Pho Do

Phở Do is a quaint little restaurant nestled right next to Jenny Craig in the San Bruno Towne Center Plaza. The menu consists of 7 pages and 66 items which includes 8 selections of Phở (soup) and 6 selections of drinks. The tables, pretty sticky, randomly sized and wobbly. There’s enough space for servers to walk through and for people to get in and out but if this place’s tables are completely sat down, there’d more than likely be no wiggle room. And be prepped, the place smells like a public bathroom mixed with fish sauce –though they do have a sign that says they passed the health inspection code and whatnot. There’s two doors to come in and out so be prepped to find a spot not between the them because it honestly gets cold.
Let me just get this out there: If you like beef, don’t come here. There’s the tiniest beef selection and from pictures on other reviews, just skip it. For some reason though, they do have quite a selection for other meats– pork, a small selection of chicken and a good amount of shrimp.
From their window, I can see 2 cooks and 1 server who is also the host and cashier. They spend a lot of time talking to one another. And I was actually quite appalled to see a customer walk into the kitchen, make jokes with the staff and then sit right back down to her table as if nothing happened. WHAT ABOUT SAFETY AND HEALTH CODES?
Anyway, continuing on… I asked for a fork, since all those cute little spoon things were actually dirty and had chunks of food on them –I didn’t want to risk seeing what was up with the chopsticks– and instead of handing it to me, the waitress/​cashier/​hostess really stuck it in my food… I quickly pulled it out, placed it in my tea and proceeded to dry it off with the 1 piece of napkin she gave me. She was already rude upon entering but I was really shocked how much she could ignore me with my hand in the air for about 6 minutes just so I could order a Sprite. She never came so while she was calculating (by hand) my table’s bill, I went up and asked her for it. Pretty sure she was upset because it meant she had to redo all that math.
On to food– noodles weren’t cooked all the way or they were old; they were hard and stuck together –they felt like plastic. The egg rolls were burned on the ends. The pork tasted like… Nothing. Everything was bland.
Everything was subpar, my family ended up eating again when we got home. Stay away from here — waste of time, gay, money and effort.

Came here after years of passing by. Had been to Lowes several years and the Sprint store on the back side and even Red Ribbon and Robins, just not this place until recently. Just not planning on coming back.
The selection was very limited and the phở was nothing special. There was no size options and no bean sprouts. The tables are uneven.

Save your time and money. This isn’t real phở or Vietnamese. I’m sitting here right now and the entire staff is speaking Cantonese (Chinese dialect). The phở is bland, it’s got Chinese noodles, and the beef looks gross. I got the fried spring rolls and they’re bland as heck.

I’ve had much better Vietnamese food but this place is close to work (²⁄₅). Service is decent (³⁄₅). Ambiance (³⁄₅), price a bit steep (²⁄₅). Overall 2.5÷5

This place get 5 starsfor taste, service, price, and parking. Real bone broth. The nest? noodles were A+. I don’t know what they’re called but they’re saucy in the middle but super pan fried crispy on the outside, looks like a nest ;P. I was a striving vegetarian at the time and asked for it to be veggie style. The owner, lol, read my inner desires and suggested the bone broth sauce for taste and I’m glad I took his recommendation (even though it was meat product, I had a nice transition). The phở is also really good, in my Chinese opinion. Good prices, fast service, and free parking. Plus being in a complex i’d imagine you can get lots of things done when in this area. Cheers!

First of all the service here is super quick and helpful. Unfortunately the broth in the phở was extremely bland. No added sprouts or basil given to add to the phở. Not my choice, but I hope it’s different next time.

I tried the Bun Bo Rieu (I think that’s how you spell it) and its so so. The noodles were not completely cooked. Taste was rather disappointing. I only tasted the Bun Bo Rieu soup mix which can be purchased from any Asian market. Portion of the meat, noodles and soup were perfect. The spicy hot level was on the spot. No complaints on that. Service was good. Only a total of 3 tables eating including mine when I was there at 12:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon.
Will still go back to check out other food on the menu.

Was craving for Phở and some fresh spring rolls, since it was already late at 9pm, we wanted to look for a place nearby that closed late.
Ordered the veggie spring rolls for $ 5.50, was not good at all. It was not fresh at all, there was one thin lonely tofu with the vermicelli and cilantro. Same goes for the pork spring rolls– the wrap to cover the roll was hard. At least, the sauce tasted ok.
Also had seafood soup but the soup base taste like pork, so we skipped it. It was also salty, you can really taste the fish sauce.
Won’t be back!

Good phở place, big servings with the friendly service. Food is very affordable and yummy. I liked when owner came to the dinning area and taking care and greeting his customers it’s like everyone know each other. Love to go back :)

Came here multiple times with my friend. The foods and service here never disappoint! Below are my rating:
+1 for flavorful soup base
+1 for different and unique meats for the soup bowl (pork blood, beef tendon, pork feet)
+1 for great customer service (server and the cook are very chill and approachable)
+1 for attentive service (running out of tea/​water? The server will notice and ask you if you want more, even before your cup gets empty!)
+1 for nice and clean environment (admit it. Some Phở places are pretty dirty and dusty…)
Overall, a great Phở place to try out! I’m becoming a regular her myself!

Been here a couple of times already and all have been a pleasant experience. Today I tried their Vermicelli Noodles with grilled beef and fried spring roll. Delicious! XD Service was good and the food was fresh!

It is Christmas Day, so my expectations are already extremely low. As we walk in, no one greeted or seated us. No issues there. The seating in the rear smelled like the adjacent restrooms. It is starting to irritate. We moved to the front dining area. We notice that there is only 1 waitress. Considerable since it’s Christmas, so we completely ignored it.
But when we ordered in Vietnamese, the waitress had no clue and randomly walks away while taking our order. We were so shocked, we didn’t what happened. She came back and we asked, «Is number 31 available?» She again, walks away to get water for another table. WTF! The 3^rd time, we just ordered right away, straight to the point, no hesitation. The food was not good and the service was down right rude and unprofessional. I cannot definitively say I got food poisoning from this restaurant, but I had mad diarrhea for the entire trip to San Francisco and crazy flu like symptoms.

Solid Vietnamese spot in San Bruno right off the freeway! Right near the airport! If you’re hungry after your flight, the food is consistent. You can expect to leave with a warm and happy tummy every time!
Here are my recommendations: Chicken Phở, Roast Duck Noodle, Pineapple Chicken Fried Rice and #33 BBQ Pork over rice with an egg.

Every time I go to lunch near this Lowe’s, I seem to opt for the fresh Mex place. I think it’s called La Salsa? I tried the Japanese place here a couple of times, but it’s a little pricey, and I’m always queasy about the freshness in those places with the Sushi Wheel of Fortune. So, how about Phở Do?
First the layout is really weird. There’s a store front, which I mistook for the entire restaurant, and then a long rather dark room attached. The menu had lots of good options, and I was glad to see two Vietnamese men slurping bowls of phở. It was pretty warm, though, and like most westerners, that meant I didn’t want hot soup. This may have been a mistake, since that is in their name, and probably their specialty. I got the sautéed seafood on pan fried noodles. I always hate to dis a little mom and pop place, but I’ll just say I was not impressed.
The first negative for me, was the fact that the shrimp were not properly cleaned and still had the yucky vein. It’s weird, because they had been slit, so it could easily have been removed, but no one did it. Everything looked pretty and the veg looked fresh, but except for the flavors associated with shrimp and squid that are not quite as fresh as they should be, nothing had any flavor, not even salt. There was quite a bit of brownish sauce beneath the noodles, but it held no hope of saving things, with only a bit of saltiness and nothing else.
I should perhaps give it a fair chance and try their phở sometime, but since it’s soooooo critical with phở to steep in the layers of flavor, I’m skeptical.
Sorry, not a repeater.

2.5 STARS
If my Chinesey mom decided to open a Vietnamesey restaurant, Phở Do would be it. The name of the restaurant would have nothing to do with their specialty because it’s overshadowed by items that have no relevance like potstickers, soy sauce chicken wings, korean bbq, pineapple fried rice, and wonton soup.
To her admission, she was always a bad cook but she could care less. «Fake it to make it», as she says. She would turn up the charm and flirt her way through everything. How else would she be able to get away with plowing her Corolla through numerous stop signs while flossing her welder’s visor?
Anyhow, if you’re looking for legit Vietnamese food look elsewhere. Phở Do serves Chinese style Vietnamese food or rather their interpretation of what Vietnamese food should be (where are all these 5 star reviews coming from?!). And yes, they have potstickers, fried rice, soy sauce chicken wings, and wonton soup on the menu. For a «phở» restaurant, they only have two kinds: phở bo (beef) and phở ga (chicken).
I bookmarked this place for their Nem Nuong Cuon (Brodard style spring rolls) and Hai Nam Chicken (Poached chicken w/​chicken fat rice), and also because they don’t use msg. When I asked the lady about the Nem Nuong Cuon, she had no idea what I was talking about because she didn’t understand Vietnamese. I described it in English and she said, they didn’t have it anymore. I tried to order their Hai Nam Chicken. She said, they didn’t have the chicken fat rice and asked if fried rice was OK? WTF. That’s like ordering pizza without cheese.
Instead, I ordered the Hu Tieu Gio Heo: Pig’s Feet Noodle ($ 8.50) which wasn’t pig’s feet but pork shank:
. They either don’t know the difference between feet and shank, or need to correctly translate their menu because it’s misleading. The pork was somewhat tender but mainly bones. The egg noodles were nicely al-​dente but the broth was star anisey heavy to the point, I kept biting into one.
Mr. NSS ordered the Phở Bo which was phockin’ TERRIBLE. For a $ 9, you get a small bowl of noodles and a stingy portion of beef: a piece of tendon, and 2 slices of round eye beef (sorry, no pic). It was also suppose to come with brisket and flank, both of which were absent in the bowl. The broth is super sweet and very cinnamony with a very strong star anise flavor. It’s was oddly clear and yellowish which led me to believe they use chicken broth. They also don’t provide bean sprouts, mint, or basil. Hands down, the worst bowl of phở I’ve tasted.
Their saving grace was the Thit Nuong Cuon: Grilled Pork Spring Rolls ($ 5.50):
which was like a bun (vermicelli noodle bowl) but in a spring roll form. The grilled pork was warm and savory, and I really enjoyed the crushed peanuts for a crunch textural contrast. Close to 4.5 stars just for this spring roll. Ugh, why did they have to take the nem nuong cuon off the menu? If they were as excellent as the rolls I had, I can imagine them generating more business with a Brodard copycat (
).
As expected, service was cavalier and inattentive. You do receive your order quickly though (within 5 minutes). Mr. NSS ordered the rare round eye beef on the side and received it cooked in the phở broth. I read numerous reviews of people finding hair and other items in their food so we didn’t send it back.
I noticed that several Cantonese regulars ordered beef stew over rice.
So there you have it, folks. IF you go to Phở Do, steer away from the phở and order the Chinesey dishes. Talk about ironic.
May I suggest a restaurant name change to «Beef Stew»?

Okay let’s talk about what everyone notices when they come in here.
That this is not authentic Vietnamese cuisine.
Yes, it’s Cantonese owned and operated, but hey, the food isn’t half bad.
By that I mean half of it was good and half of it was bad, hahaha.
The beef noodles soup was pretty good for non authentic Phở place. The down side of this dish is the price tag, it’s about $ 1.75 more expensive then better Phở places in the city and for smaller portions.
Also, on the bad side was their BBQ chicken. I found it to be dry. And the Korean BBQ beef was small and charred.
So that’s the good and bad of this place in a nutshell.

I came here with my husband last night! I tried the Bun Bo Hue and guess what! The soup base is very yummy! I was told they cooked the soup for more 8 hours!
My husband tried the Bun with pork and spring roll. The spring roll is crispy and the pork is tasty! Also the fish sauce is light but taste very good! Usually I don’t write review for Phở! But their soup base is different than other Phở! Sometimes I had headache after I ate phở because of too much MSG! This time I didn’t have headache after I ate the bun! The owner Richard is very friendly! They deserve 5 stars based on the soup base!

Okay… I came here with my boyfriend to eat our late, first meal of the day. We came to know of this place because of Unilocal and the ratings weren’t too shabby so we decided to try this place out.
When we got seated and opened up the menu, we were really shocked. The prices were just ridiculously high. For example, TWO pieces of egg rolls (every appetizer egg roll only comes in two pieces) costs $ 5.95! That’s just ridiculous in my opinion. When we got to the phở section, they only had two options available. The combination phở with all variety meats such as flank, meatball, etc. And chicken phở. For one bowl of phở, it costs $ 8.95… What the heck?!
Despite the prices, we decided to just stick around anyways because we were too hungry. We both ordered the number #1, phở combination. When we got our food, it was absolutely dreadful. If we had known we were coming to a flavor-​your-​own-​phở place, we would’ve never came. The soup tasted super bland, watered down, no flavor whatsoever. I had to double the amount of Sriracha sauce and Hoison sauce I put in my soup normally, put a gang of salt and pepper and jalapeños and it barely made it taste better. Not to mention, the meat was flavorless as well.
While trying to chew down what we could from the phở, I noticed there weren’t any meatballs in our phở. In their menu, it clearly states there’s meatball included. When we called the waitress over, the communication lacked a lot because she barely spoke English. She told us there was no meatball and I asked her, «Shouldn’t there be a difference in the price (cheaper) if one of the meats you state in your menu aren’t included in the dish?» She didn’t even understand me. My boyfriend being the nice guy he is, he told her it was okay and we just paid the check and left.
We won’t be coming back for two flavorless bowls of phở with false advertisement on their menus and ridiculous overboard prices. Our bill came out to $ 19.52 for the two of us. Oh not to mention, there was some weird pink spot on my meat that kinda made me lose my appetite. We seriously couldn’t figure out what it was.

New restaurant, suppose to be vietnamese restaurant but waitress do not speak vietnamese or very little English. The cook are Vietnamese. We ordered egg rolls, came out super crunchy and definitely not vietnamese egg rolls, more liked overcooked deep fried Chinese egg rolls.
I don’t recommend egg rolls.
Beef noodles soup «Phở» comes with no basil or bean sprout. Definitely not vietnamese.
«Phở» has no flavor of «Phở» and «Bun Bo Hue» is water down flavor. I don’t recommend this as vietnamese restaurant. It should be Chinese want to be Vietnamese restaurant. Unilocaler beware.

I went back (it’s only been open 2 weeks) and decided to try their chicken phở (#2 on the menu) as I (and millions others) have always loved Turtle Tower’s chicken and northern phở selections in SF.
It was exactly the same, which is perfect. I’m never ordering the beef again, chicken once a week from now on. I’m a huge fan now. They need to promote it more. Beautiful, overnight cooked broth, tons of chicken pieces (from all cuts) — just perfect. Add some sriracha and a few hot chili paste and you’re in for a great huge bowl ($ 9 and worth every penny).