I am incredulous as to how this bad restaurant gets so many good reviews. This place has really crappy Vietnamese food; if you want to try something that actually tastes good, go to Pho Hang in Roseville, Pho Bac off Madison Ave, or Wayside Noodles in downtown Sacramento.
I enjoy Vietnamese cuisine as one of my favorite of the Asian cuisines, second only to Japanese. I have been to this place twice based on rave reviews, and have been thoroughly disappointed both times. First off, the place is dirty and run down. It has a smell to it that I can't quite place, but it doesn't smell like good Vietnamese food. More like a stale, dirty smell. I can't describe it better so I won't try, suffice to say that it isn't pleasant. The decor is unattractive and covered with dust, with plastic plants and cluttery, knick-knacky junk everywhere. I've ordered both the salad rolls and the calamari for appetizers. The salad rolls were ok, and the calamari was overly breaded in a bland, unseasoned batter and was quite underwhelming.
The pho here is just completely worthless. Both times, they jammed the bowls so full of rice noodles that it soaked up all of the broth. The whole point of pho is the broth and letting the peppers, basil, etc soak into it and impart their flavor slowly as you enjoy the soup. That is impossible at this restaurant. I've ordered both the seafood and chicken varieties, and they were both terrible. The seafood used, to my complete bafflement, imitation crab. The shrimps were cooked to rubber, and it was inedible. Literally. I couldn't eat it, it was disgusting. The vegetables that they use in the soups are either poor quality, lazily prepared (giant onion hunks), or both. They swamped the dish in green onions, and do not use cilantro to flavor the soup. The chicken pho (pho ga) was marginally better, but was still jammed full of rice noodles so you couldn't really experience the broth. Same complaint with the poor quality and poorly prepared vegetables.
Just save yourself the trouble and go somewhere that actually has good food. My only explanation as to why this place has good ratings is that the people that frequent the place from the surrounding neighborhood just don't know any better. It is so bad that I came close to giving it 1 star, but I reserve those reviews for truly awful restaurants, and this place at least has edible food, if very poor in quality. read more