Pho Tau Bay

Open hella late here. They are my mid night craving solution… lol. every one in my family loves this place. The kids always wanna come eat phở. They are fast and have great service. Parking kinds sucks but I always park far no matter were I go so not a biggie for me…

We intended to go to this other vietnamese place for lunch, but their menu changed when we sat down and had only chicken. So obviously we had to excuse ourselves. Luckily, this plaza was FILLED with eating options, so we walked around, spotted Phở Tau Bay, checked to make sure there were people inside, and didn’t even Unilocal it before going in. Yup. THAT hungry.
In short, I loved my seafood phở (LARGE, duh) and my sister’s #1 phở also looked really good. I would totally get it again, no doubt.
We walked in a little later during the lunch period, but the service was quick… seat yourself… and order ASAP. We had the owner (rotund, cute, loud man) take our orders and immediately brought out our phở «décor.» ASIAN EFFICIENCY, I TELL YA. They were friendly with their servings, and I absolutely found no problem with the food… other than the extremely oily broth. Suggestion: don’t douse the broth in oil!
Also, one thing that immediately got my attention was the intense smell of the shop. It was a mix of a fish paste smell and cleaning spray… like bleach or something. But it went away as my phở senses were tingling and hunger grew stronger.
But the great thing is… service is SPEEDY. Food is portion’d great. And they have TVs – they had TMZ and a football game on, so there’s variety at least. And there was a LOT of seating, so don’t be afraid to bring your big Asian family here!

The food is okay, but the cashier is kinda rude. I had 7 friends coming to the restaurant and only 3 of us eat, the cashier is kinda rude when they asked us «what? 7 people but only 3 orders?» And she showed her attitude, and they force us to get the food that we dont like, they keep asking so make us annoyed.

I have to leave one star for this location :(. The food actually is so so but it’s much more expensive than other location. The tofu is not really hot as what we expect… The cashier is not nice when we come to pay for our meal. This is the worst experience that I ever had for this location… bye Phở tau bay… no more here

I love the tofu here and the soysauce too. However, we been asked by the cashier: «Why did you order only 2 items while you have a lot of people?»
Well for me, i dont think any customer love being asked like this.

This is one of the usuals where I like to have lunch with my dad. We always get the phở and it’s phở-​nomenal. Although the service is non-​existent, that doesn’t deter me. I’m here for authentic Vietnamese cuisine and that’s all that matters. The phở broth is so good that I don’t even need to add anything, sauce-​wise.

I am a regular and crave this place. I rarely write reviews but believe this place is under rated. So why do I love this place…
1: chili oil paste is bomb
2: complimentary tea
3: only place to give that long green veggie… so good
4: options for noodle type at no charge like fresh noodle and egg noodle
5: lots of meat, not stingy or crappy cuts of beef
6: good broth
7: fast n quick
There are plenty of other reasons too but those are my top. I love to eat phở and have been to plenty of places and this is always my favorite.

Most of these Unilocal reviews only emphasize the bad service here. If you are looking for 5 star amazing service, don’t go here. If you’re looking for an inexpensive and fast meal, DO go here!
I go here consistently and the workers are fine. They seat you, take your order, and bring you food. Yes, their accents may be heavy but that comes with an authentic Vietnamese restaurant.
Most of the time I just point to the pictures on the menu so it works out fine. The food here is great. Phở always comes out hot and fast. Theres plenty of meat and the chicken broth is flavorful. The fried rice portion is huge and worth its value.

Tried this place a second time since I was in town visiting my cousins. I ordered the phở with filet mignon and fried egg rolls. Both were very good. You can tell the broth was fresh. The filet mignon melted in my mouth and you can tell it was very good quality. The egg rolls … THE BEST VIETNAMESE EGG ROLLS EVER!!! There is something about the wrapper they use but it’s delicious!!! Comes with lettuce, noodles snd dipping sauce. I can eat these all day if I wanted to.
Place is very clean, compared to usually Phở restaurants. This spot will be a must each time I visit San Jose!

Came here with my bf on a Friday night because he was sick and told me he was in the mood for some phở. I had been here 1 time before not too long ago ago and a friend told me to come here again, so we did. We walked in and the place was pretty empty so we sat by the wall. The lady who was running the cash register that night came by after a little to take our order. I asked for the 3A, a filet mignon phở, and she asked me a question that I could not understand because of her accent. Now, coming from a household where my parents don’t speak perfect English either, I understand that at a Vietnamese restaurant, the English would not be perfect. But when I politely asked her to repeat herself, she gets angry and starts rambling and then decided to just take my bf’s order instead. Ok lady, I asked you to repeat yourself once and I still didn’t even know what she was asking me lol
I had asked for a Coke, and halfway through eating my phở I still hadn’t received it. I got up and asked her if I could get that Coke, and she literally waved me away and told me to go sit down, and then I saw her go get the Coke from the back. Rude?! I wouldn’t have gotten up if you had brought it out the first time.
Either way, the food was kinda gross, and their service sucks so much it amazes me how they still had people in the place. Never again.

Good place for phở and they open late! I had the seafood phở with half rice noodle and half egg noodle. Phở came with a shrimp cracker too. No complaints from me.

This review isn’t for their food but for their awful customer service.
I came here to eat phở (fatty brisket is the best!) and since then have not been able to find my eye glasses. I called to check if I happened to leave it at the restaurant, but the lady kept hanging up on me because she couldn’t speak English. I tried calling more times after and she told me they were too busy and just hung up.
If you’re going to be in the restaurant business, learn how to treat your customers! A simple, «No, we haven’t found any eyeglasses» would’ve sufficed! Or hand the phone over to someone who could actually help!

Food here is good when you want something close by and a quick fix for some good Vietnamese food. They only take cash.

Phở is so good and the workers are kind.
I got bit by a spider today. It has to be one of those chairs.
Not wearing shorts next time.

Never coming back again!
When the man handed out our order, his black dirty thumb was in our soup!
He does not know how to serve with two hands…
The broth is salty and straight up taste like fish sauce and MSG. The meat is so black and tough. Not even fresh. Flies are everywhere in the restaurant so who knows how many of them died in the soup
Then I see him cleaning the seat booths and I am grossed out from it. He sweeps the floor so hard next to my booth that he is coughing everywhere!
All that dust flying everywhere from under the booths. And then there’s another guy spraying chemicals all over the restaurant floors and mopping in the afternoon.
There’s a time and place for everything.

Really irritated by this place! We were seated and everything seemed fine, then the lady took our order… She really didn’t speak English, she tried to understand but it just wasn’t working. They gave us only one phở option because they were out of other stuff? To be honest it was so hard to understand her. We had to repeat our order 5 – 6 times, even then she came back to ask us again… And not just once. Our food came out slowly item by item, there’s 5 of us… As we started eating we noticed a smell, and it got stronger and stronger. They were forreal cleaning the damn floors as we were eating! Imagine eating while smelling bleach and ammonia! Wtf! Are you serious right now… We tried to keep eating but at this point it was ridiculous, we even covered our noses and they still didn’t stop! They had the nerves to mope all around our table, moving chairs behind us and beside us.
They couldn’t even open the door! We were breathing in the chemicals while trying to eat and they couldn’t even open the damn door!
After we got fed up we get up to pay (as much as we didn’t want to pay) and they are literally standing there clearing our table as we’re packing our food… RUDE! And this man is just standing there with his mop waiting for us to leave.
If they wanted to clean and close then they shouldn’t have seated us!
So damn typical, Asian restaurant– all they care about is the money, they could care less about the customers. No type of customer service what so ever !
I would rather starve then eat here!

This place has the best phở in town hands down! My boy friend & I wont go anywhere else for noodles. Their friendly and courteous. Family owned I think and probably why their food tastes sooooo good!
Chinese donut with phở is awesome. I forgot to take a pic of that but I can’t go without it.

Good place to come to for a piping hot bowl of phở when you’re in the need for something on those chilly nights. They offer a ton of other food and not just phở. There is something for everyone here. I’m personally not a big fan of phở (am I even really Vietnamese??), but the phở here is pretty good. Convenient location near Evergreen.

I experienced for the first time a thoroughly overwhelming and quiet disappointment tonight as I tried to eat my «bun bo hue.»
All I can say is, don’t ever come here for «bun bo hue.» It is very lacking and tastes like chicken noodle soup with a TON of fish sauce and spices.
Service is grumpy (albeit expected) and the pork vermicelli noodles that my boyfriend ordered looked humongous and then ended up just being half leaves :|
The place itself feels very dirty and grimey as well unfortunately. No one came by to fill waters. Also cash only.
Too many cons to ever come back.

What happens when your friends drink till 3 AM and wake up at 7 AM with a hangover? Look for the nearest place with hot soup.
Just our luck to be out an about at 7:30 AM on the day we switched hours for daylight savings time.
The entrance is pretty small and I thought this was a very small hole-​in-​the-​wall kind of place but it opens up once you’re inside. Very simple tables and chairs. We were the first ones inside and they were barely cleaning up and prepping everything so it was a bit hard to get the servers’ attention. Clearly their conversation was more interesting than the sight of 5 un-​showered clients.
Service (3 stars)
Spring rolls (3 stars) — Not impressed. Not even after I used their peanut dip.
Phở (5 stars) — their small is actually large in my book. Lots of noodles, lots of beef and tripe, lots of flavor. I couldn’t finish the whole bowl but it was really good. I’m glad because I’ve had phở twice before it was too bland for my taste. This place did a good job of convincing me they’re Phở realz.
Average rating of 3.33 stars.
Cash only. Thanks for our hosts for paying. Didn’t even notice him stand up and pay for everyone’s meal. Free food! Phở-​hahahha!