Pho the Bowl

This place is a tad bit more expensive compared to other phở places in the area, but I still frequent it because it is close to my house. They have three sizes to choose from– small, medium and large. The portions are big and I can barely finish a small bowl. The veggie phở is delicious and the food always comes out extremely fast. Sometimes the restaurant gets hot, so they could use a better cooling/​ventilation system.

Phở the Bowl is an amazing restaurant. Not only is the food amazing, but the employees are so polite and nice as well. They always have a smile on their face and they treat you with such respect. The owners of the restaurant are always there and are so kind to the customers. They always want what’s best for their customers. They always try to make sure that the customer has a great dining experience. The owners are also very easy to talk and they enjoy talking to each customer and getting to know their customers. The environment is restaurant is so great and friendly. The food there is amazing. Not only is it affordable, but their proportions are just right. I never get sick of their food and always come back wanting to try something new because the food is just that great. My friends and family love this restaurant so much and we are very glad that we found it. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone at any given moment. Definitely deserves 5 stars. If I could I’d give it more stars.

Decent phở, horrible service. If you come in the last 30 mins before close they seem annoyed. Well if are annoyed with customers, change your hours of operation! Poor management or lack of.

It’s one of the only phở places in the area with good phở! I usually come and get a large Phở Tai (beef slices) with meatballs with a water or iced coffee.
This place is usually busy around lunch and dinner time like any other restaurant. Parking is never a problem because of the gigantic plaza. The service is super quick. They are always super nice and considerate especially the lady behind the counter is always nice and cheerful!

I have eaten Phở at many Vietnamese restaurants, but this is the place I always come back to. For less than $ 10 you get a huge steaming bowl that is perfectly seasoned, really hot, and incredibly tasty. I’m getting hungry just writing this review.

I come here a few times a week. The Phở is pretty good! Some dishes are decent, others I wouldn’t bother with. Phở is great though!

Worm in my soup, the phở I ordered had a dead worm in it. Saw it after I finished most of the phở
Don’t know if ingested a worm or worms.
Pic attached.

You can grab your Phở fix here if you’re craving just Phở.
Other dishes aren’t so great. Deep Fried Egg Rolls are probably on the bottom of my list compared to the 25 something other phở establishments I’ve been to.
Biggest problem is two times I’ve done a pick up order for strictly Wonton Soup with egg noodles w/​NO SEAFOOD. Both times, there is seafood… I ordered from a young perfect english speaking employee too, not sure where the confusion goes…
If you’re coming for strictly for Phở, it won’t be terrible, but it won’t be great either. If you’re coming for any other dishes, good luck…

Sneaky little thieves…
Came here last night with my family for some Phở and egg rolls. When they delivered the Phở they placed it directly infront of my 1 year old son. Thank goodness I grabbed his hands before they dipped in the scorching hot liquid. Everyone makes mistakes, we looked past it. Here’s the kicker…
Our bill was $ 25.48 we paid cash for the tip. Guess how much they charged our card? $ 29.48 hoping we wouldn’t see it! They added another tip! Stay away from these thieves, the Phở sucks anyways! The broth is bland.

Phở the Bowl is easily overlooked tucked away in the midst of suburbia and a two bustling shopping centers a ways off the freeway in Laguna Niguel. There are not many reasons for non-​locals to come out all this ways. Though if you do, you can overlook the Phở the Bowl. Whole Foods or Wholesome Choice can offer a better meal, but for a sit down experience, there’s a bit more competition.
There aren’t a lot of Phở restaurants out in this area, but it’s worth the drive to head out to Phở Hanoi in Lake Forest. Phở the Bowl offers good service, and decent ambiance. The food is very sloppily prepared, and not well thought out.
Their menu is a bit on the pricier side, considering what you get. But I’m used to a $ 7 large bowl of phở. Like I said, the seasonings weren’t well thought out, and the food just is sloppy.
I tried their Bun too. The chicken was scant and the seasoning was seriously packed on, and not grilled with the signature grill flavor.

The Phở here is very tasty. Some of our favorites are the #3 rare beef and the Oxtail. They give you a big dish of veggies to add to your soup and the service is very fast. They could be a little friendlier and be more attentive to refilling drinks but other than that its not bad and definitely worth a trying.

Not terrible! The people that work there are Vietnamese, so that’s a plus. Service was also as expected– not too attentive and not too slow. It wasn’t as horrible as people made it out in the other reviews, but maybe that’s because I spoke a little Vietna-​glish to them.
I ordered a small «everything» phở (meaning it had all the tripe and meaty other goodness– Dat Biet if you know Vietnamese) and spring rolls.
Husband ordered something off the menu (Well Done Brisket Phở) and fried egg rolls.
What was so surprising was that our soups came before our appetizers! The spring rolls were kind of disappointing to me because they use ice berg lettuce, meat and sliced carrots. I was hoping for more veggies and basil. Perhaps some vermicelli noodles; but, the sauce was up to snuff and satisfied my spring roll craving at that moment!
The soup was very lightly flavored. Not over salted. Since I got the small, I felt like the meaty portions were on the smallish side, but nonetheless– it filled me up. I’ll be back for sure since it’s so close to the house!

I recently moved to Laguna Niguel from Huntington Beach & have not had much luck in the Phở department.
This location is horrible.
I found a live bug trying to escape my Phở & when I brought this to the attention of my server (?) he acted very confused and did not even offer me a new bowl.
Needless to say… I will not be back.
Phở King Way in Mission is a bit better but is cash only.

Pretty decent phở restaurant. The service was good, and the phở was really good too, but I didn’t find it to be a standout meal. The broth for both the chicken phở and the oxtail phở had a good blend of flavors. The spring rolls are delicious, so I highly recommend starting with those. The atmosphere is really casual, again nothing extremely unique here, but it was pretty busy when I visited. Would go back for my next phở craving when I’m in the area.

This is my go-​to spot when I want phở take-​out!
The phở with beef is amazing! For take-​out orders, they package everything really nicely and organized which makes it easy to throw together at home. The cuts of raw beef are thin and plentiful. They cook really quickly in the hot broth, which is really flavorful. Delish!

I drove by on my lunch and finally I saw a PHO place here in Laguna Niguel! So I gave it a try!
I ordered the Phở Tai and an order of egg rolls which came out very quick! The Phở was flavorful and came with a bunch of meat. The egg rolls were fried fresh and crispy!
The nice waiter behind the counter also recommended their Vietnamese iced coffee which was very refreshing and is strong. Way better then the other coffee places.
This is my new lunch spot. I’d definitely return to try other delicious menu items like the BBQ beef vermicelli which my co worker ordered.

I had the soft pan fried noodles and it was amazing! I know it’s a Phở place but they prepare the other dishes very well too and especially for being in South OC. My gf had the Beef Phở and she said no Phở place near the area compares to Phở in the Bowl.
I’ve also had the Bun Thit Nuong and Cha Gio (Grilled beef, rice noodles and egg rolls) on my last visit and it was surprisingly tasty and fresh.
Lastly no Vietnamese meal is complete without the viet coffee! Beware this place makes it tasty yet very strong! I’ll be back again soon for lunch!

I came here my first time tonight under a recommendation of a friend’s. I was skeptical at first because I’m Vietnamese and I know good phở because I’m from Westminster!
Now let me address some other reviews I read… Yes, I think it was fairly priced, being that the restaurant is located in Laguna. Where in south OC have you found it priced differently? Think about how much more expensive the rent is than in Westminster or Garden Grove… And also don’t expect the same service as the servers from The Cheesecake Factory– Vietnamese restaurants are notorious for having bad service so I think the treatment I had was gold! I went to a phở restaurant in Westminster that served my mom a WORM in her VEGETARIAN phở and they didn’t even apologize or comp her dish.
Phở the Bowl is sooOoooOooo good. The restaurant is extremely clean and the layout is modern and appealing (something most Viet restaurants have no idea about). We were seated quickly and our waiter was quick to come see us. On top of that, the food came out quick so we didn’t have to spend forever waiting, which is very awesome when you come on a hungry stomach…
I ordered the beef phở (phở tai). The broth was very rich and you can tell it was made right… with the bones to make the soup flavorful and not just the easy fix with insta-​powder or MSG. The small size portion was good sized and very filling. My parents shared the vegetarian crispy noodles (phở xao). Oh at this point let me mention that the vegetarian options are ACTUALLY vegetarian– not just meat broth with no meat but actual veggie based broth for the soup noodle dishes. Okay back to the crispy noodles– delicious! Nothing was left on their plate.
So all in all… I highly recommend Phở the Bowl…

Fabulous food! I think this is the only phở place i could find that have such a good tasty phở! I had a lot of phở at different store down in Bolsa ave and barely find any thing good as this. Price is reasonable! When you have phở, you gotta have appetizer too. Appetizer is like Aha! It hits you right in the G-​spot. The Garlic chicken is so juicy. Gotta visit this foodporn when you are in Irvine, California. This is not the first time i came here for breakfast, lunch and dinner! All most every week gotta swing by to satisfy my needs. Gotta get some tonight again! Aha!
I know a lot of you guys are complaining about the service, but since management is going to change, i am sure this place will run better than before! After tonight. Im looking forward to re-​visit again in the next month and expect better service. Until then, i will share my next review to my phở lovers!

You guys do have alright food. Your phở, bun, and rice dishes are fine for a local escape from the corporate restaurant chain. But please, for the love of god, or for the love of food. Please, please, PLEASE!!! never make a sandwich again with week old bread and hardly any meat. It is taking customers for granted and more importantly it is a disgrace to yourselves as a restaurant. I am not one to be pissed or angry, but this left me wanting to drive back and throw this sandwich on the floor in front of you and step on it so you could see the entire baguette explode into the millions of crumbs that would only appear in the case that it was old.
Instead of making a scene at your restaurant, I hope you take this review and rating and improve upon or remove the sandwiches entirely from your menu. I’m serious, this is an absolute sacrilege. I cannot express enough how wrong it was to serve me something that I probably wouldn’t feed a dog but would maybe go to the pond at the local park with and have a few laughs and chuckles at the ducks pecking away at it.