Pho 333

Used to go here every week when I was a kid but now they’re new menu, options and No salty lemonade drink forces me to give a 3 stars. Bring back the salty lemonade! Please

sometimes loud music and starbucks coffee makes me tired, and love songs make me angry. im a beast boo, stay w/​me. thai/​viet coffee is strong. works for me, i like it now and then from time to time. and so do plenty other things. nice and cozy atmosphere. ask for more hot water in the cap for refill. drip drip drip wooooooo! get off me. n then.8Z

On a cold wintery Hawaii day, there is no better way to warm yourself than a bowl of phở. I am so glad that I stumbled to this off the beaten path spot in Chinatown as it is now my favorite phở spot on the island.
There are signs on King Street in Chinatown that directs the way to this restaurant, but don’t follow them. Instead, go towards River Street and follow it towards Nimitz Highway until you see the Phở #333 sign on the left.
First thing you’re going to notice about this place is that it is clean. Exceptionally clean for a restaurant located off of nowhere in Chinatown. The other thing you’re going to notice is that it is normally empty. The reason why is that there is tremendous amount of competition on what I will now call «Phở King River». Don’t sound it out while you’re at work guys. You can giggle if you want to but there are lots of Phở restaurants nearby King and River street.
What Phở 333 specializes is oxtail soup and phở. If you’re like me that loves both phở and oxtail, then you can even order oxtail phở. Oh, of course you could order other things in at Vietnamese restaurant, but when you’re in one, the urge to get Phở over anything else is strong.
I got the oxtail phở in large and my girlfriend got the combination phở in medium. Prices are a little higher than other spots, but it isn’t something that make or breaks the deal. Server took our order and within less than 5 minutes, our phở was out.
Both our phở were piping hot! It was steaming for minutes until I started eating it. This is what separates the great restaurants from the good ones. They wasted no time to get it from their pot to the table. The difference between large and medium for them is sizable. Their culantro, bean sprouts, and thai basil were really fresh also. What amazes me is that I don’t really know what the oxtail phở is. It tastes like oxtail soup, but it also tastes like phở. They might have mixed both broths together, but that is just pure speculation. Damn good though. Toppings aren’t too much, but it is in line with many other spots. You won’t get huge oxtail pieces because it doesn’t fit in the bowl.
Both phở totaled under $ 20 so it is very in line with many other spots.

The parking options can get quite frustrating. The building has a parking garage thats not too well lit and requires customers to pay the metered parking. Parking entrance is on the Nimitz side (near the piers) of the building.
The broth is piping hot and portions are generous. There are a variety of menu items available, lots of pupus/​appetizers.

New owners, new chef.
No oxtail. New broth is seriously lacking depth and richness.
I had a big piece of bright blue plastic in my water and dirt on the cup, they brought me back the same dirty cup with the big blue piece of plastic missing, still dirty and all the spoons on the table were dirty and oily. The new owners have ruined a great place.

The broth is very consistent so you will have the same taste every time.

Yes, I love Phở. Phở at Chinatown seems soo much more authentic and cultural. That’s probably just me.
Phở 333 is on the corner of River Street and Nimitz Highway. Within walking distance for lunch in the Downtown area. It’s a pretty big restaurant so great for big lunch groups. Service is superb. They always get our order correct. My friend always ask for no parsley and green onions. Her phở is served to her pleasing. The price is decent, too.
The noodle there is the right texture. The broth is salty and minty and ono good. The rare steak sliced thin so it cooks to its best in the HOT broth. I tried their lemon grass chicken there and it’s another one of my favorites. It also comes with a small bowl of phở broth. Yum! The lemon grass chicken is a spicy dish. It is served with this fish sauce, same sauce for the spring rolls at most Vietnamese restaurants. Fish sauce soaked lemon grass chicken with rice will leave your tummy asking for more. The spring rolls is just great. Deep fried goodness. Who wouldn’t love deep fried spring rolls.

Had an hour lunch break from work so I went here with my dad. Located in Chinatown, it is very near to the financial district, which makes it prime for businessmen looking for a quick fix. The broth was good but i always put an excessive amount of sriracha and oyster sauce in my phở so in the end, all my phở taste the same. lol. After my meal, I got a Vietnamese coffee which lasted me through the afternoon, thank god. Don’t be scared of the location of this place, I think their fried spring rolls and fresh veggies make this place a safe bet for a satisfying meal

I recently went here for a lunch session with my brother and his girlfriend (both avid Unilocalers). From the moment you walk in, you know this place means business when it comes to their Phở. Not a huge place, but not small either, each table is the typical diner style setup with enough condiments on the surface to please any pallet.
The menu is quite extensive, and you can get almost anything with your Phở, but I personally opted for the Oxtail. I am a huge oxtail soup fan, and thus had to get some of that glorious broth in my belly. There are two sizes of Phở, and I would suggest the small portion as even my garbage disposal of a stomach could not finish the large. The broth was delicious, that kind of fatty oily goodness that you can’t get enough of. The meat was tender, fall off the bone good and was slathered with flavor. The fresh bean sprouts and herbs were a wonderful edition.
My only two «gripes» about this place were the excessive amount of noodles and lack of staffing. When I think Phở, I want me some broth. I want to tip that bowl up and chug it like a cold beer on a hot day, which gets complicated when there are enough noodles in my bowl to feed a small nation. Not really a bad thing because you are getting some serious food for your money, but all the same I will take less noodle and more brothy gooodness. Also, while the service was not bad by any stretch, there was a single man running the entire front of the restaurant. As a result, there were messy tables all around the restaurant from the lunch rush. He was very nice and personable though, so it’s hard to be upset and like I said the food was great. I would go back the next time I get to Hawaii.

Finally got to try here because we went early. This restaurant is usually full by 12noon, but today it seemed like only ¾ of the restaurant was full. The waiter is also the server and cashier. I wonder if that’s the owner? He looks so young, but maybe he just looks young, but I felt so sorry for him being in all 3 positions with such a big restaurant. He was pleasant, and the bowls are huge like some other phở restaurants I went to. However, the soup is the same basic beef broth. I’ve had better, but it’s worth ordering $ 7.50 for a small and $ 8.50 for a large.
Combination Beef Phở — 3 ½ star — I actually like the beef at the Phở restaurant at Pearl Kai better. However, Phở 333 gives more meat, and the noodles are different. They’re chewier, but also pastier, I had to ask where he got his noodles or if they make it fresh because it had a different texture than all the other Phở restaurants. He said it’s because they special order fresh noodles from the mainland. However I didn’t see any tripe as it states in the combination. What makes a phở good is the soup broth, and it’s the same as any other place. The basil had a little brown on the sides, but it was fresh as well as the other veggies. It was also washed very well, and plentiful.
Chicken Phở — 3 star — a lot of pieces of chicken, but the chicken broth tasted like canned chicken broth I use to cook at home. If it tastes like something I could make, so it only deserves a 3. My friend really liked it, but this was the first Phở restaurant she’s been to in a long time. After I’ve tasted fresh chicken from another phở restaurant up the street, I haven’t found any other restaurant compared to that.
Shrimp papaya salad — 4 star — better than other phở restaurants. The sweet and spicy mixture was flavorful, and even if my mouth was burning as we walked out, it was good!
Service — 4 star — very pleasant, and our food was served promptly. However, we had to ask for an extra plate twice to share the papaya salad, and our salad came way after our Phở. However, I give him credit for being the only person there with a good attitude to serve everyone.

Located at the Kalihi edge of Chinatown, the soup here is not only flavorful but there is absolutely no skimping on the meat. I don’t know how they can fit all the meat into a small bowl but I am not complaining. I have only been here for lunch and it has never been crowded making the service really fast. The combination medium phở had enough meat, noodle and tasty broth. The bill came to less than $ 9 including tip.
Coworkers had oxtail soups and I could see the meat just falling off the bone. It was a good lunch with coworkers silencing for the first time to devour their soups.
Since it is Chinatown, parking is tricky but there is a municipal metered garage attached to the building with Nimitz entrance.

The phở here has a good taste. Try it for yourself, each place has a unique flavor. It’s way past the other shops and certainly on the edge of Chinatown but it has lots of space.

I walked into this out of the way slow street corner Phở shop with signs all over Hotel Street peddling their Ox Tail Soup, okay I’ll bite as the Phở was pretty good thereI might as well try the Ox Tail Soup. The interior of the restaurant is quite large and being lunch time in chinatown the place was quite quiet with only two other tables with patrons on them I ordered my Ox Tail Soup not to be confused with their Ox Tail Phở. I got my soup and proceeded to take a picture and to get eating on first initial taste humm not bad tastes like Ox Tail soup only thing is I think that the soup base could be a bit richer otherwise it is a pretty decent Ox Tail Soup. The Phở I’ve had before from here the broth was better than the Ox Tail soup and had heap loads of veggies. But for the price of $ 8.99 I guess this is a pretty good Ox Tail Soup. But for about the same price I rather go to Diem Café’s Ox Tail Soup.
Overall not, bad Parking is in the public lot in the same building so close. Lot’s of tables inside so good for a large group.

A delicious meal on a cold winter’s day.
The Combination Phở was delic and the spring rolls were served hot to our table. Our waiter was very friendly and kept our water glasses filled. I would have gave them 4 stars because their phở was good but I found stickers on our glasses. It seems they were brand new and I’m not sure if they even bothered washing these new glasses.