Pho Bac So 1

CLOSED and EVICTED!
This restaurant was always busy during lunch but looks like the owners did not pay their rent. What happened to all the cash? Scandalous!

This placed was closed when I went there just now.
Apparently they got evicted.

On my way home from work, lil after 6 I stopped by to get some take out. I ordered two large #6’s, all lean beef to go. They bagged it all up, veggies, etc. It was when I got home and noticed the I received all the wrong beef, the non meat selection.
As I was reheating the broth (nuke), I emptied the meat into my soup bowls. P.U.!! Stinky! But a different stink. It went away when I combined everything.
I tried to eat, noodles didn’t hold up, meat and flavor just was.
Well, I maybe had about 10 bite too many.
Woke up with IBS! Fill in the blank–
All in all, I’ve sat down and have had lunch several time through the years. I hope it was a bad night.
I could of opened to double check my order but.
It was pricy too, 17 bucks, ouch!
Be advised–

Arrgh! Food is good, but the service is so inconsistent. Wanted to have the #11 with rice noodles… and made sure it was okay to substitute rice noodles instead of the egg noodles. The server said I could switch, made the note and was brought the wrong noodles anyway. Couldn’t communicate with the guy who brought our food… which is rough for both parties involved… so I ate it. Blondie said I was a «sport» for that… the phở was okay, had a gnarly little crab claw that had rubbery meat. I didn’t know it was possible for crab meat to take on such an impervious form. Made me question the level of quality that went into my phở. I think I might broaden my horizons and find a new phở place.

The décor is spartan and the service was slow. You need to go to the counter to pay as well…
The egg rolls in my vermicelli were very bland. They detracted from the dish…
In a town full of Vietnamese restaurants, one could find better then this place…

I’m Bac Ky, and no way does this spot represent Northern Vietnamese phở.
First off, phở noodles should NOT be al dente.
Second, my bowl was packed so full with al dente noodles, there was barely any broth. I asked for another bowl of hot broth, hoping to cook the noodles a bit more, but it didn’t help. :(
Third, I ordered Tai, Nam, Gau, Bo Vien. They gave me really dry tai, really dry dry dry like it’s been sitting out Nam, and Gan instead of Gau. The Bo Vien (meatballs) were cool.
The broth was dark and murky. Not clear. I wouldn’t eat here again, and I wouldn’t recommend it to my friends.
Phở Ha Noi does better North Style Phở…

This is a solid Vietnamese restaurant. During the colder months, i was coming here regularly since it is so close to my work. The phở is good, nothing special, but it’s not bad. Prices are reasonable and the portions are too.
Now that it’s a little bit warmer, I still come, but not for phở, i come for the vermicelli – bun! I think this is a dish that a lot of Vietnamese rookies overlook. Most people who i know who are not all that familiar with Vietnamese cuisine, only ever order 2 things: phở and spring rolls. Big mistake. Amongst other things, one of my favorite dishes is bun thit nuong – grilled pork with vermicelli noodles. The best way that i can descibe it is that it’s like a noodle salad.
Service has always been friendly and they DO take CC here.
Solid 4 stars.

Finally had the chance to check out my neighborhood phở. We were at the restaurant around 1 pm. There was probably about a dozen customers.
We stood by the counter with a sign that reads «Wait to be Seated.» So we did. A lady approached and and puts up two fingers and without a word walked ahead of us. I assumed that we follow her then. I assumed correct. Whew!
We got seated, piping hot phở infront of us in about 10 minutes. Not bad!
They do give you a separate plate of vegetables for each person. I like that. Well the phở #16 that I ordered was Vermicelli Rice noodle and chicken. It was about $ 7.25
They did not disappoint. The phở was tasty not salty, lots of lean chicken strips and it was a size large. The only size it came in.
The place is clean. Checked their bathroom. The ladies side is clean and very basic.
There’s ample parking on the side of the building that they share with other biz in the area.
They do open at 7 in the morning and serve 99 cents coffee. I also saw on their board that they serve bagels as well.
Will be back to try more of their menu.

I haven’t had their phở, only pork & shrimp vermicelli and seafood chow fun.
The pork and shrimp vermicelli is decent, but that’s a hard dish to eff up. i liked the seafood chow fun even though it somewhat bland and they were stingy on the seafood. Also, it didn’t look very appetizing in the to go box. It was a clump of white, flat noodles with some veggies and a little seafood sprinkled in.
Okay place for a quick bite.

I had an legal appointment downtown San Jose and needed to get a quick bite of lunch and spotted this place.
«Bac» means northern as «Nam» means southern in Vietnamese. Thus the cuisine has a very «northern» taste, as the Phở is a bit different and an educated palate can taste the difference.
My Phở came steaming hot with very fresh condiments of basil, sliced jalapeño peppers, and slices of lime. My only comment was the Vietnamese Iced coffee came premixed as most places now serve (I prefer the single serving drip into a cup of condensed milk). For the price you could not beat it and a large bowl was only .50 cents more!
The service was attentive as a real cutie waited on us and our order came within 5 minutes after ordering.
I would highly recommend this place. My only comment is there is only street parking available which might involve a hike to get here.

Large size Bun (tasty beef wrapped with onions and lemongrass).
THE SHRIMP WAS NOT FRESHLY FRIED. It was bland and flat. It definitely tasted like it was fried for a while.
$ 8.55 for the bun.

Being on jury duty I was looking for a place within walking distance for lunch and happened upon Phở Bac. I was disappointed with the phở for two main reasons. The broth was bland and the chicken was dry. It needed a lot more hoisin and sriracha than most places, which is a bad sign. I specifically asked for white meat, which the waitress said would be no problem, yet I still picked out a fair amount of dark meat and fat.
It was bustling at lunchtime and the service was lukewarm. I had to flag waitstaff down for a water refill and some chopped cilantro. I’ve certainly been to worse places, but wouldn’t come back here.

To be honest with you. I never ate Phở here. I normally order the banh canh or the Bo luc lac. The banh canh is decent, but it’s more on the thick side if you are into the thick soup then the watery type. The Bo luc lac is very good here. I highly suggest it if you are into Bo luc lac. The meat is very tender and the side of red rice is very tasty. It all depends on my mood for eating that day.
Parking isn’t so bad. There’s plenty of parking on the side of the building.

My friend and I stopped here for lunch. We usually go to Phở Ha, but she’s a vegetarian, and she recently learned that she’s been eating vegetable phở and not vegetarian phở for at least a year now. Although she had always felt physically fine, she now feels mentally grossed out, so we are now hunting for a phở place that serves vegetarian for real.
There’s a little parking lot next to this restaurant, so that was convenient. The restaurant itself is pretty big. There were a lot of people there when we went… the professional lunch crowd. The waitress was on us immediately after giving us two seconds to look at the menu. I ordered the dry vermicelli bowl (pork, eggroll, & shrimp). My friend ordered chow mein noodles with a request for the to pan fry it. She said her noodles tasted good. The plate they gave it to her on was too small though, so it was a little hard for her to fold the crispy noodles into the sauce.
My vermicelli was okay. I like Phở Ha’s better. The fish sauce they gave me was too watered down, the pork was overcooked (although nicely flavored), and the eggroll tasted refried. The portion size was good though… which is not as positive as it sounds since I got a big bowl of just mediocre food. The price was a little more expensive than typical ($ 9 for each of our entrees, plus $ 3 for Viet iced coffee). They have a pretty extensive menu, so I would go back again to try other things.

Had my first lunch here today and well I’ve had better. The service was slow. It’s soup for goodness sake, how long does it take?
Anyway, the broth was greasy. I prefer Phở Viet down the street.

Thanks for the frozen yogurt — so yummy! :) We’ll be back!

I had their #1 Phở Special. I was happy.
I craved phở that day. It was hot and pretty tasty, like other phở combos I’ve had at other phở places. I wasn’t too full, but content.
A week later, I had their #66 rice plate, the Onion and Pepper beef. I was happier.
Rice with grilled beef rolled up around onions and bell peppers:
This dish was full of flavor… the garlic was evident.
I just wish I had more. If I was really hungry, I might have to order two of these!
The flatscreens add a nice touch in this enormous restaurant.
The bakery, however, didn’t have much to offer both times I visited. Where are the baked goods? I noticed that their Banh Mi was more expensive here than other Vietnamese sandwich places, and i wasn’t going to find out why.
Overall this place is okay. Good taste, but smaller portions than other restaurants… leaves me wanting more!
If I come back for the third time, I’ll take a shot at their Bun Bo Hue… and I’ll see if that visit will be the happiest.
If it is… I’ll be a fan.

i’ve driven by this place for on my commute route for the past couple months after i moved to Oakland and finally decided to check it out.
got the large #1 Phở Special (Dac Biet). the large was $ 6.75 and i added beef balls (Bo Vien) for $ 1 more. i was thinking of getting a Banh Mi (Viet Sando) for a late night snack, but they didn’t have a great selection and they were all $ 4.95?!? i almost fainted when i saw the sandwich price!
didn’t have to wait long for my food. first thing i noticed was that the «Large» is not that big. probably a regular at a lot of other phở places. the veggie plate had a nice pile of sprouts, plenty of jalepeno slices, a wedge of lemon (i prefer lime), and 2 sprigs of basil. one of the basil sprigs looked nice and fresh, the other one was all wilty and had black spots on the leaves. not a stellar start for them.
i dove in and was pleasantly surprised. the broth was tasty and hot, hot, hot; i liked the distinct clove undertones of it. all of the meats were good, though there were only 3 slices of rare steak and just one «sprig» of tripe. there was a *lot* of brisket, flank, and tendon. which kinda, sorta made up for the lack of other. .. who am i kidding, it really bugged me!
also, i wish i had not ordered the beef balls; they were a bit tough.
i’d say 3+ stars. nice broth and good ingredients. if it was a bigger bowl and more steak & tripe, i’d probably bump up the rating, but the value vs. other phở shops in the area hurts them.
Unilocal, where are the ½ stars?!?

OK. I had their banh mi. OK. tho about twice as expensive as at most Vietnamese snack shops or at a Mr. Lee’s franchise.. The Phở and the veggie-​chicken plates looked pretty good… Mebe next time I’ll try their phở. if I ever get around to it…
However, keep this place in mind if you’ ever do a jury call at the Santa Clara County Superior Court branch out by the Hall of Justice and your answers to juror selection questions are not sufficiently extreme or inflexible to get yourself dismissed by either the judge or by the defense OR by the prosecution… and you find yourself, somewhat to your dismay, sworn in and committed to doing jury duty for a week. and you are looking for a lunch-​time break from the corner Togo’s, which seems to be the default lunch place for the County’s juror draftees to lunch at… just keep walking a half-​block north on First Street.
Oh jury duty. you’re *never* called at a convenient time. and so you’ll probably try to get out of it if you can. But if you end up doing it. it *is* a totally worthwhile experience. I mean in what other civic endeavor does your participation and opinion count for so much?

I don’t crave sugar. I don’t have ice cream in the freezer or chocolate boxes and candy bars scattered under the sink and in the dryer like an alcoholic. I can’t tell you the last time I even bought a candy bar for enjoyment and not the desperation of hunger.
What I «do» do is salty, cheesy, carb and often meat induced evil. I always have bread and cheese in the house. And when I crave something like a pizza, jumbo jack, fish taco or 14 oz dry aged cut of beefy yum yum… it haunts me and teases me until eventually, I give in… guilt usually follows… then a work out. or sex. More often the first than the second.
I have been craving Phở and a BBQ Pork Sandwich for a few weeks now. Of course, there is really no where to go in the ethnic enclave of Los Gatos… and Willow Glen is a taqueria dream, but no vietnamese.
So as luck would have it, I was in San Jose doing some worky biz and a beacon shined its epicurean light on Phở Bac. I have seen this place tons of times and have been meaning to stop and get phở. And I had a craving that was making my mouth water everytime I heard the words «Little Saigon» and «Madison Ngyuen»
Today, I bought two dishes to go and have enough left over for three meals. (12 bucks total) I got the rare beef phở and BBQ pork sandwich. Although I think I ordered the sandwich wrong, I like that dried oddly colored pink pork and I got brown BBQ pork.
I devoured my sandwich when I got back to the office. I scooped all of the thick gooey plum sauce until there was no more. The bread was fresh and delicious and so were all the toppings.
The to-​go phở came with all the usual goodies, basil, mint, sprouts etc. The meat was raw and cooked nicely when I threw the scalding hot broth on it. I determine the worth of a good phở by the broth. I have tried to make it and I know that is where it is at. Their broth was spot on.
I read some negative reviews. and to the girl that got food poisoning –if I keel over and vomit on my kick ass crocodile BCBG heels, so be it… cause damn that was tasty… I like to play craps with my guts, keeps me on my toes.