Pho 97

We are in the middle of Honolulu’s Chinatown for the first time ever, passing one restaurant after another, each dark and dingy with dirty windows wondering where to go? Phở 97 pops up. To phở or not to phở? Sorry about that William! Shakespeare is turning in his grave!
Phở 97 has the TripAdvisor logo on the door –sorry guys didn’t see a Unilocal logo! If the readers of TripAdvisor rated it highly then it is good enough for me!
We look inside on this Saturday lunch time, and see that the place is packed –with Asians talking Vietnamese. A good sign, as the locals would definitely know a good place when they see one.
Air conditioned and clean but noisy with locals and their families chattering in Vietnamese on this 82 degree day in mid January.
We get a large table with 6 seats, and are directed to sit on the end, with menus handed to us. On the end of the table a solitary lady orders phở, which comes in a container large enough to fit over her head in the rice paddies of the motherland.
The waitress sizes us up and asks in a heavy Vietnamese accent «Would you like drink?», with a smile on her face. Better than the proprietor who is standing around surveying the place with a traditional stoic Oriental look. Nothing rude, just going about doing his job with a minimum of fan fare.
The wife orders a Papaya salad, and I get the Beef with broccoli rice dish. What, you go into a phở place and don’t order phở?! What kind of a phở are you?
Service is very prompt, and the dishes arrive in minutes.
The wife’s papaya salad comes first, and I put a small portion on my side plate. Mixed greens with slivers of papaya on a bed of raw bean sprouts, with some powdered nuts sprinkled on top. Half a dozen pieces of shrimp cut lengthwise, with a few pieces of sliced beef together with sliced carrots and some sliced white vegetable that I don’t recognize. Delicious with the light vinaigrette like dressing.
My dish arrives a few minutes later. It comes in a bowl of broth, with slices of beef amid tons of vegetables, including broccoli, bean sprouts, peas, pea snaps. I scarf up the soup without slurping, although I doubt if I could hear my neighbors slurping, amid the loud chatter.
I finish off the vegetables, and dump the side dish of rice into the soup bowl to mix with the beef broth and beef slices. Among the best beef broccoli dishes I’ve ever tasted, and my stomach gives a loud burp at the end of lunch, exclaiming its approval.
I go pay with credit card, but always carry a good amount of cash, just in case they don’t take credit cards.
Never used the bathroom, and never saw any roaches or rodents moving around. Place is not much for décor, nor are the waiters and staff particularly friendly, but then you can’t tell a book, in this case the food, by its cover!

Keep in mind. I rated 4 stars due to the quality and quantity of the phở.
I went on a Wednesday, headed for Phở Huong Lan, forgot that they were closed Wednesday.
Quality-​8 of 10. The phở is good and I believe there were more bigger meat places compared to the normal phở places.
Service-6−10. It’s not the friendliest place, the workers just take your order and go about their business. The tables are bigger sized tables, so if there are a lot of people, you may have to sit next a group which is fine with me.

Ok so heres the good the bad and the ugly… First the GOOD. The Phở is pretty darn good! I ordered a large rare steak and brisket and there was so much meat I couldn’t finish it all! The veggies were very fresh and they gave a lot of garnishes with the Phở and the springrolls. Ok so here’s the BAD … I didn’t get my springrolls till I had to ask for them. When I came in and ordered I asked for the Phở and springrolls and a take out broth for my sick boyfriend but her English was not at all good so she thought I wanted the springrolls to go also. Also, she at first told me no broth Togo I have to order a regular order of phở I told her ask her boss because that was just dumb. She never came back to give me the answer she just packaged it up with the springrolls… Never did I get a water refill. Now the UGLY … The owner who is an older Vietnamese guy that stands behind the register speaking about you in another language. And looking directly at you while he does it. So I think I’ll be back based on the Phở and veggies alone but I’ll have to bring my own water I guess…

This is our second time coming to Phở 97.
This place has some decent phở and they open at 8am on Saturdays which is nice when you are in the mood for breakfast.
There is limited street meter parking but the Chinatown municipal garage nearby is like $ 1 or less per hour on the weekends.
The décor isn’t the greatest but the phở is good. The people eating and working here don’t speak much English which is usually a good sign that the phở is legit.
Prices are pretty comparable to the other Chinatown phở options with a medium bowl costing around $ 8.50.
Recommend.

This is the second time we have come here and last time I got the phở, but this time I’m trying the chicken look fun soup.
The staff are definitely not the friendliest or warm. She just looked at us when we said our order and then she grabbed the menus and walked away. Thanks I guess…
They of came out and my bowl was huge. There was so many green onions in it! :)
Delicious and I couldn’t even finish it.
We lifted up the veggie plate and a roach was underneath. I killed it.
The food was good but it’s was kind of gross seeing a roach under the plate of veggies, just kind of hanging out on the table with us.

The place was greasy and dirty. Waitresses were rude. Coffee tasted old and pre made… But worst of all, there was a roach in food… YUCK!!! NO THANKS!!!

Service was decent. The taste was also decent, nothing really extraordinary from other phở restaurants around Chinatown besides the fact that they gave mint along with the usual basil and bean sprouts. The AC was also not strong enough, it felt stuffy in there which is not the best while eating hot phở. I wouldn’t have gone if other places were open and I was in desperate need of survival phở.

I am sitting in here right now writing this review. All I have to say about the service… is RUDE!!!

Horrible service… they were out of the one I’d had before so I ordered a phở with Crab Meat. There was NO crab meat to be found, only the spongy insides of the crab that are usually discarded. I asked our server, and he gave me the menu, pointed at it, and said ‘you have to read.’ I thought maybe I had misread and expected actual meat, but it clearly said Crad Meat (misspelled). I told him I wasn’t going to eat it. He didn’t care. Instead of apologizing and offering something else, he sat behind the counter with a rude look on his face. I walked over there and said I wasn’t going to eat it, so I wasn’t going to pay for it. Then he got mad and said that I had to pay since I ordered it. I’m not going to pay for false advertising! He was extremely rude so we left, leaving money on the table for the other phở that was correct and tasty. WTF? no concern for customers :/

My friends and I recently went here to eat lunch here because we had a craving for phở and it was pretty good. I ordered the phở with meat (medium) and it was delicious! It’s a great place to eat if you don’t want to spend much + I think their portions are filling.

Tasty food 5 stars. But place ant that clean, well its china town which was excepted.
OrderEd comp Phở as always you guys should try it if you havnt.

Service is quick, and water service is actually quite attentive. Like most Viet restaurants, the food service itself is fairly curt and matter of fact — this is more than fine as there’s a fine line between straight forward «what do you like?» vs. rude; but there is definitely a line there. Phở 97 is anything but rude so no worries — just manage your expectations if you’re a tourist.
Otherwise, I ordered the ground shrimp patties and seasoned pork meatballs over veggies and vermicelli noodles (Bun w/​Nem Nuong & Chao Tom). The meatballs were very tasty; nice mix of herbs… noodles slightly overcooked, but veggies, herbs, and lettuce crisp and fresh. Portion was good for average price ($ 10).
My fiancée got spring rolls with lettuce wraps and vermicelli. Typical dish, but spring rolls weren’t as flaky/​crispy as they should be. Not bad, not great.
I will come again to try their Bun Bo Hue and Bun Rieu (when it’s not sweltering outside).

SO close to being five stars. My mom and I came here one night and for anyone who chooses to come here for dinner, you’ll known that chinatown gets quite interesting after dark. We ventured past many obstacles between the parking lot to this restaurant but when we finally made it, we sat down in a nice cool table beneath a TV playing American movies.
This was my first time here, and after only experiencing the other phở places outside of chinatown, the prices here were pleasantly lower. I ordered a medium beef combination phở for only $ 8, and if I’m not mistaken that same order would cost me at least a couple more bucks elsewhere! Portion was generous for the price, everything tasted fresh and did not disappoint.
Overall, very satisfied with my eating experience but taking away one star for the service. The man working was very friendly with this other table that spoke Vietnamese but as soon as I tried to talk to him his facial expressions completely changed! Ahhh!

This used to be our favorite Phở restaurant when I was stationed in Hawaii before. Because we could not remember the name of this restaurant, we could not find it. The only thing that changed since five years ago, the fridge with the delicious desert drinks disappeared. Our Phở was just as delicious as I remember it!

Been coming here forever, since I was a little girl. The phở is tasty, I love the saimin with clear noodles, the spring rolls &’ the BBQ chicken sandwich, My favorites there. They are SUPER fast, literally. You can order &’ your order is there within 5 minutes.

If I had wrote my review after my first visit I would have given this place four stars, but after my second visit I am definitely sticking with one star!
The food is decent, but what is keeping me from coming back is the lack of cleanliness of the restaurant. As I was eating my phở, I saw one roach across the table and that customer shooing the roach away and then I noticed a roach on my napkin! I’m not sure where the roach came from and how many there are, but I’m not willing to come back to find out…
If it wasn’t for the extra flavor of la’ roach I would have recommend this place, but knowing what I know and what I saw I won’t be ever coming back!

First of all this place was not my first choice but the other place was closed.
Came in, sat down, and what seemed to be an owner staring at us.
A waitress comes and ask if we’re ready and my boyfriend was about to order when she just walks away.
We finally order and I order number 22. When I get my phở immediately I notice the back part of a cockroach floating my soup. I call the waitress she says «oh» takes my soup away brings me a new one. I get no apology or offered maybe even a discount or how about take the soup off my tab. So we’re paying and it took me 3 times asking to finally get a box or my check.
It took everything I had to continue eating the rest of my food. I am just too nice to throw a fit. So I decided to write a review. Stay clear of this place. Unprofessional environment, rude employees, roaches in the soup.

First time trying this place because it was the next option from our usual place in Chinatown at Phở My Lan, which was closed. Well, as we were deciding where to go, we stumbled upon Phở 97 and noticed there were quite a bit of people there so it tells us a) this place is good or b) everyone else there had no other options as well.
Well, we were seated right away and after we placed our order, it did come within five minutes — so that’s a plus, especially during lunch hour. But, this is where the buck stops. The broth for my phở was lukewarm — noodles must be eaten with piping hot broth!!! Additionally, the broth itself had little to no taste at all — very disappointing. I guess we won’t be coming here every again.

When the name of a restaurant is comprised of the name of a specific dish, that restaurant had better make that dish in spectacular fashion. It’s a good thing then that Pho97 makes one heck of an excellent phở.
I’ve had phở from many different restaurants and Pho97 is my favorite. From the outside the restaurant doesn’t look like much. There’s nothing fancy about the ambience, but the thing that keeps me coming back is the deliciousness of their phở; I think it’s the broth that makes it so good. I can’t praise it enough.
Parking can be a bit of a hassle, but it’s worth the trouble. I usually park in the municipal parking on smith street or the one on maunakea. Parking will usually cost around $ 3, more or less depending on how long you’re there.
If you go there for lunch, go early to avoid the crowd. If you make it there around 11am you should be fine. At noon the place will likely be packed and you can expect to wait.
If it’s your first time there try the phở. I mean, why would you go to a phở place and NOT get phở? I recommend the combination and ask for beef on the side. The tasty broth will be hot enough to cook the raw beef to your liking.

One day, I was craving Vietnamese food, but wanted to venture out of my normal Phở places. Phở 97 was the first one I saw while in Chinatown, so that’s where I went. Interior was a bit blah and the tabletops were still sticky, but I liked how extensive the menu was and their affordable prices.
Like most places in Chinatown, you get better service when you speak their language. Sadly, I couldn’t haha. but I noticed that those who spoke Vietnamese had a friendlier experience with the waitress. As for me, it was brusk.
Food came out extremely quickly. Almost too fast. The bun was in a gigantic bowl with freshly fried spring rolls, noodles and julienne veggies. The dipping sauce was sooo good!
Best part is they take credit cards. Downside is the annoying Chinatown parking.