Pho So 1

Food is okay, bobo is good, but the service wasn’t. Waited 5 – 8 minutes waiting to be greeted and also once I was greeted it looked like I was a burden. Food was served without napkins and had to ask for a water. Maybe it’s best for take out ??

Not that clean, found a bug in my friend’s bowl of phở. Nice service, but their foods beside phở are not that great.

I am giving this place five stars because this is the only Phở place I have been to that has veggie Phở with VEGGIE BROTH. I eat special meat and so I have been trying forever to get Phở from somewhere but haven’t been able to because they don’t really have vegetarian options.
I actually thought it would be pretty watery though because it was veggie broth but it turned out to be super flavorful. You also can add a lot of spice and sauce to it. My favorite part was the noodles with the soup. It’s the best place to come to when you’re sick.
I also tried the avocado smoothie and I have just opened a new door for my avocado love. It was really creamy and the perfect amount of sweetness.
Their service was okay. Nothing extraordinary but nothing bad.
I’m definitely coming back here for more Phở!

I love this place! The phở is so delicious and tasty, unlike other places I’ve tried where it’s too watery or tasteless. They’re super fast and straight to the point which I love, their avocado smoothies are amazing and it’s very reasonable price. The small is more than enough phở for me and it’s only $ 7! Definitely would recommend this place to anyone. :)

Showed up at 9:30 and was told «just so you know we close at 10.» Thought that was weird but ordered anyway. After ordering they come back and said they had already frozen everything.
The manager didn’t even have the guts to come talk to us, just brought a rude waiter to come back and tell us they couldn’t serve us. In a city that demands elite service this restaurant doesn’t have a chance.

This is my go to place for phở whenever I’m home in Irvine. I’ve never had to wait, service is decent, parking is easy, and it’s clean. I always get the small phở tai and it literally comes out piping hot 3 minutes after ordering. Their spring rolls are also pretty big and tasty.

I love this phở location. I usually always get the seafood phở. Their seafood tastes really good. Most phở restaurants I go to, their seafood tastes very old and not fresh at all. So I always settle for this location (: go for their spring rolls for a nice appetizer too! Really great and light starter. The only thing that needs to improve is service. But that’s all phở restaurants. They lack on checking up on customers and refilling water. I always bring my own limes (I know it’s lame) cuz I love my broth to have s strong lime flavor, but they’re very stingey with their limes lol.

This place used to be a solid Vietnamese food joint. I think the ownership changed hands. Tonight’s food was disgusting. The food was old. Pork chop and phở didn’t have any fresh ingredients except bean sprouts. Egg roll was cold and spring roll was soggy.
I would skip this place from now on. It’s become the worst Vietnamese restaurant in town.

This is my go to place and everyone who works here has become my friend as I come here so often. I’m a little bit bummed giving them a 3 ½ star review but first and foremost I must review based on the love of the business but of the integrity of Unilocal.
Their beef broth has definitely lost some authenticity. I like to see the fat floating on the top and when I started coming here two years ago it was def that kind of broth, blow your mind good. I will tell you now the broth is very mediocre and the last two times I have come it has been decently heavy on MSG as I am allergic and had a minor reaction after both visits.
I really used to love this place, especially the owner and the employees. I just wish a place would stick with the basics and do it right the way they started making the broth fatty, intense and done the right way. But because the rents are so high in Irvine I guess over time it’s hard to keep that up and still remain profitable.
I still eat here all the time because it’s close and convenient.

Food is not bad, authentic. Price is good. Four stars was given since location is good. In Irvine, you just don’t have good phở.
I have been at 79 PHo in Westminster, Phở So venue is much cleaner, parking is easier, location is safer and bathroom is much cleaner too! All that matter. Plus you could go to Bank of America, Starbucks, Albertson and Marshall at the same time…
Enjoy!

Great spot for phở, vermicelli noodles, spring rolls, and more. I’ve been here a couple times, and I’m never disappointed by their food. Service is always solid. I’ve never had to wait for a table.
If you’re looking for good Vietnamese in the area, this is the place to go.

Honestly I personally love this phở place in Irvine than the other places in Irvine I’ve tried. It is located in the albertsons plaza, next to Big 5. Parking is plentiful & you can park right in front of big 5 and literally take 5 big steps & youre already inside this phở place.
Usually if not busy — just walk in and seat yourself and the servers will bring you water and the menu.
I feel that The broth, here, is the most sincere, clean, and pure. The other phở Restaurants in Irvine put a lot of msg in the broth, which makes it more tasty, but also really unhealthy. But don’t mistake healthy for being bland because the broth here is bright, flavorful, and colorful!
The servers are super polite & kind — appreciated their great service on Christmas Eve! (kudos to being open late despite the holidays!)
1. Had the Vegetable phở #25 (with vegetable broth) they ask you what type of broth you want — beef, chicken, vegetable. I really enjoyed it. However… The broth is a lot more bland tasting than the normal beef or chicken phở you may be used to getting. The broth is really clear, white, and no residue of oil floating around in your bowl of phở! I love love love healthy phở! Makes it all the more guilt free when eating a big bowl of noodles!
2. the fresh spring rolls are SO GOOD! The fresh rolls have both shrimp and boiled beef in it. Although, I took out both, the peanut sauce with peanuts on top was not too sweet and perfectly nutty. You get the crunch from the lettuce, the stringy texture from the rice noodle wrap, & and added flavor enhancer from the peanuts & peanut dressing.
3. I try to stay away from fried foods so I didn’t eat the egg rolls. BUT watching my BF eat the spring rolls was DEF TEMPTING! So what he did was — wrap the lettuce around the fried egg roll, including the picked carrots & radish then dipped the whole burrito of A thing into the fish oil vinegar sugary sauce!!! It looked JUICY & delicious ~
4. My personal fav thing to ask for is — onions drenched in vinegar — then add Sriracha!!! (Yum) and this is FREE!
Def coming back if I’m craving phở.
**Also! The condiments are already placed at each table so you don’t have constantly ask the server for the extra free things!

All the people who love this place… must not be Vietnamese. My coworkers are going to put me on their $hitlist if they saw this review cause they really love this place, but I really did not like the phở here AT ALL. I honestly think they just like the sauces… I notice that non-​Viet people just drench sauce into the phở and just enjoy the hoisin and sriracha sauce.
EGGROLLS ($ 8.00) — Comes with 5 pieces of small eggrolls. I don’t like the wrapper they use here. Eggrolls always come with a side of vegetables but this place has the THICKEST slices of cucumber and carrots. It’s basically impossible to roll it up with the eggroll. They need to hire someone with better knife skills. The eggrolls themselves don’t taste that impressive either.
PHO (small $ 7.00/large $ 7.75) — Comes with beansprouts, basil, jalapeño and limes… I need my phở eating herbs though… Ngo Gai… also known as the Sawtooth Herb. This is a MUST for phở and they didn’t have it. Sad life for the bowls of phở here. I think they are extremely generous with their noodles, but cheap with the meat. I tried the broth… then I deemed it unworthy so I proceeded to drench it with sauce to help me finish up the meal.
Come here if you’re one of those people who drench your phở with so much sauce, you probably think every bowl of phở tastes the same. I rather make the drive to Little Saigon any day for a better bowl of phở with the correct herbs on the side… AND it’s cheaper in Little Saigon.

I have been here twice. My conclusion is that they are understaffed. Their phở broth is good. Just don’t go if you are in a hurry.
Our party of 4 came in around 1p for lunch on this Sunday. We were fortunate that we were seated right away. I think we took the last table. People after us had to wait. Took about 15 minutes before we could get someone attention to take our order after seated. There were three staff– cleaning, getting bills, making drinks, delivering dishes, the do it all kind.
The interesting part– we ordered two phở, two dry noodle and three drinks for the 4 of us. We ordered the egg roll but then later the waiter told us they were out of egg roll. Hum… Then 20 minutes later we were told that they were also out of chicken. So we had to pick beef or pork for two of the dishes. After that we were informed that a smoothie was not made because they lacked the ingredient. It was an unusual dining experience since we didn’t get half the food that we ordered.

The service was good.

Decent phở. Broth is well made, and service is OK.
Prices are a little on the high side. Especially when you start looking at the items other than Phở. The Com, and the Mi’ are in the $$ range… which doesn’t surprise me given the location.
They do have Phở with charbroiled Chicken and Pork. NO other Phở place in the vicinity does this, so that’s definitely one plus.
Would come here If i was craving that charbroiled, otherwise Phở Bac Ky (both locations) are still the go-to’s really. Unless you feel like driving. then little Saigon is just 15 minutes away!

+ Fast service
+ Large portions
+ Friendly staff
+ Cheap prices
-/​+ Most of the phở tastes relatively the same, even if the selections are different
I enjoy coming here for a quick lunch, even though it is a «sit down» type of restaurant. The phở (or whatever you order) comes out only a few minutes after you order it. The portions are large and I’m always very full when I finish.
I wouldn’t say it was amazing phở, but it is pretty good. I’d say average. The fast service, selection, and large portions give it a thumbs up in my book.

We were near by and hungry for phở and since this was the only spot for a couple blocks we decided it was worth a quick drop in.
We came in, the place was packed. We were seated immediately, the service was prompt and our food came out swiftly. Seriously, these guys know how to turn tables, our check was on our table about half way through our meal.
The broth was missing something. The beef was okay but not as good either. Overall not my first choice when wanting phở.

I found Phở So 1 on my hand dandy Unilocal App while in Irvine. I got super excited because it is the same restaurant as one of my favorite phở restaurants in Los Angeles (on Western).
This restaurant is rather large, as it holds about 20+ tables. There were only two other guests eating here when we walked in. Should have been a sign.
We ordered two dishes: Phở Dac Biet (Special Combo Phở) in a size large (~$ 8 – 9). I asked that the rare beef be left outside so I could cook it myself without over cooking it. When the dish came, the meat was in the broth and I immediately pulled it out. Overcooked already. Inside the dish was tripe, tendon, and ½ of a meatball. Yes, a ½ of a meatball cut in half (two ¼ pieces of one meatball). The broth was very thin with little flavor. The soup was also on the VERY sweet side — which made me think that they added a lot of MSG or sugar to the soup broth. I wasn’t a fan. Grade: D.
The scond dish was the Phở Tai (Rare Beef phở). I ordered a size regular, and the portion was exactly the same as the large size. (Note — other Unilocal reviews have mentioned this same concern). Grade: D.
Iced Coffee: This was perhaps the highlight of my meal. The coffee was pre-​made and ready in the fridge. Just add ice, and we were good to go.
The restaurant skimpped on the garnishes, as we got a total of two little stalks of basil, about ½ cup of bean sprouts, and about 3 slices of jalapenos for the two «large» sized bowls of phở.
Food Grade: D
Service Grade: C
Worth the Money Grade: C– (Small portions, no difference between the sizes).
Overall Impression: D/​C–

«Do it for the Unilocal!Try new places»
So I searched for «phở» near Irvine, CA, and this came up near the bottom of the first page. We were travelling with a sick friend, and so we knew that the warmth and love from eating phở and drinking its soup would cure her. And so we came to Phở So 1, where it was actually not too hard to find once you were in the plaza. (Past the Olive Garden)
We came into an almost empty restaurant on a Monday afternoon at 5.30 and chose a table of our choice.
I got the #1: Special combo with «rare» steak, brisket, tendon, tripe. It’s something that I usually just get at every single phở place because I just love eating it haha. I want it all! They come in 2 sizes, small and large. I ordered the large, which was $ 7.50. The noodles were a little harder– not really harder but more… existential I guess haha. It contained more … can’t put my finger on it. But it was a little thicker than usual phở places (which is good!). The steak was thinly sliced but flavorful, and the brisket, tendon, and tripe were quickly downed by my stomach. I added hoisin sauce and hot sauce so all the flavors collided. I will say that the phở in general here is better than the Saigon Pearl at DJ, but similar to Phở Ba Co which is just a couple blocks down.
The spring rolls, which were… $ 2 each (3 total for $ 5.95) was a bit hefty but it was generally good. It wasn’t Brodard good, but it had the thin outer casing along with SHRIMP (who doesn’t love shrimp?) Their peanut sauce was really good (I would eat it all day probably haha).
Of course, all this is saying that I know what good phở is. But I think phở in general would still be better in Westminster/​GG. But this is near the top for the city of Irvine.
–½ a star for the waiter forgetting my spring rolls.
3 stars
Fine add a half star because my friend got way better after having soul food. She loved it.
3.5 stars :)
meow~ factor!