I used to really love this place, but the quality has gone down with each visit. Whether it's forgetting orders, or poor service. This last time I went I ordered a large pho bowl with brisket and rare steak, altogether there was a total of 7 pieces of meat in my giant bowl to eat with noodles. It's very disheartening to look forward to a good bowl of pho when they skimp on the portions. Overall, the food is good, but be prepared to be disappointed by something when eating here. read more

When they first opened, we enjoyed their food. Went quite regularly for basic pho, egg rolls, and my husband for their sandwiches. I gave them a 4 star for service, attitude, food quality and preparation. Then for several months, we didn't go. When we did return, I had a horrible experience. The pho broth had a thick layer of fat and not beefy tasting at all. It tasted like some artificial stock mix that was cooked with a lot of fat meat or.. the lack of lean meat. I was hungry and ate but couldn't drink the broth. Even with that, afterward, I had to heave up the fat that coated my throat and mouth. It wasn't pretty. Very disappointed with the down-grade of stock. I wish them the best but can't go back now :( read more

Update. After just finishing a super tasty Banh Mi sandwich in the Bay Area, I have to downgrade this place from 2 to 1 star. 1 star is for speed of service, the food is a solid "zero". read more

I stopped by Phamous Cafe after a long weekend in Morro Bay. My husband and I were craving Pho, we came across this restaurant on Yelp with good reviews. I would say I do eat a lot of Pho, especially living in the valley I grew accustomed to eating amazing Pho. I ordered the Chicken Pho, the first thing I noticed was the chicken. The chicken had no flavor and I felt like they boiled chicken in hot water then just simply threw the chicken in the soup. Plus, the chicken pieces were the fatty/ crappy part of the chicken. It was terrible, I ended up taking out all the chicken from the Pho. The broth was okay, it had a nice flavor. However, I don't think we will be coming back here again, the quality of the chicken turned me off. read more

Come in to place a order for take out and it taking 50min for my order to be ready. Very slow day but they don't even serve the customer on the table either. Very bad service here will not come back. read more

Found the food ok. Service was good and fast. Cafe was clean. Lots of options. One of problems with the food was amount of noodles they use for their rolls and noodle dish. Not a lot of flavor with the noodles or their peanut sauce that came with the spring rolls. Think they could have used more pizzaz with their seasonings, etc. Just a lot starch with little meat and veges. read more

This place is a joke. Don't waste your time/money. Wait time is forever, and they're out of basic stuff.

PHO REVIEW: Tasty Pho at first, but the MSG was not minimal as we were told. So sad. We wanted this to be our place with the great location. MSG Mouth felt tingly and we had the full blown MSG foggy, drowsy, brain within the hour. Bahn mi was good. A lil light on the ingredient quantity. But good. read more

Only 2 stars for the Pho which always makes me come back. But as soon as I do, I get reminded why I stopped coming. Service - Only the owner is attentive and that's when we catch his attention. Every one just stands inside and talks when customers have their hands raised forever. Literally raised my hand for a good 8 minutes while the waitresses just stayed on their phones and talked to one another. Seriously? Every. Single. Time. Food - Besides the pho and rare steak, everything else is pretty mediocre for the prices they charge. Came in here wanting spring rolls and 4 different times of a day, they said they didn't have them. Spring rolls are not hard to make in stores, doesn't have to be done elsewhere and transported here. Makes no sense. And the egg rolls are completely tasteless. Pho and meat are delicious, but not worth when portions are small and service sucks so bad. Having pho restaurants myself, it's really hard to stand horrible food and small portions with 1-star quality service. read more

Hands down one of the best Pho places in Goleta that I've tried so far! My friends and I come here when we're craving pho. Waitresses are generally pretty nice! I've noticed that this place tends to have a longer wait time than you'd expect form a pho place though. My friends and i ordered lunch on what appears to be a pretty slow day without many customers, but waited a little over 20 minutes before our food arrived. Not ridiculous, but just something to consider, especially if you're in a hurry. The restaurant is clean enough with spotless spoons and (high quality) disposable chopsticks. Although my friends like the pho, I like getting the combination rice vermicelli. Prices are a bit steep, but you'll be happy when your bowl comes! The combo rice vermicelli comes with generous portions of grilled meat, two shrimps and eggrolls, and what seems to be grilled fish paste(?). Highly recommended! read more

This place will be out of business if they 1. Don't lower their price (they are 30% more expensive than the other two Pho places in town). 2. Continue to have inefficient and slow service. The place is half empty when we walked in and yet we still have to wait for 10 min to get seated. And as a restaurant they don't have high chairs for toddlers... After we got seated, the table by us wanted to cancel a dish because they waited for too long. 15 min after we ordered: they didn't bring water. I had to go and ask. So they brought water but we didn't get our ice tea until 20+ min in, and they didn't bring a hot tea until we are almost done with eating. If you walk into a pho place in LA or Bay Area, or the other two pho joints in town, 5 min in, they bring food, because Pho is extremely easy to make, after you cook the broth. We waited over half an hour to have our pho on the table. I counted, they have 7 waitresses but they don't coordinate with each other and the way they bring food is not super efficient. Some of them are probably family members helping out but with no proper training. Probably not going to spend $10 ($13 post tax and tips) for a small size pho at this place any more where you can get the same for $6.95 somewhere else, with more meat in the soup, and way faster service. read more

Bottom Line: I didnt get yelled at or kicked by people working there while eating my lunch - that's always a plus Mediocre Pho, good service. Im giving these guys the benefit of the doubt as this place is clean, the people working there are friendly so they get the benefit of the doubt. I headed over here for lunch today to give it a shot. Ordered the Pho Thai with meatballs. It wasnt bad - it just wasnt that great. It required a bunch of extras to get the flavor up there but after all of the goodies from the bowl were in my belly I have to admit I did like the broth at the end. I wonder if they use MSG though... Im going to need to head back over there to get some pork to see if it really lives up to four stars read more

Hands down best Vietnamese food in the Central Coast! I live in buellton and make the 30 minute drive whenever I have a serious craving! 10/10 would recommend! read more

I ordered iced coffee, the drink was mostly ice and didn't taste good at all (I didn't finish it and it was about $5). Also ordered a shrimp plate which I payed $10+ for and it only came with 5-6 shrimp as well as a lump of rice. I brought some friends from Italy to eat here and was embarrassed as they were disappointed with the quality and quantity of the food. Some of the worst Asian food I've tasted. The pho's broth was a bit bland, although otherwise it was ok. Edit: Although I was disappointed with some of their food, they were understanding and refunded part of it. read more

Got beef with noodles. Really enjoyed it. Nice quiet lunch atmosphere. Lunch was made to order

The service was wonderful. There is not a great selection of vegetarian options in fact there are none. My friend had the pho and there was barely any noodles in it. My husband and I had the vermicelli. I had the chicken and it tasted wonderful but there were only a few pieces of chicken. My husband had the beef and it tasted wonderful but they were only a few pieces of beef. We left hungry. We prefer the Saigon Noodle House in Goleta, much more flavorful food and many more options read more

Got our order to go, received great service when ordering and waiting for our food. We went with spring rolls, egg rolls and banh mi; all were delicious! So excited to finally have a place to get authentic Vietnamese sandwiches here in town. I got the combination banh mi and it really did remind me of the ones we had in Vietnam. read more

Phamous Cafe - Combination banh mi - sooo good!!! - Vietnamese Near Me - Goleta, California

Best pho in the area. Looks like a hole in the wall but everything you get there will satisfy you.

Combination Banh Mi was delicious! Loved the heat from the jalapeños and the combination of meats and pâté were scrumptious. Of course it's not a decent banh mi without good bread with a nice crunch and this one delivered with a very fresh roll. read more

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We love eating Pho in Hawaii and was pleasantly delighted by this restaurant. The broth was so ono (delicious) and that made everything so much better. The noodles were not freshly made and side of veggies were kinda skimpy but overall my beef Pho was a thumbs up! Spring rolls were good too! read more

BANH MI!!! I've been waiting for this place to open for quite a while and finally dropped in today. It was quite empty at 2pm but the employees were extremely friendly. I opted for to-go, and got my food very briefly and the prices were a (tad) decent for Santa Barbara. While waiting, I noticed the tables were a little dirty. Nonetheless, the banh mi here is amazing. I ordered a bbq pork banh mi and every element is nailed down here. They don't skimp on any of the meat, pate, and veggies. The baguette is what tops it off for me and it's very delicious. It has the perfect balance of lightness and crunch, yet firm enough to contain the sandwich, and it tastes really good too. I also ordered a beef/meatball pho but it wasn't anything outstanding. I got 3 small sections of meatball. The broth wasn't flavorful or the least bit exciting. They give you a good portion, even for a regular size, so if you're hungry, it does the job. But if you really want pho, just go to Noodle City. They have a small iced tea selection, which looks appetizing and I may try it out. Thai tea is always good though but I have my eyes set on that watermelon tea for next time. read more

Phamous Cafe - To-go before assembly. (Nicely packaged lol) - Vietnamese Near Me - Goleta, California

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I like this place and they could go from meh to wow if they just tried a little harder. Vermicelli Salad.....plz add more Veges and basil and mint. It's that easy. Bathroom....plz clean it. Service....get another waiter at rush hours. read more

I ordered two bowls of pho and two banh mi (beef). They were super friendly, COVID conscious, and they packaged the food very carefully to-go. The broth comes in a styrofoam container, and the noodles and the veggies come in a bowl with a lid. The raw meat is wrapped in its own baggie, keeping everything clean. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone who is looking for a decent bowl of pho! read more

FOOD : This is where Phamous Cafe seems to get it right, for the most part. The food is decent, and certainly much better than all the other offerings in the Santa Barbara and Goleta area. The prices are reasonable but the value is moderately low for what you pay for. It would be nice to see upsell options for more noodles, vegetables, etc... At this time, they only offer extra meat options on the menu and the price for it is quite high. SERVICE : Overall, the service was quite good. Our drinks were always filled up, plates were taken shortly after we finished our meals. Server knowledge seems to be quite good given that the restaurant has been open for only four days. AMBIANCE : The restaurant was moderately full for a Monday night and there were a lot of what seemed to be happy diners at the restaurant. The overall noise level quiet which means you could pick out every conversation being made around you. It may be best for there restaurant to consider music to help drown out some of the other conversations going on as to reduce unintentional eavesdropping. read more

This restaurant opened up recently in the last year and thankfully serves a variety of banh mi sandwiches in addition to pho, vermicelli, and rice plates.+1 star for variety. Santa Barbara just doesn't have a good selection of Vietnamese restaurants so I was glad when Phamous Cafe opened up. We've enjoyed their Grilled Pork Banh Mi, Grilled Chicken Banh Mi, and Pork Cake Banh Mi (my favorite). I always request for more veggie toppings of the pickled daikon and carrots; this adds more flavor to the sandwiches. +1 for banh mi alone. The baguettes are good, but not your French warm-style bread you'd expect, but it's still good. For Santa Barbara, their pho noodle soup is definitely better than the Saigon Noodle next to KMart, but not better than ones served up by Noodle City. We usually go with Rare Beef Pho and Meatball Pho +1 star for pho noodle soup. Their staff is friendly and attentive. The food comes out pretty quick. + 1 star. I'd stay from ordering appetizers, generally their spring rolls and eggs rolls. They're a bit pricy, not the best-freshly made, especially the spring rolls with an imbalance of lettuce to rice noodles. Another thing is that they close on Tuesdays, and I keep forgetting it every time I go out there on a Tuesday. read more

Staying at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara hotel and had a craving for Pho. This restaurant is just minutes down the road from the hotel. Ordered P1 ( Pho Dac Biet or Pho Special). The protein is less than what you would get in LA or OC but it was still good and satisfied my craving for pho. I would come back the next time I visit Santa Barbara. read more

Decide to try this place as it was the closes one near our area with 4 star review . Well, extremely disappointed compare to all other pho places we've been to. Very short staff, very stingy with toppings and napkins. My order was wrong but decided to have what was delivered because we had a long wait and the guy taking the orders was the same person preparing some orders . I think I might of been overcharged( they didn't present us with a ticket . Same guy just clicked his computer and gave me my total at the register.)or this is very expensive compare to legit Vietnamese restaurants. $34 for 2 regular pho as nd 2 egg roll s. read more

Pho broth this time was a little watery (not sure if they are short on broth and added water). However spring rolls and bahn mi were spot on! Love Vietnamese food and happy about having a place in Goleta! read more

The best and most consistently great pho in Santa Barbara. Meat is good (I always order extra meat to get the amount that I like) and the broth is well-flavored even without too much saucing. I go here regularly more than any other place in Goleta when I don't want to gamble on quality. read more

My husband and I are regulars at Phamous and for good reason- this place is amazing!! It is without a doubt the cleanest and best pho/bun/bahn mi in town, and the egg rolls are equally phenomenal! If you needed any more evidence for Phamous's commitment to quality Vietnamese food, the owner (Dan) can be seen working basically every day they're open, alongside his typically cheery staff. If you even remotely appreciate Vietnamese food, you must try it out! read more

Tried for the first time today and it was great! Friendly service. Great bahn mi. They make their bread fresh and all ingredients were tasty! Will try the pho next time. read more

This review is for the banh mi sandwiches only, and they are quite excellent. I have tried the grilled pork & the combination. I was delighted to find a real banh mi with pate which is a key ingredient that is frequently missing in other establishments claiming to serve "banh mi." And the baguettes are light and soft in the middle with a crisp exterior. I however docked 2 stars due to service. I was given the wrong sandwich twice and the wait was far too long. I watched as my sandwich took shape within a matter of minutes, but was handed to a total of 3 staff who seemed to be playing hot-potato with it. They walked around with it, put it down, remembered it and tossed it to a different server who had no idea whose it was. Perhaps this was why my sandwich was always cold, even the grilled pork one. I won't be back until the staff find their bearings. I really wish the service was better because the sandwiches are excellent. read more

Phenomenal food in the relative wasteland of Asian food in the Santa Barbara County. Given the comparatives of Noodle City and Saigon Noodle, Phamous Cafe is a refreshing change of pace that has much more friendly prices than the general food scene in Santa Barbara and sticks to more a more authentic style. Through multiple visits I have found myself to be satisfied time and time again as their full-bodied soup stock in their pho has brought me comfort and joy on every occasion. The meat is well prepared, noodles well prepared and the price is more forgiving than the rest. Despite my ravings of the pho, my initial opinion of the restaurant came from their Bahn Mi. Their meat preparation, Vietnamese bread and pickled vegetables bring a refreshing addition to the Santa Barbara food palate. This delightful sandwich priced the best for a quick bite is beyond fantastic. The garlic pâté is undeniably the glue that holds together the sandwich to excellence. Overall an excellent experience that should not crumble to the lowest denominator that is often found around the area. read more

Love the simplicity of all the dishes. Ingredients are always fresh. Even the tofu pho is full of flavor. Definitely recommend.

Being a college student, pho is a staple in my Sunday morning diet. This is my new favorite place to go. I used to go to Noodle City but they are inconveniently closed on the day I need it the most. Phamous cafe satisfies my cravings-- pho, spring rolls, and rice plates are all delicious (especially the shrimp ones!). They also bake their banh mi sandwiches fresh, the combo and bbq pork are favorites. Service is attentive, they always checked in on me and made sure everything was alright! Also: Their Vietnamese coffee is strong but in the best kind of way. It's literally addicting, you have to try it. read more

We accidently ordered right when they closed but they still made us pho for our dinner. Thank you. It was very good and we really appreciated it. We will make a note next time for which hours they are open. read more

Friendly staff, nicely decorated. Looked like customers were mostly nearby college students. Combination bùn was pretty decent, and the shrimp in it was good but on the smaller side. Also the beef was charred. Egg roll could use a little something. Like I said helpful and friendly staff, but I had to flag one down to get the check. Will go back to try their banh mi as they did not have bread today due to an family emergency. read more

The food was ok I got no complaints , but was greeting and waiting by unfriendly lady server. She didn't actually do much just taking orders with attitude . It is unprofessional if you want to work in service industry and especially work for tip , why would I want to tip you!!! By the way those $9 tip we left ,we want to tip the male server not you. He was always polite and friendly every single time we there. read more

Delicious Vietnamese food! The spring rolls and peanut sauce as an appetizer are perfect. I'd highly recommend them. My husband really enjoyed his combination bahn mi, but I think I enjoyed my pho even more. I've been a little bit under the weather and pho was definitely the remedy I needed. I got the p3, I believe. The service was great. My water was refilled frequently and they were very kind. My only complaint is that my husband's bahn mi came out 5-10 minutes before my pho. (I want to say 10 minutes, but maybe it just felt that way because I was so hungry.) The cost was very reasonable at about $21 pre-tip for two meals and an appetizer. I am sure we will be back! read more

The Banh Mi sandwiches and Pho are both really good. The bread was nice and soft and the veggies really fresh and crisp, no greasy spoon feeling here. The price of the Pho is too high so I won't be eating that often. Service is really good, always plenty of people available if you need help. If you're in a hurry you can order & pay at the counter. The place (and employees) are very clean. My favorite thing in Vietnam is the coffee (they roast their beans in cocoa & butter oil) so I must review that as well. The Viet iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk was pretty decent and had a unique taste, I detect Cafe Due Monde with a shot of Mocha Mix (no condensed milk?) but I could be wrong. CDM is basically strong New Orleans coffee mixed with chicory and is commonly used by Viet-Americans. I can buy a can of it for $8.00 and it would last me weeks so charging $4.25 for one serving is a rip. Peets and Starbucks can get away with charging that price because you're getting premium beans and a cup crafted by a trained barista from an espresso machine that costs thousands of dollars. Here you're getting cheap, pre-ground coffee brewed in a large batch so they should ease up on the price. In summary I want sandwich, coffee and tip to total $10.00 or less. 5 stars if they can make it happen. read more