Pho 88

Very friendly service. Clean and Tidy.
Reasonable price with good portion.
Generous side veges
Definitely will come back

Awesome phở! Usually goto the other phở place in cultural plaza but a friend recommended and decided to go for it and very happy I did! Medium combo was like a large at other phở places and the soup flavor was very rich and tasty. Nicely cooked noodles and the beef was cooked to perfection. Only reason for 4 star is the young lady (I think maybe the owners kid?) must’ve been having a «junk day» cause she told us to just sit anywhere and basically threw 2 menu at us. Well, not really but still yet. Oh and the sprouts and veggies are more fresh at the the other spot in CCP. But I will be back!

Food is average. But they really shouldn’t employ their kids here. Not the best customer service. I got a snob. No smile. No greeting. Not polite at all. i said more «thank you’s» than the worker did. My guess is that they just had a recent family argument and the kid is taking it out on their customers. Very unprofessional. Wonder if the kids get paid…

Great chicken wings! Some of the best I’ve ever had. Juicy, crunchy, and very light on the batter. The phone was a bit of the blender side, but nothing some home made hot sauce didn’t cure! I dumped 1 of each of the fixins in there and had a wonderful bucket of redness. Come here if you want a nice clean and spacious Vietnamese restraunt!

Horrible !!! Just went there today, my nieces has bun rieu its taste funny I don’t know what it tasted like after I tried it, another nieces has phở is ok, but still not good, my husband and I had the hu tieu Trieu Chau is not a hu tieu it’s more like look fun noodle, the shrimp cake is no shirmp in there not like the picture, shirmp roll was some dried noodle in there !!! I’m very easy to eat but honestly this place is horrible food and too much MSG !!! Not recommend !!!

Many Asians believe in Chinese numerology. Asians believe that certain whole numbers are lucky.
The most revered and magical number in Chinese numerology is the number «8».
Chinese believe the number «8» has the mystic power of bringing a person, a business and even a country prosperity, good luck and good fortune.
Remember the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics? It was no coincidence that the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics began on 8÷8÷08 at 8 minutes and 8 seconds past 8 P.M., Beijing time.
Chinese Government officials believed all those «8’s» would bring success and prosperity to their Olympic Games and China.
The results cannot be argued. The Chinese won the most gold medals (51 vs. 36 for the USA) at the 2008 Olympics and China today has the second largest economy in the world.
Chinese also believe the number «88» has transcendental power. They believe «88» brings double happiness, double joy, double prosperity and double luck to a person.
Because Asians are very superstitious, it is not uncommon to find «8» or «88» in the names of Asian businesses or restaurants, everywhere in the world.
«Phở 88» is a Chinese/​Vietnamese restaurant located in the Chinese Cultural Plaza. The owner of this restaurant is clearly superstitious and believes in the magical power of «8» and «88».
I too believe in Chinese numerology, so on August (8^th month) 8 at 8 minutes and 8 seconds past 8 P.M., my gf and I walked through the doors of Phở 88.
I looked for and found table No. «8».
I scanned the menu and saw item No. «8» — Rice Noodle with Beef and Beef Brisket and ordered a medium No. «8».
My gf decided to order No. «8» too. This means our two orders together were «88». I guess you could say we had Phở «88».
We also ordered the 4 piece Crispy Spring Roll which were cut into «8» pieces… another «8».
As we waited for our order, my eyes scanned the restaurant. This place is sterile in appearance and has the ambience of a classy restaurant. A magnificent crystal chandelier hangs in the middle of the restaurant. It is truly luxurious and my guess is that the owner’s paid …$ 8888.88 for this hanging jewel.
In front of the cash register is an amethyst geode. The cost of the geode? Probably $ 888.88. There was about $ 8.88 in paper money and coins in the sparkling purple cavity of this gem formation.
What I also thought was impressive was the German made, moon phase grandfather clock in the restaurant. It was truly grand and looked expensive. Estimated retail value? You guessed it … $ 8888.88.
My gf loved the Happy Buddha on the counter of the cashier station. She remembered seeing one in Chinatown selling for $ 88.88. I wasn’t surprised to see about 88 cents worth of change on its belly.
About 8 minutes and 8 seconds after we place our order; out came our food.
My medium No. 8 was huge and very satisfying. Broth was hot, light and flavorful; and the phở had lots of fresh meat and rice noodles.
My gf loved her No. 8. She was impressed with the generous serving of Thai basil, mung bean sprouts and sawtooth coriander that accompanied our phở. We rated our No. 8 an «8.88».
The 8 pieces of cut spring rolls had a nice crispy shell and were delicious. This dish deserved an «8.88».
If you love phở and believe in Chinese numerology, this small little restaurant in the Chinese Cultural Plaza is a must try.
I rate the atmosphere of this restaurant: «8.88»
I rate their service: «8.88′.
I rate their menu: «8.88».
And I rate the food value of their No. 8: «8.88»
Our waitress handed me our bill and of course I calculated her tip at 8.88%. You may think I’m a cheapskate, seeing as how I gave her and this place so many 8.88’s. But consider this. I gave our waitress an 8.88% tip and «8.88−8.88−8.88−8.88». That is a hell of a lot of «8’s» that will bring her and the restaurant a whole lot of good luck, prosperity and good fortune in the future.
Oh and something for the owner to think about. As a believer in the power of «8»; I recommend you open and close Phở 88 at 8 minutes and 8 seconds past 8? Just remember what happened to China after their 2008 Olympic opening ceremony at 8 minutes and 8 seconds past 8.
P. S. I’m hoping this review gets 88 — Useful; 88 — Funny; and 88 — Cool so that this review brings double good luck, double prosperity and double good fortune to Phở 88.
P. P. S. For your information, I finished writing this review in 88 minutes and 8 seconds! As John McClane would say: «Yippee-​ki-​yay, mxxxxxxxxxxxs!»

Large portions full off ingredients that I couldn’t finish and at s reasonable price, however the soup was not to my liking, too muck msg? Maybe using a soup base.
Onto my next phở trek.

I’ve been here twice in the last two months. The curry with bread is a really good choice but maybe too much for one person to finish. You get to have noodles instead of bread too but I haven’t tried that yet. The summer rolls are great. The combination phở is probably the same as the ones in other restaurants but to me, they are pretty standard.
I do have to say that service is good when you get the owner helping you. As far as yesterday’s service, we had one of the really young girls helping us and she just seemed like she did not want to be there. If you’re a business owner, you probably shouldn’t force your kid to work in your restaurant.

Had lunch and dinner a couple of times, a very good amount of food with very little cost.
The best part? Authentic Vietnamese Phở!!! Always order the beef phở whenever I’m here, hands down the best. Very clean and very friendly environment.
Steven, the owner, is actually VERY knowledge… don’t be surprised to see him speaking in Mandarin, Cantonese, and even French. Provides a great service and a great story teller as well.
Tip: park in Cultural Plaza parking lot, and have them validates. It cost like $ 1 if your lunch is within a hour.

My mom and I have been to quite a few phở places here in Chinatown; this restaurant is walking distance from her home and although there are many other phở places within walking distance, we always seem to come back to this place.
The phở is consistently delicious and when we order the bread it’s always steaming hot. Our default dishes are something noodles (phở or otherwise) and the curry with bread. My mom thinks $ 3 for bread is expensive but when it’s steaming like that and crisps when you break it? You KNOW you’ve got really good bread and I think it’s worth the $ 3. The curry is delicious and I’ve yet to have Vietnamese style curry that tops Phở 88’s curry.
The dining room is decorated nicely and kept clean, and it’s a typically quiet setting but the other two families had children so it’s family friendly. The dining room is big enough that other patrons’ aren’t a bother to each other.
There’s free wifi which is an excellent plus side, so I HIGHLY recommend this place!

Atmosphere ⁰⁄₅ — The restaurant smelled like mold and it was completely empty at dinner time on Friday.
Service ⁰⁄₅ — We walk in and a teenage girl, the restaurant owner’s kid, was sitting there with her laptop. We asked her for a table, and she rolled her eyes and pointed us to the back without moving. Ok… I don’t know what her problem is, all the other servers were nice. Maybe she’s going through one of them teenage rebellious phase. Hey little girl, if you are reading this, get an attitude adjustment, you are ruining your parent’s business.
Food ⁴⁄₅ — Not bad at all. The pork chop over rice I had was pretty delicious
Location ⁰⁄₅ — The people gambling and selling drugs outside did not make it feel very safe.

Phở places are a dime a dozen. I will just put it out there I am the most picky phở eater in the world and I no shame pointing that out. Having been raised on the most delicious homemade phở, I already am very reluctant to try it at restaurants — by choice.
They had a pretty small common menu, the usual appetizers, phở, noodle dishes and rice dishes. We started the meal out with goi cuon and cha gio. Everything was made fresh and brought out to us quickly. The cha gio came out first, crisp and warm from the fryer. It was served alongside a generous portion of lettuce, Thai basil and vermicelli. The goi cuon was delicious, a good ratio of pork, shrimp, vermicelli and veggies served with a side of peanut sauce.
I ordered the phở tai & bo vien/​phở with rare beef and meatballs. I got the option to have my beef slices served on the side so I could dip in the soup and cook at my own pace which is pretty rare. The meat was thinly sliced and I was given a pretty large portion. The phở broth was pretty good, not overly salty and I didn’t get the nasty after taste of heavy MSG. Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the meal was the huge plate of vegetables that accompanied my phở.
They also had a pretty good selection of drinks and desserts, but unfortunately I have an issue with over indulging on my meals and not having any room for dessert. Oh well, I left satisfied with a smile on my face.
Just a note about this place, while they are Vietnamese speaking they are not Vietnamese run. The owners are Teochew — don’t feel guilty if you have never heard of this dialect its pretty rare. Anyway they share a lot of similarities in cuisine so it made sense that they made amazing Vietnamese food.

Not a bad place for phở inside the Chinese Cultural Plaza, across from Legend’s. Came here for Friday dinner and it was pretty empty. I had the spring roll bun which was good.
We actually tried coming here for a breakfast phở because they have early opening hours. But they weren’t open! We waited 10 minutes and went elsewhere instead.

I wanted to try something different instead of the usual Phở and I ended up getting the Chiu Chow noodle soup (House Special?). I’m pretty sure that’s not what’s it called on the menu but I can’t remember it since I ate here a month ago. I also forgot to take a picture of it because I really like the presentation of bowl. Instead I will upload the picture from their
page.
Compared to the beef stock in Phở, the broth seems to be made with Chicken and has a tangier taste to it. The fixings include Chinese lettuce, chives, fish balls, pork or fish cake, beef or pork slice, 2 pieces of deveined shrimp, and a giant crispy shrimp chip on top. The noodles served were similar to Chinese’s fat flat rice noodle (Ho Fun) which is a gluttonous favorite of mine. I still prefer Phở over what I’ve ordered but it’s nice to have something different once in awhile.
What I liked the most about the restaurant was the Red Bean & Grass Jelly Shave Ice. It was presented to me in a layer of Azuki Beans, silky textured grass jelly, slightly chunky ice shavings, milk, and topped with condensed milk. This drink invigorated my sugar cravings and I’ve loved every bit of it. Do try it when you get the chance.
This was actually my second visit here and I did had Phở on my first visit. I have enjoyed both occasions and wouldn’t mind coming back again. Compared to my favorite Phở restaurant (To Chau) which looks dirty and sometimes fills me with regret, this restaurant is much more cleaner and welcoming.
Don’t forget they have free wifi so you can use your phone as you eat in front of your date.

What’s up with phở places and numbers? It seems like half of the phở places on this island has a number suffix to it. Phở 88 is another one and it’s tucked in the Chinese Cultural Plaza right across from Legend.
Phở 88 is a great alternative to Huong Lan, the other phở place inside the Chinese Cultural Plaza. Where Huong Lan is considered the best in Chinatown, Phở 88 isn’t too far behind. Instead of waiting 45 minutes for Huong Lan on a weekend, you should try here!
The restaurant is much cleaner than your ordinary Chinatown phở restaurant. Perhaps, it is the most cleanest phở restaurant out there period. White clean walls, clean tables, clean everything.
My favorites from here is indeed their Phở Dac Biet, or combination phở. Their pork summer rolls are also another of my favorite here. These go well together.
Phở Dac Biet — Phở broth was delicious and upon request, came out incredibly hot. The rare beef, given outside was fresh and tender. Phở 88 also doesn’t skimp on their condiments of culantro, Thai basil, jalepeno, limes, and of course, beansprouts.
Pork Summer Rolls — I was recently introduced to them by a cousin of mine from California. I always had ordered regular summer rolls. No longer! These are my favorite now and they make a pretty good one here.
Validated parking available here if you park at the center.

This new phở place is located at the old chinese vegetarian restaurant. My mom and I came here tonight for dinner since she was too lazy to cook. First of all, this is one of the cleanest phở restaurants I’ve been to and I love it! I hate the feeling of dining at an unsanitary eating establishment. We ordered two dishes and they were both very tasty and came in generous portions.
Combination phở (Large): We always order the combo phở because it has a little of everything! I insisted that we should have chosen the medium because we can’t too much, but my mom did not listen. So, we ended up not being able to finish both dishes… anyways, the broth was tasty and there was more than enough to share.
Vermicelli noodles w/​spring rolls: This dish was definitely a lot bigger than what I imagined. It came with tons of noodles and a good portion of spring rolls as well. The taste was typical, like at any other places.
Overall, my mom and I enjoyed the food a lot and I will definitely be returning. My bf loves phở so I think he’d love this place because of the huge portions: D The best thing is that they have wifi! What kind of phở restaurant has wifi?! This one!

Phở 88 is so clean that even Mr. Clean would be happy. Having a clean restaurant sure speaks volumes. It makes me confident that the food will be prepared well when there’s an attention to cleanliness.
I just had to stop by after hearing great things about this place. The gist of it was that this is one of the best phở places in town. After trying it, I have to agree!
Located in the west side of the Chinese Cultural Plaza near Beretania Street, this restaurant has one of the best phos I’ve ever had. Freshest meat, cleanest broth, and freshest chili garlic sauce ever. Not to be outdone by their food, service is also very friendly and fast. The man who I think is possibly the owner is also the cashier and your waiter.
Parking is available in any of the private lots for a small fee or free on the street after 6pm. Wifi is also free!

This new Phở restaurant used to be the Legends Vegetarian restaurant. I often come here when it was the vegetarian restaurant with family, but I guess the owners wanted to catch the craze with Phở and Vietnamese cuisine, so they transitioned this place from a strict Chinese restaurant to a more mixed Vietnamese restaurant that has Chinese dishes too. I wanted to check this place out, ahead of the planed UYE event, slated for 03/​21/​2014, just to get the inside info about this place. The reviews for Phở 88 was pretty good, with an average 4 star rating, so it had to be good. Shouldn’t it? After reading the reviews, I was like, why not, and so I came here after a day at the office on a Saturday. Yup, Saturday. Making the $$, so I can fly to Europe this year. But anyways, here I was at 2:30pm in Chinatown Cultural Plaza and I had to use the map on the Elevator to see where Phở 88 was. It took me a little while before realizing where it was. First time for everything, I suppose.
Phở 88 Vietnamese restaurant is not really a pure authentic Vietnamese restaurant at all. Especially, when I knew that it was a Chinese restaurant before the transition. Phở 88 is located in the Chinatown Cultural Plaza, located at 100 North Beretania Street. The restaurant is basically next to Legends Seafood Restaurant is. Took me a while to realize this and I circled the entire complex looking for it, until I looked at the map directory for the right direction. With that said, this place is pretty clean. I stepped into the restaurant and I stood there and nobody would help me. There was a guy just standing there watching the big screen tv and wow, that was rude. 3 minutes later, a lady stepped out from the back and asked what I wanted. Rude again, but she told to sit anywhere. Must be a family business, since I happened to be at a table overhearing a conversation about going to college. Turns out that one of the owner’s daughters was seeking advice on how to go about picking the right internships and scholarships opportunities she wanted to do. And she wanted to see New York University later this summer. The restaurant was basically empty, with me occupying a paying table.
The restaurant is small, but has about 10 tables. The walls were decorated with Chinese art and symbolism, which makes you wonder if it’s really a Vietnamese place or one that is owned by the Chinese? The proof is in the menu, I suppose. The service was pretty good and the owner was very welcoming and friendly. I had looked at the menu before taking photos of it, so that was fun. My time here was kind of short. I ordered the large combination Phở with extra noodles. When I cashed out, he didn’t charge me extra for the noodles, which I thought was fabulous. As I was eating, I listen to the conversation about colleges, while the flat screen tv was blaring old school Chinese programming. I swear that I was in a Chinese restaurant, but eating Phở. It was definitely weird and odd at the same time, but whatever. Service was good and they take credit cards, so that’s always an awesome thing. I also ordered summer rolls, but in a to go box, just in case I was just full up from the Phở itself. Thank god I didn’t overkill on both of them at one sitting!
The Phở itself was pretty good. The both was medium brownish, so you can tell it had some flavor to it, but not that much. I prefer it to be dark. Darker the better. Just like chocolate. Darker the better. More flavor if it is darker. The ambiance was good, although the tv blaring out Chinese language didn’t really motivate me that I was in a Vietnamese restaurant at all. Especially when we were in Chinatown, of all places. Still, this restaurant was pretty good. Not sure now of the high star rating, but the food was good, although not mind blowing good, but the service was great, AFTER I sat down. But seriously, don’t act like I don’t exist and run away before someone else has to notice and then seat me. Ugh. That was interesting, but still. The experience was decidedly typical, but the rudeness can be excusable. The Phở was alright, although the bowl was huge and the cuts of meat were delicious. I would say that it was nothing special, but the portions were generous. It filled me up and never let me down one bit.
3.5 stars, rounded to 4.0.
Support local!
B

Sorry, have to respectfully go against the grain with the other reviews. The phở is average compared to it’s peers, the soup is mostly beef flavor and not much else. Can’t really taste much of the spices such as cinnamon or star anise. The soup is like Phở Tri but less intense beef flavor.
On the plus side, the staff is extremely friendly, prompt, and helpful except for the surly younger sister who didn’t acknowledge us and just threw the plates of raw beef in front of us and walked away. The place is very clean and A/​C but was not working well when we went, hopefully they fix it. The portions are very generous with lots of beef and prices are a bit lower than normal, a large bowl will run you about $ 9.25.
Probably not coming back except if the lunch group really wants to go here and I’m the only hold out.

I’ve only been once with a bunch of friends who know their Phở and let me just say this is about as good as Phở gets. I still like Phở 2 and Phở Thinh but this is a step above.
The meat is nice and tender.
The broth is smooth and tasty.
Really nice Spring Rolls, screaming hot!
The atmosphere is clean and bright.
Service is outstanding.