Pho Ngon

*** went today and it looks like they have been evicted based on the sign***

Really nice place. Cozy, cheap, and the attention is nice. The food is really tasty and great sizes. We ordered the Phõ #4 without tendon or honeycomb and the #33. Everything was super good and feeling. It definitely makes sense to get the large size and have some leftovers to take home!

We made our first visit to the Phở Ngon Restaurant on a not-​very-​busy beautiful Sunday mid-​afternoon in early October. While we out-​of-​towners like to visit the Fubonn Market on occasion, we were initially hesitant to try the Phở Ngon after reading the rather middling reviews that other Unilocalers had previously submitted, and finding the on-​line reports of two failed health inspections within the last two years. Nevertheless, we succumbed. Okay, the good news is that the items we selected were really quite good, favorable, and ample. My companion, a vegetarian, selected No. 44: noodles, tofu, and vegetables. I selected No. 51: grilled lemon-​grass chicken, egg roll, and rice. Several different and interesting condiments were available at the table for our sampling. But the bad news is that the service was deplorable — if that can be said for service that was essentially non-​existent. After we entered the restaurant and waited (as appropriate) at the front, someone from the back waved at us to sit anywhere. (About 4/5’s of the tables were available at this time.) Okay, while our «waitress» fairly quickly brought us the menus, we «suffered the indignity» of having another, larger party who arrived several minutes after us and ended up being attended to first by the other waitress. Finally, we flagged down our said-​waitress to request water (which the later-​comers had already been offered), and to request that she take our order. Well, our orders arrived after some time (but not unreasonably so). Except said-​waitress called out the numbers of our orders, and promptly mixed them up. Then, she gave only my companion a napkin and silverware; I had to ask for some myself. Well, while we did enjoy the food, we never saw the said-​waitress again at our table (even though she occasionally appeared to be rather idly wandering around elsewhere, fiddling with table utensils, etc.) No further appearance by her to check to see «how every thing was», no offer to refill our water glasses, etc. We finally flagged down the other, much-​busier, seriously-​minded waitress to bring us a water refill. And, of course, when departing, I had to go to the register to get our check.
So — despite the two-​star review (four for the food, but zero for the «service»), we can still give a conditional recommendation for this restaurant. Heck, we might even visit again — now that we know the particular waitress to avoid. After all, the food was really quite good and reasonably priced!

The food here is OK. Not the best, but definitely not the worst either. Their food can sometimes be bland or overpowering with so many different flavors.
I’ve ordered a rice dish a couple times and with the rice, you get a bowl of soup. I had the soup and it was salty! I like salty, so I’m not complaining. But if you like the side soup that comes with rice, don’t bother coming here. What I can recommend that is good and everyone will like is egg rolls, vermicelli, and phở! These are many people’s favorite that I’ve noticed and mine as well! Phở is the most popular here. I see at least one bowl of phở on each person table when I walk by.
The staff here is interesting. Some are nice, and some just don’t bother to show a simple smile.
To me the restaurant feels quite small because so many people are sitting or waiting in a crowded to be seated. Even though the tables are spread widely apart from each other, I wish it was a bigger building.

This place is usually my go-​to phở spot because it’s right next to the Asian market. After I’m done grocery shopping I sometimes stop in for a quick bite to eat. Their phở is pretty tasty and one of the better places up here in Portland. The dining area is spacious and parking is convenient. Service will be kind of a crap shoot because it’s not consistent.

My palette just isn’t that sophisticated when it comes to Phở. I grew up near Westminster, California — home to the largest Vietnamese population in the U.S. — and have been regularly eating Phở in Portland since 2002. Yet, it’s difficult for me to distinguish between great Phở and average Phở. That is, I don’t remember when I’ve thought, «wow, this Phở is like no other.» Only once did I think it was below average, happened at a round looking building on NE Sandy near 75^th.
So I look for variety, value, ambiance and service when evaluating Vietnamese restaurants. Thus, Phở Van scores high marks, not because their Phở is anything special, but the dining experience is just a cut above.
All that said, everything was average here, meaning good, not memorable. They were out of Jackfruit, so a slight minus there as I love that shake. The Cha Gio here were very good, above average. Price points were value, e.g., $ 7 for a small Phở (although just a little skimpy on the amount of noodles.) The Clay Pot with seafood was full of flavor, but the fish bones were irritating.
I’d come back in conjunction to a Fubon trip, but probably wouldn’t go out of my way.

Phở no 11 was excellent ! Not greasy not heavy not too sweet not too salty it was just right! The meat was very tender and juicy I will be coming here again.

Good restaurant. Atmosphere was great and service was quick and friendly. The food came out faster than we expected. Food tasted delicious and the menu had a lot of variety. I’m visiting the city and it was my first time eating here and I had a great first impression. The place was pretty packed and everyone was being served to their heart’s content. I’m satisfied with the food, the price, and the service.

This has long been one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants in town! Been coming here for almost five years now.
The phở is not the best in town, but it is really good. The 33 is also really good and my girlfriend and I usually share this with and are both full with spring rolls.

I feel this restaurant serves a «mainstream friendly» phở broth. If you’re like me and like Phở with traditional, rich, flavorful broth– don’t go here. The servers are very nice, though.

On our second night in Portland, I drove my parents over to SE Portland’s 82^nd Ave area for dinner as that is where many of the Asian eateries are located in town.
Phở Ngon was not the first choice. More like the fourth choice after we got tired of looking for a place. It came down to Phở Ngon and the Korean restaurant across the way at Fubonn Shopping Center. Since it was over 80 degrees outside, Vietnamese seemed like a better choice. Not for the phở, but for the rice dishes.
This restaurant is large, but it wasn’t very full when we visited. Was that a bad sign? Anyways, we took a seat at one of the booth tables. The menu here is quite large as well and full of items that you come to expect at a Vietnamese restaurant.
I decided to try something different here. I was intrigued by the claypot rice and decided to get a small order of it. I was a little confused since the server never asked what type of meat I wanted. My dad thought it was all three items listed, but when it came out it was just claypot fish and a huge helping of rice. It certainly was not what I imagined, but I decided to dig in since I was the last one to get my meal. I had no idea it would take 30 – 35 minutes.
The claypot fish has a very sweet taste. The sauce reminds me of the one used to make unagi kabayaki. It tasted good, but I left feeling like it needed something like vegetables to balance out the sweetness of the sauce.
It may or may not be a coincidence, but I got a nosebleed in the middle of the night after eating here. While not directly correlated to this dish, I think it was a contributor in addition to the hot weather. This does not figure into the rating since the choice was mine, but I would avoid ordering this dish alone on a hot day unless you are asking for trouble.
Overall, I think Phở Ngon hovers between a 2 and 3. Food was alright, but I am rating it down since the service could have been better. Particularly in being clear about the order. It would have been nice if I got a heads up when ordering that my dish would take a while to prepare.

Wow. This was the filthiest restaurant I have been to in a long, long time. Dining room floor, tables dirty, no soap in the men’s room, which looked like it was cleaned… last week maybe? The #26 (Banh Mi Bo Ko) was still great… but…

You owe it to yourself to just drive (or hell… walk) the very short distance down 82^nd to Phở Hung if you seek a great bowl of Phở. Phở Ngon? Not so much.
It’s the broth. Phở Ngon’s broth is light years away from Phở Hung’s. Hung’s has so much more flavor and complexity (and quality) than Phở Ngon’s. Sorry, Ngon, but it’s true.
Oddly enough, however, Phở Ngon literally has the exact same menu as Phở Hung. I don’t just mean the food either, I mean the menu itself is an exact copy. At first I thought to myself, «Hmm, maybe Phở Hung opened a satellite restaurant in Fubonn??» but once I tasted the Phở it was clear that Phở Hung had nothing to do with it.
Phở Ngon does serve a good purpose though: convenience. If you’re shopping at Fubonn, hungry as all hell, and too impatient to spend the 2 minutes driving (or 4 minutes walking) down to Phở Hung then hey, looky here, Phở Ngon!
Another benefit of Phở Ngon is that it is a large restaurant that is rarely if ever full, which means you’ll get seated right away and the food comes out quick. In fact, that’s how I ended up at Phở Ngon in the first place. I was craving phở, Phở Hung had a line of people waiting for a table, so I figured I’d just try Phở Ngon. I was that hungry.
So Phở Ngon has convenience and quickness going for it… oh and Don B. is totally right, Phở Ngon does at least give you a lot of meat in your phở (they have to make up for their inferior broth somehow, I guess).
But if it is truly great Phở you seek (and I mean REALLY good phở), like I said, just hop-​skip the short distance down to Phở Hung. It’s so close you don’t have a good excuse not to.

I tried this phở again and it’s still just okay. Service is indifferent to absent (par for true phở joints) but the food comes quick. Veggie mix for the phở is not as robust as I’d like. But on the up-​side, they give you a lot of meat in your bowl. Almost more than I really wanted. So if that’s the aspect of phở you care about, Phở Ngon will deliver.
Not sure why I keep coming back when there’s such great phở nearby. I guess I should check my own reviews more often.

Good Phở, ¹⁄₃ Phở restaurants we usually go to. Very conveniently located right in the Fubonn Shopping center.

Most of the other Vietnamese places in town (ie Phở Hung, Phở Van in the same area) are happy and willing to cater to my vegetarian needs. This place will not they only have two options deep fried tofu over noodles or deep fried tofu salad rolls. They aren’t capable of making vegetarian fish sauce either (soy sauce, lime juice, vinegar mixture which are ingredients I’m sure they have in their kitchen)
I would rather go a few blocks away to the other Viet restaurants that are more flexible and accommodating.

Food and service have really gone down hill. It surprises me that I’m giving this place a one-​star rating. I remember when this place was Phở Saigon before they went back to Sacramento; used to come here all the time for their wonton noodle and salad rolls. Even when this place was newly Phở Ngon it wasn’t this bad.
The food was bad. Bad enough we didn’t want to take togo. Bad enough we barely touched our food. Service was slow to say the least. We had to ask multiple times for drinks and straws. Never got them. My boyfriend had to walk to the kitchen to ask the waiter for his can of 7up. The waiter was hiding in the kitchen talking on his phone. I had to go get us straws on their supply table.
We ordered a salad roll, phở with rare steak and meatballs, and noodle bowl with tofu skin wrapped fish/​pork/​shrimp/​crab. The salad roll skin was rubbery and tough. The phở was like dish water. The rice vermicelli in the noodle bowl and salad rolls were rubbery and dry. The tofu skin wrapped thing was overfried and… literally like cardboard. There was barely any filling.
We won’t be coming back anymore.

Great phở! The broth was delicious. We loved the meatballs. The egg rolls were light and crispy. The small bowl was the perfect size for me and the large special bowl was perfect for my boyfriend. He really liked the consistency of the tendon.
We went in late and didn’t get rushed out. Very nice staff. Service was fast. So far some of our favorite phở in Portland.

For $ 6.50 the price is right and the portion is above average for a bowl of phở. Really filling.
BUT if you want to talk about taste, take it from a Vietnamese guy who’s eaten Phở his entire life in the Little Vietnam of the USA– Garden Grove in Orange County, CA. The broth here really is subpar. You can tell it’s phở, but the concentrated beef flavor is not there. Either that or they tried to stretch the amount of stock they had by diluting it with water and adding salt and fish sauce. That’s a passable thing to do; it’s a trick I use when I invite too many white people to my house when I make Phở myself. There’s better phở in Portland.
I wasn’t so annoyed by the Phở as much as I was annoyed by the prices of their other stuff. They lower the price on Phở and hike up the price on everything else. $ 4.75 for two egg rolls or two spring rolls? Good lord. Think of the amount of food that two egg rolls gives you and compare that to a single chimichanga that you could buy at a Mexican place that requires the same amount of skill to make. You are TOTALLY ripped off. A chimichanga has three times the volume of food, if not more, for the same price. Both come with a sauce/​salsa.
For the price and the quality, I’d rather go to Phở Hung on Powell.

Love Phở Ngon!
# 33 is my fave — Grilled Pork, grilled shrimp over noodles & veggies! Serious stuff, if you can’t handle good food in the large bowl. Stop complaining and go somewhere else, so I can eat my food peacefully!
Maybe I shouldn’t be writing review at 5 a.m. But com’on, if you don’t like Phở or Vietnamese food, HELLO don’t go to Phở or Vietnamese restaurants.