Pho Hoai Vietnamese Noodle House

The best phở downtown if you can get a seat!
Easily my favorite phở restaurant downtown that also has some good vermicelli dishes. The only issue is that a lot of people downtown feel this way. You will need to be there before noon if you want to be sure to be out of there before one. I also enjoy their salad rolls which are pretty typical. There are three sizes (S, L, XL). I usually eat a large and then remember I only really needed a small so I would recommend starting with that size unless you’re really hungry (or plan on taking some home). Service isn’t great as they have a small staff with a lot of patrons and the owner/​manager doesn’t place any emphasis on courtesy but he doesn’t need to due to the quantity of patrons.
See you there at lunch (although I think they’re open at other times).

One of the most unassuming, delicious phở spots I’ve ever been to. Located in a tiny strip mall, this spot is unassuming but brilliant.
I was visiting my parents for the holidays and we decided a bowl of phở would be a perfect part of our chilly Christmas Eve.
The broth: excellent. Could drink it from a teacup every morning. I’ve had plenty of phở, and this broth tops all the others.
The noodles: perfect cook, the ideal amount.
Service: friendly, quick and unobtrusive. Let me slurp my noodles in peace. Thank you!
Price: reasonable, a well-​worth-​it meal
Every time I visit from CA I will swing by my new favorite Canadian phở spot.

Favorite for downtown phở– sate phở is awesome. Impersonal staff most days, good phở every time.

Cute booths, generous portions. I ate the salad rolls and the #2 (noodle soup with rare beef, chewy but not bloody). Comfort food. Neat service.

I find the beef satay soup to be absolutely outstanding. So much so that I rarely order soup and any other restaurant because I know I’m just going to be disappointed. The ice coffee is exceptional as well and if you like fresh spring rolls they are very tasty. I usually order the large soup which is filling without being overwhelming. If you have an exceptionally large appetite then you may try the extra large.

This place has not much going for décor, but you can’t beat the food. One of the few places in town that makes bun bo hue, and it’s fantastic. I hear great things about phở, but can’t wean myself from the spicy, orange wonder of bun bo hue. I’ve had their noodle bowls, and they’re okay, not my favorite in town, that award goes to Viet West on Centre St.

Never coming back to this place. For phở, it’s expensive. For those you think they have good prices, you have to try other phở restaurants. Soup is just so so. Horrible horrible service. We were there at 11:45, so it was not busy yet. Nobody seated us so we seated ourselves. Talked to at least 3 waitresses to finally get some tea. I wanted to order, but every waitress that passes by keeps saying another waitress is coming. Huh??? What are they there for then? Why can’t they just take my order?
The owner finally came out, I thought I was finally going to get some service, then he tells me we are sitting on the wrong table because the two seater table was suppose to be combined with more tables. Well, if they had seated us when we first came in, we won’t be sitting there. I didn’t mind moving, it was his commanding voice that was very rude. One of the worst service restaurants with unjustifiable food quality.

Rude and over priced! The food is OK but you get just as good around the corner at Phở Pasteur.
The guy in charge on weekday lunch always has a frown like he doesn’t want to be there. He even yelled at a coworker of mine for taking too long to decide on the menu choices.

Writing this while recovering between throwing up for the past half hour. Food poisoning, enough said. Try at your own risk.

Super-​efficient with value pricing, this place has turning over big lunch crowds down to a science. They don’t have time to ask you about your children or your mother, but they will bring you your quality Vietnamese noodles or soup hot and fast.
Other parts of the old Chinatown are still wobbling back onto their feet, but Phở Hoai seems like it never missed a beat. I love it and hope it continues to thrive.

We love this place. We come from Edmonton to visit family and always HAVE to atop in for soup.

Calgary is a city with dozens of Phở places, and Phở Hoai remains my favourite. The broth is so rich and beefy in a way that others aren’t. The salad rolls and other accompaniments are good too, but the real star is the phở.

If you are offended by the distinct smells of a shopping centre in China town then you may want to skip this place. If you can get by that and hold your breath until you make it into the restaurant, you’ll be happy you did.
My favourite Vietnamese soup isn’t on the menu here which is Bun Cari Ga, so I had the fairly standard Sate rare beef phở. Quick service and reasonably priced. It was pretty good, spicy and flavorful but not overbearing. A few too many noodles for me but lots of beef as well. It comes in three sizes and I think you’d have to be pretty hungry to finish the XL bowl.
Not sure what else to say about Phở? It was good. I’ll go back.
If it’s good enough Phở me it’s good enough Phở you…

I had a craving for phở on a stormy chilly day in August and a web search brought me here. It’s in a small Asian mall across the hall from a meat counter which had a strong foul odor that spilled into the restaurant. After a while (and with the smell of food) the foul meat odor waned. I’ve had a ton of phở all over North America and this was comparable: fresh vegetables and good quality meat. The broth was unique — light, not heavy as others and not as rich and cloudy. Consequently, the meat had noticeably flavored the broth. We also had a side of fresh spring rolls: pretty tasty, nothing to complain about.

This place is very busy on sundays… And I know why. I think the Vietnamese food here is really good. Even when it is not a fancy place, I think the food is delicious… I will definitely go back there…

This place is so yummy. It is hands-​down my absolute favourite Phở restaurant.
The portions are huge and the basil is always super fresh.
I always order the # 15 Phở Sate with Rare Beef. It’s the best I’ve found in the city and very reasonably priced.
The ladies there are sweet and they serve free Jasmin Tea. Yay!
Only wish they also served Taro bubble tea.

Today was a bit chilly when it almost hit lunch time so my co-​workers and I decided we needed a big bowl of hot soup that can warm our souls. What better way to satisfy that quench for heat then a big bowl of Phở!
We made our way over to Phở Hoai and as I haven’t been there before I definitely made sure I was coming today as I’ve missed out on other days going there. Phở Hoai is situated inside a strip mall in Chinatown. You can sit inside the restaurant and they have a few tables outside the restaurant as well.
I would recommend coming here like any other place downtown around 11:30AM — 11:45AM. If you plan coming after 11:45AM (like we did) you should expect to be waiting anywhere from 10 – 20 minutes for a table depending on who sat first and how long it takes them to finish their meals.
What I really like about this place is their efficiency, there are quite a few people working here on the lunch hour and as soon as people stand up to leave, they have busers coming to take away the dishes and wipe down the table ready for the next occupants.
If you read my Phở reviews you know I only and always get the Phở Tai Bo Vien whether it is on the menu or not (usually it will either list Phở Tai OR Phở Bo Vien but not both as a combination).
Boy, was I ever delighted to dip my soup spoon in that broth and have a taste because it was delicious. It’s the kind of broth that has the perfect balance of color and taste, where one does not overwhelm the other and you can enjoy the broth right to the bottom of the bowl.
Phở Hoai being so close to work (3 – 4 block walk) I will be definitely coming here more often (earlier of course) for my Phở, phở sure. Get it? Toodles.

I’ve come here since I was a 14 so I’m quite familiar with this place. They’ve since renovated this place which is nice but the open kitchen still bothers me. The smell of phở is so overwhelming that you’ll smell of phở all the way back.
The food comes out fast and furious and if you want to come at lunch, you better get there by 11:30 or else, good luck finding a spot. I could live with the poor service at times because the food makes up for it. The Phở Sate is excellent although, no longer my favorite. I’ve tried other items but it’s the Sate that keeps me coming back for more.
This is a place where you want to go get a quick bite during lunch. Eat and get the hell out because the longer you stay, the harder it is to get that smell off your clothes. I don’t go here as often any more since I no longer work in downtown. It’s just not worth the hassle to find parking around Chinatown just to have a bowl of Sate when I could go somewhere else. Relocate to a place with free parking and plenty of seats and I’ll give this joint one extra star. Put in a huge furnace fan with a turbo engine and close off the kitchen so that no air can escape to the dinning area and I’ll definitely give this place 5 stars.

I’ve been coming here for years. I actually don’t eat the Phở Thai noodles anymore, I order # 22 which is a beef dish served on a bed of lettuce with a bowl of rice on the side. A large one of these costs about $ 13.00 I usually get my two little guys some rice and spring rolls. That’s all they really want.

One of my favourite Phở places in Calgary. In addition to the restaurant being relatively clean and the food being fresh (particularly the vegetables that one adds to the noodles), I really love the broth. It has a clean taste that doesn’t dominate the noodles, but adds the perfect balance of flavour. My favourite dish is the Phở Sate which, while spicy and may make you sweat, does not feel like napalm on your tongue. Also, the salad rolls taste fresher than most places. It isn’t cheap as far as Phở is concerned (large Phở Sate is $ 9.25). However, when I seek a quality bowl of Phở I find myself often coming here.