Pho Than Brothers

A solid 3. I wanted to like this place — especially with how one of my friends was raving about how it was his faaaavorite phở place. I mean he’s Vietnamese, I mean c’mon. I mean, really.
Parking wasn’t that bad around 11:30am. It was very… empty — as in it wasn’t decorated, at all. No love has been shown to the place. You kind of feel that emptiness you get when you’re at a library. But don’t get me wrong, there was like 4 tables of people and people coming in and sitting down or ordering to go.
I should have gotten a small because yes, portions are HUGE. The broth was quite good but then there’s an aftertaste that’s sweet. It was so sweet I could not get it out of my mouth. Soy sauce? No. Hot sauce? No. I prefer salty to sweet. I don’t know, maybe I just have a sodium problem.
I am familiar with the Than Brothers small chain of restaurants. The last one I went to was in Federal Way and the broth was warm. So I just never went back and fell in love with another place 2 mins away.
Service was good. Place was clean. & prices, I’ve always loved Than Brothers prices, were very affordable.
I would come back, but only by suggestion.

I’m a frequent flyer at phở than brothers in Seattle. I visited almost all of their locations. I can safely say this location is the worst. Customer service was fine but the food itself is not nearly as good as the other locations.
I usually order my phở with extra veggies. The veggies I got were clearly very old. The mushrooms tasted like they’ve been in the freezer for months. The broth was ok and meat was not as tasty as I’m used to in the other locations.
Won’t be coming back.

I was looking for phở drove by it, pulled over and Unilocaled it. The restaurant was clean and the service was great but the phở was for the most part so average I am struggling for words to define its banality. Normally I look forward to drinking the last drop from the soup bowl. I left most of it and paid the bill.

It’s a modest little place that makes delicious soup. I have a friend (who is much more of a phở expert than I) lives nearby and who has been going here for years, and always brings me here when I have a phở craving. I don’t have a lot to compare their phở, to but I’ve been here about 10 times and I’ve never had a bad batch. The add-​ins (thai basil, yum) have always been delicious and fresh, also. And the portions are huge!

Broth was on point! Best I have had so far. The beef balls might have been a little overdone but still yummy. If you are looking for other vietnamese items this is not the place, no banh mi sandwiches, no rice plates. Just phở. I placed a picture of the menu so you know ahead of time. They package well for to-​go also. A must try.

This place is so great. The decoration is not the best but the place is cozy and the soup, spring rolls, and Vietnamese coffee make up for it as well as the welcoming young server. She always knows my order even when I haven’t been there for a while! I always order a small soup and add a meatball to it. This is very filling when I pair it with a spring roll and a coffee. All this for around 10 bucks! Can’t beat it. They are fast too. You will have your soup within minutes. :)

Delicious! The broth is super tasty. I have a bad habit of ALWAYS adding extras to my phở, but you really don’t have to if you don’t want to; that’s how good the broth is. Good noodle to broth ratio with a lot of meat. I’ll definitely be going back.

Lets face it Phở is only as good as the broth. You can have all the freshest ingredients to put in (you kno – ya Thai Basil, yer sprouts, jalapeño etc.)…but tha’ broth is where it all begins. Poor broth… poor Phở.
The Than Brothers PHo… is bomb! So bomb in fact — -that I’m scared to even think what they make their broth out of. Andrew Zimmerman could probably tell me. But then on second thought… dont. Wait… maybe its rusty pots… adds a little sumpn… sumpn?
I mean… who craves Phở? Iiiiiit’s souuuup people??? I’ll tell ya who! Me. Thats who. And its theirs I crave. Whyyyeeeee??? I dont knowwwwww but…
That little ‘creepy, gloomy-​lookin, probably health department missin’ — - kitchen’ churns out some good… er…broth. And they have the best er… fat brisket (aka marble brisket) out of any so far that I’ve tried. Adds delicious richness to tha Phở. I’m ADDICTED! I just have to keep telling myself… really ‘C’…it’s COOOOWWWW-WA…COW! Yeeaaah… cow. Balook doe, I dont care what it is… that little ‘sheisty’ place makes tha best Phở I have tasted so far. Just put it in your mouth… close your eyes… and smile. BOOP!
NOTE…Did try new downtown location. Very nice staff, fresh spring rolls… good Phở. Lil’ cream puffs… nice touch. But their broth is not up to speed like S. Tacoma Way… not bad at all… but just not tha’ same. Hopefully they’ll achieve that true Than greatness.

This place knows my order right when I walk in, they are quick and friendly. I order the small veggie phở. Try it, you won’t regret it. The place is okay looking inside, it could be cleaner, but with that said the phở is worth me driving 20 miles to remember home. I just got married and moved closer to o work, so yes I will make the drive to this place. I recommend this place. Go there! =)

Fresh, authentic, and delicious. They do not use MSG in their phở. A definite plus. I converted my phở love interest from Phở Tai right down to the street to Phở Than. It’s cleaner, fresher, and trusting since it’s actually Vietnamese owners as well. The spring rolls… mmm… so good. The peanut sauce is the perfect consistency. Not super watery like other phở restaurants. My new favorite phở joint!

Finally a phở place near work that I’ll return to! The broth is flavorful, hot, and full of my favorite green onions and cilantro. The spring rolls are also pretty good, and gigantic! The only thing that was odd was the amount of noodle in the medium… Believe it or not, it was too much! It choked out everything else in my bowl. Other than that, good food and it’s obvious it’s a popular spot. Also the place is pretty run down and crappy looking, with a serious need for appropriate storage and a make over. Regardless, I’ll be back for more!

I was excited to come here because of the good reviews, but I thought it wasn’t any better than the other chains nearby. I like phở hoa better, I’m not a phở expert, but the phở at phở hoa just seems more fresh, but just as tasty, piping hot. I was being hopeful for the cream puff that comes with the meal, even though I saw another review that says this phở than restaurant doesn’t do that. It’s true, no cream puff here unlike the other phở than brothers restaurants. The restaurant looks quite run down and old, and it was very cold inside. I did get to sit next to a portable heater, but was still cold.

I’ve just discovered my regular Phở place! The broth here is spectacularly good, the ingredients are fresh, and the noodles are copious and perfectly prepared.
I think I’m in love.
To top it all off, the prices here are outrageously cheap. Ignore the dive-​y aesthetics — this place is a diamond in the rough.

I have been coming here for YEARS! Probably 5 – 6 years. All, I know is, since junior high. Of course, I did not have Unilocal back then so I guess the 5 stars can come up to add up from the past.
I thought it was kind of funny how when my family first started going there, there were only a couple workers. Then throughout each year, there were new faces.
I haven’t gone for about 2 years since I was in California and whatnot.
I came back today, to try their 100% vegetable phở. I decided to go pescetarian at the beginning of this month.
Thankfully, this is a familiar place that I know that happens to have vegetable phở.
As I work at a phở place, I have seen how many people come through while I work and order the «vegetable phở» thinking it is made of vegetable broth too!
If I knew they were vegetarian/​vegan, I would warn them but … not all ask. They just ask for «vegetable phở».
I am a beginner still at eating mushrooms. I never liked them as I grew up. But I started adapting to them more. These mushrooms they have are so cute! It even looks like the Korean crackers.
So this phở includes: the regular white onions, green onions, cilantro and julienne carrots, mushrooms, [fried] tofu, and broccoli.
The broth, I found tasting «crisp»? It was definitely different from beef broth. I grew up devouring meat. I was a carnivore haha. Rawr. Just kidding. Well not about the my carnivore-​self but the rawr part.
I will be back for their vegetable phở (:

This place has the best phở and delicious broth!
I would give this resturant 5 stars for the food alone, but this review is based on everything about the restuarant.
The decoration or lack there of is kind off putting when you get in, I would say the servers give you the minimum required service to get you in and out, and sometimes when I go there it is freezing cold. I suspect the heaters don’t work or there are none.
If you want delicious phở I would say this place has the best in town, but don’t expect the star treatment here. Just get in and get out.

This is the first place I ever had vegan phở!
The homemade veggie broth is outstanding with lovely undertones of star anise and caradmom. Well-​cooked noodles (not overdone like some places) but they do tend to go heavy portion-​wise, so ask for light if that bothers you. They are purist (if you can be purist in terms of non-​beef phở!) in that the tofu phở includes broth, noodles, tofu, straw mushroom, cilantro and white onion in the bowl. That’s it. I personally prefer mine without a bunch of veggies so I can focus on the broth and the herbs/​flavors I add, so I’m a big fan. The slices of tofu are large and fried and yummy. They sometimes have spring rolls and cream puffs, sometimes not. It’s all about the soup.
This is a family owned restaurant and I almost always have had the same friendly young server who always remembers my order. She makes the vegetarian broth and she does a great job.
This is a legit place (always tons of Vietnamese locals eating here) so it’s about huge ass bowls of soup, not about purty decorations or Pottery Barn lighting. Come for the phở!

I’m Vietnamese and this is the one place I come back to visit and have phở at when I come home. They only serve phở. The place isn’t nice or anything and service is expected to be blah but the phở is the best I’ve ever had. Their broth is sweet and not super salty or overly seasoned like other places. The price you get for what you’re getting is awesome.

Phở Than Brothers is actually listed in Zagat. And because of that, I decided to go try it (plus my friend & fellow Unilocaler had told me that it was really good — then I found out that she had only been to Phở Than and nowhere else. I fixed that. LOL).
The menu is ALL Phở. They do have size small through x-​large. So I got a small, my husband got an extra large, he said he was starving… I wasn’t tho, so small it was for me. Their sizes are pretty big too. I couldn’t even finish my «small» phở. The great thing about this place is that they load you up on the good stuff. Every other Phở place has been stingy with their tendon. This place has the best tendon ratio of anywhere I’ve been. My husband and I both ordered the same thing. I don’t like flank and he doesn’t like tendon. So we traded. I was in tendon heaven! He gave me about five pieces, and I had about around the same amount in mine!
The only thing that was a little strange on the menu was that the Vietnamese coffee was pre-​made and served in a soft drink glass. My husband asked if he could get a mug, and we ended up getting it in a to-​go Styrofoam cup. So I think that they make it for you, or it may be have been pre-​made? Not sure, and can’t really ask. They do have spring rolls and egg rolls. The spring roll only had shrimp in it, and it was $ 1.75, but it was a good size. I just wish they had the pork (or «ham» is what I’ve heard it called before). I got one, My husband got an egg roll for $ 1.50. He was so full that he couldn’t eat it all, so I wanted to try it. For $ 1.50, it’s a VERY small egg rolls. But was fried perfectly. However, I don’t think that I’d order it again, since the spring roll was about four times bigger (and healthier).
I will definitely come back, since I do love the tendon! And the «trade» w/​my husband was perfect. So this is just my first impression review. I’ll see if the amount of meat and tendon changes the next time. Cuz sometimes, you just get a generous cook. And sometimes you get a stingy one. I like to give places two tries, before I make a decision. But a Phở place listed in zagat? That’s pretty good, I’ve never seen another «hole in the wall» Phở place in Zagat…

Good phở… This place ranks as good as V and V. Broth is delicious! Service was ok… not a fan of the peanut sauce for the spring rolls.
I’ll go back again and again.

Dirty. I’m one foot away from being a bum, so If I think its dirty, it’s really effing dirty. Like, holes in the seats dirty. Like, cheap paper table cloths with stains and rips they haven’t replaced any time in the lunar year dirty.
Phở is too plentiful in the area to be bothered with this kind of dirty and pay for it.