Wayside Noodles

This place is conveniently next to the movie theater and is much better than its counterpart, the Wayside in downtown. The prices are higher, the small size phở barely has any meat in it but it’s a good place to come for phở since all the other good phở places are much further away. The Bön mi is tasty but over priced of course. Decent place to get your phở fix when you are in the area, just don’t except too much.

Bahn mi grilled pork 3.8
Chicken noodle Wonton soup 3.7
Crispy shrimp 3.9
Boba Taro 3.8

I love this place for the coconut curry with noodles. I had trouble finding this dish but the waitress was incredibly informative and helped me find exactly what I wanted. The strawberry shakes there are very good! Although the extra boba they put in the shake tasted bland and not at all like the boba you get at a Boba shop.
Good service, decent prices, clean shop!

Never had a problem until tonight. Waitress spilled iced coffee on me and proceeded to blame me for holding the cup as she was passing it to me. She got me a towel but my entire meal was ruined by the uncomfortable feeling of my soaked pants. Unfortunately there was zero compensation and no apology until she realized that my friend and I weren’t giving her a tip. Just sad service.

There phở isn’t good at all very bland and tasteless and over price for the portion. Place is small which is ok and you can see the kitchen. We ate there and also got Togo. When we got Togo we had asked to not cook the noodles but they did and it was soggy. Over all we don’t have a good phở place in Natomas and if you want good phở you have to go to Stockton

Have you ever ate somewhere and immediately feel like cursing upon your first bite? Wayside managed to invoke just that feeling for me. I was looking for comforting soup and ordered the vegetable soup with added wontons. When it arrived the first thing I noticed is that ALL the vegetables were RAW. They simply think that carrots, cabbage and celery were going to cook down enough in instantly served hot broth? I left those last to eat and after 30 minutes they were softer but still raw. No one expects raw vegetables when ordering vegetable soups. The broth itself was also tasteless! I mean really tasteless! It tasted like water with salt. What a huge disappointment!
The floor was dirty. The portable AC unit was dirty. Never again. Can we get one decent eatery around this theater?!

Service was good here food wasn’t, small bowl of phở is really small and it barely has anything in it. Also broth wasn’t as flavorful as other phở areas like Saigon in south side. Would recommend going to another spot unless your really craving.

The phở is certainly not top-​notch stuff. Even saltier than most places, and when I say that something is too salty (especially phở), then that’s saying something. But the portion sizes are legitimately enormous. Since the salt can be a little overwhelming, you can probably easily share a small or medium between two people. Nothing to rave about, but it’ll do in a pinch
But let’s talk about the banh mi. Probably all the banh mi in general, but for now, I’ll focus on the pork. Their pork banh mi is a revelation!
If you’re Filipino and from the SF/​Daly City area, you might be familiar with Fil-​Am Cuisine, that place with the delicious Filipino bbq you can smell for blocks. You get a hint of that flavor in their pork, and it’s amazing. Eat one in-​house, then order one to take home. They’re $ 5 — I’ve seen cheaper, of course, but these are amazing so I’m inclined to let that slide.
The facility itself is a little lacking as far as cleaning, so I think I will only be ordering banh mi to go instead of sitting down to eat phở. It’s also quite small, and the younger staff can be a little bit curt or unwelcoming — lots of sighing, eyerolling, and describing things as hella (insert negative adjective here).
Not really the best I’ve had, but I’d come back again for the wondrous pork banh mi.

Food is good. Service is good minus one girl (the girl with the glasses).
I understand everyone has a bad day but you should not be taking it out on customers. We didn’t necessarily encounter horrible service but the table across from us did and I felt bad. I witnessed the waitress basically throw a cup of hot tea at the patron and walk away. These people had just sat down too and asked for tea on the way in. Then the guy got his noodles and had to sit there for 5 minutes for his girl to get her food. Only when the girl gestured for him to start eating without her before his food got cold, did the waitress grudgingly walk over to the counter to get the girl’s food.
The only issue we had was a dirty table that we asked her to wipe up. She never returned so her coworker came by and was happy to do it. Again, I understand everyone has those days but I hate to see it taken out on other people– especially customers.
Back to the important part though– the food. I’m surprised at the low ratings but I think the food is pretty good. Considering this is Natomas and the Asian food here is not the best, this is at the top of my list. The phở is pretty good and the banh mi is very tasty. They also have «miracle noodles» aka the yam noodles for an extra $ 2 so for those health conscious eaters. The menu has variety so definitely something for everyone.
Ignore the poor reviews and check this place out!

The reason I am giving the 1 star is due to the cleanliness of the restaurant. The phở is usually good;however, after looking at all of the dirt and fuzz hanging off the air vents in ceiling and the cobwebs on the white «Wayside» sign on wall inside the restaurant and not to mention the disgusting, I mean filthy women’s restroom I don’t think I will be back. The restroom grossed me out so bad that I couldn’t finish my food. The restaurant was not busy and matter of fact the entire staff was sitting down eating so it was plenty of time to clean.
I am hoping they read this report and do a through cleaning ASAP.

I eat here pretty frequently as the phở is decent, the service is quick, and the prices are not bad. I typically order the brisket and flank phở and a side if shrimp spring rolls. They put a good amount of meat in the phở. However, I’m not sure if there is much of a difference between the small and medium size phở, it just seems as if the bowl gets larger, but the same amount of food is in it. Generally, there is no wait to get a table.

Waaaay overpriced for the quality! I had the friend calamari and it was oily! I think it may have been frozen. Not fresh at all! Their service is foul too! Nobody smiles! Their rolls are sloppy and they fall apart! Unappealing presentations! I had food poisoning from the one downtown! not going back! I shouldve known better

Well, I will start by saying I used to like this place. But after tonight I will not go back. First they served our appetizer on a dirty plate, and we pointed it out, the waitress gave attitude and got us another plate. But we heard her talking to her coworkers about our table. We should have left then, but we stayed.
The Phở soup has gone downhill and service sucks. Attitude and rudeness is not how you keep me as a customer. Again I used to love this place, it’s too late, the food was bad, the service was bad and the place is not as clean as it once was.
Will not return!

Good place. Yes, it’s no Hanoi, but if you’ve got a phở craving and you’re too lazy to go to South Sac, this place will do the trick. For Natomas, this place is great!
I normally don’t get beef tendon with my phở, but theirs is particularly soft and delicious! Service is like most Vietnamese restaurants, so don’t walk in expecting a welcome and a smile, but definitely go for the food.

This place really helped me, I had enough dentist appointments going on to last anyone 2yrs these past few months–
The Phở MOST of my tender & painful one-​sided chewing days/​nights became a welcomed nutritional substance!
I’ll admit over the years I’ve received a few times less than appetizing Phở vegetables. If I’m there, they’ll give me extra no problem. If I’m home, my hope is check the garden.
The To-​Go Phở is almost amazing everytime, packaged securely with all the goodies!
We are all human & mistakes may happen, what keeps me a returning patron is how the staff treats their customers respectfully, friendly (not overly fake), consistent & quality effort into dishes noticeable. Thanks for your customer service cause this Phở is dam Fresh tonight!

My husband & I love this place! We drive from Folsom to eat phở here a few times a month (there aren’t any good ones in our area). I always get the chicken phở & add tripe! Soooo good! And I love the shrimp noodle rolls! We usually go off hours, so there’s never really a wait & the waitress is always very friendly & food comes out quickly!

What can I say. It’s decent phở due to it being in Natomas. but it’s definitely not the best compared to real Vietnamese phở house.
For those men that feel the need to get a large, I suggest just getting a medium and use the extra cash on a beverage. Same amounts about ingredients just with more broth. Which we know most of the time nobody finishes the broth. May come back for one of those rare craving occasions.

This place doesn’t deserve one star! I wish I could write this review without having to give them any stars!
What a crappy place. I don’t know how they stay in business, let alone get a green pass.
This was my first time trying this place out. I’ve read previous poor reviews about this place but I was desperate for phở.
I ordered phở, spring rolls, and egg rolls. All I can say is — what a waste on money! The food is purely disgusting, presented disgustingly — like they don’t give a $#!+. All the veggies that came with the phở were rotten, I mean the bean sprouts practically were melting because they were so old. The rare beef was brown and smelled rotten. The spring rolls were stuffed with brown lettuce, rotten bean sprouts and had specks of little black pieces that looked like bugs. The egg rolls were awful. The wrapping was falling apart; the filling had an old meat taste to it.
Not only is the food filthy and disgusting but the service is AWFUL!!! The staff is effing RUDE. This place is a $#!+hole that needs to be shutdown. Please spare yourself, stay away from this place — definitely not worth your time or money.

Noodle place for cloudy day, sound good to me, especially a couple door from movie theater, so warm my self before the movie.
We order appetizer no.9 on the menu Wayside crispy sampler and you got a lot of deep fried crispy ness of fried wontons (4), Dong T’s crispy wraps (4), egg rolls (3) and crispy shrimp rolls (3) all the appetizer you can dip into sweet chilli sauce or some tangy dipping sauce.
Tried their Phở aka beef noodle soup no.9 Bo Kho aka chunky beef stewed and tendon small bowl, but way to much to handle for me :)

This is a puny Vietnamese restaurant sandwich between a Fro-​Yo shop and a Mongolian BBQ place. The service here is quite attentive, they could use improvement on interacting with the customers though. During lunch hours, it packs up easily due to the small place, so plan your timing accordingly if you’re on a set lunch break.
I got the banh mi sandwich with grilled chicken and a taro milk tea to start off with. The milk tea was fantastic, quite small in size compared to solely milk tea places but still okay for what it is. The banh mi was too pricey for what I received. I mean, this is Natomas so the pricing is higher compared to south sac but. for double the price compared to the sandwich shops on Stockton Blvd, one would expect some wow factor to keep the customer ordering the sandwich.
I’ve also had the chef’s roll once. It’s a spring roll version of a sushi roll! Quite creative of them. If you’re more in favor of the nori and actual rice, then this is something of a child’s food play but it is still tasty with the rice paper.
Then I ordered their mango beef. I love the concept of the plate. Cube mango sauteed with beef, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, and basil. The sauce was delightful. The flavor blended well. My complaint is the mango used was pretty squishy. Not sure if it was from being in the heat too long or what not.
Overall, my experience was good. I wouldn’t be eating too often due to the impact on my wallet, but the food and service is good enough to win me back from time to time.