Pho Ly

By far the best Phở in Bellingham. And by far the filthiest restaurant ever. As much as I LOVE their food, I just couldn’t take it anymore. Food stuck on the dishes, the cups, dirty tables, walls and the sauces on the tables are all goopy and stuck. Blech! BUT… the food is amazing! If you can stomach a dirty environment, I definitely recommend this place. I say, get the take out and hopefully the kitchen prep is sanitary.

The food here is pretty good, I sampled my boyfriends teriyaki and my parents phở. All was good, only complaint is that it’s small and kinda dirty. Our table was pretty sticky.

While there are a few places in Bellingham where you can satisfy your craving for phở, my favorite is Phở Ly. I think it’s best not to ask what goes into the balls at any phở restaurant, but their soup balls are firm in texture, succulent, and some of the best I’ve ever had. They’ll accommodate those with tastes for more challenging offerings — such as tripe and tendon — or serve you a bowl of amazing broth with simpler ingredients if you’re a bit less adventurous. Their spring rolls and egg rolls are worth a trip on their own. And I can’t say enough great things about the owner, whose children I have watched grow up for the last decade as they help their parents run the restaurant, and who treats all his customers like royalty.

If you’re vegetarian or hate bad service, don’t come here! When I was most of the way through my mediocre vegetarian Phở bowl, I found a large unidentifiable piece of meat at the bottom! The owner was very apologetic and kindly offered to make me a new one or comp my order but still, it was disgusting. (Even my meat eating friend was disgusted). It was a little crowded for a Monday and it took us forever to get our food. The guys in the back were rushing around like crazy but the guy in the front would sit down and eat or be in his phone in between taking food to tables when meanwhile there were tables to be bussed and wiped down and people who had not gotten their order in yet. I will definitely never go back and my friend said her beef Phở was just average so not worth it.

Every time Iv come here the food is fresh and delicious! The rare beef phở is my favorite, with lots of hot sauce!
If you have a cold this place will cure it! Sip on some hot soup and tea and believe me you’ll feel better!

Me and the hubs have been regulars at Phở Ly since, well, pretty much the dawn of time. Or, whenever they opened (whichever came first). This place is great, no-​frills, deliciousness. And it’s definitely the best phở in Bellingham. The service is friendly, too. The owner treats us like we’re family (even when we haven’t been in for awhile), and he’s always happy to throw in a few extra interesting meats. Yes, they have tendon, tripe, and other traditional delicacies just for the asking (you just won’t necessarily find them on the menu). Oh, and the egg rolls are no slouch, either.

Please, before you visit this place, CALL the health department and ask them to join you. I suspect there isn’t a health Dept. in Bellingham. Poor planning people.

The food here is quite good and inexpensive. However, the place is filthy. My wife had to put napkins under her shoes so she could sit still. The tea is sketchy. I saw him pouring something out of a plastic pitcher unmeasured in to an un rinsed pot and then adding hot water to make tea. When he brought our soup actually only my wife’s, I had to ask for mine which was still on the counter. Wipes his hands on his shirt and uses the same filthy rag to «clean» the tables. Seriously, when was the last time the health department made a visit? The place was crowded and a lot of people were repeats as they greeted the owner. Don’t know exactly what make anyone come here more than once.

When I walked in, there were barely seats left for me but as soon as someone left, the owner went over to the table and quickly wiped it down with a wet rag. No cleaning solution, nothing. There was still food and wet spots on the table but he quickly swiped it with his hand.
He sat me down and I ordered my food. 20 minutes in and I still haven’t gotten my water. I then got my food. After having to ask him 2 times, he finally got my water.
Food: The wonton noodle soup was good but the biggest problem I had was smelling the strong odor of bleach on my chopsticks and spoon. I normally don’t complain because my mom used to own a small restaurant so I know how hectic it can be when it gets busy but I’ve had enough when I went to go ask for a plastic spoon, take out chopsticks and the owner mocked me.
The walls are very dirty, the tables are sticky and the utensils obviously weren’t getting sanitized properly.
Food is good, I won’t lie about that. But the environment takes my focus off from all of that. You get what you pay for here. Cheap food but dirty area. You choose.

Travelling through from LA and stopped for lunch looking for some good and cheap food. Found this little phở place, at first i had my second thoughts but once the food came out it was so good! Phở tastes authentic, grilled pork and shrimp was well seasoned and grilled, and the boba (aka bubble tea) was fresh. I got the Phở Tai and its a pretty good sized bowl. The taro bubble tea tasted great and the black pearls are FRESH. One of the best phở places I’ve been to.

This place should be closed down for unsanitary health reasons. It was a pig-​sty to say the least. Food was also terrible and not cooked. I’m going to the doctor on Monday to make sure I don’t have a stomach infection from the swine and slop they fed me.

They remember my order when they see my face. I think that says everything.

I eat here so much they are like family to us. Best phở around and really tasty broth. Great for a cold rainy day. My fav restaurant in Bellingham by far! It’s family run and you won’t find a better phở place in town.

Love this place! When I was living up in Bellingham, I was a regular here. The food comes quick and it is delicious. Especially for the prices. Love the free hot tea as I have been to other restaurants where that is not the case. The phở is very flavorful and the owner, Nip, has an amazing memory. I moved from Bham a couple years ago and only come to Phở Ly maybe once every 6 months or so. But he still remembers my boyfriend’s order and mine as well as many others.

As a big phở consumer, it only seemed reasonable to try this place out. Rightfully I did just that before shopping at Bellis Fair Mall, seeing as this is the closest phở place in the area.
First thing I will note is the cleanliness of the place. It’s not visually appealing, the condiment containers looked gross, the tea kettle I was brought for complimentary tea looked askew as well. Overall, it wouldn’t hurt for them to take more initiative in cleaning the place.
That being said, I got my food — A large combination bowl with buk choy. I was served by a lady who seemed to be very unhappy being there; I smiled, said thank you and got no response.
Food-wise…that was a game changer. The broth was definitely better than most. Not the best, but certainly not the worst. The meatballs in my phở were tasty as well, along with the eye round. For the price, I definitely got my money’s worth. However, the portions were a little off. It seemed like I got 4 pieces of meat with a giant pile of noodles. That and the buk choy seemed like it had been out for a while.
Overall, my experience wasn’t terrible. I’d definitely pick this place over Phở 99 any day (Food-​wise, not counting atmosphere.) Again, I would emphasize their need to clean the place up more!

By far the worst Phở i have ever eaten. Horrible cheap noodles too.
I know plenty dives in BC and around the country that serve some of the tastiest food with poor ambiance. Even some places not the cleanest but food was awesome.
However this rat hole should be inspected. Just walk into the bathrooms and your turned off. Yes they had an award back in 2009 which basically means absolutely nothing. I would rather dine at the golden arches over this disrespect to great soup and Vietnamese cooking.
NO foody in they’re right mind can tell me this place is good.
My negative feed back doesn’t just come from the food but the atmosphere. From the time we walked in with no where to sit do to tables not turned over to him bringing one soup to my partner without being careful spilling some of it on our table abruptly putting on table and rushing to next table without a care that he spilled anything.
You can even tell that these plates left on tables weren’t even finished.
This place needs employees and an overhaul and some passion put into that broth rather than cheap processed stock and other dishes otherwise shut this hole down!
This to me is a cheap Chinese knockoff Phở restaurant with dirty old menu’s and tea pots with crusty bottles everywhere. I still feel grossed out writing this hours later.
Don’t take my word for it. Give it a try once and let us know lol

Tuesday found the Phở Kings on a business trip up to Bellingham which meant we also had the chance to grab a bite to eat in a phở shop that was new to us.
Phở Ly is located in a strip mall like many of the phở shops we visit. We were early, showing up at about quarter to noon and the place was already about half full of people including a few local Vietnamese folks. It would be full by the time we left about forty minutes later.
An older gentleman came out to give us our menus and then take our orders. We got water and then shortly thereafter a solid and healthy looking plate of the usual condiments. One of these days I’d like to see something different on those condiment plates. While I’m sure there are some similarities to a bowl of soup in Vietnam, I’m also sure that there must be differences too.
The menu at Phở Ly was just a bit different than the usual. The soups were laid out as complete soups without the usual combinations of meat. I’m sure we could have ordered any of the soups on the menu and then specified a different set of meat but that’s not how they were on the menu.
Instead there were about nine soups, from a beef soup to a combinations soup, from a hot and spicy beef soup to a vegetarian soup, a wonton soup, a chicken noodle soup and a seafood noodle soup. I must admit, it was nice to see such a nice set of options for phở soup. I stuck with the hot and spicy beef soup while others selected vegetarian and combination.
As is standard in a phở shop, our soups were delivered to us within about five minutes. They were all steaming hot with mine showing hot pepper sauce floating on top. Upon taking a sip the soup was as hot and spicy as it looked as were the bowls. There is nothing worse than luke-​warm phở soup. Fortunately we were in luck.
I heaped up my generous condiment plate on top of my bowl and then put only a small amount of sriracha and hoisin sauce into mine as I could tell I’d not need anything more to spice things up. I even left the jalapenos behind on my plate.
The beef broth was rich without being too greasy — certainly not the best broth I’ve had in Seattle but among the top set of phở shops without a doubt. The noodles were a bit different than what we normally see with there being quite a lot of size variations to the noodles. They tasted the same they were just more numerous and many were thicker than other places.
I soon realized that while the spicy hotness of the soup was nice, it was also not terribly unique. I too could have put a dollop of chili sauce on my soup and called it «hot and spicy.»
Working my way through the soup I began to hunt for pieced of meat. By the looks of things I’d only gotten a portion of the thinly sliced steak with very little brisket. There was a decent amount of meat overall but I’d have to say it was on the smaller side as compared to other places.
Soon I was reaching the end of the bowl, my mouth was hot, but not too hot and my stomach was full. Overall a very good bowl of phở. We may have to return to Phở Ly on a future trip to Bellingham though that all depends on if we can find any other new phở shops.
Ratings
Location: B
Condiments: B+
Heat Index: A–
Broth: B
Meat: B–
Overall: B+ (two out of three phở bowls)

I stopped in here for a late lunch my first day in Bellingham. After a long day of 3 flights from Dulles to get to Bellingham — I figured a steaming bowl of Phở Ga would rejuvenate me.
I ordered a large Phở Ga and a glass of water. I was brought a glass of water, plus a small metal tea kettle and cup. The tea kettle looked like it needed a serious sand blasting — it looked as if it were beyond cleaning.
When the soup came out it was hot and steaming away, and the plate of aromatics was in good shape: Jalapeños, lime wedge, Basil, and Bean sprouts.
The chicken was way overcooked though. And their Phở Ga is not made with chicken broth. It was a beef broth. I prefer places that make a delicious, flavorful chicken broth for their Phở Ga. Sadly, Phở Ly is not one of these places.
I ate the whole bowl though — as I was hungry. I added all of the aromatics, and quite a bit of Sriracha sauce to the broth.
The restaurant was a bit on the dirty side. Service was good. I doubt I would come back here again.

Pretty good Thai and Vietnamese food. The phở was tasty, but kind of small for the price. The staff are friendly, and the restaurant is small but comfortable. I like coming here for variety, but it isn’t one of those places I feel super «wowed» about. Good solid Asian food.
Note for Disabled: Reasonably accessible, has its own parking lot.

I wanted to like Phở Ly, but the quality just isn’t there. The soup had a ton of MSG, the noodles were too soggy and the spring rolls fell apart easily.
Some good points though — the food came fast, they accept credit cards and parking is free. The owners are nice enough, but there’s better phở joints around.
If I had to sum it up in a word, it would be underwhelming.