Pho 86 Restaurant

Don’t come here if you don’t want to pay more and get less phở. I order phở tai chin gan sach with xl size but I see very less noodle and meat only soup a lot. One thing I want to tell to the owner is. Customers know how to compair with other phở restaurants. Don’t think people dump.

Got jet lag and Was craving for Phở since I went to Europe for 2 weeks. Came to eat at 5:30am. The broth was as good as before and price is little pricey, to me it is 3 stars restaurant but bonus ½ star for Open early and newly remodeled.

It doesn’t taste good anymore. I used to come here very often because of the broth. They remodeled the restaurant and today is my first time to the new one. Order 2 small bowls of Phở and 2 water (water is now .25c each) and they both didn’t taste good at all.
I wanted to order extra stuff but didn’t because it’s too pricey. The servers weren’t happy none of them smiles and many tables were not cleaner while there are waiting customers.
It used to be best now just a normal place…

Was craving phở and was on my way to Phở 79 this evening when I remembered they were cash only, so stopped by the Stater Bros on Brookhurst/​Hazard to get cash from the COOP atm inside the store. Upon leaving Stater Bros, I noticed Phở 86 signage. They must have remodeled their restaurant, because I never remembered their storefront being so clean and modern. The place looked empty inside but I reasoned with myself that I wouldn’t have to deal with Phở 79’s falling apart parking lot, so decided to eat here instead.
The store itself definitely got a remodel from what I remembered it to be. The tables, chairs, flooring, everything is new and clean. Lighting is bright and the place is airy.
It’s a shame their food quality didn’t match the décor.
I ordered a Phở Tai Nam Gan and a soda chanh drink. Soda chanh had no flavor and the phở was worse. The broth was like hot water, little flavor to it. The meats tasted old and I could tell, compared to the meat offering at Phở 79, was of a inferior quality. I added lemon and hoisin sauce and the broth still didn’t taste any better. The only good thing was the tendon, which was tender and chewy.
Prices were bad for what you get. I ordered a Medium ($ 8.00) and the bowl was smaller than Phở 79’s «small» bowls. Their side of oxtail is $ 4.50 here vs. P79’s $ 2.50.
The place does take credit cards — so that’s their ONLY one up over Phở 79, but I think they charge you 75 cents for that.
Next time, I’m just going to deal with the parking situation over at Phở 79 and skip out on going here. I should’ve taken the sign that their restaurant was practically empty at 9pm, vs. P79, which is always busy up until they close their doors for the evening.
Open from 5:30am to 10pm.

Their phở is ok. $ 8.50 for a large phở dat biet and $ 6.50 for a side order of the beef bone. If you like tendon it’s worth ordering the bones. At this price I expected more from their broth.

I ask for phở tai and they gave me OLD MEAT! I just walked out. Its suppose to be rare meat not old meat you had laying around.

So bad service. When I came in, there is only 1 cashier in the restaurant. He was playing lottery and didn’t care customer came in. I had to go around to find a menu by myself.
Then, when we were done, he was so late to give us the check even though we called him 3 times.

My recent visits to this place has gotten nastier and nastier last week, I ordered a large phở tai bowl and there was a hair. It was the 2^nd time something like this happened so I complained to the owner of the resturaunt. But after today, I was very disgusted about what I had discovered. I ordered a large phở tai like I usally did and discovered a fly half way through my bowl. Though I had already paid for my bowl, they refused to give me a refund

The phở is good, and yes the portions are small but maybe that’s a good thing in the end. Their noodles are very good if you like it slightly over cooked. Broth is oily and meat is thick. These are all things that I like so if you like them too, this is the place for you. This place used to be very very small. It has since expanded and is a decent size now

Phở is ok. Tendon (gan) is very poorly prepared. It was just left over of unidentifiable piece of gelatin cut up in big chunk.
I wish these restaurant would spend time to keep trash off the floor. Had to report to owner that there was no soap in the restroom.

Omg, the broth here is awesome! And the beef bone platter is delicious!!! Tender & yummy! I’m gonna hit this spot before I leave town!!!

How can you mess up phở?

This is my first time having lunch at this phở location. I order a large bowl of phở dac biet and the price is around $ 8.00. My phở came out pretty quick but it’s okay because the kitchen is visible from anywhere you sit in the resturant. The broth is cleaR and that indicate they use less/​to nothing on MSG. My large bowl was a bit on the small size and the meat to noodle was a but off too. The phở was delicious and the broth was tasty. One negative thing was that they never brought out my tea and they were going to charge me for it even though they never brought them out. Tsk Tsk

This review is post renovation. MUCH improved dining room, now modern, airy, and cleaner.
Service is the short Vietnamese style. One order was messed up but they got it fixed with no fuss, so that’s a plus. Inexplicably, no dipping dishes at the tables and they don’t bring them to you automatically either… You have to ask for them.
Phở flavor was good. Tendon was tender. Rare beef was a little tough. Brisket was ok. Too much noodle for my liking. Veggies were fresh.
The big problem… bone fragments in my soup that caused an unpleasant CRUNCH while I was happily munching away.
I may give it another try later. I rate this above average. At least they take credit cards.

Review for today service only.
1. We asked for a table for five and a waiter offered us a long table. While we were waiting, a young water asked us again and try to squeeze us in a table for four, but we declined. After sitting down and waiting for menus, we noticed that the couple who arrived and were seated after us got the menus first. What the heck? The young waiter even took their order before us.
2. But we were patient enough to wait. He finally took our orders and he got my order wrong! Since he did not confirm what we ordered, as usual, we just assumed that he got it right. But no! I asked if there was a mistake that what he brought out was not what I ordered, he took his order note and read it for me, «No phở beef tender and beef ball.»
3. We also asked for more chopsticks and spoons since our table had none. He forgot them! After minutes and minutes, we had to ask someone else to get them for us. Seriously?
4. They did not provide us napkins, so dad tried to ask them. But again, after a while, dad just stood up, ask the waiter where the napkin box was, and dad brought it to our table.
5. We ordered five ice tea. But our waiter forgot as well! OMG! So terrible. When we were close to finishing the meal, we asked another waiter if the drinks were ready. And the drinks took another 10 minutes.
Dad was nice enough to leave good tips for him because dad thought «at least that got some money in his pocket.»
Will I come back? Maybe. But the next time, we would not like that guy to wait our table.

Not the prettiest or spiffiest place around, but oh man!
Think of this as a Phở exclusive place — even on a day of temps hovering close to 90 degrees, there was a wait to get in here.
We were quickly seated, thankfully.
It took only a few minutes to get our orders taken, food was served pronto!
Piping hot broth, not fatty or cloudy at all, great flavor, just the right amount of thinly sliced beef (raw and cooked are served in the Phở Dat Biet), nice chewy noodles (Supposedly house made daily).
There are steaming pots of broth with meat on the bone bubbling away behind a glass enclosure. So, literally, if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of this kitchen.
We also got the Café Sua da — iced (Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk) — just the right kick (although I was starting to regret it at about 2 in the morning) — packs a caffeine punch!
And the grand addition to all this: a big steaming bowl of soup bones, with oh so tender tendons, cartilage and some meat still clinging to these (baby) dinosaur sized portions.
I took home most of it for my mom and she feasted on it sans soup or noodles. That’s how good they were.
Family run business — The lady and the young man manning the front are clearly related. They were absolutely very kind and patient to this old lady (me) and anyone else who had a few questions about the food. And at the end of our meal, the dad– type said Salamat - (Filipino for Thank you — sweet to be acknowledged like that).

My parents are regulars here and they always come here when they crave for phở. I came here with my mom last night and the owners are super friendly. They’re always interacting with the regular customers and always keeping up a conversation. Their phở is really good and the broth has flavor unlike some other phở restaurants. I usually order the rare beef phở but for some reason my mom convinced me to order the rare beef with cooked brisket. I shouldn’t have done that! There was too much fat on the cooked brisket and they barely give you any rare beef. I was so sad! I’m going to stick with the rare beef from now on. I love this phở place and will be back! Don’t expect this place to be fancy or anything. It’s just a normal phở restaurant that is owned by a family!

I keep forgetting how much I love this place. Their broth is fragrant and meat quality top notch. They are one of the few phở places that offers bone marrow. This takes me back to my Moms home cooked phở where I’ll always ask for either oxtail or bone marrow.

Quality has been depreciating. Noodles come mushy now broth tastes really sweet for some reason. I’m pretty disappointed. Doesn’t taste the same as it did before. Maybe I came in during an off time but seems like I get more and more disappointed each time I come in.

Phở 86 is by far the very BEST phở joint in OC, it surpass Phở 79. Yes folks it’s better than Phở 79, the phở broth is clear and the meats that they use is always soft not chewy and smelly. Service is pretty good and on point. They won’t seat you unless everyone in your party is present. Just an FYI, it’s a small restaurant prepare to wait a lil.