Pho Ba

Chicken phở is Chicken phở but these guys do it right! The broth was the best part and super tasty. 3 stars bc they only take cash. Card users beware!

I used to love this place until today. I eat here about once a week. They were very consistent on taste and portion. Today my soup had no flavor (It didn’t even taste like phở. The bagged noodle phở from Asian grocery stores tasted better) and I only got ¹⁄₃ the amount of beef I usually get. I took one sip of soup and didn’t care to waste anymore calories on it. My mom ask the waitress about the broth and she even said that herself thought that it tasted odd yesterday but didn’t mention anything to the chefs. I’m not sure what conversation they had in Vietnamese but my mom gave them $ 20. She even tipped them! I came up and said no. You’re not paying for it. We barely even touched it. The cashier then wouldn’t give us a refund because we tasted the soup. They only offered to remake the soup. It’s not a stir-​fry item that you can fix! It’s the broth. The main ingredient in phở was wrong. There’s no way in 5 mins you can adjust the taste. Adding powdered flavor? That tells you that their soup is all powder and msg and not simmered beef bones. And honestly I didn’t trust eating a soup that was «remade» after a complaint.
I left mad that they had poor excuses on why they couldn’t offer a refund.
1. The broth is fresh I the beginning of the day so the flavors didn’t infuse yet. So why are you serving it? I’ve eaten here at 8am once and it tasted fine. It just today that something is missing.
2. If I gave you a refund, everyone will start asking for refunds. How do we stay in business if we gave everyone refunds? People don’t ask for refunds if the food is made properly and as a server or business owner… I wouldn’t even ask for payment when the customers left 99.9% of the food! It’s also phở. It’s cost you less than $ 1 to make a bowl!
3. Maybe you’re sick or not feeling well. Then you’re taste palate could be off. I’m not sick and there’s nothing wrong with my palate. I don’t even use siracha or hoisin sance. Your soup tasted bad front the lack of taste.
4. The owner is out of town and I already wrote the check up so I had to collect payment. I can’t do anything. Your establishment is CASH ONLY. You don’t even have a POS. All checks are written by hand and you are able to open the cash register with a key. There’s also a high chance you are cheating the government from paying taxes by doing cash only!
Never again will I eat at this establishment. Their quality of food sucks and they lack customer service. Now I regret not letting them remake our soups. Could of left without even touching the new bowls also.

This place was fantastic! They let us in right before close, joked around with the staff and when I was almost finished with my phó they asked if I wanted extra noodles!!! Best phó place ever!!!

Delicious! Small bowl was very big. Great flavor. They gave a lot of sprouts, jalapenos and basil to add too. Service was perfect for lunch. Great prices.

Honestly, the best phở in the city and I’ve tried most of the phở places. Their secret is in the broth. There’s a lot of flavor within each bite. They also have very friendly customer service and better than most places in Chinatown.

As a Vietnamese, I pretty like Phở in this restaurant.
I think it’s the best Phở in Seattle I have ever tasted since then.

I was excited to try a new Vietnamese restaurant, but I didn’t seem to have the same great experience as everybody on Unilocal.Maybe I should have actually tried the phở instead of something else, maybe that’s what they’re known for and everything else on the menu is just so-​so. I didn’t feel like getting phở though, my friend did and she loved it. I on the other hand got a grilled pork rice plate and was not a fan of how the meat tasted at all. I don’t know how to described it, it had a weird taste and texture so I couldn’t finished it, but I tried not wasting food and at least ate all the rice.
CASH ONLY, but prices are cheap and it does included tax. This is one of those places where yes, it’s cheap. Yeah, you may received great food. No, you won’t have attentive service, but you should already know what you are getting yourself into for the cheaper price so you can’t even complain. I would be a happy camper if I received decent product, but nah, not a fan.
Tell me about your experience if you’ve been here or is going to after reading this review:)

Absolutely the best Phở ever!!!
The broth is just amazing. Seems like it will cure whatever ails you.
It is CASH ONLY, very old school, and a wonderful little hole in the wall type place.

When we landed in Seattle, everyone wanted Phở. So this was the closest place near us. We got there and it was located in, I would say… China Town. It literally is a hole in the wall, but not too great. Most hole in the walls are bombbbbbb, but not this one.
When we entered, it was a small place. We sat down on a round table and were ready to order. The server looked like the daughter of the owner who was around her teenage years and hated working that early in the morning. She was not too friendly at all! Mostly everyone ordered phở. I ordered their tofu spring rolls and phở. My brother ordered their phở and fried rice.
When I received my spring rolls, it looked sad. –_​-​” The plate looked dirty, the greens in the rolls didn’t look fresh and it was quite small and dinky. My phở came and it was a good portion size. I requested for extra veggies in my phở and they gave me a good amount! The broth of the phở wasn’t that great, but since I was hungry, I ate whatever I could to last me to my next meal. I was literally starving though!
If I had the chance to come back, I probably wouldn’t. After we left, we saw people carrying signs about a Food Walk for the Lunar New Year. I would have much preferred going to that instead of eating here.

Had really decent phở. The place itself isnt very nice or stylish, but the food was good. The beef broth had a lot of flavor and it was served with bean sprouts, basil, peppers and lime to top off the soup, as well as hot tea. A decent amount of food even just in the small portion, for only $ 7.50

So my co-​workers and I went here for lunch, we showed up around 11:30 right before the rush, sat ourselves and looked at the menus. I thought it was weird the menus are not out on the table where you can touch them, they are under the glass of the table, so the page 2 or 3 of the menu may be down in front of the person who is sitting next to you and it’s just dumb hard to see what you want to order, especially if you never been to this place before. I ordered Phở with prawns, it was good, piping hot and flavorful. Good amount of prawns and they were good size prawns. It would have been nice to know they didn’t take any form of payment other than cash. Maybe a few more bigger signs would be nice; in 2016 you should be able to take debit/​credit. I would definitely visit here again; it’s about a 10 minute walk from my office.

I’ve eaten a lot of phở in my lifetime and I’d say that Phở Ba’s phở is average. Upon entering the establishment we noticed the ambience just wasn’t quite there. The bathroom was what you would expect from these family owned restaurants. Services was decent granted we were the only customers in the store. The price of appetizers were fairly decent and phở pricing seemed standard. We both ordered regular sized bowls and were sufficiently fed for our lunch adventure. They were a little stingy on the noodles. We asked for our raw meat to be put on the side to which they obliged. Meat was plentiful. I will say that the temperature of my phở broth was a little on the warm, not so boiling side. Generally I would have liked it boiling hot where I’d have to blow on it to eat it right away. Overall I would come back if I needed a quick phở fix although I would not expect the best bowl of phở I’ve ever had.

This is seriously the best phở around. The broth is so flavorful, the meat is always cooked well, and the ratio of all the ingredients is always perfect. However, you should be warned. The people that work here are weird af. Just their mannerisms, and they have said some weird things while ordering or when we were eating. Serious dilemma here, do I want to deal with the weird ass people here just to get the amazing phở? Yes. Yes I do.

This spot definitely hits the spot! I love me some flavorful, beefy, warm phở! So glad all the Unilocal reveiws swayed me here.
This is CASH ONLY** with tax already included in the price. So if you buy a small phở for $ 7.50 then that’s all you pay! And i would definitely recommend their phở. It was the perfect combination of beefy broth, with saltiness, and a hint of cinnamon and cloves and star anise all in a warm bowl of noodles and deliciously tender beef. Perfection.
The phở is my go-​to. I like the dac biet because i like the meatball and the tender brisket (so soft and succulent), and the rare beef is seriously tender. Also comes with tripe and the tendon mmm. This broth doesnt need anything else but i like my spiciness amped up. $ 7.50 for small and $ 8.50 for large. If you’re starving, go with large. But if you want something light, definitely the small. I had the small and still had room for their spring rolls ($ 3.00).
Prices are pretty much $ 7.50 & up. They have TV to watch, clean tables, street parking, and really good food. Good portions and the quality is always, always fresh! I like their appetizers too. And they make banh mi now and smoothies too. Definitely will keep coming back and will recommend!

So satisfying when it’s cold out. The soup is tasty, sometimes a little on the salty side so if you don’t like that I’d maybe stay away, but it wasn’t too salty for me. The eggrolls are nice n crunchy — you can get regular sweet and sour sauce instead of the fishy sauce if you ask. Friendly service when I went and pretty fast too! Cash only

My favorite phở place in the ID. They used to be part of the Phở Bac chain, but I heard the «C» on their sign got destroyed in a windstorm. They’ve since branched out and also crossed of the «C» on their swinging kitchen door for consistency haha.
Their phở is inexpensive and reliably delicious. I can’t speak to any of the other dishes because I always get phở when I go there, but I think they serve plated food too. The servers are nice and attentive — hot tea always gets to the table quickly. They usually have a TV playing in the background with Vietnamese singing or game shows. It’s a reliable, homey place and a great lunch spot during winter.

Only had phở and best I have had with that dark yummy broth which does not need the hoisin or sriracha if you use the basil and jalapeños. Awesome! Cash only!

Terrible terrible customer service and dirty place.
The food was okay, but not worthy of a 4 stars restaurant. My husband order #30 rice and pork the server didn’t give him a knife or folk or spoon, he used chopstick instead. Halfway though eating his rice the server brought a knife and a spoon for him, what is the point?
The place also stinky, I believe she used dirty towel to wipe the table leaving the table smell like the bathroom.
Not recommended!

Ok. Don’t know how I haven’t reviewed this little piece of heaven yet but here goes.
Phở. Is serious business to me. I’ve been eating here for… wow, over 15 years!
For a few years I lived around the corner above Uwajimaya and this was my favorite hangover cure on Saturday.
Their broth is rich and very well balanced. The noddles are always the perfect texture with just enough chew and the meats are always sliced perfectly thin. This is the phở I judge others against.
Yes it’s cash only. But more important. They open at 8am on Saturday. Phở IS BREAKFAST!
Last note. I see a lot of people go straight to the sriracha and hoisin. Taste the broth first people. Don’t kill all of those subtle flavors!

I am not Vietnamese, but I’ve spent 6 weeks in the country and have had phở from Saigon to Hanoi. Hands down, best phở I’ve tried in the U.S.
$ 8.00 for a big hot bowl
broth is BOMB; beef is BOMB.
All the appropriate fixins’
Decorative and homey
Servers bring your food right away, and then they don’t bother you
Seattle weather
There’s literally nothing else you could ask for.

This is my favorite place for phở in Seattle. Phở is such a simple thing: Rice noodles, broth, beef, bean sprouts, basil… But there are little touches that really set the good ones apart. For me, it’s the broth and cuts of the meat that really make or break the meal. The staff at Phở Ba have it right, and you know it’s good when the siracha and hoisin sauce feels excessive. Noodles aside, I’m also a fan of the spring rolls, banh mi, and Vietnamese coffee here if I’m feeling adventurous. This is a seat yourself, family style, cash only restaurant– so swing by the ATM before ya grub!

Excellent phở, best in international.
I had the phở meatball and raw beef.
Great flavor broth in that you don’t need to enhance it by dumping a ton of siracha or hoisin sauce and not too much fatty liquid that you would find at all the other Vietnamese places in ID.
Drawback is cash only do come with that. Overall, fast and polite service.

Not truly impressed by this place simply because of the lack of care in service. I ordered a shrimp phở with veggie broth and no onions. I made sure to ask if there were onions and tell them that I wanted none. When my food came out and said that I had ordered it without onions and he looked at me like I was crazy. No apology for the mess up what so ever. Then when my food was brought back out to me, again no apology for the extended wait or for the mess up on my order. Then the second I looked down I could tell they proceeded to pick everything out of my order. I was literally left with broth, noodle and shrimp. Well that and the many pieces of onions they left when picking apart my order instead of just remaking it. When I go out to eat I like to enjoy my food the way I like and not have to continually pick things out. I don’t care if they think onions belong in the Phở, I don’t want it in mine. I thought it was also very classless for them to pick the onions out of my food instead of just remaking the order. I’m over it, there are way too many phos in the ID.

Cash only here, and yes that can be inconvenient and give me a reason not to come here at times. But when cash is accessible, this is a great phở spot.
I’ve only had to-​go orders here so I can’t comment on the seated-​service. To-​go orders are put together well. They package everything up for you, not forgetting the napkins or utensils.
Beef phở and chicken fried rice (that somehow came with shrimp?) were both great dishes. The phở of course comes with raw meat that cooks when dropped in the hot broth, then you can choose to add: basil, jalapeño, sprouts, noodles, onions, and hot sauce.
The restaurant is your typical Vietnamese place — a little run down joint that’ll give you what you need.

Our favorite phở place in Seattle. Their broth is consistently flavorful and their meat is always fresh. Their fried egg rolls are also worth a try.
Expect to go around the block couple times as parking is a hit or miss. And always remember: CASH ONLY.

I’ve only dined here once. I came right when they opened on a weekend and omg… It has been the most memorable bowl of phở I have tried yet!!! And I’ve had plenty of home made phở, and even phở in Vietnam. Why I haven’t gone back since I don’t know why…
But let me tell you how it went down. You sit down, they bring you your food and it’s steaming up your glasses hot. And you take that first sip and BOOM! The perfect sip. Hot and salty and so full of flavor that you don’t need to add in any other sauce but you do anyway because you live for limes and chili oil in your morning phở. The table sits in silence as your party both devours and savors this meal… Then you go up to pay but you can’t because it’s 2015 not everyone has cash.
Basically, the best in Seattle I’ve had yet! I need to go back to make sure it wasn’t a fluke or I wasn’t dreaming or something. Seriously, so! Good!

Neat little Phở place. It is cash only. Like most phở restaurants, you have two size options for the phở: small or large. That said, the portions here are pretty big. A small is plenty and a large is for all you starving folks. The food came out pretty quick, but the service was nonexistent. The check never came which I guess was a good thing, but we went up to the cash register.
This place has a neat vibe. It’s small yet comfortable. There’s one unisex restroom so guys, please make sure you lift the seat cover! Not that I care but I know them ladies may have an issue.
Parking can be a challenge when it gets crowded in chinatown around meal time. I recommend going up the hill past Jackson st

WOW! Really good phở! I’ve only been here once and tried the phở tai… BUT WHOA!!! THe broth is very earthy, and hearty with slight hints of cinnamon, coriander, and star anise. They use fresh phở noodles and the portions are large. I wanted to try something different than Phở So.1 and this place did not disappoint. Phở deserves 5 stars however the vibe in the restaurant was depressing and is 3 stars. Overall the food is excellent. Can’t wait to come back and try their other dishes.
Update…5 stars!