Cali Noodles & Grill

I’m goin back to Cali,
naw, I don’t think so.
Cali was good when it first opened, but now since the people who started it are too busy trying open new locations, this location has gone from good to less than alright.
Quality over Quantity.
Broth is eh
Meat is eh
Service is eh.
The servers always forget something upon all of my visits.
I’m kind of over it.
I’m done trying since they obviously are.
I’ll be going elsewhere from now on.
Somewhere that cares.
Somewhere with an A rating
instead of a B.
I get A’s on my tests.
So should they.

While looking for a quick bite to eat in West Covina, I found this little spot on Unilocal,in the plaza with 85 degrees. The high ratings brought me in, but it definitely didn’t have that sit down restaurant feel. It was very casual, and the décor was pleasing enough. Though I have to admit, I wasn’t very happy with what I saw…
The menu consisted of some rice plates, phở dishes, noodles, appetizers, and some drinks. Though nothing really stood out to me… There is also a self serve salad bar, so if you order yourself some phở, you got to get up and make yourself a plate of beansprouts, mint, and cabbage.
We ordered a plate of egg rolls, and I got myself a rice plate that comes with two meats of your choice. The egg rolls were crispy and tasted fine, they didn’t come with the lettuce like traditional vietnamese places though. The rice plate was simple, the chicken and steak tasted like a generic piece you can get from Ono Hawaiian BBQ. I was a bit disappointed because I was quite sure that my plate was supposed to come with salad (according to the menu, but I could be wrong, so don’t quote me on that)…
Overall it’s a very generic place to eat when you’re in the mood for something quick and easy. Just don’t expect anything special.

Food here isn’t bad. The place is clean. Their coffee is a mostly sugar and milk though.

Have to say first, the phở here is ok, cuz we don’t have much phở in that area, so that’s why they are still open till now! Ok, why I give one star, the lady owner;(I think she is the owner or the wife) speaks is SUPER rude! I believe their business will be better if she just stay at home counting the money or to be a housewife. She was trying to get in to a conversation in between me and my friends and she doesn’t even know what were we talking about and she just think we are talking something bad about the restaurant or her. Are u ok? Who do u think you are? Why would you become a topic? We were shocked! And my friend were felt really uncomfortable eating here after that, and we will never ever come back again! And hey, people, for your safety, go somewhere else for phở, if you don’t wanna be scared out!

Nice place to eat a bowl of phở. To me phở is phở is phở unless it’s terrible. And this place does not disappoint. I love their service and the self serve veggie station where u can pick what veggie you want to put into your phở. I also love their big screen TV that I watched 1^st 2 quarters of the game 5 warriors vs cavs finals.

came here a couple of times with my friends. First time we went, we ordered to-​go. One of soups was the wrong order, but the owner explained that they just got new cooks and are training them so it was okay. They also offered to give me a complimentary phở for my next visit which shows that they care about their customers!
Next time i came in, they remembered me and made sure to take very good care of me. Service was a little slow, but at the end of the night i was satisfied with the whole experience.
Try the shrimp and meatball phở!

Born and raised in the 626 so gotta represent. I was basically born into a tub filled with phở. I was excited for this place to open hoping it would be authentic Vietnamese food! It’s located in the McIntyre Center next to 85 degrees bakery.
My family and I ordered the phở and rich dishes.
Phở– the soup base was a little off. It had an overpowering scent of something I couldn’t point out. Didn’t really taste like phở. The noodles aren’t the same vermicelli noodles like other phở places. I give it ⁴⁄₁₀ stars. Great phở can be found in Rosemead/​San Gabriel area.
Rice– for sure not com tam. It was served with regular rice, whereas real com tam is broken rice. Gotta give it to them for the meat though. The marinated pork chop was pretty good.
Drinks– they sent a free drink coupon to my house so decided to use it. The mango tea was mostly ice but hey, it was free. Only one was allowed per table but my azn mom was able to negotiate in Vietnamese and we got a whole round.

Terrible service, every single time I go, I’ve went 4 times hoping each time is different and it’s not, super slow service, tables are dirty, I waited
25 minutes for a soup on a Thursday night with less than half capacity, the food is fair, but definetly not worth the wait, so if you’re in a hurry I don’t recommend it.

Get the spicy lemongrass phở with filet mignon! The broth was so unique and very different from all the other phở restaurants!
Be sure to check in for a free cup of iced mango green tea!

It’s a small place, next to 85 degrees.
The servers were nice, and the free drink with a check in was delicious.
I ordered a rice dish that came with pork chop and chicken. Both were great. Tender and flavorful. It came with a little salad and then you can supplement that with the veggie bar. I also ordered extra egg rolls. This was a weak point. They were okay, but with the quality of the rest of the food, I expected better. I will definitely return. The price was right and the leftovers made a great stir fry the next day.

What happen with my tomato broth phở!
Look completely different from the menu!
Lack of flavor
Never come back again

I order the phở soup without the meat and when i got home i got this. I called and they said they couldn’t do anything, really? Thats how they take care of their customers? Well im not going back! Terrible customer service. Loosing a customer is more important than making sure is happy all i asked was for a replacement and they failed to do that!

Chicken phở for the soul. The self serve veggie station is very convenient to build your own flavor. Did I mention it’s Organic?!
If you like refreshing drinks they also have a wide variety of choices. My favorite is basil coconut juice and mango green tea. They have a loyalty stamp card for a free beverage on the 10^th stamp.
Friendly atmosphere and staff. I’m def a regular.

I gave them chances already, but they disappointed me each time. I think they’ve changed owner. The foods are not the same. Taste awfully salty. Prices went up rocket high. However, the service & the quality of foods went down terribly.
They also need to wash the dishes :(

SERVICE
Walked in and was seated right away. Service is friendly. The veggies are self serve which I think is smart because it decreases waste. However I took off one star because they didn’t have bean sprout! That’s a staple with phở so I was pretty disappointed they didn’t have any.
FOOD
— Shrimp and meatball phở: Love this! It’s similar to bun rieu. There was plenty of shrimp and only 3 big meatballs but that was all I needed. The noodles were soft, tomato broth was tasty, and the tomato slices were huge. I love this soup and I wish I could bring this back to San Francisco with me. Give this is a try. It’s definitely something different from your beef broth based phở, but it’s good.
— Grilled pork rolls: Something new, the jicama was a nice addition. It’s a spring roll with pork, nothing else I can really say about that.
DRINKS
–Mango green tea: This was free! More bitter than your usual boba shop mango green tea, but I liked it because you could actually taste the green tea. It was a refreshing compliment to my phở
AM I COMING BACK?
Yes, definitely. This place has made it to my must visit list when in SoCal just for the shrimp and meatball phở. Try it out! Give this place a try.
RANDOM TIPS:
— Sauce containers and greens are in the self serve section.
— Do the Unilocal check in for a free drink!

I’m convinced the service here is garbage. I thought maybe it was a one time thing but no. I’ve came here at least three different times and every single time the service gets worse. These waiters and waitresses here would more than likely get fired at any other restaurant.
Instead of working, most of them are on their phones, talking to each other or yelling across the entire restaurant to the other worker. Honestly it’s a joke.
Cali noodles must have incredibly low standards of customer service and incredibly high food costs.
No joke! Tonight, my girlfriend and I came in and ordered two phở combination bowls and a side of egg rolls. Total? $ 26 without anything else (no drinks). The $ 5 egg rolls? Pass on it. Comes with three small pieces that are mediocre at best.
The combination bowl is a hit or miss too. Some days it’ll have everything advertised in the combination but some days it’ll be missing a bunch of items in the bowl. Don’t even bother telling the waiters/​waitresses here they won’t do much.
The food is not bad but it’s not worth it. There’s better phở places around.

This was definitely a mix-​mix feeling. The service was a roller coaster & it felt like we were going through a breakup with the waiter.
Immediately when we walked in, we told them 5 people so the guy there who right off the bat was just upset about something just pushed two tables together angrily and pointed. Then he threw menus on our table and walked away — no greeting whatsoever. Our table looked at each other like «what the hell just happened?» Then we ordered water & he just slammed all 5 cups and threw our straws.
Another waiter came to our table (guy with glasses) and was a whole 180. Polite. Offered all our table complimentary drinks (CHECK IN FOR FREE ICED TEA) & just had excellent service. One of the dishes we ordered was incorrect & my friend didn’t want to say anything because he didn’t want to deal with the rude waiter. But when he came back with the actual order, my friend already started eating the wrong order so he said it was fine.
Overall it was a BIPOLAR experience and I’m not sure if I even want to come back. This is my second time here & I think that’s more than enough. Although we did have a different & nicer waiter, it doesn’t make up for the initial terrible experience we walked into. #sorrynotsorry

After the long wait on my bookmark, I was surprised to see this establishment appealing to a younger and non Vietnamese crowd. You can tell from the location and style that it’s not catching local Vietnamese customers. It’s a more modern take. Everything on the menu is in english, and in English only. The workers are not all related. And they have a «get it yourself veggie bar» which includes bean sprouts, jalepenos, cabbage, red cabbage, carrots, and lime. There is also sauce but no point getting it since the employees get it for you depending on what you order. No basil or mint leaves plus no vinegar onion.
Considering this was more modern, I might as well try the seafood one while my friend got the combination meat and another got the dry noodle bowl with pork chops and beef. The seafood broth was pretty good, but everything in there was just shaped fish cake. The noodles were not your typical phở noodles, they’re fat, flat, rice noodles. It comes with the combination beef too. The broth for the beef was decent, was pretty good given that we came at lunch so must’ve been made not too long ago. The noodle dish was really appealing. Didn’t have too much time to take pictures since everyone was hungry.
Check in to get your mango orange juice, fair warning though, it’s very sweet so mix with water if it’s too sweet for you. It’s what I did
Overall, it was an interesting experience, would come back to take my non Asian friends but would not come here with my mom. She wouldn’t like the new take on phở.

Usually, I’m very skeptical of a place that serves fusion food, meaning it’s not truly authentic and the flavors are adjusted for Westerners’ palette. But being next door to 85C, and we often park right in front, we decided to come to give this a place a try. The décor is modern, bright and open w/​high ceilings, unlike any phở places I’ve been to before.
We ordered:
Filet mignon phở: Thinly slices of beef: yes, it’s tender as a filet mignon is supposed to be, but it’s been cooking in the hot broth which made it well done. So it didn’t matter if it’s mignon or a cheaper beef … no difference. But the flavor was still good.
Grilled chicken and beef rice plate. The beef was slightly tough, and the chicken tender. Both had good seasoning and a nice grilled, slightly charred flavor. Comes with an egg roll and a salad w/​a side of sweet dressing. Not bad!
Chicken skewers were delicious. Each skewer held a decent amount of nicely seasoned chicken, garnished with chopped onions for color and added flavor. Pretty good!
Crispy egg rolls. Nothing special here. It’s a typical fried egg roll with a dipping sauce.
Cali caramel coffee w/​coffee jelly: The jelly had no flavor, but they were probably masked by the intensely strong Vietnamese coffee. I loved it!
Lychee fusion green tea. Hardly any tea flavor, mild lychee flavor. Light, refreshing and easy to drink… not too sweet.
The service was good, but nothing they did really stood out to be exceptional. They forgot our order of chicken skewers so I had to remind them. Seeing that we were sharing the food, no initiatives were taken to bring out extra small bowls or plates. But that’s not the level of service we’d expect unless it’s a higher end restaurant. We just had to wait to flag someone down and ask before we can really start eating.
Overall, it’s not a bad place to try. Even though the prices are slightly higher than others, the staff is friendly and the food was good. Will we go back? Perhaps. We would not go out of our way to go there, but if we’re in the area and can’t decide, we might pop in here.
Notes:
* They have their own condiments bar where you can load your own basil, pepper, cilantro and sauces, kinda like a salsa bar at a Mexican joint. Very convenient and a good idea!
* The prices range a bit higher than a typical phở place, $ 4.95 for 2 skewers or 3 egg rolls, the rice plate @ $ 8.50, each drink was $ 4.50 and the regular size phở was $ 7.95.
* Right next to 85C for your after-​meal carb needs.

I give the restaurant 3.5 stars.
We ordered phở with steak, the beef and pork rice plate, and a noodle plate with chicken and beef. All meals were generous in portion and the best of all is that all vegetables and sauces are accessible to patrons via a self serve veggie station.
The beef and pork meat was excellent, tender and full of flavor. The phở broth was lighter and not as complex as I prefer-​closer to regular chicken broth.
We waited over 15 minutes for our order. In fact we noticed that guests who came after us were served before us. not sure what the hold up was with our order.
We were offered a free drink by the waitress with proof of writing a Unilocal review… more ask than the «check in» required to get the free drink.
What struck me most was that one of the waitresses spilled fish sauce on my arm and all over my purse. She apologized and cleaned the floor. I spent a couple of minutes cleaning my purse in the restroom… It would have been courteous to offer a free item on the menu or a discount on the bill but nothing was offered…
Overall, besides the spill, having to wait so long for the order and being nudged to write a Unilocal review for a free drink, the food was good and we will recommend to others.