Pho Thy Thy

This is a great place for a quick bite on the Ave. The menus are already on the table, service is quick, and the food comes out fast.
I vacillate between a small beef phở, meatball phở, or chicken phở. All are great, filling, and warm on drizzly days. I love adding jalapenos, bean sprouts, basil, and a drizzle of sriracha to my soup. I also love ending the meal with a cream puff! They also have great spring rolls filled with rice noodles, shrimp, and pork. Comes with a good peanut sauce which is made even better if you throw in some hot sauce. They make for a light snack when you’re feeling munchy but don’t want anything too heavy.
Tip: have cash, esp for takeout! They have extra charges for using credit cards and for takeout, which is probably worth it if you have a big order but not for just a $ 5 order of spring rolls.

I would not recommend this place.
1/​Customer service is the worst (The waiter will take your order with attitude like you want to eat or not)
2/​Still customer service. he got headphones and music on when he takes my order.
3/​The food is good ⁵⁄₁₀
As A Vietnamese I love to support Vietnamese restaurant but not the place.

Fast, reasonably priced, good portion size, tasty. Not as much meat in my Phở as I was hoping which is why it gets 4 stars. Overall, pretty good.

Food is ok. Typically phở. Service is just bad, which seems to be common for a lot of phở places I’ve been. They always seem like they need to rush you out of their restaurant. Prices are decent, about $ 7 – 8 a bowl. Still wouldn’t come back just because of the service.

Food is like any other phở place; it’s good. However, the service is so terrible and ruins the whole experience. I’ve been going to this place on and off for around ten years with my dad, and I’ve never had a bad experience. Today, I wanted to share an extra large bowl of phở with extra noodles with my friend. After I was seated, they brought out two cream puffs and side vegetables (bean sprouts and basil). After I ordered, they realized I only ordered one bowl so they decided to take back the vegetables to give us less. We were also charged a cream puff (an extra 75 cents). The thing that got me upset was that they already brought out all this stuff before I ordered and decided to take it back and charge us extra. I’m also vietnamese, and I’m embarrassed for what they did. Restaurants shouldn’t be so stingy over some vegetables, especially it’s not our fault that they brought it out before we ordered. It’s just plain rude. Also, they clean up while we’re causally having a conversation, as if they are ordering us to leave. Never coming back again. Trash establishment. Poor attitudes.
TL;DR: Bad service = uncomfortable meal. Outweighed the food by far.

The server came up to take our orders while she was TALKING ON HER CELL PHONE. Food is unnervingly fast, often not what you ordered, I ordered a small #1, and it had one single sad piece of meat, tons of broth, and not much noodles. At one point my mother asked for tea, and the server rolled her eyes and sprinted away (they also charge for tea btw, and its all crappy tea bags you could get for free at a coffee stand) then returned with it 5 minutes later. To top it off, they charge more than you sign for if you pay by card. If I could give it zero stars I would. Oh and the last time I went there they phở was lukewarm.

Best place to get phở on the ave. Generous with meat, large portions, and soup is sooooo good. More on the sweet side and that’s how I love it. Cream puffs are free with phở and are so delicious! Taste very similar to phở than bros, but this place is more worthy of your money. Waiter seems a bit quiet, but that’s fine. What do you expect, at least the phở is great!

It’s clean, spacious, and serves pretty good Phở. There’s not much else to say about it. Being Vietnamese, I can get picky about my Phở choices but I’m relatively happy with the Phở every time I go here.
Service is good enough, food is pretty good, and it comes with cream puffs. There’s not really anything else you could want, and if you’re on the Ave, this is probably one of the best if not the best places to go. Note the $ 0.35 charge for certain cards though when paying, so cash is always a good way to go. (I remember it applies to Mastercard and a couple other ones).

The bowls here might seem large, but it’s really mostly soup occupying all that space unless you get extras. And that soup is bland.
The service is all right.
I’m still working on finding a good phở place in the area, and this one is at the bottom of the list.

It was pouring down University Way, therefore this was a great way to warm your tummy up with some Phở. As you walk in you are greeted by someone. As you sit down they are already coming in to your table with a glass of water and free cream puff. It was very good.
I love that there are different size you can order. They have a small, medium, and large. The price was very decent. There are many different option to chose your phở. I usually like my phở with meatballs. It was different here but I liked it.
The sides that they give for the phở was bean sprout and mint. I wish they would have given more.

I really like this place. It’s clean and spacious. The service is great. You get a free cream puff for dessert.
Having tried other Vietnamese food, I still like phở the most. And I think phở thy thy has the best phở around the university. Most other places that serve phở doesn’t have the number 15 option, which gives you a lot of things! Different kinds of meat and tendons. If you go to phở thy thy, try number 15! Because you can get beef or veggie or chicken phở elsewhere.
The price is very affordable and the portion is plenty. I’ve come here three times now and am always satisfied.

Best place I have found for vegetarian phở. They give you more veggies than most other phở places I’ve been to on the ave.
My Personal Restaurant Rating Key
One star: the food was bad and I had a negative experience.
Two star: I had a more negative experience and would not come here again but the food was good so I may.
Three store: Everything is good except one thing. Example-​the food is good, the price is more reasonable but the atmosphere is lacking class. Or the food is good, the atmosphere is good, but they over charged us. These three stars are actually my favorite types of restaurants to go eat at if the reason is due to the atmosphere because they are usually delicious and reasonably priced.
Four stars: Everything is great, food and experience. However the price is definitely on the upper end. I would not recommend this first to Obama unless he didn’t like my five stars. These are restaurants you can take your boss or your mother-​in-​laws to impress them, however they still don’t fit into the five star category. A bit fancier than my three stars, hence I don’t often eat here unless there is an occasion for it or there is a groupon that gives me a bit of a discount!
Five stars: I would recommend this to Obama. The price may be on the upper end but the experience and the taste is so exquisite, it is actually worth every nickel and dime.

I’m not sure why there are so many low reviews here but I say their phở is good! I remembered coming here right after they opened on the Ave while I was still a student. They gave you big portions and they still do to this day!
I ordered the medium brisket phở ($ 6.95) and it came in a decent sized bowl with the normal amount of meat. The broth was tasty, and they gave me a free cream puff! I ordered a Vietnamese iced coffee and that was delicious as well.
I would come back here for phở again cause it’s tasty and cheap!

I usually always eat my phở at than vi on the ace but they don’t have tendon or tripe so I decided to venture today. Phở thy thy was close and their menu is readily available outside the shop as well as under then glass table. Guess that they have phở with tendon and tripe. So I ordered that– it was delicious. However I just have a problem with their service. I ordered their phở with beef, tripe and tendon. It came really quickly (less than 5 mins) probably because there was only 3 other parties in this establishment.
However it was missing the tendon and tripe part. I went up to the cashier since they hangout in their kitchen when they’re not taking orders or delivering food to tables and said verified my order with him and asked if they might’ve forgot to put the tripe and tendon in my soup. He answered immediately «it’s in there». I went back to my seat to search– no avail so I went back to him to order an extra meat (1.25 $ ea) so for the tripe and tendon it’s an extra 2.50 & when he brought it to me (I haven’t had a single bite of my noodle soup yet btw) I asked him to see if he could find ANY tendon or tripe and he said my boss says it’s definitely in there and I’m just mixing my noodles asking him to point out the slightest sign of tripe/​tendon and he’s literally running away from me not looking at the bowl telling me that sometimes it looks like the noodles and that I can’t see them.
Tldr: great food. Horrible service. Whatever happened to the customer is always right? Especially in cases where the customer is obviously right?
I’ll be searching for my tripe and tendon elsewhere on the Ave.
they give you a free cream puff.

Possibly the only place that I’m willing to get a spring roll at.
It’s pretty cheap. Phở taste like Phở (I can’t taste the difference between different Phở places, other than how hot the Phở is when I get it).
Just recently I found a fly in the soup and a weird strand of hair popping out in the noodles. I’d have to say that customer service needs to improve. I asked for a receipt and the cashier person didn’t hear me so I asked again. He rolled his eyes and cussed at me. Cool bro. Cool.
But i mean I can’t expect much from a Phở place on the Ave.

I didn’t know cracked pepper had wings and legs…
This was my favorite go-​to phở spot on the ave. The broth is not bland or too sweet. The owners recognize me because I go there so often.
To my disappointment, as I was chowing down on my delicious phở, I noticed a black speck. My original thought was that it was nothing (hoped it was nothing) but black pepper. With closer inspection, like really close, it was a fly. Dead. With wings. And a couple of legs missing.
I notified the server and he asked if I wanted another but I declined.
We went to the counter to pay and the guy said that it was just black pepper. That there was a lot of it at the bottom of the pot. When the server clearly said «sorry» as I walked out the door.
What else is at the bottom of the pot?

Suspiciously fast service, check
Complimentary cream puff, check,
Good location, check.
All the phở places on the ave are pretty similar, but the location is probably why I prefer this place over the others. Typical phở restaurant, with kind of a dark/​awkward ambience, which includes your cliché fish tank. The more I think about it, the more I realize how stereotypical this Phở restaurant is. Which is not a bad thing, really. Anyway, if you have a phở craving, Thy Thy will do the job.

While I have never met a bowl of phở that I won’t eat, Phở Thy Thy falls far behind in the pack of phở restaurants in the U district. To me, Phở Than Brothers is everything a phở place should be: fast, cheap, big portions, hearty, not-​too-​salty broth.
Phở Thy Thy is fast, but not as cheap, not as filling, and their broth just doesn’t taste like it’s supposed to. I’ve been here several times and each time, I’ve noticed that their broth tastes more like salty water than a meaty broth. And what is phở good for without that soul-​healing broth??? Answer: nothing. They also tend to be stingy on the noodles and meat, so you just end up swimming in that salty soup.
With so many better options for phở within blocks of this place, I will go to the others every time.

The adventure of trying all the phở places on the ave continues. At this point on the journey we have gone to quite a few.
Although phở thy thy was the first phở place I went to with my boyfriend when we first started dating, it unfortunately is the one I wasn’t a fan of.
Don’t get me wrong though, phở thy thy gets a gold medal for fastest food. I swear we ordered and then our food just came. It didn’t take longer than a minute — literally.
Phở thy thy gives you a few options on sizes: small, medium, large and extra large. I normally get the phở that has everything in it (brisket, flank, tendon, tripe, meatballs) but phở thy thy actually doesn’t have a combo phở that comes with meatballs. So there were no meatballs in mine — bummer.
Honestly the biggest turn off for me was the fact that the broth lacked so much flavor. The broth had an extremely subtle taste and so it left me feeling like I wasn’t really eating authentic phở. They give you the general sides of bean sprouts, jalapeños and basil. However, they actually don’t give you any lime. Instead, they have lime juice in a bottle for you to use. I personally would rather squeeze in my own natural lime, but I understand that since people don’t use lime sometimes, it can be wasteful.
The things that were good about this place. For one they had the mini sauce dishes at every table so you didn’t have to ask them for it. They also give you a decent amount of meat and full portions of tendon and tripe. These pieces were full and big so it seemed more authentic.
Other than that, the broth really turned me off and will be the reason why I don’t come back.
Just a note that if you use your card, there is a 35 cent charge, no matter the cost.

FREE CREAM PUFFS AND THE BEST PHO IN SEATTLE HANDS DOWN.
A small phở used to be $ 3.85 when I first moved to Seattle in 2005, but it’s gone up to about $ 5 now, which is still an awesome bargain!
The staff at the restaurant have really good memory! They pretty much memorized my order, but maybe that’s because I eat there at least once a week for about 5 years now. :)
Quick Tips:
–If it’s your first time there, make sure to read the menu and know what you want. They’ll point you to a seat as soon as you walk into the door, bring you water, and then take your order immediately.
— Order by number. Don’t try to get all fancy and read the name of the dish. You’ll say it wrong and they’ll look at you funny. Not to mention, you will throw them out of the groove. Your order should be [size S/​M/​L, #]
— And if you want customization, make sure to say it in the same breath as your order size and number. If you pause for a millisecond, they will move on to the next person at the table, or worse, walk away. (They’re very efficient)