Pin Toh

COCKROACH ALERT!!!
We saw a couple of cockroach walking around the ledge and we just were shocked! Please dont go and eat here!
The food was not good at all cuz it doesnt even taste authentic. thai food. Ive had wayyyy better than the food here. This should be rated. with no star but i cant post a review with at least a one star.
In short bad food, bad service and bad restaurant cleanliness… bad bad bad!!!

Pin toh offers Phở made by chefs of the former PHo Hoa Restaurant. (sign says).
just found this out. unable to try. Pin Toh is no longer here.
Toss Noodle Bar has taken over this spot.

I had the Tom Yum Soup which wasn’t the best. It was a clear broth with some vegetables and prawns. It was actually very different from the ones I’ve tried before. The taste wasn’t that bad… but it didn’t have any strong sweet/​spicy taste to it and lacked depth. I also thought this dish was overpriced (~$ 9).
The Pad Thai, on the other hand, was really good. Chewy noodles with vegetables, chicken, and tofu. A little lime juice on top and was delicious. It wasn’t overly sweet like other places.
Too bad that it’s closing. They had signs posted that they were closing by the end of 2012.

Good food. I went here with a friend for lunch and ordered the lunch speacial which was a squid salad and eggplant dish with rice. I wasn’t too impressed with the salad because it didn’t have a lot of squid or flavor and the salad was just iceberg lettuce. It was okay. The eggplant dish was yummy. it came with baby corn, broccoli, carrots and fresh basil.
The restaurant is wrapped in a neon blue light which makes you feel like you’re in a lounge. The music in the restaurant was techno which made the place interesting.
The service was good. I live pretty close by, and I will probably be here again sometime soon.

Service could be faster but very nice and the food was good. Found a fly in one of table side sauces in the holder. Phở was flavor full very reasonable price. The ambiance is meh– I don’t know why, maybe because the tables and floors and chairs and lighting feel cheapy, but know you don’t come for the ambience, you come for the food. The food was really good. Shrimp spring rolls, phở, and a person in the group had coconut soup with lime I think, it was tasty. The power went out jsut when we finished up.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me to recommend him a slightly fancier Thai place, and I wish I had been to Pintoh, because I would have sent him there.
The exterior of the venue is very cute, but also gives the wrong impression that the restaurant itself is small. The interior extends out as you head towards the back, and the space is quite comfortable. My friend and I shared a nice, large table that would naturally seat four.
I ordered the mango salad — and damn, that was so bomb. I was expecting a mixed green salad with some shreds of mango, but what I got was much, much better. The dish uses shredded mango as its base, then adds seafood on top. I only wish that they had been less skimpy on the shrimp. The salad also has a nice kick that I can’t quite place, but made for a very pleasant, refreshing lunch.
I also ordered the Thai iced tea, which was nothing of note.
In terms of service, this place is pretty typical for an Asian restaurant, maybe a degree classier. The servers are prompt and attentive, but added no bells or whistles of any sort. Overall a very pleasant experience!

Obviously, from the other reviews, don’t get the phở. Ha!
I had a marvelous experience! My friend and I just dropped in really quickly. We split a vegetable red curry with rice, and it was perfect! There was just enough spice to the curry, and all the vegetables were great!
I didn’t like the ambience so much, but the location cannot be beat!
We also had great Jasmine tea. Try it!

3.5 stars
Came here on a Friday night with 2 of my friends and the place was pretty empty. We were all craving phở so that was what we looked forward to. I got the #11, which cost $ 9.50 and seemed to have the most meat out of the 3 of our bowls.
The bowls here are HUGE, so I was very full afterwards. The only downsides are that I’m a big beansprout person so I wish they’d provided us with more of those.
Even though the place was empty, we were seated close to the door and ignored for the majority of the beginning because it seemed like we were so far from everyone else that was being served…

PROS
+ Pretty good variety/​quantity of vegetables in their dishes
+ Fairly quick service
+ Decent portions
CONS
— Restaurant smelled like cleaning products/​like a bathroom
— Waitress got my order wrong
I had ordered the PAD KEE MAUW (drunken noodles) with seafood, but was served PAD SEE EW instead. I let this slide and did not ask for my dish to be replaced with my original order. The seafood was flavorful and I liked that there was a lot of chinese broccoli. I wish there were more pieces of the delicious fish though!
My brother had the DELUXE NOODLE SOUP. The broth was flavorful and had a good curry flavor. The noodles came with a pretty good variety of vegetables. There chinese broccoli, regular broccoli, zucchini, carrot, etc.
We also had the FRESH ROLLS with pork and shrimp. Skimpy on the pork, but shrimp were nice and plump. One order gives you 4 rolls, about 4″ in length. Comes with 2 dipping sauces (vinegar/​chili, and peanut). I found the rolls too heavy on the bean sprouts and lacking in vermicelli.
Overall, a so-​so place out of all the numerous Thai options available in Berkeley.

I’ve been to this place in order to check out their phở, after the failures of the previous Phở place in this same location.
Boy was I wrong…
At the time, they were offering free thai ice tea to celebrate their grand opening. So I went in, and ordered their phở. To my surprise, there on the menu, they state that they have the same chefs that made the phở from the previous place! OMG, RED FLAG! I had already ordered, and with my endless love for phở, I decided to give them a little chance to redeem themselves, under a new name. NOPE. Still bad as ever.
I was also surprised that their thai ice tea was a little bland in comparison to other thai ice teas I had in my life. They also add way too much ice — to the point where you don’t seem to be drinking tea, but eating ice.
I would give them another try, but as my rating shows: «Eek! Methinks not!»

The Phở here wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be… maybe because we just came from BTC at bears lair but still… not too bad.
Better than K&K Phở or Saigon Eats. I was actually able to taste beef flavor in my broth (as opposed to k&k where all I tasted was star of anise). I have a pretty big appetite for my 115lb self and so I wasnt too impressed with their portions, especially if it was like almost 8 dollars for a bowl of phở.
We came around 5:40 and it wasnt crowded at all.
There’s not that many places you can get phở around here so this is my best bet so far.
Service was fine but when my friend asked for straws, it was weird that the waitress only brought out one straw when there were four of us…

This restaurant is where Phở Hoa used to be. The food here is fairly pricy now after Pintoh took over. I tried the Pad Thai today, and although it was decent, it is about the same level as Asian Ghetto Thai Basil.

So I came here for the first time last night and it was legit. Ive been craving for Thai foods so this is why I came with my gf. This place was originally phở hua but I guess the management changed and changed the place to a fusion: Thai and Viet. Good mixture but the food wasnt really fused LOL they divided each section haha.
This restaurant had a good vibe to it. The music was like a club scene techno type genre, the green lights rising from the cornered walls, and the more «upscale» look to the place. Much better design.
I ordered the Drunken noodle while my gf ordered the basil Thai fried rice. My dish was full of flavors! The tomatoes had a citrus bite to it, the fried eggs were neatly distributed across the dish, the noodles werent that oily, and I like the variety of green on my plate. The basil fried rice had a huge basil bite to it which was legit. The veggies and chicken had a good amount to it.
The reason the why I gave this place a 4 because the service was horrible in a way. They were too slow with serving my water LMFAO
I would def come back!

I’ve not had the phở here since the renaming/​remodel, but by SoCal standards it was (and is) expensiiiive! $ 7 or 8 dollars for a big bowl is kind of «meh» in my opinion. The only real competition for phở in this area, however, is Anh Hong (which I’ve yet to visit), and possibly Phở Me Now (which is a phở delivery service only as far as I know).
I did however have a Thai dish, dubbed «Drunken Noodles» in English. I ordered it off a special Vegetarian menu that they have, which is nice. It was yummy, but a bit too greasy for my taste and more than a bit deficient in the «noodle» department, strangely enough. I liked that there was a variety of veggies, but not that it came at the expense of the noodles! The price for the dish was fairly standard (about $ 8) for Thai restaurants in this area.
«Ginger» (that’s all it says on the menu: «Ginger.» not even «Ginger juice» or «Ginger tea») was pretty good– it’s basically ginger juice, tasting heavily of ginger and lightly sweetened. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and it was perfect for me.
Ultimately I gave this place 3 stars rather than 2 because of the vast improvement in service and overall dining experience from Phở Hoa– the waitresses were SO attentive and nice, and the remodel (dimmer lighting, new tables and authentic-​looking Thai decorations) does make it look less like a cheap lineoleum joint frequented by starving college students and more like a place to maybe even take your date!

The food is alright. They do have a phở menu, even though it is a thai restaurant, so if you’re still looking for the phở from Phở Hoa, it’s there!
The thai iced tea is alright.
Service is pretty slow (empty glass of water just stood there waiting but never got filled!), and it takes about a 10 – 15 minute wait before you get your food.
I’ve eaten there twice — on the second occasion, I ordered the roasted duck, which tasted pretty good… until I came across some white things sticking off the skin. I realized they were duck feathers! I totally lost my appetite after seeing that.
I’d say this is a so-​so restaurant. It looks nicer inside, but not that great in terms of quality.

I was at DT Berkeley coming fr eye dr appt when I needed to use the restroom. My car was parked infront of this restaurant so I decided to try their Phở since I haven’t had Phở for a long time and of course use the RR.
I’m only reviewing the place, the phở (take out), the service and the restroom.
Place: very clean and modern. I like.
Phở: was good. I ordered the seafood phở. It may need a big more seafood but the flavor was good and price is reasonable.
Service: good. I was greeted when I came in, they got my order and gave it to me within minutes.
restroom: clean. (I don’t use public RR unless I really have to).
Will have to come back with hubby and try their Thai food.

My phở-​loving friends claim that the phở here is excellent and may just be the best in berkeley. They recommend the beef and brisket phở. I know of cheaper phở places, but the taste probably doesn’t measure up.
I ordered the eggplant and chicken dish. It was very filling and flavorful.

2.5 stars.
The inside of the restaurant looks fresh… the room is a little dim and the walls are lined with blue lights. I really liked how the restaurant looks clean, unlike most Berkeley restaurants. With that said.
SERVICE: ²⁄₅
I ordered basil fried rice (~$ 7.5) and asked the waitress what type of meat she’d recommend. Of course she recommended chicken, and so I thought about it, and repeated to her: «Sure, I’ll have chicken with my basil fried rice.» The food came fairly quickly with a moderately busy night, but it came with the wrong order! I ended up with basil chicken with rice (not fried rice). I asked here if she got the wrong table, but she told me she thought I said basil chicken with rice. She apologized but didn’t offer to replace my dish. Other than this, there wasn’t really service. The other waitresses filled my cup with water fairly often, which is a plus for me… otherwise this would be a ¹⁄₅.
FOOD: ³⁄₅
The basil chicken I had was pretty good. The portions are pretty small, though. The chicken is grounded and was pretty flavorful. Not too bad. My friend ordered phở here and it looked like his bowl was pretty big. He had to ask for a carry out container for the leftovers, which I wouldn’t do personally (how do you reheat/​eat partially eaten phở?), but that was how big the bowl was.
The food was good enough to mention, but the basil chicken portions were so small with the prices so high, it wouldn’t really be worth it. I don’t plan to come back.

To start off: I’m impressed at this restaurant’s makeover. The restaurant interior actually looks classy and partially compensates for the higher entrée prices.
It was cold this evening and Pintoh was the only place where I could get some warm Phở lovin’. FYI Phở is the ultimate cold weather cure. I shivered in my tee and flip flops, hastily ordering Phở with steak & brisket. BUT HEY. Where is the tripe?! It has been removed from the menu — probably too gross-​sounding for the upscale ambiance?
The food arrived with surprisingly thoughtful presentation. Who knew that an investment in nice dishware and shiny utensils could make a noodle soup look pretty?
And the flavor? For $ 7.95, a heaping bowl of noodles and meat is all that I remember from the meal. I’m pretty sure that I ate more than 20 pieces of steak and brisket out of that bowl. The meat was thinly sliced and tender, an improvement from the previous Phở Hoa establishment. I like it!
My boyfriend got the Deluxe Noodle Soup. It was packed with… well, everything: green beans, shrimp, fried tofu bites, noodles, chicken, broccoli. A hearty dish that did not overdo the curry, coconut soup base.
Final notes:
The wait staff did a great job with service too!
& the whole restaurant was sparkly clean
The food was not phenomenal, but it is definitely passed the «it’s ok» threshold.

Let it be known that Phở Hoa is gone and replaced by a new Thai restaurant. I walked in this afternoon to order some pad thai to go and found myself in a dimly lit place with upbeat jazz playing. Getting rid of the bright flourescent lights may or may not be a good move, but I did saw one too many people peer into the windows as I was waiting for my food. What they really should have gotten rid of is the phở! I was actually a little excited that maybe this place will have better phở than Phở Hoa, but I found a sign inside that the phở they serve is made by the same person. My pad thai came out pretty fast and it was still nice and hot by the time I got home. I would definitely recommend getting the Thai food here, but skip the phở if you know what’s good for you. Portions and prices are normal, which makes this place, yet another Thai restaurant in the city.