Pho Citi

Great experience. I am used to most phở restaurants having terrible service but I was shocked at how attentive and friendly our server Nam was. Really good phở and egg rolls and AMAZING SERVICE. I would definitely recommend trying it.

I’ve been going here for at least a month, biweekly. Portions have always been skimpy given their prices, and service has always been slow. But, the food was tasty. The biggest problem has been staff continuously seems to roll over, making regulars indistinguishable from non.
The current staff is terrible. There evening server frequently 1) fails to clean the tables, 2) fails to be aware of the order that patrons arrive (or even of their presence, regardless of how sparsely populated the place is) and 3) exceptionally (arguably ridiculously) stingy about condiments (I was given one plate containing a literal handful of sprouts and at most four mint leaves for TWO bowls of Phở).
Won’t be going anymore. Gave the place a fair shot. It’s not worth it.

This is a fast food, chain Phở place. Not very clean, not very healthy, and I probably wouldn’t go back. I got a veggie tofu soup, asked for fried tofu, and it came with steamed tofu — which was fine, i really didn’t care. It was good enough, and the veggies were fresh, but just the vibe in there was weird and i would NEVER eat inside. It felt like a pizza hut in mexico or something. Blossom, Wat Dong Moon Lek, and Silverlake Ramen are not much further but waaaaaaaaay better.

Could be that we got a bad batch but I’m never going back to find out. So much oil in the broth my wife couldn’t eat it and ened up getting lunch somewhere else. I made it through mine after I realized the oil was floating on the top and I could get it out with the help of several paper towels.
I’m not talking about a reasonable amount if oil, I’m talking about a layer of it well over an 1/​8″ thick. Also all over the containers. Left a serious coat on the inside of my mouth even after I skimmed most of it off.
Shockingly bad. Would be better off eating a bag of potato chips… Healthier, cheaper and taste better :(

Derek (the night server) is so cute. Need I say more?
Ok I’ll say more:
I love the rice, i love the noodles, the soup, the relaxing vibe…
I just love it here. There is usually alot of parking and the restaurant isn’t usually overly-​busy… I would highly recommend :)

Hair. In. Broccoli.
Food isn’t totally inedible, actually, for what it is… I’ve never stepped inside but take out tasted fine. I got the chicken & veggie stir fry with brown rice. Nothing special, certainly not great, but not overtly terrible… until the long, black HAIR that stuck to my fork and that most certainly wasn’t mine.
Lost my appetite. Wouldn’t get food from there again.

LOL seriously, «we don’t have change, so I can’t give you all the your money.». Really?
This is symbolic of this place. The weird part is, the food isn’t bad at all. In fact, I loved that place for take-​out. But the service and management makes this place more hassle than benefit for me. There are other phở places nearby that muster up quick service, and give you your change.
I normally TIP, after all, it is a reward for good service. But the «we do not give change» thing is so far over the top that I have left this place in my «good memories» pile.
If this does not turn you away and you are patient, I think you are in for a nice treat. Use a credit card and the «no change» will not be a problem, The food is pretty good, not home made, but consistently good. Of the Phở CIty locations, I rate this as better than the one nearer Koreatown. But thats just me.

Better than phở café down the road at Sunset and Silver Lake Blvd because the broth is cleaner, better tripe, better hours, cheaper per bowl, and acceptance of visa/​mc cards.
I’ve been to phở citi twice (i was deterred by the Unilocal reviews) and phở café 8 times. This review is only for beef phở. PS xoia phở is bland and boring.
Good clear broth — my lifetime of eating phở in Westminster taught me that the broth should be clear with oil spots on top. I’m not a fan of tan/​brown soups, there shouldn’t be cloudy proteins at the bottom of the bowl like there would be in miso soup. Phở café has an overpowering flavor and i’m always super thirsty after a bowl there.
More tripe in the bowl at Phở Citi than the one off stringy pieces at phở café. My impression is that phở café is more westernized. That’s not a problem in and of itself but for this particular dish I like lots of offal.
Open 24 hours — it wasn’t a shit show at 1am. I often find 24 hour places to be zoos filled with drunk people and trash. The cashier was on point, letting me know the order was being bagged. All condiments (basil, sprouts, hoisin/​sriracha, chopsticks napkins, etc) were accounted for.
They accept cards! I’m sick of the hassle and procedure of phở café’s tiny parking lot AND having to find an ATM.

Good tasting phở, definitely not the best but a great spot for late night phở.
Vegetarian options that are very tasty.
It’s a nice chill environment to eat in and open great hours.
Over all not bad at all.

I walked into this little gem on a Monday afternoon, since Blossom is closed on Monday’s. I’ll say this: it was hella messy and that kinda grossed me out. I noticed they were hiring — so perhaps they were just short staffed, but there was only myself and another gent in line behind me, so it’s not like they were super busy, but you never know.
I got some noodle dish with chicken, beef and shrimp to go. It was under $ 8 which is cool. I got it home, it was not bad. Noodles were oily but over all it wasn’t so bad, if you’re into fast-​food style Vietnamese good. I’ve had way worse. And their hours are pretty pimp.

This place has the worse phở i’ve ever had! From all the reviews it seems like this place is very inconsistent with their phở. The one and only time I went, the phở was really really bland! It was as if the broth was of water. I told the lady that worked there that she should make a bowl and taste it herself; seemed like she went to do that but nothing came of it. I had to add a massive amount of salt just for it to taste decent. I wasn’t even able to finish it but I ate whatever I could since I was going to have to pay for it!
Never again will I come to this place even with the slight chance that I will go in a good day when they make good phở (if they ever even make good phở!)

Salty salty salty. Saltiest Phở broth ever.
This place screams poorly run franchise.
I was hoping the place would actually have decent food since it’s 24 hours, and on occasion after binge drinking, a hot bowl of Phở would be awesome at 3am.
Boy were we wrong. Egg rolls were decent, spring rolls were quite sad. They were wrapped with pre-​chopped iceberg lettuce from a day ago. And basically were only filled with pre-​chopped iceberg lettuce.
The Phở broth tasted like either:
A. Was just waayyy over-​salted
B. Could have been really old broth re-​purposed and they used tons o salt/​fosh sauce to disguise the rancid flavor.
The noodles were poorly prepared. They actually fell apart when you lifted it out o the soup.

So the first few times we went there, I was really happy with my orders.
I’m not sure what happened. Maybe it’s because I started asking for more vegetables in my phở. Here’s what I want, chicken phở with extra vegetables or vegetable phở. What do I get? Tofu and bean sprouts one time and then fake chicken and bean sprouts the next time. The broth was basically hot water. I’m not sure why you are 24 hours when there is only one employee so we couldn’t get fried rice? Wait, what?
I hope things improve for this place. I just want chicken phở with a bunch of broccoli and carrots or something. My husband was on a phở kick when he was sick and we had it twice in one day (the day i ended up with tofu and fake chicken) and it was just awful. We would frequent much much more if i was confident that my phở wouldn’t suck.
Oh and the service is seriously lacking. My husband’s order was given to another table while he sat and waited. And waited and waited. It’s always his order that gets messed up and the waiter gives the impression that it’s probably your fault.

«it’s almost 1:00 and there’s nobody here» is the last thing you want to hear from a waitress’ mouth when you’ve been waiting (in plain sight) for over 5 minutes for someone to come acknowledge your presence and take your order.
i think it effected the taste of my soup… or maybe it never really was that good to begin with.
this experience made me realize that my excitement about coming here before had much more to do with the (now absent) hot, tattooed waiter, and less to do with the quality of the restaurant itself.
i think i need to stop letting my attractions sway my appetite.

DO NOT COME HERE.
Service is atrocious (employee Kenny Rivas deserves to be fired… blaming am employee error on my friend and refusing to offer a refund and then laughing about it). Employees did not know which table ordered what (which led to my friends waiting an hour to get their food — the server idiotically served it to the wrong table and Kenny Rivas the cashier said that «we needed to be understanding». Kenny kept smirking throughout the whole complaint and refused to give the money back for the orders even though no food was ever even prepared.
Food was not good at all, but the service is what makes this place horrible.
Save yourself some trouble. Go to a place in Koreatown (yes, I know phở is vietnamese) and get some good stuff with decent service. And owner Sandra — you should maybe provide customer service training for your employees, especially Kenny, who insisted that «you paid for food, not customer service». I have video tape of this exchange, and it will be posted. My friends should get their money back for not getting the food they ordered because of your employees lack of skill.

If you have an absolutely overdriving craving for Vietnamese food at 4am when no other Vietnamese place is open, then Phở Citi will fit the bill. The male staff there that night was really nice and thoughtful so I hate to just give 2 stars, but the food there is underwhelming to say the least.
My friend’s phở had an «off» taste to the broth, and my sampler of cha gio and bi cuon was no thriller. It may have looked like the real thing, but it lacked the delicate flavors and freshness of the Real Mc Coy. Another restaurant that is chic and stylish but is all show but no go is Rambutan. However, the prices there are far more expensive than Phở Citi so the risk factor is greater.
If I had my choice, I would have gone to Golden Deli in San Gabriel as well as the Vietnam Restaurant for Bo Bay Mon, but at 11pm on a Thursday made that impractical. Go if you must, but only if there is no other viable alternative.

Not THE best Phở I’ve ever had, but you get four stars because a) you’re conveniently across the street from Akbar who happens to have awesome drink specials, b) you’re open 24-​hours (this alone warrants 3 stars) & c) you’re enough to fulfill my drunken craving at the wee hours of the morning.
P. S. I did enjoy your egg rolls.

I appreciate the décor and trying to make a phở restaurant look hip. It’s at first a bit awkward when you walk in but the awkwardness dissipates once your seated. I dined here with a friend, not sure if I would recommend this place for large parties. It’s like eating in a long, narrow hallway, but again the décor somehow works.
The broth is alright. It’s lacking something. I’m not sure if their phở is legit. It wasn’t bad phở, but it also wasn’t good phở either. 3 stars for the effort.

Phở Citi, I ain’t mad at ya. You’re open at all hours and provide a decent and satisfying Phở hankering. I always get the veggie phở so I can’t really comment on the meat. Looks like some Unilocalers are saying it’s horrendous but what would you expect from Phở fast food? It’s like an Asian Taco Bell or McD’s. I wouldn’t order meat there either, ya get what I’m sayin’ here?
The shrimp spring rolls (cold) are just as decent as any Viet or Thai place in town.
It’s clean and never overcrowded. The dude at the register is nice. I have no complaints here. Not the best Viet I’ve ever had but it’s not the worst either.

This place has really decent Vietnamese food for the Silver Lake/​Los Feliz area. I went here despite reading some of the more negative reviews below and I was pleasantly surprised by how good things tasted.
Now of course the food here isn’t up to the quality of San Gabriel Valley. First of all it’s a fast food place that’s open 24 hours a day, not some fancy restaurant. It’s clean and comfy but you aren’t dining at Tavern on the Green or something. The guy who worked here was really nice and easy going. You order at the counter and he brings you your food. Prices are a little bit high so took off a star there. Our total was $ 14 for one large bowl of phở and a large bowl of vermicelli with pork & egg rolls. That’s kind of steep for this kind of food but not the end of the world. I’m sure their rent is pretty high compared to the guys on Garvey Street.
The phở broth tasted pretty good to me. Plenty of spices and flavor. Noodles seemed a little off but still tasted okay. The meat was fine and not too fatty like some places. Overall I really enjoyed it! I wish that they had the option of ordering smaller portions. not all of us can eat a huge bowl full of soup. My boyfriend said his vermicelli was «okay». He didn’t love it and he didn’t hate it. He said when we go back he’ll definitely be grabbing some phở instead since he liked my dish better.
Parking is easy enough– there’s a huge lot. Luckily I can walk here, which is why I visited in the first place. I definitely have a 3 am local phở place now. which I think is pretty cool.