Pho Hoa Noodle Soup

I come here for hang over cures with big groups of friends. The service is great, as is the phở. Parking is a little difficult (but we always park in that little viet plaza across the street, shhh), but totally worth it! It’s cheap, it’s the epitome of the typical phở place, and it’s great. I’m always satisfied.

This place used to be a standby for our family. We could count on them for cheap, healthy, consistently delicious eats. They changed their name, but management & staff were supposed to be the same, so we didn’t think twice about hitting them up for dinner the other night.
Sadly, the food was terrible the night we went. My vermicelli bowl was full of limp, way past edible green onions & iceberg lettuce that was brown & tasteless like it was from a plastic package the was past its «sell by» date. The broth just tasted like salt & they didn’t bring fish sauce until I found a server to ask. But the biggest disappointment was the vermicelli. It seemed like spaghetti instead of rice noodles. Maybe we just caught them on an off night, but I’m in no rush to go back.

They changed the name of this place from Phở Hoa to Phở Ta (or Phở Tai, or something like that). It’s pretty much exactly the same inside. But what’s in a name? That which we call Phở Hoa by any other name would taste the same.
Well, I beg to differ. The last few times I went to Phở Hoa, I’d noticed a steady decline in food quality. The meat was gristly, the veggies wilted and not very fresh.
We came back the other day and PRESTO! it was magically named Phở Ta, and as a result, the meat was magically not gristly, and the veggies were magically fresh.
The BBQ pork, shrimp and spring roll vermicelli was awesome. The meat was well-​barbecued, with the properly-​charred BBQ crust, and not gray and connective-​tissue-​y as barbecued meat shouldn’t be. The phở looked the same as always. The menu is ginormous, probably even bigger than it was before, and everything is still cheap.

It’s our Phở destination spot in South Philly. Always clean and consistent. I don’t always get the phở (#2) because their rice plates and other noodle dishes are just as good.
Try #151 (it has rice noodles, pork slices, shrimp, and ground pork with pieces of chinese celery) that gives the soup a different flavor– more porky than beefy. It’s my favorite there.
They’re also good for a big crowd as it can accomodate a large group.

Hands down the best bowl of phở on the Washington corridor.

Walk across the street, that’s where I’ve experienced better.

Definitely a good place to nurse a hangover – though if you’re JUST going to order phở then maybe you want to hit up phở 75 just down the road – as their brother at 75 has more flavor (phở hoa is a bit watered down) but if you intend on ordering other stuff like the summer rolls or any of the other plates – then its hard to go wrong here – try finishing off your meal with the coffee with condensed milk or a taro bubble tea =]

Came back here to try a few more dishes & was pleased.
Phở with different kinds of meat (steak, tendon, tripe, fatty flank): the broth was very flavourful. Noodles were slightly undercooked for me – they weren’t uncooked in general but just not soft enough for how I like my phở. I didn’t get as much variety of herbs as I would have liked, but the bowl was nice & comforting, all in all.
Lemongrass beef slices: very tasty, great flavour, well-​grilled, fragrant with scallions on top. The menu described the dish as having «Fresh Vegetables» but it was just some shreds of lettuce at the bottom of the plate. Kind of annoying, because I wanted veggies, but I’ll just have to come back next time & ask for more info while ordering.
Service is efficient.
3+ stars

I love this place, and I can’t even count the number of times that I’ve been here. The phở is great, though there are better phở places around. When they’re on, the phở ranks among the best, but for some reason, there is inconsistency with the quality of the phở depending on what time of the day you do. When you go when its more crowded the phở tends to be better, with the soup tasting fresher, the meat and tendons being more tender, and the noodles being just right (not too soggy but not too firm).
However, what sets this place over the edge is how good the other items on their menu is; the pork in a clay pot is fantastic and whatever the house special fish might be on a particular day has yet to disappoint.
How I wish there was a Phở Hoa in NYC :(

At Phở Hoa you will find some of the best Vietnamese food in the city. Their menu is huge and very extensive. Their Phở ranks among the best I have every had. The fried tofu and lemon grass rice bowl are an inspiration and their bbq pork spring rolls are re-​god-​damn-​diculous.
Though it is often hard to find your waiter (you know how it is at most asian restaurants… instead of waiters working specific tables, they float around working the entire room), the food here is outstanding.
I do have to say that I nearly lost my appetite on my last visit. The men’s room bathroom had a whole bunch of boogies all over the wall. I would say at least 100 of them… all above the men’s room urinal (see the picture I uploaded). I was sooooo discussed (again, maybe it’s a cultural thing. I’m just sayin… I see a lot of older asian people on the Market-​Frankford El with their fingers WAY up their noses for all to see). That coupled with the mice, of which there are also pictures, makes me not really want to eat there anymore… Which is a shame, because Phở Hoa’s food is one of a kind.

I’ve been to Phở Hoa a bunch of times and it’s what I call ‘cheap viet eats’. Usually we hit it up after a night of drinking, when we need some phở to soup up with. I’m not a huge fan of their phở (well I’m viet and make my own) so usually I end up with one of the vermicelli or rice dishes.
They also have bubble tea here! Staff is usually nice since they recognize and remember what we typically order. Parking is annoying here sometimes though.

Great phở place in Philly! They give you a HUGE bowl of phở which was really good, and I got a vermicelli noodle dish which had a variety of good stuff on top– fried egg roll, grilled pork, and — VERY good!
They also have my favorite Vietnamese drink– suong song hot luc, a pink jelly drink! Great place! :)

Pros: Photos of nearly every menu offering and various levels of phở based on how adventurous you are feeling (a choose your own phở-​venture)
Cons: Their large should be called slightly larger than a regular anywhere else and their regular should be called small.

If I can give 0 star, I would. Go click on the photos section and see 2 photos that I upload on this place. Better yet, to save you all the trouble. here you go:
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A mice inside a restaurant.
The food was tasty. but I’m starting to doubt if what my friends and I ate was a mice meat.
I knew I saw something from the corner of my eyes even before I ordered the food. I was looking for what I saw and I couldn’t find it. At first I thought it was a cat and then I thought it was the shadow of people’s head passing the restaurant from outside. After me and my buddies finished our meal, one of them saw this ‘pet’. And I was like. ._​. wtf.
The employee finally noticed it too and he came back with a broom, but then when he gets near, the mice ran away and he pretend that he was sweeping. like there’s nothing at all.
I knew I shouldn’t be charged for my food. I knew I shouldn’t have to pay. I can easily win the case and call FDA on this place. But my friends has to go to work so I skipped the argument and vowed never to return and vowed to informed all my friends not to eat at this place no more.
The service was bad too. Ignorant like any other Phở place.

The McDonald’s of Phở. It’s a chain so bc of that I only have a few expectations.
I expect it to be consistently good.
I expect it to stay cheap.
I expect the service to be mediocre.
I expect the food to come out quickly.

What I expect when I go get Phở:
1) huge portions
2) fast service
3) lotsa noodles but also a good balance of other soup ingredients
4) ridiculous amount of choices
5) cheap
Phở Hoa hits all these points. It took us a little long to actually get a waiter to come to us– I think they were confused because our party staggered in at stages so I don’t think they knew when everybody was there so giving them the benefit of the doubt. But they have an extensive menu and they let me order what I always like to order in my Phở– shrimp and tofu and veggies. And it was delish. We were confused if this was a BYOB since they had drinks on their menu. So I don’t think it is.
I paid $ 10 for Phở and an appetizer. That’s including tip. Life is good.
Oh and there were huge flat screen TVs so we could eat silently and watch the game. Exactly how I like to spend time with my guy friends.

Ok so now there is serious contention for my favorite phở place.
I’ve been to Phở Hoa (note the extra o) a couple times in the past two weeks. This spot is very large, and very clean. They have a very extensive menu and their service is spot on.
I know it’s a chain, but I think it’s every bit as good as Phở Ha. The phở selections are very similar and they serve beer and wine.
We’ve eaten and taken out from this spot and been very happy with the prices, service and quality of the food.
Aces.

Their egg rolls are the best!
Phở is really good and fast
decent prices =)

Looking for an inexpensive restaurant that serves delicious food? Phở Hoa is definitely the place for you!
My boyfriend and I always dine at Phở Hoa when we’re low on a budget. We usually spend around $ 20 or under for the both of us.
When craving a bowl of phở, Phở Hoa is usually the first place that pops in my head. I always order #44 or #45. Yep, I remember the number because I honestly go there a little too often. ;P Their service is typical like many Asian restaurants in Chinatown. They’re not really attentive, but their delicious food makes up for it big time. Their smoothies are absolutely yummy. :) I recommend strawberry or avocado. I also love their fried tofu appetizer and their grilled beef wrapped in grape leaves. I strongly recommend those for an appetizer. The only drawback is that you’ll smell like onions and phở when you leave the restaurant, but it’s totally worth it. I would definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone phở sho. ;)

Clean décor, tasty phở, delicious mung bean smoothies, reasonable pricetag for two
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Now don’t take this the wrong way, but I wonder how this place is a franchise? I mean, do they license out their own brand of nuoc nom (fish sauce), or their specific brand of Monosodium glutamate for the soup base? They have franchises as far away as Canada and Alabama.
No matter, the décor was nice and clean (as was the bathroom, A+!), and their beef meatballs had a good amount of «snap». Not bad for Philly Phở.
Worth coming back.

Please select the correct answer —
Go to Phở Hoa if:
A. You don’t want to spend a lot of money on your meal.
B. You like Phở
C. You want your Phở fast
E. All of the above.
I’ll give you a hint — The answer is E.

Phở Hoa’s special phở is delish, comes out wicked fast (they must have a vat in the back), and had a comforting broth. I didn’t find it five-​star worthy (it’s a matter of taste), but I still enjoyed it, and it’s practically the perfect hangover food if you’re coherent enough to remember to not slurp it all down (the soup can be hot). Oh, it doesn’t hurt that food is reasonably priced, and that they take credit cards, in case you’re short on greenbacks.
This restaurant — and the various other nearby businesses — are popular, so parking can be problematic — after searching for 20 minutes, I dropped off my friends, and drove north of Washington Ave, and amazingly found parking minutes later.
Randomly, the supremely awesome Chi N. (of NYC) and I both happened to eat there on the same day, at the same time, but missed each other!