therefore he couldn’t do that. He then said Kaffa coffee is just one door down from them and I don’t need to order since I complaint their coffee was too sweet. «Gasp» Shit the front door! He did not said that to me. I ordered the coffee anyway and spring roll. Let me tell you about their spring roll… supposedly they said it was their popular item on the menu. Wrong! The worst! I spent over $ 7 for crappy food! For that amount I would rather spend at Brodard for their spring roll, not only the price but for the quality of food. Cali noodles spring roll filled more lettuce more than the meat. Basically, they cut the meat in half and roll with lettuce and crunch crap. I would never coming back to this shitty place with bad service and food. So embarrassed for Asian community in orange location.

a welcomed addition to our food options. Close to CHOC and St. Joseph’s Hospitals where workers can get good food with quick service. My favorite is the dry noodles with 2 servings of grilled chicken. I think I’ve found a fav. Their boba is legit too. Go check them out. Julie is awesome and helpful along with Elzy who works the register. Keep up the good work ladies and gents!!!

Amazing PHO!!!
Staff are super nice and the place is clean.
Special thanks to Julie and Elzy for making our food quickly.
Warm smiles really goes a long way.
I will come back for sure.

I’ll admit: I ended up here because it was the first place that showed in a local search for «Phở», haha, and it had a check-​in coupon for a free egg roll. Who doesn’t like free extras?
Things were a little out of sorts when I first arrived because the credit card machines had gone down just that morning. For the first time in forever, though, I happened to have cash with me so that wasn’t a big deal. I felt bad for the staff, though, because (on top of being stressed out over the machines being down) there was a table of incredibly nit-​picky customers who seemed to be really confused by the menu, and who kept sending items back or requesting changes to their orders… and as someone who eats a lot of Vietnamese food (I do live in Westminster, after all), it was pretty obvious that this was customer confusion and not anything wrong with the food or service.
Okay, the important part: the food. =)
The free egg roll was pretty standard. Not bad, but also not something I would necessarily go out of my way to order. (It was great for free, though, haha)
I ordered the Phở Tai («Filet Mignon Phở» on their menu board) and it came out within a minute of my sitting down. That’s probably the fastest I’ve ever seen Phở prepared. Rather than coming on the side for me to add in, the meat was already in the soup. This surprised me, because I thought I had overheard one of the nit-​picky customers complaining that her Phở Ga had no chicken — only to have it explained to her that her chicken was on the plate that they gave with the soup. I had never seen Phở Ga served like that, but had seen Phở Tai like that often.
I was worried, at first, that the meat would taste over-​cooked, but it was actually perfect! =) It was still tender and flavorful, and didn’t have any of the awkard «chewiness» that I’ve experienced at other Phở restaurants. This was a pleasant surprise.
The vegetables, condiments, etc, are all at a self service stand, so I didn’t have to pester the wait staff with requests for more jalapeños or sriracha (I’m a fiend for spicy). But the staff still kept checking up on me to make sure I had everything I needed.
I only wish they had a smaller serving size available. I have a large appetite, but this particular serving was pretty large (and actually a pretty good value for the price). However, seeing as how I was there on my work lunch break, it was just a bit too much given that I still had to go back to work. If they had maybe a small or «regular», this would make a great lunch place.

New restaurant. decided to check it out because had a nice variety on their menu and decent prices.
Food was surprisingly tasty. Got the chicken spring roll, which was the best Vietnamese spring roll I’ve ever had, and filet mignon phở which was pretty good too! Bf got the spicy lemon grass phở. unless you like fish-​y stuff, don’t get it.
Portions were great, looked like regular size bowl, but it was a lot! Def plus for me.
Also, self-​serve vegetables and condiments which I liked!
the reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5 was because of the lady manager. Order was taken down wrong and we asked for a request of change but she brought it back to us saying that they couldn’t change it, when we had said the specific order clearly. Eventually, we got the fixed order. But during that whole time, the environment just felt very awkward and tense for us. she had a very stern and upset looking-​face. Other workers were very friendly tho!
Want to come back again, but afraid to approach the manager lol.

I’ve been waiting for them to FINALLY open! Great food, great service. Everyone was very friendly! I ordered the vermicelli with Pork Chop & Beef. The meats had a good flavor. Next time I’ll order with rice though because the Vermicelli never has flavor to me and I’m not a fan of the fish sauce. But I’ll definitely be coming back! So glad there’s a PHO place across from the hospital! !!

This place looks as if it just opened. It’s very clean and the service was great. They serve phở noodles, bun noodles, boba and more. I had the grilled chicken and beef bun, which was very delicious and came with an egg roll. It was very tasty. I can’t really describe the marinade used on the chicken and beef, but it did have a sweet BBQ’d teriyaki taste to it, which I loved. The vegetables were fresh and the noodles were not sticking together, which is nice. If you’re ever in Orange, CA, by St. Joseph’s Hospital, you should stop by and try the food for yourself. I’m definitely coming back to try their phở noodles one day.