Pho Lena

Always excellent… beat Thai food in Alaska… sidewalk noodles are supreme. Don’t judge the food by the building… the building is an old classic spears structure from the 40’s…Tom Khar was best ever

This is Alaska’s best kept «secret” — it has the best curry I have ever eaten. Great fresh rolls & peanut sauce. Not only is the food absolutely out of this world, but I have witnessed true kindness from the owner. This occurred a while back, but I saw a homeless man come into the restaurant. Rather then dismiss him, the owner gave him a sandwich for free and was very kind to him. Amazing food, but more importantly, it is run by wonderful people.

Food is always good. The place just needs an update. Anchorage is a tight area so is understandable. Front door could be fixed.

A local friend took me here, it’s not on the tourist road so we wouldn’t have known about it otherwise. Great local food in heaping amounts, friendly service, down-​home seating and atmosphere. This would defiantly be a favorite if I lived in town! The Lard Nar was excellent. The diet coke glass was super tall and didn’t need a refill, huge plus.

Pros: food isn’t bad, good food presentation, and they are gracious with their serving sizes, so a meal can easily become two.
Con: the food takes a while to get to you, and my pad Thai did not fit my expectation of a pad thai, and I eat a lot of Thai food. It’s almost like what you would expect if pad thai and meatball spaghetti had a baby. It was still good but it wasn’t great.

Awesome tofu curry.
The mango rice desert is super good too but i think its seasonal.

I have been branching out from the red curry dish I usually get for lunch, and I’m so glad I have. I was never a fan of the traditional phở as I didn’t think much of the broth, but some of the other soups are great! I like the Sukiyaki, Tom Kha, and most recently I tried the peanut curry noodle soup (thanks for the convincing photo, Trevor K). There are other great items here too, but I have barely scratched the surface of the many yummy sounding items. The reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is the ridiculous «arctic entry.» It really is a worthless addition as it doesn’t keep any of the cold out, but equally ridiculous are the single pane windows. Seeing as how Anchorage is in the throes of winter 6 months of the year this place should upgrade. I know they make enough in food cost to upgrade, and even though I am wearing a coat while eating in the winter it’s totally worth it. Know a place that is not worth it? Thai Kitchen. They intentionally make their restaurant cold, but give such crap service it’s not in the realm of my dining possibilities.
PS, try the Lao Vegetarian Pappardelle, you will be happy you did.

Fan of this place. Soft tendon, flat noodles, tender rib meat, tripe. I’ve been to five or so phở places in Seattle and this is much better than any of them.

Um. I don’t have any idea how in failed to write a review for Phở Lena. Everything everyone says about this place is true. Good food, fast, delivered without much fanfare. The restaurant is cramped and cold, but with a big bowl of Phở, you just won’t care. At lunchtime this place jammed during the weekend. It’s like everyone working in Spenard shows up for a quick bite at Phở Lena. It’s a staple in this part of town with good reason.

One of the best curry dishes I’ve had. Including outside too! Phở Lena has become one of our staple restaurants.

I had a wonderful time last week when I went there with a friend from out of town! I’m looking forward to going back!!!

Great Phở, quality of food, friendly staff, all around great experience! (Even when we came 10 minutes prior to closing)

I think Phở Lena has the best Lao food in town. Can’t ever go wrong with their kaopiek! Their papaya salad is on point as well. I’ve had it both ways here, Thai and Lao, and they were both so yummies! Their pad Thai and curries are some of my favorite dishes as well. Especially the chicken red curry! Comes with plenty of meat and veggies.
Food comes out quick and service is friendly. Perfect spot to grab a quick lunch or dinner!

Our airbnb hosts recommended this place to us while we were searching for some good local Thai. As soon as we pulled up, we knew it was going to be great because it looked sketchy and run down (everybody knows holes-​in-​the-​wall have the best food!) The menu was overwhelming… so many options it took us forever to decide! We chose the Lao fresh rolls to start (YUM!). I went with the Tom yum phở & hubby got the Lao pumpkin and coconut soup. With my phở came the choice of at least 6 noodle options (like I said, overwhelming!) I chose the homemade flat noodles which were a great choice. Large portions, fair prices, and lots of flavor! Wish I could go back and try more of their menu, but unfortunately it’s back to Tennessee tomorrow!

Holy smokes.
The food here is HOT.
By hot, I mean «SPICY». (why does this word always look like it’s spelled wrong?)
Easily the hottest food I’ve had in Alaska.
I got the stir fry curry and asked for it «extra extra extra hot».
Shockingly: it was.
I blew my face off, and I loved it, because I’m a naughty boy.
I hear the Phở here is good, but every time I get sucked into getting some sort of pulse-​quickening curry.
My only complaint is that they really don’t refill the water fast enough. I usually don’t drink much water but when climbing my way up the lava fields of Mt Curry, it helps to have a hydration break every once in a while.

Never disappoints! I’ve been a fan of Thai and Vietnamese food since I was a child. I’ve eaten at hundreds of like restaurants and this is my favorite. Consistent quality, good price, and great service!

Delicious! This little hole in the wall has amazing flavors and served up a huge bowl of noodle soup for about 10 bucks. I had #47 (peanut curry coconut milk soup with chicken and rice noodles) on the chef’s recommendation and it was awesome. Get in here.

Passed by this place and as a Unilocaler, I Unilocaled this place while I was standing outside haha
This place looks dirty from the outside, but it’s pretty clean inside.
Food:
I only had their brisket and meatball phở. Hmm. 1. The soup was oddly sweet. Never had sweet phở before. And I had my fair share of phở in multiple restaurants. However, it wasn’t too bad. 2. I was only given 2 meatballs and maybe 5 pieces of brisket. For almost $ 9 for a small, that’s not cool. I guess I’ve been spoiled with a bountiful amount of meat for a medium $ 7-​$ 8 at other restaurants. –1 star
Service:
unfortunately, I did not have a great experience. Right when I walked in, no one greeted me. Did not know if I was suppose to seat myself. but since no one came up to me, I slowly walked to a table. This lady, who was sitting on a table eating, was staring at me while I was taking my jacket off. Finally, she said hi with no expression on her face. looked like I was disturbing her lunch. Then I found out she was the owner. Wow. Way to make me feel welcome. Throughout my stay there, no one checked up on me. I observed that no worker smiled (only when they were talking amongst each other). The workers were a bit rude, made me feel like I was a burden to them! –2 stars
Overall:
Phở was too sweet and expensive. Service would be better with a smile. I will probably try out other places before returning.

They honestly deserve five stars if their ambience does not cut one.
The place is like hole in a wall. But when you get inside, you’ll feel sitting in 80s’ old time. We went there in a early Saturday morning, around 11:30, which is 30 mins before their opening time. But they let us in regardlessly!
We ordered different kinds of phở, and I secretly thought that they would come with the same base soup, but different meat. To my surprise, those phos did have different base soups and tastes. I looove my #43 phở with roast duck! It’s also an new item on the menu. It is sour and sweet at the same time, with coconut soup from No. 1 Thailand coconut brand (or so they claim). The price is pretty fair. Superbowl option is also available for some items, and it is HUGE!!!

Typical hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurant: tasty food in a shabby atmosphere and spotty service spending on how busy it is. But the food has always been delicious and affordable.
I have been to Phở Lena’s dozens of times, and taken it for what it’s worth, but when I got a to-​go order of green papaya salad with a bunch of rotten tomato slices, I decided it was time to take a break. I’m all for salvaging what you can, but at least cut off the moldy spots?