Pho 88

I come here every time I’m back in the Boston area. it is absolutely amazing! All of the phở are good, but usually ¹⁴⁄₁₅ are my number one choice. For appetizer? The vietnamnese spring rolls are freshly made and to die for. Definitely setting the standard for good phở places!

Good lunch place for Vietnamese food with a huge menu. They get you in and out quick for the lunch rush.

Phó 88 is the best Phó in the Lowell/​Chelmsford area. The gigantic bowl of chicken soup is a must-​eat for a cold, wet day when all you need is to warm up and enjoy a big bowl of warm phó.

Food was delicious. Service was impeccable. However the scorpion bowl for two I spent $ 17 on for me and my girlfriend had no alchohol in it. You may think I am over exaggerating when I say there was no alcohol, but we were literally served koolade on ice.

Used to come here all the time until the past few times I have been with my wife… They always get our order wrong and I have found hair on a few occasions. Usually the servers apologized so I let things slide but tonight was the last time. Initial server was very rude in receiving us, after taking our order he passed us off to a different one. Food was brought to us and yet again they messed up my wife’s order. After finishing our meal we waited for at least 10 minutes while 4 of the staff was sitting around a table in front of us folding napkins, filling sauces and drinking scorpion bowls… get your phở fix elsewhere.

Phở 88 is an authentic Vietnamese Restaurant in Lowell, MA. The restaurant has simple décor — lamps made of shells, beautiful landscape paintings on the walls, and various plants (mainly bamboo and orchids). I like how this restaurant has spacious seating and also does Japanese Fire Pots. I’d say that they have best Phở within the 10 miles of Nashua, when compared to Phở Da Lat, Vietnam Noodle House, and Tranh Tranh 3. However, the service was about par across these restaurants. My favorite dishes included Beef Phở and Crispy Pad Thai.
My family and I felt that our server was rude and had an attitude problem. We asked about one item pictured on the menu and she acted like we couldn’t read and basically read the entire drink menu. As soon as I sat down, I ordered a Taro Bubble Tea but had to remind our server at least three times (within 15 minutes). I saw other tables that sat down after us get their drinks before us.
For starters, we shared «Triangle Tofu» served with sweet and sour sauce. It was not what I expected it to be. It was deep fried in cornmeal batter. It didn’t really taste good with sweet and sour sauce.
For entrees, we shared an Extra Large Beef Noodle Soup (with rare steak, well done brisket, beef flank, tendon, and tripe), Crispy Pad Thai, Vietnamese Broken Rice with Pork Chops, Shredded Pork Skin, and Pork-​Egg Custard, and Chicken with Chinese Broccoli. The Beef Noodle Soup consisted of vermicelli noodle topped with rare steak, well done brisket, beef flank, tendon, and tripe in a tasty soup/​stock. The Crispy Pad Thai consisted of crispy rice noodle topped with seafood medley (shrimp, squid, and scallop) and vegetables (onion, beansprout, red and green peppers, and snow peas) in a delicious sauce (made of ketchup, sugar, and fish sauce). We decided to add BBQ Beancurd to the Vietnamese Broken Rice with Pork Chops, Shredded Pork Skin, and Pork-​Egg Custard. I didn’t try much of this dish as I’m the only one in my family with a pork allergy. The Chicken with Chinese Broccoli, Carrots, and Onions consisted of sliced chicken breast sauteed with Chinese broccoli. I’ll admit that this dish had a weird taste to acquire to.
After we finished our meal, we asked for boxes. After packing our dishes in the take out containers, I thought it was weird for our server to ask us to hand her our dishes so we could make her job easier. Honestly, how hard is it clean up after we leave the table.

I came here tonight and it was pretty much what I expected; good food but nothing out of this world. We ordered pork spring rolls to start but when they arrived there was just lettuce in them. Also ordered the 88 margarita, which arrived halfway through our meal and was very sugary and bright blue. The service was friendly and the restaurant was packed so this was understandable. The layout of the restaurant was kind of cramped and it seemed like the waitstaff was having trouble navigating through the tight tables. The crispy pad Thai and extra large beef phở were pretty good and the portions were large but next time I will order something else. There were lots of things that sounded good on the menu!

I have to begin with the fact that I LOVE this restaurant. I typically order the same thing every time (#32 with beef because it’s delicious). Pretty much everything here is amazing — all my friends and family have a variety of favorites that I also enjoy.
This Wednesday evening, I sat at the bar for a quick bite with my husband. Instead of my usual I got curry, which I’ve had before and always enjoyed. The restaurant was busy and our food ended up taking an hour to come out. The bartender working apologized at one point for it taking so long, to which we empathized with one of our favorite restaurants for being so busy and said we didn’t mind. We were just excited to eat good food. While we waited, we each had one drink.
Once the food came (60 minutes after ordering), we ate and I felt pretty quickly that the curry tasted different — not BAD perse but not what I had tasted there prior. Couldn’t pinpoint the flavor difference, but it was excessively salty to say the least.
We ate a bunch and had a bit of leftovers. I said I didn’t want my leftovers wrapped — my husband then politely mentioned that I thought it tasted different than usual. I didn’t want to say anything because I love this place and it wasn’t inedible — just different. The girl helping us then proceeded to tell us that the recipe has been the same for 60 years and that maybe I «shouldn’t have filled up so much on alcohol before the food came».
I love this place and will be back, but must say that I was pretty discouraged by this seriously rude experience.

Great food and excellent service. Came here during the weekday lunch rush hour and I was anticipating understandable delays in service but the turnaround time from ordering to having my food in front of me was less than 10 minutes. Great follow up from the waitress too. Prices are reasonable. The only possible downside is parking. There’s one parking lot shared by all the businesses in the plaza and it can be tricky finding parking during the lunch rush hour.

Great food and speedy service. The beef noodle bowl I got was delicious, beef was still on the rare side and full of flavor. My mother enjoyed her pad Thai as well, and our appetizers (edamame and spring rolls) were really fresh and delicious.
The only thing that annoyed me was our waiter really felt like he was trying to rush us along and shove us right out the door. When we were pondering drinks he sort of mumbled a couple choices (pointed to someone else’s empty glass and said «lychee martini»…how does that help me make a decision?) rather quickly. Same with appetizers. It’s how we ended up with the spring rolls which were good, but it was just an annoying little tick.
Otherwise, great food so I can deal with waitstaff trying to rush me along every now and then when I grab some food here, I guess.

Food was ok. Service was terrible. Drink came after all food served. Needed to ask for things couple times.

Went for the first time tonite. Fast & friendly service. The 3 in our party all had the Goi Cuon (shrimp spring roll) which according to our Vietnamese co-​worker weren’t as good as Moms but decent. My Phở was the Dac Biet a smaller version of their popular Xe Lua a mixture of beef, well done brisket, beef flank, tendon & tripe served with bean sprouts and basil. It was a large, tasty and filling meal. Again to our co-​worker it was good but not truly authentic and maybe slightly westernized. I wouldn’t know the difference and enjoyed everything. Would go back if in the area and wanted to get my slurp on!

My go to Vietnamese and phở place! Favorite and best in the area! Can’t find a place as
good as pho88 in Boston! Can get packed and busy during lunch and dinner hours. Parking can get a little tricky when it is packed but what do you expect when a restaurant gets packed! There’s a bar with TV for all you sports lover. Variety of food choices. Casual atmosphere, great for dinner with friends or family. Inexpensive.

Best 8.95 in Chelmsford. Small served me 2 lunches. Extremely fulling. Ordered take out and it was boiling hot even after getting it and back to the office. Parking was a Lil hard but I can’t complain. I’m sure the other restaurants suffering for parking for there customers. Not sure how healthy phở is but it definitely filling. Was told if u feel thirsty after eating then there is msg. I can say after phở dalat I did. But not at pho88. So my vote for best phở goes to pho88.

It’s really hard to find good, authentic Asian food when you’re not in the city. But unfortunately for me, I’m a 45-​minute drive away from Boston, and I always find myself craving Vietnamese food from time to time. To resolve this, I resorted to Unilocal to find a decent place to satisfy this reccuring craving. Phở 88 seemed to be a pretty good candidate because it received some pretty rave reviews.
We came here on a Thursday for lunch, and it was PACKED. Full of people from businessmen, to chattering elderly women, to young couples. I guess how busy a restaurant is, is usually a pretty solid sign of whether or not it’s good, so I had pretty high hopes for Pho88.
We ended up ordering:
02. Goi Cuon (Fresh rolls)
04. Thit Lui (Teriyaki Beef)
S7. Bun Bo Hue
37. Stir Fried Noodles with Beef
The fresh rolls were pretty bland, and the teriyaki beef was dry and burnt. Not the best way to start off the meal. After the appetizers were brought out, 25 minutes passed by before our main courses came to the table, which is understandable, I suppose, because there were so many people there. But just keep that in mind if you happen to be in a hurry.
Bun Bo Hue is one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes. I’ve tried it at probably 8 different Vietnamese restaurants, and I would have to say that this place serves the worst bun bo hue that I’ve had. First off, considering how large the bowl was, the portions were rather scant– a fistful of noodles, few pieces of meat, one piece of pig’s blood, and one pig’s foot (sorry, not the most appealing picture to paint, but that is what’s in bun bo hue), floated around in huge bowl of beef broth. The pig’s blood was on the hard side and didn’t taste very fresh. The pig’s foot was also not fresh, and was pale, meaning it didn’t soak up any of the soup’s flavorings. I guess the only redeeming factor was the meat. It was pretty tender and actually flavorful.
The stir fried noodles were pretty average. It tasted like something you could get from any fast-​food, takeout place.
After the meal, the boyfriend and I both had upset stomachs, which is probably a good indicator of the quality of food there. So I will not be coming back, and the search for good Vietnamese food continues.

Basically as good as this gets, I’ll tell it like it is. This place was pretty inexpensive, there were tons of options, and everything ordered at our table was great. Stars for variety and taste.
I ordered a barbecue pork vermicelli noodle bowl, and they brought me peanut sauce and fish sauce — not just one but both! I felt very accommodated. I also love it when I find Vietnamese places that serve this kind of vermicelli noodle bowls — I think it’s a dish that is not sufficiently popular in the US. More filling than a salad, but still fresh tasting and flavorful. The barbecue pork was a little tough, but all of the flavors were there and it was completely delicious.
My table also ordered the chicken curry — standard but good — and a Vietnamese shrimp dish that had a wonderful nutty sauce. Egg rolls and spring rolls also were good here (though to be fair, nothing to write home about). The dishes being carried out to other tables also looked wonderful, and unique; and some of the tables had heating plates for hot pots built into the table.
I really think you could make this place into a fancy date night, cheap takeout, or just a dinner out but normal. Depending on what you order and how you treat it, it could really be any of the above.
Phở 88 is a versatile place with good, fresh food — what more can we ever ask for.

I had Phở for the first time. I ordered the chicken bowl, and the flavor was out of this world! I loved the rice noodles, and although I usually do not enjoy broth, it was delicious. I can’t believe it took me this long to try… I will certainly be back soon! I love phở; phở life!
PS Gluten free (if you get rice noodles instead of egg!)

Had my first bowl of Bun Bo Hue here and it was great! Broth had great depth. I am now a fan! You have great selections of Viet food and Phở with chicken, beef, meatballs, tender, tripe, etc. I will be back for a bowl of Phở that’s for sure!
Keep in mind that you aren’t here for ambiance or a date night. Interior may be a bit dated, but food is great and that’s all I care about when it comes to getting a good bowl of noodle soup.

Although a little on the pricier end (compared to other local Southeast Asian restaurants nearby) this place is well worth it. Food quality is great and ambiance is even better. What sets this place apart from the other mom and pop Vietnamese/​Cambodian restaurants is the bar. it was a great cocktail menu and affordable prices.
Service is always patient and great.
This is definitely a great casual date night spot, grab a couple drinks, an app and share a fun hot pot meal or order a la carte off the extensive menu with lots of noodle or rice options.
Parking can be tricky so we like to go after the dinner rush or during off peak hours during on the weekends.

We stopped here for a quick lunch this weekend before heading to Snowdaes down the street. I had my 9 y/​o with me. We were seated quickly but our server took about 15 minutes to come by and take our order. My 9 y/​o kept telling me she was hungry while we waited. The restaurant is dated and dingy.
Once we finally placed our order the food came quickly enough. I got one of their special soups and she got the beef ball phở. Both were decent. Unfortunately, our server did not stop by to check on us till the very end. We needed more water and napkins. I did notice other servers a few tables away sitting down to lunch. Other servers were also checking in on other tables around us and saw we were out of water but blithely ignored our table and walked around us.
Lunch turned into a much longer and more torturous ordeal than I expected. We will not be returning to this restaurant.