House of Pho

We arrived about 15 – 20 minutes before they closed on a Friday night and the service was not good. There were two tables waiting for food and two other tables arrived after us and the place was three-​quarters full so we didn’t feel too bad being late but the waitress was still kind of rude. We quickly ordered and the food rolled out with appetizers first, followed by our food. That was a pleasant surprise as we expected for the food to be rushed out at once with the huffy attitude we received. The phở broth was tasty and the flavors in the Stir Fried Beef with Vegetables was really good. My nephew exclaimed «Yum,» when he took bites of rice mixed with the sauce. We ordered the House Special Stir Fried Noodles and according to the picture, it was loaded with seafood but when it arrived, there wasn’t a single piece of seafood. When we inquired, we were told the seafood was at the bottom but after digging through, there was still none. We informed the server and we opted to just eat it as is and he had the kitchen make us a side of seafood. This noodle dish and side of seafood also tasted really good but the seafood didn’t taste fresh. If you grew up in the 80’s with your mom buying the big chunk of pastrami meat that she’d slice up for your sandwiches and you eat Spam, then you’d be familiar with the consistency of the meat in the Pork Roll. It didn’t taste bad but it was weird and the dipping sauce lacked flavor. The Egg Rolls were good though. This place satisfied our Vietnamese fix.

Food: lean phở and bbq pork with egg rolls vermicelli. The phở broth was good and the basil, lime and bean sprouts were fresh. The vermicelli also has fresh veggies and I liked the filling in the two egg rolls.
Service: fast and efficient
Ambiance: busy restaurant with all the tables occupied.
Location: convenient to hit the Costco nearby.

My friends and I come here quite often since it’s nearby. The phở is good and the service is fairly quick from my experience. Also, their Iced Coffee is delicious and pretty strong!
You must use the sign in sheet thats on the wall as soon as you walk in. A lot of people don’t realize that and end up waiting a long time! Parking is the biggest downside with this place since it’s in the same shopping center as Costco and Trader Joe’s. Nonetheless, I’ll keep coming back!

It is not as bad as I expected and the portion is reasonable in both meat and noodle. It is a fast Phở place to come to when I crave phở. One reason I keep visiting this place is because I am lazy and do not want to drive too far. Acceptable phở near an Almaden area.

Great phở place. Had rare steak and meat balls. It was busy when we came in around 6:30pm. Put our name on the list for 2 people and we were seated within 10 minutes. Overall good experience would come back again.

WHY WE WENT HERE:
— one of my friends told me this is her go-​to phở spot that’s close to her house
— I’ve always frequented phở shops in the Silver Creek/​Evergreen areas of San Jose, or Milpitas, so I’ve been skeptical with trying phở shops in South San Jose
THE LOOK (FROM THE OUTSIDE):
— in the Trader Joe’s plaza
— parking can be difficult, especially since there’s a lot of frequented businesses in that plaza (i.e Costco, Trader Joe’s, Ross, etc.)
THE LOOK (FROM THE INSIDE):
— busy
— cozy
— clean
— crowded
WHAT WE’VE ORDERED
— the beef rice plate with the tomato rice
— phở (chicken, meat combo both with or without the meatballs)
THE TASTE:
— the rice plate met my standards, and was very good
— the phở, especially the meat combo with the meatballs has the tastiest broth I’ve ever had at a phở shop
CUSTOMER SERVICE:
— fast
— polite

Phở tasted very good. They use way too much MSG.
My lips were numb for an hour after getting home. That’s it from me.

Except for always long line. Go!

Early this week was my first visit to this restaurant as we were in the area and my toddler wanted Phở. We didn’t want to drive all the way home to East Side/​Evergreen San Jo.
We arrived at 2ish and it was busy still. We were asked to wait a few minutes and were seated quickly at the corner booth. We ordered a large custom beef Phở and large Phở Ga (chicken). The drinks came fast and so did the food. My husband’s custom Phở looks much more appealing than my Phở Ga. My phở looked really boring with sliced white chicken, some mixed green onions/​cilantro and fried shallot pieces. I’m assuming the Phở caters to the area it is opened. Phở is all about the broth. It didn’t taste bad but it wasn’t tasty & flavorful.
My 3-​star is food the food but i give s 4-​star for the customer service.

In a nutshell: come here with low expectations. The service is shoddy, the food is subpar, and the wait is grueling.
As I stated in the «tips» section, make sure you sign your name on the list. No one greets you to advise this. It is on the wall to the left of the entrance.
Also, ensure your entire party is present. They refused to seat me until the rest showed up. Understandable, but after everyone else showed up, we waited an extra 10 minutes and watched them seat OTHER groups who arrived after us with MORE people.
Then, after I brought it to their attention, one of the ladies stated, «du Ma (means mother fucker in Vietnamese) Melissa» as she seated us. Oh heeellllllll no.
I’m no phở expert, but I can tell you that their food is pretty basic. They had the food out fairly quickly… +1 star
After we finished, we asked for the check. The lady basically told us to get up and go to the cashier to pay. However, the tables around us had their checks brought to them… wow, talk about inconsistency!!! And rude.
I despise this place. I feel second hand embarrassment from their lack of customer service.

I’m just glad we have decent Viet food in the area, and the price is pretty good for being so far south.
All of the «che» and smoothies are authentic and shouldn’t be missed.

I’m happy to say that we’ve found our go to spot for phở and Vietnamese food! We got the Vietnamese fried egg rolls, bun bo hue, steak phở & com bo luc lac plate & everything was delicious! :) This place hit all the right notes-​prime location, cleanliness, modern and lively décor, great service and yummy food! We really enjoyed our first time here and will def be returning! After relocating we’ve been searching for a phở spot and we finally found it. Glad we came here. I’m taking away a star since my husband had requested hot tea upon arrival and they nonchalantly gave us cold tea and when we told them, they said their hot water wasn’t working… uh then don’t serve it – ain’t nobody got time for no cold tea lol Not too sure why they have so many negative reviews? :/
NOT PICTURED: Avocado, Pinapple/​Coconut & Mocha Pearl Shakes to go. ALL were delicious!

KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS!!!
We’ve been charged the tip twice in two different occasions. It seems that when you sign the CC form with the tip in it, they will add the same amount when you leave. Doubling the amount of tip you gave them. Just be aware and make sure you keep your receipts. Our bank took care of the adjustments for both cases. For the first one (that I caught), I thought it was just an error, but for it to repeat again, I think it’s a common practice. Now I don’t know if I can ever go back to this place again.

I stopped in for my Phở fix prior to going to Costco today. I ordered a «small «bowl of the Flank Phở with vermicelli noodles. Cracks me up they these «small », the bowls are huge and I’m always stuffed after finishing it. I can’t imagine trying to eat the large bowl.
It’s the broth and noodles that keeps me coming back for Phở, I guess that’s why everyone comes back of course! I wasn’t disappointed, the broth was rich, not greasy at all and it was delicious. The noodles were just right, firm enough and not at all soft from the broth. The onion and cilantro add a nice flavor to the broth.
They also give you a side plate with bean sprouts, japaleno’s, mint and a slice or two of lime. There is also soy sauce, (no thanks) and hot sauce if you want to spice it up a bit.
Service was fast and efficient. The décor is really nice and the restaurant is clean, which of course is a major plus. They asked if I wanted water, which is good due to the drought. They checked up on me a couple of times to see if I needed anything else.
Good food and good service, the two things that will keep me coming back.

I’ve been meaning to try this place because I hear about it often and because I’ve been looking for a Vietnamese restaurant (that’s good) in south San Jose. Since I was shopping at Ross for good buys, my boyfriend and homegirl said they were hungry. Since the weather is somewhat on the gloomier side, he suggested to try out this place. After looking at the pictures on Unilocal,I recall talking to a friend about their pad thai and that it’s pretty good.
My friend ordered the vegetarian vermicelli (#75) and an order or veg eggrolls on the side. She said that it was pretty good. My boyfriend ordered phở and before he added his sauces, I tried the broth and it was actually better than most phở places in San Jose in general. It wasn’t too salty and it had the aroma of homemade phở. I, of course, ordered pad thai and well! It was yummy. Though when it was brought to me, I caught a whiff of fish sauce which was different since most vietnamese restaurants I go to for pad thai it’s more of a tomato-​y paste smell. It was very good though and I think I may have found the spot for pad thai for south San Jose.
The service though could use some work. They don’t really give you eye contact while ordering, and at the end of the order I prefer them to read back the order, but that’s rare to find for most younger staffed? The place is very clean and I would most likely come back to try other dishes.

Great Vietnamese food! Loved their shaking beef with tomato rice.
The service was alright, it took forever just to get menus, but the food came quickly.
Will definitely be returning soon!

Wow, I am writing this as I am physically sitting at their table inside their restaurant. My parents sat down around 8:47PM, and I was coming from Barnes and Noble and sat with them at 9:05PM. I flag down a female waitress and she tells me they closed at 9:00PM and they physically and literally cannot serve phở anymore.
If time was really of the essence, then my parents could’ve ordered for me. But you’d think that since my parents sat down 10 minutes before they closed and had their hearty bowls of phở, it wouldn’t be too big of a deal to take my order too.
The waitress tells me that there is NO ONE TO COOK anymore. She asks the back kitchen and they confirm that. Instead of being unaccommodating, they could’ve served me a simple bowl of Phở or been nicer about the whole ordeal.
I used to work in restaurants and cafes, and I’ve dealt with customer service before in the industry. Their food isn’t even remotely good; check my previous review. I’m a fair person and I recognize that I sat down after they «officially closed» at 9PM but by 5 minutes! My parents were ALREADY SEATED!!! My mom lost her appetite after this terrible exchange. What’s even worse is that the employees gave us a horrible attitude about it. Yes Asian restaurants are notorious for bad service but man, there’s a limit to being a jerk to your patrons!
Worst service I’ve had in awhile! Worst service for a Vietnamese restaurant unfortunately. This place only gets attention because it’s located in the busy Almaden Plaza and people can be clueless about good phở and decent service. Do yourself a favor and avoid this place like the Bubonic Plague. I’m just beyond words and extremely irritated by the horrible mistreatment we got. SAYONARA HOUSE OF PHO!

This place is okay. When I first walk in the phở smell hit me right in the nose making me want to try it. This my first time by the way.
The one thing I don’t like is my mom and sister have to ask 2 different workers to bring us some onions. I think the broth have a lot of MSG.
Pros:
Clean
Fast service
Nice Decoration
Cons:
Pricey
Didn’t greet me just ask how many people and sat me at a table.
In a weird location where mostly white people shope at.
I might give this restaurant a second try.

Went here because it was so close to home and whenever I need a quick fix of phở or viet food, I come here.
It’s not my favorite phở. The tai (rare meat) is sliced pretty thick and once again the bowl is rather large but mostly filled with broth. Not a lot of noodles or meat in there. The broth is a little bland for my taste. Doesn’t have the authentic phở broth like I’m used to.
They also serve hu tieu nam vang here, surprisingly is really good! I also tried the com tam as well but it’s not that great. The meat is a little dry. The bun bo hue is mediocre, same as phở (large bowl with lots of broth but not a lot of noodles and meat).

I like going there during lunch break the days I need to get something at Costco.
I ain’t no expert in Vietnamese food but the Phở is always fresh and tasty.
I feel portions are quite big for an OK price however they don’t put much meat in their beef based Phở.
A-​OK is the right description.