Chicken Pho You

Never knew this place existed! Decent chicken. Hope they’d serve boneless hainanese style chicken rice

Came in here because I was craving chicken phở and it was the only thing close to Vietnamese nearby that had it in this area. We ordered two chicken phở, vinegar onions on the side, a Thai tea and an egg soda. Before I ordered the egg soda, I made sure it was made with an egg, club soda, and condensed milk (like it’s supposed to be.) She verified that was correct and went to put in our order.
The order came out fairly quickly and soup itself was not TERRIBLE, being Chinese owned and all.
1. They ran out of the regular flat noodles so they gave us vermicelli instead. Which was extremely overcooked and mushy.
2. The only toppings they gave us were jalapeños and two dinky slices of lemon. No basil, no beansprouts, no onions. Because they ran out.
3. The Thai tea (which should be a no brainer) was watered down and didn’t taste at all like a Thai iced tea.
4. My egg soda was made of an egg & 7up. Disgusting.
5. They also forgot the vinegar onions which I had to ask for again. She came out with a handful of cilantro and a sauce dish with vinegar. –_​– When we tried to correct her and say we wanted white onions, she looked confused and then told us they ran out of white onions.
At this point I’m extremely frustrated with this place had to refrain from blowing my top. Why is this place even open? Nothing about my meal was made correctly not even my drink. And they ran out of most ingredients.
Do not eat here. Go somewhere else.

Came here for a quick bite before the movie. The beef phở soup base was rich and nourishing, but the phở noodles were overcooked and too mushy. Overall ok but nothing too special.

Great service and food! Only the environment feels a little cold. Maybe lighting? They should consider changing their light bulbs to something more warm and inviting. Shop/​garage illumination not recommended for a restaurant.

Wow! Chicken Phở You is a hidden gem in San Mateo downtown. Surprisingly good food, affordable prices, although décor can use some facelift.
My colleagues and I were in phở mood on Tuesday. Our regular place was closed, so we came up with a plan B and headed here. I was skeptical when saw this place for the first time. However, we had an amazing experience and I highly recommend you to try Chicken Phở You!
Restaurant décor is quite minimal, to say the least, but its phở is reach and tasty. Vegetables are fresh, prices are more than reasonable. It gets packed in here during the lunch hour, so I’d recommend to head out early.
I had #38 (beef stew w egg noodles). The stew was quite tender and well seasoned. Noodles were perfect, phở was reach.
My colleagues were satisfied as well.
Highly recommend to try this place!

This place is a great go to spot for phở. Their chicken phở is very good and their beef phở is great. The super gelitaneous tendons are amazing. Great coffee too. Also worth checking out is their rice and vermicelli plates.
This place is run by a little family, who are all incredibly nice. Come check this place out!

We saw this place opened up and wanted to see if it was anywhere as good as the famous Turtle Tower in SF since the style of phở is very similar. It didn’t come that close, but was good for a sore throat!
There were other dishes like chicken with ginger sauce and rice dishes. Definitely all looks like Vietnamese dishes, but owned by Chinese.
We’ll come back since it’s pretty good phở for this area.

This is one of the best place to have Vietnamese Chicken Noodle soup. I come here almost every other day while I was working on a project in Downtown San Mateo for a month. I can taste that their soup is fresh every time (no over night soup). Very good quality Chicken too! I also love their Vietnamese beef stew noodle soup or just over rice. Service is excellent, they always remember I want extra green onions and cilantro.

I wanted to eat something quick before a movie so I dropped in here for some phở. I got a large chicken phở and was extremely happy with how delicious the soup was. Loved the wider noodles used for the chicken phở too. I’ll be back because phở is one of the food dishes I love to eat.

Their chicken phở is on point! It comes with the thick rice noodles (ho fen); $ 2 extra for all thigh meat. Def one of my fav places to get chicken phở!
It’s a pretty small and hidden place in downtown San Mateo. Service was excellent, the waitress was very friendly and refilled our tea a couple times.

It was a cold and rainy night, and I was feeling horrible! I wanted some hot chicken noodle soup to eat, and Campbell’s wasn’t going to do the job. So we ventured to this place and I ordered a chicken soup and my boyfriend ordered beef stew noodle soup. The chicken soup broth was very tasty and fresh. The beef stew noodle soup wasn’t so appetizing. We have had better noodle soup from places in San Jose, but we were in the area and at the time it did the job.

Had a mad craving for phở and was disappointed to find that Ben Tre was closed. Chicken Phở You was the next best option as it was within walking distance and… open.
I’ve got 5 words to describe this small joint:
Cheap, Cozy, Comforting, Clean, Chop-​Chop.
It’s a simple phở restaurant with a handful of tables, dirt-​cheap fruit drinks, and a pretty extensive menu. I ordered their beef phở with rare steak and flank, which comes with thick rice noodles and your typical fixings (bean sprouts, jalapenos, basil, lemon). It hit the spot. I think next time, I’ll try their chicken soup (if it’s in the name, it’s gotta be good, right?). Their fresh spring rolls were aitte… too much lettuce and not enough shrimp. (I’m a fan of Phở Avenue in Mountain View)
It’s not the best phở in San Mateo (still think Ben Tre takes the cake, even though their service seriously sucks) but it’s reliable and gets the job done. I appreciate their simplicity and convenience.

This place used to be a solid Chinese restaurant but like many of the Asian eateries on B street, got replaced within the year.
The service here contrasts sharply to what I’m used to at places like this. A sweet girl came by and offered us tea right when we sat down and refilled it often.
She brought out our food in ten minutes. The chicken dumpling soup seemed more Chinese than Viet, it’s a very light broth with lettuce and fresh noodles. Vermicelli with grilled chicken, fried egg and shrimp cake was also very satisfying. I doused everything in fish sauce and finished it all.
Great attentive service and affordable quality eats.

I was feeling under the weather and thought some phở would do a body good. Unfortunately for me, it was that weird time of day between lunch and dinner ~3pm and all the Vietnamese restaurants around had closed up shop. Bummer.
This led me to Chicken Phở You since they stay open from 11am to closing. So happy I stumbled upon this place as their chicken noodle soup was exactly what I was looking for. This place also serves phở but I had to go with what seemed like their specialty dish. Actually turned out even better than phở since this dish seemed lighter but still hearty and nutritious. Isn’t chicken noodle soup the ultimate comfort food and their version was lovely. At first, I thought there wasn’t a whole lot of chicken in the soup but the more I dug into it, I did keep finding bits here and there. I requested some of their ginger scallion sauce to go with my soup and that helped counterbalance the more subtle flavoring of the broth. Noodles were perfectly soft and the shredded chicken pieces had a nice texture.
Ambience here is nil. Small mom and pop restaurant. They have a flat screen tv in the back but it wasn’t on. No music playing so I was just listening to the few other customers conversing and kitchen noises.
My waitress was a sweetheart. She checked in on me multiple times. Only snafu was she brought me the chicken and corn dumplings (extra $ 2 — comes in its own soup broth) instead of the pork which she admitted to and offered to take back which wasn’t necessary as it wasn’t a big deal.
Excited to see a place that serves Hainanese chicken and the 99 cent fruit juices were awfully tempting. Next time.

Had a late lunch here one weekend with my parents. Small shop but plenty of seating. It was a quiet day in there but it was past 1pm already lol.
I ordered the charbroiled pork with rice, fish cake and fried egg. My parents ordered some phở. First thing I noticed was the lack of pork. It was there but there was very little pork to go with my rice. ;_​; They could use a huge improvement on portions. Other similar restaurants tend to pile on the pork in my past experience. However, it was very flavorful! Really good — which is why I wanted more!
I tried my parents’ phở and wasn’t really impressed. The soup was kind of bland to me but at least it was very 清 (‘clear’… if that makes sense.). I guess very ‘pure’ soup. Very good to drink if you’re cold or sick.
Prices are pretty much the same as any other phở place. If they worked on portion size, I’d be back more often versus the other shops I like to frequent. They were advertising $ 0.99 drinks and those seemed intriguing though.

This is my favorite go to for chicken and dumpling noodle soup. The broth and dumplings are tasty but the noodles is what makes me come back here because they taste soft and freshly made. It’s also inexpensive. They also offer $ 0.99 drinks: watermelon juice, ice lemon teas, strawberry, papaya and Thai tea.
I also have to give kudos to the waitress. She is so NICE and welcoming. I’m appreciate great customer service!

I don’t write reviews that much although I eat out a lot, and it’s either I really wanna commend a business, or I feel really ripped off that I write reviews. This is unfortunately the latter case.
I had eaten at their Millbrae location before and the food was okay, so I went to their San Mateo location when I saw them open earlier.
Ordered chicken rice and clear broth beef. The chicken rice was okay, although I requested dark meat and the waitress said okay and then I got half dark meat half white meat, and very bony white meat at that. Fine. Either the kitchen refused to give me all dark meat or there’s some communication problem. It was fine although I really hate bones.
The clear broth beef was where the real problem was. It’s decent clear broth beef, but i ordered the appetizer portion which is almost $ 9, and I got 6 tiny pieces of beef, SIX. I’m not kidding. The pieces were placed in a bowl on a ‘bed’ of tasteless radish. This is ridiculous, especially for a supposedly no-​frills place like this.

New place on the block for phở!
The place is pretty wide open, with lots of seating room inside. The wait staff are all pretty nice, and friendly.
The price is medium – I got the hainanese chicken rice, which was absolutely beautiful (see photos). The food quality is also very good, with both the rice and the chicken tasting fresh made and filled with oily aroma
A cool place to grab food once in a while.

Chicken Phở You was empty the whole time i was waiting for my food. (only 2 soup orders to go)
menu: appetitzers, chicken/​beef phở, rice, vermicelli, etc.
yep not just chicken here.
eats: spring roll (3/3.99)
–fillings– vermicelli, pork, shrimp,
–dipping sauce vinegar based, not fish sauce not sweet & sour.
–doesn’t taste like the imperial rolls i sometimes eat in vietnamese eateries.
2.5 stars
take outs:
–clean place but no décor, ambience
–10ish tables in 2 rows, no flatscreen
–pass on phở, phở gai since it was empty…

A place that wasn’t even registered on Unilocal when I checked in. What?
This restaurant is a younger sibling to the Millbrae location (
). So if you like what’s there you can expect more of the same here. The place is bare bones but the wait staff were nice enough to stay.
I ordered the chicken/​corn wonton noodle soup. The broth is light and the wonton was okay. Some days I just need a lighter meal. It’s not terrible, but I’m not sure if I’ll be back again if all of the soups are that bland.
Conclusion: Chicken Phở You is a Chinese soup place disguised as a Vietnamese phở place.