Cali Pho Nia

I am a business owner and i seriously hate to give places 1 star reviews. Because no matter what, i know that we work hard to make everyone happy and to make a living.
How hard is it to mess up some PHO?
I have a smart phone, i have no idea why i didnt use it to check this place out on Unilocal before we came here. Im sorry, but this place SUCKS. It was horrible.
I shared the shrimp won ton soup with egg noodles with my mom and those won tons were probably days old. I am not a picky eater, but i know whats good from bad. Whats fresh and what isnt. They also forgot to put shrimp in the already tasteless, oily broth with weird beef floating around. (i honest hope it was beef!) We ask where our shrimp were, and she goes in the back, and gets 3 COLD LIMP nasty shrimp and brings it on a plate over to us. Seriously?
The shaking beef was OK. We also ordered the LEMON CHICKEN, she thinks that by squeezing lemon on the over salted chicken makes it LEMON CHICKEN. We tell her, «the chicken is OVER SALTED» she says: «its OVER SALTED because you squeezed lemon on it, i bring you new one!»
We were all pretty upset that we gave this place a try, and i was more mad at myself for not checking online before hand! They have a 2 ½ star rating for a reason. What good place has less then 3 stars? Ew.
How this place stays open is beside me. They also tried over charging this family next to us, they were pretty upset at the meal as well and also being over-​charged!
Simply horrible.

Service: 5 stars
Food: 4 stars
I had a shrimp dish and the fried rice, and then the banana w/​ice cream dessert. Quality is good for a quick place to eat. Tasty.
I especially liked the fact that it had late hours on a Sunday night (I think it closed at 9:30PM Sunday night — it hit the spot!). There didn’t seem to be any other places open on that street.
Everyone was very friendly and filled up my water without me asking. Things were quick.

The food at CaliPhoNia is good. I grew up in this area and am glad to see food isn’t GLUTEN FREE and ORGANIC in the clement district…
Service is great and the lady is so friendly… guess it helps I’m a cantonese speaking ABC lol
Definitely good low MSG phở, perfect poritions, clean, good parking.

I was lured in by the new «grand opening» sign, but it was just a remodel (same ownership). Unfortunately, it still wasn’t good, just as I remembered.
I used to live in the neighborhood as a kid, and I believe this is the 2^nd remodel since I was a kid. They tried to make this place upscale with the dark colors and booths, but the quality was just not up to par the last time. This place is called bistro, and they do have bistro prices for the fancier named dishes they have on the menu. However, the food is just mediocre at best.
Their noodles are priced about the same as most other phở places, but I did not finish all of my meat. The meat’s quality just wasn’t up to par, and the noodles were breaking very easily.
Service was good though, so I’ll round up to the 3 stars (really a 2.5)
Probably won’t be back again.

This place has changed ownership so many times. Same waitress and same cook but different recipe? Can’t figure it out…
Used to come here a lot because my cousin really enjoys their phở ga. I normally get the phở dac biet. Since it became Cali phở nia, I don’t like it as much. The broth just isn’t the same… And it’s now rather bland. The prices were tolerable when it was Phở Tu Do but now it’s just overpriced.

NOT PHO ME!!!
(2 stars)
Cali-​PHO-​nia is Not-​PHO-​Me. «Rainy days are phở days». The name is catchy, corny and funny, what a great marketing scheme… it made me come in. But that doesn’t mean the food is great.
— Food, had better
— Prices, overpriced in my opinion
— Service, ok — family owned
— Ambiance, cleaner than most
Craving phở for some odd reason and needed my fix. Phở definately puts me in a food coma and i’m in desperate need because I’ve been insomnic lately. Since my favorite Phở place was closed, I was driving aimlessly to find a place to try. Thought about this place and came over.
Walked in, barely anyone there, sat myself, and was served quickly. The vegtable plate that came out for the phở was naked. Barely any sprouts, one lime, 2 jalapenos, cilantro stems, and no mint/​basil leaves. Cilantro? Isn’t that suppose to be cooked with the broth? Service was «eh, okay». It was family owned so they sure be putting their kids to work. Friendly staff but not the best service.
HEFFER-​STYLE STATUS.
PHO GA ($ 5.95) — typical phở but with rice noodles. chicken was actually shredded pieces of chicken (i liked). You know when you order Phở Ga, sometimes you cannot recognize if that’s chicken or not, well this place isn’t like that. I think i was charged $ 7.25 because my change (after tax) was less than $ 2 dollars. I didn’t expect to pay that much for not that great of a bowl of phở.
WIll I be back? Nope.
Until the next review…

2.5 stars.
Came across this place during lunch with my coworker. The name was hilarious so we had to give it a try. I used to come to this place a lot before it went under a new management and I remember liking the noodles a lot. Sadly, it’s not the same case anymore and ironically, I still come here often to satisfy my phở craving.
In the past month, I’ve came here at least once a month with my mom and brother. Although it’s not the best we’ve had, something about this place keeps us coming back for more. It’s super close to home.
My usualy is the phở noodle w/​rare beef and tendon. Noodles can be inconsistant; soggy one day and hard the next. The first time my brother ordered bun bo hue, they lacked toppings, the few times we went back they filled his bowl with toppings.
One good thing about this place is their service. There always seem to be only one waitress (owner probably) and she’s the only one who works the floor but she is quick and attentive.
Overall, this is not the place to go to if you’re looking for outstanding phở.

My friends and I strolled in after Thursday Nightlife at the Academy of Sciences at around 10 pm when most things were closed on Clement. We were just looking for food, with no expectation of great food at this time of the night. We strolled in as they were closing but they were kind enough to serve us anyway.
The service was nice and the food was surprisingly very tasty. The Phở was very fresh and delicious, the wonton soup was amazing (after I added lots of spice), and the pork chops rice plate was definitely the best thing we ordered.
Overall, the restaurant was pretty good. I would recommend!

I owe an apology to Jason G. I pulled up his two star review, read it, ignored it and went to Cali Phở Nia anyway only to relive the two star experience that he sat through.
I found it very hard to believe that this restaurant shares a name with the Cali Phở Nia Vietnamese Bistro (
) that I regularly visit in my neighborhood. The food there is usually pretty dependable, but not at all at this location.
I came in for dinner on a weeknight. It was a slow night. Only two others dining in at the time. Nobody greeted me for a few minutes. There was my chance to turn around and go back outside, but I waited. I’m stupid. A lady yelled at me from the kitchen. Just take a seat near the window! Little that I know that the lady was the entire staff here on that night … greeter, waitress, server and cook all in one.
I looked at the menu. I didn’t feel like having phở that night. Looking back that probably would have been the safe choice here. I wanted to try their garlic noodles though, and yes Jason, I noticed their prices are extremely elevated here. What I ordered and what I got was not worth $ 17. I ordered the Giant Prawn with Garlic Noodle (
). It looked great, but the first thing that stood out was the small portion.
The taste did not match the look. The shells on the big prawns were cracked open and grilled. I appreciated that because the shell and the meat separated quite easily. All of the flavor was on the shell though, and not only was the prawn meat bland and flavorless it was rubbery and overcooked. The garlic noodles were overcooked too. The noodles were borderline mushy and had a peculiar sweet taste in it. I’ve never had a garlic noodle with a sweet tone before. There was lots of minced garlic and excellent garlic taste but there was no hiding that sweet taste in the noodle. The shaved carrots on top were not pickled!
There won’t be any going back to this location. I’m sticking to the Cali Phở Nia in my neighborhood!

My man was feeling it, so we came here to take the Phở Challenge. The fact that the big bowl of phở kicked his butt has nothing to do with this review.
The service was friendly enough, although I would appreciate at least one person on staff who speaks and understand more English. But I digress…
The phở wasn’t that great, the meat pretty fatty. I ordered the Bun and it was okay. A very small portion for $ 7.50. Two pieces of egg rolls (very small pieces) a few chunks of meat with a handful of noodles and veggies. The flavor was okay but the portion compared to the price wasn’t doing it for me.
It wasn’t a horrible experience, but I’d probably not come back here. There are plenty of cheaper phở places that have better deals.

CLOSED — I liked the phở tai nam (
). Just the right amount of meats vs. noodles in a tasty broth that was steaming hot. The noodle was not a clump either, so it was easy to break them apart when mixing the veggie condiments and sauces together. I think they boiled the noodles right before serving it, so that’s a plus. And, I forgot to ask for nuoc beo=bowl of oil for adding to the broth, but they brought one out anyway. So, that’s another plus.
Okay, I decided to give this newish location of their namesake a go. Upon entering, I decided on a table at the corner by the windows (
), and gestured to the Server Lady back in their kitchen…(below, all translated from VNese so it is not exact):
Me to Server Lady: «only one person this time»
SL yells from kitchen: «what do you want young lad?»
Me yelling back: «uhm, phở tai nam, and VNese coffee in a to-​go cup»
A minute in, SL arrives w/​water glass and veggie condiments, smiling: «anything else?»
Me: «oh, uhm, boiled veggie condiments?»
Me: «and could you leave the rare flank steak on the side?»
SL nods.
Me: «oh, medium-​sized bowl»
SL, surprised: «uhm, I put in the order for large-​sized bowl»
Me, surprised: «ah, oh, okay, no problems, large is fine»
SL: «that’s it?»
Me: «that’s it, thank you»
SL’s smile literally turned into a frown during these few words, and I got an eye-​roll when she walked away. For reals. Come and have a try at changing orders to see this in action. Service without a smile, hah!
This place hasn’t really changed its look from the myriad of phở business names since the ‘80s. It’s big and roomy, catering to not just VNese, or even just Asians, but many demographics. I was torn between two or four stars, but since I am willing to return for their phở, I’m sticking to four stars (thanks to AbbyA’s logic, I’m backing up my reviews and avoiding giving out any more three stars).
Milestone: the 1500^th «Useful» vote’s review…

I have to admit… it was the ridiculous name that caught my attention. Cali PHO nia… riiiiiiiiight. But that said, it worked on this guy!
My friend and I ended up choosing this place for a spur of the moment lunch… and we were starving! With eyes a bit bigger than our stomachs, we each ordered a bowl of phở (the rare and well done flank steak phở for me, the regular combination for her), and decided to get the Garlic Noodles and Lemongrass Fries to share as well. Yeah, quite a bit of food.
The fries and noodles came out first, and they both looked great. Unfortunately though, the noodles were pretty disappointing — garlic level was certainly there, but a little too much with the sauce. I guess we should have opted for the «Lazy Man’s» Crab and Garlic Noodle dish to add a layer to the flavor profile. The fries were pretty good, which was a pleasant surprise — they were crispy, weren’t overpowering with lemongrass, and came with a good aioli dipping sauce.
By the time our bowls of phở came around, a good amount of hunger was already gone. But like they say — where there’s a will, there’s a way. And we definitely found a way… how could we not? The noodle portion was fairly lacking to be honest, but it was fine with us considering everything we ordered. Any other day though, it wouldn’t be. The broth was largely unspectacular, but if it’s heavy on the sodium/​MSG, at least it wasn’t readily apparent.
Service was pretty attentive, though that probably was at least in part because it was mostly empty throughout our stay. Nothing really impressed me other than the fries, so hard for me to say I’d come back to try more things.

Cali-​PHO-​nication
I don’t have a tv (don’t have the time or patience) so when I’m visiting friends and they are surfing cable, I’m constantly bombarded by new shows that I’ve never even heard of. My most recent disturbance was seeing my crush on the X-​Files (Spooky Mulder) emerge as a sexaholic writer on Showtime. That was not good… since I’ve dated a sexaholic and talk about problems! Every red flag in dating was made apparent on a daily basis. That is never a good sign when trust and doubt are the tag team prescription for a serial monogamist.
Anyhow, it was another cool evening on Clement and all of a sudden, a craving for hot savory broth hit the both of us. My fave spot is on Geary so I was already a bit biased the minute we walked in. However, the environment was cozy, warm, and the wait staff right on us like wolves. I never felt more welcomed.
I ordered the small generic bowl of Phở that came with the tripe, meatballs, rare flank steak, and beef slices. My little gripe with most of the Phở places is that the soup is not very hot. Granted the amount of time it takes to leave the kitchen to the table is minute, but after adding the bean sprouts and basil leaves, I’m usually left with lukewarm soup. Not very good. Our bowls arrived hot and it was perfectly arranged with the slices of beef peeking out, the surface iridescent with ribbons of juicy oils from the meaty mixture. The broth was good but lacked a strong base, which is something very damning in my eyes. Otherwise, it was pretty good and for the price, I’m not complaining. The man could not finish his and they were willing to pour it into the take-​out styrofoam for him. We had our waters filled quite consistently and they were nice to the foreigner sitting behind us, a definite Phở newbie.
Decent Phở, a nice environment, and efficient staff. If I’m in the neighborhood, I won’t mind stopping in.

I was here last week and I wasn’t very impressed with their Phở. The ‘regular’ size Phở was very small compared to other places that I have been to but the taste was ok.
I ordered one of the Bun dishes and the flavor was pretty good. The presentation of the Bun dish was nice.
The lemongrass fries were very tasty. I have never had anything like that before and was pretty happy about it.
The service was «a-​ok» My friend tried ordering the stew but it wasn’t available. The server tried to upsell us into ordering a fairly expensive dish since they didn’t have the stew. Mind you, the dish that was recommended had nothing in common with the stew other than the fact that it was a beef dish.
I think I’ll try a few other Phở places in the area before coming back here.
I’ll restate: The Bun dish was good but if you’re looking for Phở, I’d recommend trying another place.