Phô Café

Super pissed I drove from the Lake. 90 minute drive and this place was closed down. Stupid people update your business profile. Jerks! Still hurting for some Phở. Moved here from California and dying for good restaurants.

So this was my first vietnamese cuisine experience, and while that may not be my fav type of food, this place was good. The most impressive part for me was the staff. My husband was not new to this type of food and had no difficulty in ordering. I however, had some problems finding something that sounded good. The waitress we had was amazing. She described the dishes on the menu and prevented me from ordering something I may not have liked. I took her recommendation and ended up with a delicious meal! I would definitely go back. The only reason I did not give five stars is I enjoy a glass of wine withe dinner, and there is no alcohol menu here, plus, Mexican food is my favorite cuisine so, this would never rank as high. Neither of those deductions should, stop anyone from enjoying the fresh meals this place has to offer!

If you like places that run out of everything, dump old food in the corner, are as slow as any place I’ve ever been, and tonight October 25^th 2014 randomly close before they’re scheduled to. Then this is the place for you. On a Saturday of all days! We’ve put up with these circumstances mostly because we had alot of good times in this building when it was Rolls N Bowls. With the former owner left any shred of customer service this place had. Trust me go somewhere else.

I would have given them a 5 star, but they’ve been out of boba for the last couple of visits… The food is still very fresh, very amazing. I’ve helped spread the word about this great place, but it should spread faster! They need to succeed, and have more fans. I always feel healthy when I eat there. The wait has never been long for us, and the hours are more accommodating now… altho they are now closed on Mondays, it opened up on weekends… so that helped… Give it a try Springfield. You will love it.

Love this place. Excellent spring rolls — very fresh. Have tried 2 different phô entrees, both delicious. A friend had an entrée from the «dry noodle» section — seafood-​based. She said it was superb.; it looked & smelled great. The Thai tea my husband ordered was sweet & yummy. Very much worth a visit.

If you have an hour to wait for your food, then this please is good for you. I actually love the food at this place. It cheap and closer to my house. I usually come and order to go and normally wait for 20 mins. Today, we decided to dining in, there were big group of people there during lunch. We got there around noon, we were waiting until 12:30 still didn’t have the food, so I decided to changed my order to togo, so I can make it to work. (I also paid in advance, so I could safe my time) Around 12:50 everyone on my table got their food. I wait 10 more mins I still didn’t get my order. The irony was the people the table next to us (which ordered after me) already got their food. At 1pm I left the place, without having any food in my stomach. Next time I would rather drive to other Vietnamese places on Battlefield or Glenstone and drive back home, would be faster than order at this place near my house.

I had a bowl of the «Phở Tai». The broth was perfectly rich and steaming hot. The sliced beef was very tender, and they offered the usual sides that included plenty of Thai Basil, which I love. The bowl was huge! I left almost miserable. I can’t say anything bad about my bowl of heavenly Phở!

Let us all have a moment of silence for the departure of Rolls N Bowls.
Now that that’s over, I treated myself to a solo date to Phở Café last night and was immensely pleased. Phở is one of my top five favorite dishes, so I was excited to see how Phở Café stacks up to Bambu and the surprise/​incredibly weird enigma of an underdog, Chinese Express.
First of all, let me just say that you gotta order the spring rolls if you’re going to hit up Phở Café. Although I couldn’t help but mentally equate the super-​sticky translucent wrapping to the adhesive on band-​aids, these spring rolls healed my SOUL, you guys. Chopped rice noodles, super-​fresh cabbage, plump shrimp and thin cuts of beef rolled up in texturally delicious band-​aid adhesive — I mean, spring roll wrapping. The accompanying peanut sauce was wonderful. So peanut-​y, so saucy. I feel like these spring rolls are a unique, fresh, culturally-​rich dish that just about anyone can enjoy.
I also ordered phở. While I agree with Anomy M. that Bambu’s recipe is more fragrant and generally more complex, Phở Café’s was somehow no less delicious in its relative mildness. I added in all the obligatory sides: tart, crunchy sprouts, basil, and jalapenos, plus soy sauce and a hearty dose of Sriracha (just enough to make your nose run — that’s what makes a good bowl of phở) and had to stop myself from scarfing the entire thing. The leftovers were great today as well, which is good considering the portion size is HUGE (per the usual).
My server was also fantastic. Very polite and attentive, but he didn’t hover. For the truthfully sterile, awkward aesthetic, I shall refer you to Anomy M.‘s review.
Dem spring rolls, though.

For what this town has to offer, this is the best phở in Springfield. I’m Korean American and my wife is from Thailand, and we’ve been eating phở from the beginning. I have to say, while it certainly isn’t ATL, DC, San Diego or LA, the phở here is great. It’s better in my opinion than Bambu (other phở place in town). The other vermicelli dishes are good too. The spring rolls are my favorite and nice quality here. This is definitely our new favorite place in town.

Our mostly dear Rolls N Bowls is gone. And with it, the proclaimed «house made» baguette that housed the unexampled in SPFD, Bahn Mi. In its stead is now Phở Café. First off all, shed your tear for the sweet potato fries and siracha mayonnaise that partnered so well with the barbecued or regular eastern sandwich. I’ve shed mine. There have been other changes as well. Those weird, mall kiosk move-​able image pictures are gone from the walls inside, instead, they have sconces. A fairly loudly comfortable perpetual movement pond is churning in front. But just for the home sick, Westbound émigré, there is plenty of midi-​Western-​pop covers seeping through the house sound system. I’ve always wanted to hear «Secret Agent Man» as played on a 1980’s Casio keyboard. Bonus points for the awkward «tri-​tone» interruption too. Also: lots of white. Bright white. Hospital white, but without the imminent smells of tragedy.
They have food though. Phở. Obviously. Although, seemingly not as rich and full as R&B, or Bambu really. Spring rolls. Fried rolls – molten hot, (obvs). These are there and should be consumed according to craving. Phở, as just mentioned, just lacks something I think I miss. It would only be fair to have all of Springfield’s phở in bowls in front of me to judge, but I don’t. So to my fickle mistress, Memory, I trust. There is just something that is not as lovely as the other Phos in town. Maybe its because I only have eaten it in the restaurant, surrounded by all the hidden colors. The dry noodle bowl (s) are just good enough as well. But again, something is missing. The egg roll fried hot and the pork chunky and fatty, but just not marrying all together. A bright spot has been the short rib dish; crispy ends of short ribs with some unctuous, fatty bits around the bone on top of steamed rice has treated me quite well. Methinks that will happen again.
So the food has not overwhelmed me, but I am close. And proximity makes up for much in many cases. The inside is almost as awkward as ever: the music less annoying than previous owner, the décor less ostracizing, the waitresses better communicators. Although I took pleasure in watching how displeased the one American waitress was in working there. Such calculated silences. Such strong closing of eyes. I think if I watched long enough I’d see an eye slam shut after many moments of involuntary twitching. Hopefully she will be on to different pastures – to munch on her own haughtiness. There are nice waitresses though. Maybe they will stay. But who knows in these days. I will probably only eat to go from now on. Unless they have a Groupon that can only be used inside… on Tuesdays… during the later phases of the moon.

Okay, so I’ve been here 3 times in the past 3 weeks and say things like, «boyfriend, let’s get Phở Café for lunch,» like once a week. I’ve had a few different dishes, and although some things aren’t as good as some of the things I loved from Roll n’ Bowls, it’s TOTES pretty OBVI (decided to go with cool, teenage speak for a short portion of this review just to be coo’) that I am, in fact, a fan. As such, I must raise my review to 4 stars. Check this place out. It’s definitely worthy enough to fit into my «I want to eat some sort of asian-​type fare but it can’t be thai b/​c thai in springfield sucks» craving that happens like three times a work week (I have a problem). So, yay to Phở Café!

Yesterday was my first visit to the new Phở Café. I was unaware of this restaurant changing hands in the past year, so I was absolutely gutted to find that they don’t have banh mi! I was in such a banh mi mood. Also, the water fountain feature at the entry of the restaurant smelled dank and moldy. Those two facts frankly made me wanna turn right around and leave but my husband was in the mood for phở so we stuck around. And then everything was perfect. As I enjoyed the perfect taro boba drink with crispy shrimp spring rolls in spicy sweet sauce, I was glad we stayed. A few bites of his phở with vegetarian ham taught me all I needed to know about this restaurant. We’ll be back. I’d still love to see them introduce banh mi to their menu, though!