888 Pan Asian Restaurant

Good food and open late. Haven’t had a bad experience in all the years I have been here!

I’ve been going to this place on-​and-​off for maybe 7 years. It’s reliably open late, and the menu is ginormous. Not every food item is great, so get recommendations, but it still deserves five stars for being a S. Austin institution.

This place is dirty as hell!!! And the service sucks half of the time!
But f**k
I. Am. Obsessed.
I love New York. I love Shanghai. I love Hong Kong. And I can guarantee for a fact that those cities (as a whole) arent any more clean than 888. And guess what. They have great food.
I’m so down for this place and their sticky menus. Their Thai tea that stains teeth and the phở spoons that are still damp from «cleaning»???
I. Love. It.

This place is pretty busy for dinner, so be sure to come with a charged phone so you can help pass the time.
There are some chairs outside for waiting because there is not a waiting area indoors. We waited for about 20 minutes which wasn’t too bad.
We waited 40 minutes for our food though. I ordered the combination fried rice on the recommendation of my friends, and my boyfriend ordered the yellow curry with chicken.
Combination Fried Rice — nothing above average. Not the best fried rice I’ve had, and it’s just average. Portion size was huge, so buy this to share or take home and have another meal. May not order this again. Not worth waiting nearly an hour for.
Yellow Curry — pretty good! Has that hint of sweetness to it due to the coconut milk found in Vietnamese curry but does have that spicy kick. Comes in a clay pot. My boyfriend enjoyed it, and he said he would get it again.
I am planning on returning to try their clay pot dishes!

I was visiting this restaurant due to the raving Unilocal reviews and cheap prices. SADLY, I found a roach in my phở. I asked to immediately speak to manager and he offered to make be a new bowl. I refused! My water then came and said «this doesn’t usually happen.» I’ve NEVER experienced a roach in my food and their lack of concern was even more traumatizing. Think twice before eating here!

Portions here were huge and prices are reasonable. Phở bowls were tasty, hot and filled. Crispy noodles with beef were delicious. Only dish that was bad tasting was the pad Thai noodles with beef. It didn’t taste anything like pad Thai. All you could taste was the overwhelming flavor of lime.

I have never written a serious food review, but the yellow curry here more than warranted a 6 or 7 star review. Truly, it is the best thing I have ever put in my mouth, and over my 34 years I have put a lot of stuff in my mouth.
This curry was even better than the yellow curry I ate in a café at the bottom of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and that curry was so damn good a guy broke up with me because I couldn’t stop bragging about it.
Seriously, if Ed McMahon showed up at my house tomorrow with a $ 10 million dollar check, first I would scream ’cause he’s dead, but then I would ask if I could trade the money in for buckets of this curry. And if they let me trade in the money, I would eat half the curry and then sell the other half at 3 times the cost because 1. I know people would pay that much because it’s that good and 2. I would make even more than the original $ 10 million.
But fo’ realzies. This curry is the BEST!
I got the yellow curry with veggies only. I can’t attest to how dead animals or dead soybeans are in it. But the veggie deserves at least 6 to 7 stars on here. It’s better than Cheetos and/​or Pop Tarts.

Well, they raised their prices significantly. It’s just unfortunate because it used to be so reasonable for large portions. As is usually the case, the numbers grow while the portions shrink.
Just got takeout and got a tofu dish. I asked for veggies with it and was charged 2 extra dollars for VERY little vegetables. I wish I’d taken a photo.
It’s very sad.

I’ll keep this short and sweet.
Huge portions, authentic food, wide variety, open late, not over prices.
everything you could ever ask from a restaurant.

The food is always good here. I usually get the seafood phở and an order of shrimp spring rolls to start. Always yummy.
Lately, they’ve really been amping up the service and presentation of the food. 888 is on their way greatness.

Cheap and spectacular don’t always go hand in hand, but 888 melds the two so brilliantly that there should be a special word to describe it. Cheaptacular? Spectacheap? I’ll work on it.
The menu is eclectic and extensive. I’ve had Phở, curries, egg rolls, rices, etc and they’ve all lived up to the hype. You’d have to hate eating to land on a bad choice. The beer menu could use some work, but beer is available and that’s all it takes to satisfy me.
The discreet location is in the middle of a food desert. East Oltorf is great for washing clothes, not so great for dining. 888 is the exception. Great food, affordable (almost insane) prices, and chills vibes. Oh, and it’s opened late, so go. Now, no matter what time it is.

The parking lot of this place is terrible. I have been two times and both times someone almost hit me.
If you come during lunch or peak dinner hours, GOOD LUCK getting seating. I haven not seen this place when it wasn’t packed, so don’t be afraid to call in an order to go and hang out at the bar of its not ready yet. They have an excellent buffet they manage to keep very fresh!
I would rate this place 5 stars but I feel like the cleanliness level could be better and it always seems like a hectic vibe here, so the opposite of relaxing. Also we have ordered take out here a number of times and it took longer than expected so we got stuck at the bar several times just waiting.

888 Pan Asian might throw you off a little upon entering as you entering a real big space. I learned over the years that big spaces are mostly likely equal to «not very qualitative» food. This is absolutely not the case at 888 Asian.
This review is about take out so I do not have a general idea on how the service is except for the guy behind the bar who served me $ 3 blue moons.
There’s no designated area for the take out so you just sit at the bar most of the time. When you order, you immediately see pricing for some cheap beers while you wait.
I went for the grilled squid and crunchy noodles with chicken. It took them a decent 20 minutes to prepare although the restaurant wasn’t full but I can’t blame them since I didn’t called ahead.
After arriving back home, the squid became a little too cold but was still delicious. You get a bunch of crunchy noodles and a separate bowl of stock with veggies and chicken which need to be mixed together. KEEP THIS IN MIND WHEN YOU GO BACK TO A HOTEL.
Compared to PF Changs’ crunchy noodles, these weren’t as greasy and very light of taste. Pouring over the stock and the veggies made the noodles softer but they didn’t loose texture.
This place will definitely remain on my favorite list, next time I’m going to Austin.

Warning: Their portions are HUGE so make sure you’re okay to get a major food coma and take a nap afterwards.
I come here pretty often and their food never disappoints me. The huge portion of food is pretty cheap for their price– I always get more than just one meal out of it! I’d recommend their bbq pork fried rice and beef flat noodles– super flavorful! Mmm :-) And the Seafood puff appetizer is worth it. I always have trouble picking what I want to order b/​c there’s so many choices and it’s all really good too!
Service is pretty good– I never have had to bug the waiter/​waitress on getting me more water (I tend to drink a lot of water during my meals.)
Around dinner times, they often have live performance music going on in the restaurant!

Came here on a «second» lunch after going around Zilker and grabbing my usual Shake Shack when I’m in Austin. People on here were raving about the Orange Chicken, so I decided to get exactly that.
Got the Orange Chicken, set my spicy level of the meal to 2, and I was a little underwhelmed by the whole dish. I expected greatness for some reason, but, all I got delivered was a typical «asian» dish. Yes the portion size was pretty big for the price I paid, and I even got to make it my second dinner a few days later, I was just a little disappointed. It had too much spicy and not enough flavor. It’s like the spiciness was the «flavor.» I like my dishes to have more flavor than spiciness. But, is that my fault or is that the restaurant’s fault? Overall, definitely would understand why people like this place though.

This place STILL rocks my socks.
I must change my favorite, however, to the Green Curry with Chicken!!! Oh so yummy with a certain sweetness and spice that is so perfect. The phở still has a big place in my heart.
My husband goes for the Vermicelli with Lemongrass Beef. He LOVES it.
The portions are always huge, too, so if you’re feeling super hungry, or if you want a meal for two days, this is the place!
And at SUCH an affordable price.
888! 888! 888!

Delightful. Long lines, but I can see why:
— Phở: Big, warm, and authentic-​tasting. Not super special or stand-​out, but exactly as expected from phở, which is a good thing.
— Spring roll: Solid, the usual but the sauce it came with was really sweet!
— Orange chicken: Possibly the best I’ve had. Lots of Asian restaurants cop out with this, making it more «American» with overloading sweetness and not much else flavor. I love that I can taste the very distinct, strong taste of orange in every bite. Still too sweet though, in my opinion, as a main dish, but the inclusion of vegetables and rice is much appreciated.
Service felt a little rushed. Waiter took my plate away with food still on it. Not a big deal though.
So while not a particularly «wow» kind of restaurant, the food is solid for curbing those Vietnamese cravings.

888 was my favorite spot while I was in undergrad (I lived on nearby riverside), and my friends and I still come by when they visit town. At one point, I came here so often that one of the waitresses would ask me how my grandmother in Canada was doing…
I’ve been eating here for about 10 years now and it still as good and cheap as ever. It’s definitely gotten busier over the last few years though and can be a 30 – 40 minute wait if you come at the wrong time. Lunch is extra good because it comes with free soup and appetizers. Their lunch buffet is also highly recommended. A few of my favorites include the seafood puffs, sesame chicken (I ask for it spicy), green curry with steak, and the combination fried rice.

Honestly, there is not much more you can ask for than what is already offered at 888. 888, in my opinion, has the best phở in town. The broth they use is amazing and requires little (or no) additives. 888’s popularity has increased over the years so don’t be surprised if you’re put on a waiting list… but the wait is well worth it!
Tip: try substituting egg noodles with your phở!

I ordered the Hu Tieu Xao Vit, or the stir-​fried flat-​and-​wide rice noodles with duck dish. When I came, they didn’t have it in the menu, which I thought was odd, since I had seen someone mention it before. Nevertheless, they were able to make it after telling them what exactly I wanted, even if it’s not in the menu. But maybe it’s just that the menu is too much of a mammoth undertaking to peruse every detail.
And the result was a superb dish, with the tasty duck that made this place famous. The dish comes with snow peas, napa cabbage, celery, sliced bamboo shoot, bean sprout, shiitake and straw mushrooms.
NOTE: In the old menu, I saw that they had misnamed it as Shrimp instead of Duck, and that the description underneath Hu Tieu omits the option of having duck with it. So just to be sure of what you’re ordering, you may be better off writing or saying Hu Tieu Xao Vit or just request for it to come with duck. You’ll be rewarded with a great dish, for sure.
Atmosphere: Old-​school Chinese haunt, with a mostly Vietnamese and Thai menu.
Service: Quick, Vietnamese waiters but this place is packed and they are often busy doing something else.
Wait: During the weekend lunch rush, I had to wait about an hour. It can be crazy.
Price: Great deals, especially for the portions and the food.