Taste of Pho

I wish I’d found this place sooner. Really friendly staff, great food, great prices. The various hot pot dishes are excellent as is the bo luc lac.
Unfortunately, Saturday Dec 13, 2014 will be their last day in business. A Thai restaurant will be taking that space at some point in the future. If you haven’t been yet or want one last visit, you better hurry.

Taste of Phở is interestingly located in an almost-​abandoned, but huge, parking lot. It’s near/​behind the IHOP on Pleasant Hill and there’s only a couple of offices and stores open there including a CD Warehouse. I wonder if any of these locations get any business. My friends and I were the only ones here on a Thursday evening. We ordered shrimp wontons, spring rolls, phở, and Thai Iced Tea. I noticed that they use Café Du Monde coffee. The owner/​server and I were talking about it. She smiled that I recognized it. However, I didn’t get to try it there. The Thai Iced tea though was great! I did not enjoy the fried shrimp wontons, but I thoroughly enjoyed the spring rolls. My phở ga (chicken phở) was awesome too. It was a good size and tasted fresh. My friends enjoyed their phở as well. They played nice relaxing Asian-​spa music which was cool also. This wouldn’t be my first choice for phở on a random week night, but I wouldn’t be opposed to coming back here again.

I love this place! I go there as often as I can. The waiters are very nice and the food is delicious. The fried egg roll usually take a bit of time because they are freshly made but they are worth it. Usually with dad we order a small shrimp Phở and it’s the best around.

Nice welcoming atmosphere! Great customer service. Lady at the register was so sweet. Almost like a mom. So nurturing and very good at explaining menu options. I ordered the Avocado smoothie and lemongrass tofu with steam rice. They were all good! Very flavorful authentic taste. I looooove the avocado smoothie.

I visited for the past two days. It is located in an almost empty mall, but there is a line at peak time. The dishes are prepare with attentions, and love. We met the chef, and she is wonderful person. Vietnamese food can be bad when the chef is careless with seasonings, and there are plenty of poorly executed Vietnamese restaurants
Dishes that we tried:
1. Com Tay Cam, with clams. Com Tay Cam has the rice formed a thin light brown crust around a very hot metal bowl. The clam and vegetable are perfectly. I think this is their most popular signature dish.
2. Com Tay Cam, Shaken Beef.
3. Cat Fish in Hotpot, Ca Kho To. This is really well executed.
4. Canh Chua Ca, Fish in Tamarind Soup (big portion for 2 – 3). I cannot find better.
5. Fried Rice with Quails. Our 10 year old daughter loves it.
6. Bun Oc, Noodle Soup with Snail. Balance and authentic.
The Avocado and Sour Sop drinks are very good. They are balanced, and not loaded with sugar.
This is my go to place now whenever I visit Atlanta.

Don’t judge this place from its exterior appearance. What they lack in location appeal, they make up for the food. If you come at an odd time, this place may appear near empty. But, if you come during the peak hours of lunch and dinner, then this place is pretty crowded (stating my friend). When he and I were here last night to pick up his car, the place had a good number of cars there, and it was 10 PM on a Thursday night. So I guess I’ll believe him about the crowd during peak hours. I mean. This place can’t accommodate a lot of folks, but I guess people will to-​go it if it gets crowded. This is kind of like the Quoc Huong of Chamblee. Although the location is a tad bigger. Just a tad.
My friend recommended the com tay hen. The last time I had this was in Cali, and it was the buon version. The com version is sooo much better. The rice was crunchy and delicious as it was cooked in a stone bowl. There was a mini soup that came with the dish. The flavor was unique to say the least. Since red pepper flasks were visible, there was be a spicy after taste that will linger with you. The clams will give the dish a slight salty flavor, but the slight sauce at the bottom gave the dish a slight sweetness too.
Service was a tad above average. This one guy was too funny as he thought my friend and I were Korean since we spoke in English. He was super startled as I asked him for a to-​go box in Viet. He was even more surprised to know that I was born here. Come on… Why wouldn’t I know my native language?!
Overall a good place for good food. Sometimes the most hole in the wall places will have the greatest finds.

I come here almost every weekend. I really like the com bo luc lac, come chien Chim cut, com suong nuong dac biet, and com tay cam hen. The noodle soups are not bad either! Will always come back.

This place shares parking with a bunch of other stores so the parking availability may be sporadic. Upon walking in we were seated immediately and promptly taken care of. The staff was nice and friendly and the service was food. I ordered the thai iced tea with tapioca, phở (1) with everything and a side of shrimp/​pork spring rolls. The thai ice tea was extremely good with a balanced amount of tapioca. The thai iced tea was on the sweeter side. The phở portion was generous with lots of noodles and meet. It would seem that add little to none MSG which is a plus. The shrimp/​pork spring rool was a bit pricey but it was fresh and good. The shrimp was not briny or fishy and the noodles to meat to vege portion was well balanced. Overall, i like this phở place and would come back to again. Cheers!

They has the Best Com Bo Luc Lac in Town! I love this place. The servers are really awesome also.

The service is a hit or miss. The food is good. Not too much to rave about tho. The rice plates are pretty good. The summer rolls are average. The egg rolls… tastes spoiled on some visits. Phở Dac Biet is okay. Nothing too special. The Bun Bo Hue was pretty good. The che were good as well. The owner is really nice and very friendly. Overall, I’d revisit.

This is one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurant. Bun oc (snail soup), com Bo luc lac (shaken beef) are some of my favorites. Consistently good.

Love this place. My sister is a regular here because she loves her phở. We actually order the same thing every time although we’re not vegetarians: vegetable phở without tofu. It’s not «vegetarian» because I think it’s still beef broth, though. I haven’t seen many Vietnamese restaurants offer this. Oh, and the fresh shrimp spring rolls with the peanut sauce are really good, too. I love the freshness of the vegetables.
I’ve come here before for the make-​your-​own-​spring-​rolls dish. I remember it being really fresh and yummy then, too. It’s pretty comparable to Nam Phuong’s.
Good food, good price, and «decent» service.

I usually come here with my family every few months. They usually have great food, but this time I was a little more than disturbed by some things.
They are starting to skimp on the amount of meat that comes with their entrees so if you order phở or any other noodle dish, expect more noodles than anything else.
The service is better than most Vietnamese restaurants, they are friendly & attentive. But for this particular visit, the 2 stars I’m giving is ONLY for the service.
I could’ve easily forgiven their food quality for this visit… up until we were walking out and noticed their health food score of a 57 U!!!
They need to get it together because once glimpse of that unsatisfactory score was enough to keep me away from this joint for awhile.
57!!! Reallly!!!

Last time we came here the food all tasted stale. Meat had an odd odor to it. The lettuce in my vermicelli dish was old. Spring rolls weren’t as fresh. I’m disappointed since this place use to have so much potential. Won’t be coming back.

I almost missed this place as it is located in a nearly empty plaza; look for the IHOP as a landmark.
I decided to try a dish that I have never eaten before. The Com Tam Suon Bi Cha was excellent!
I did not know what one of the items were that was served with this dish however, I later learned it was pork and egg custard; it was great! All the components of this dish complement each other.
I recommend it. I plan to return to try other dishes.

It’s been a VERY long time since I have gotten excited over Vietnamese food. A lot of Vietnamese restaurants nowadays:
1. Kind of all taste the same
2. Caters to the American taste palate /​not authentic
3. Favors quantity over quality
4. Has no homemade taste /​love /​TLC
I’ve been up and down Buford Highway almost my entire life, checking out all the Vietnamese eateries they have to offer, and all of them have gone downhill and fall into one or multiple of the aforementioned categories, IMHO. Lucky for you, Taste of Phở falls under none! Though, despite its name, BF and I both ordered something else — a rice dish, and a noodle bowl.
When you’re unhappy and you eat, it affects how you perceive your food sometimes. I wasn’t in the best of moods, but AS SOON as my food (broken rice with grilled pork chop + sunny side up egg) hit the table and the aroma wafted up, my entire demeanor changed. I walked in expecting the worst, but found myself to be excited, drooling and I couldn’t help but choose to eat over continuing my conversation. Sorry T lol! I was anticipating that the vegetables wouldn’t be fresh, since it didn’t seem like the restaurant got much business, but everything was super bright (green/​red/​orange/​white). The lettuce was crisp, the tomato was juicy, the cucumber was freshly cut (i.e. it wasn’t pre-​cut and left in the refrigerator like a LOT of places; yes, it makes a difference to me), and get this: the pickled vegetables were ACTUALLY pickled. You laugh, but so many places nowadays don’t do this right. They just throw the vegetables in some vinegar in the morning and call it a day. But here, you could taste how the acidity permeated into the vegetables, and trust me, it takes time and makes a huge difference! The pork chop was of a fairly big size, with a good meat to fat ratio, and cooked nicely.
The portion was huge and I was sad that I couldn’t eat it all. BF helped clean the plate off, though, even after he ate his giant bowl of noodles (bun thit nuong with cha gio — bbq pork with eggrolls). His food was really good, too, as I mooched off him. :) I don’t even like restaurant eggrolls (just good ol’ mommy’s!) but theirs was excellent. I would definitely order them as an appetizer next time, and that is quite uncharacteristic of me.
The restaurant is very well kept. Tables were incredibly clean and organized. All sauces were filled up and every table was fully stocked on two kinds of chopsticks (wooden and plastic), spoons (with the indentions in them so they hang on the side of your bowl and won’t drop in), napkins (the good quality kind, not the cheap-​o ones where you have to use a new one every time) and those tiny saucers. Décor was nice, with photo collages of all things Vietnam-​related and a large painting on one wall.
Service was top notch! Our waiter, who was Vietnamese and fluent in both Vietnamese and English, was attentive and polite (he should be, anyway, since we were the only ones there at that point lol). It was dinner time, so everyone else in the restaurant (staff) sat at the tables pushed together towards the back and ate goi cuon, family style. I loved the way they interacted with one another, with such kindness and courtesy. As I commented to the BF, I honestly felt as if I was eating with family. Even though they were eating, our waiter always made sure we were still doing well. Every time a car approached the restaurant, he stood up right away, grabbed menus, and waited for the new customers to come in and seated them.
Looks can be deceiving! The restaurant is located right off of Pleasant Hill, but you don’t even notice it from the street. Do not be discouraged by the emptiness of the strip it sits in. Just come in and enjoy great, authentic food!

Out of all the phở/​Vietnamese restaurants I’ve ever been to, this one has the best service so far. The food has consistently been very good. I can’t complain about anything I’ve tried here.
Favorite items:
~ phở tai
~ com hen (baby clam clay pot)
~ banh hoi dat biet (rice paper wrap special for 2) — make your own spring rolls!
~ chao long (not on the menu, check the specials board outside)
~ banh uot cuon thit nuong (not on the menu, check the specials board outside)
~ bun bo hue (spicy beef noodle soup)
Taste of Phở is kinda hidden in a pretty dead shopping center right behind IHOP.

Came by the other week since a friend was in town, and he was meeting up some other folks here. Wasn’t too hungry so ordered a small bowl of phở and spring rolls for the boyfriend.
The phở had a different taste to it than what I am accustomed to, but it’s not bad. I’m just not too fond of it. Plus, it’s a drive to get here when I have so many closer, better phở places near my house.
Otherwise, it’s not too bad.
I wouldn’t mind coming back, but I wouldn’t be the one to initiate it either.

I came in here the other day for a early dinner. I got the banh hoi tray. Which is a big plate full of veggies (lettuce, cucumber ect) with three kind of meats. I got the crab meat with pork paste and beef wrapped in grape leaves. This tray is enough for two people. We also got two small bowls of soup.
The banh hoi tray is so good. Two people and we still couldn’t finish the whole tray. It comes with rice paper so that you can roll your own spring roll.
I think overall this place deserve 4 stars because the service was really good, the food was flavorful and totally worth the money, but it wasn’t the best foods I have had in Atlanta, so only four stars. I will deff. come back in the future though to try other items on the menu. I think you should give this place a try!

Taste of Phở opened at the end of July 2010. This Vietnamese restaurant is located in a desolate strip mall on Pleasant Hill across the street from Mall Corners. The interior still feels new and clean with simple décor. Do not be deceived by this restaurant’s name! Their menu features a lot more than just phở (Vietnamese noodle soup). They offer a variety of authentic Vietnamese appetizers and rice and noodle dishes.
I tried their goi cuon (summer rolls), which includes pork, rice vermicelli, lettuce, basil, and chives wrapped in soft, moist rice paper and served with a sweet brown sauce. These were simple yet tasty. The ingredients were fresh, although the pork did taste a little funny.
I came to Taste of Phở with the intention of trying their phở and ordered a medium bowl of their phở dac biet (combination phở with slices of beef, tendon, tripe, flank steak, etc.). They offer only two sizes of phở: medium ($ 6.50) and extra-​large ($ 7.50). It’s funny how they skipped the large and went straight to the XL! Standard sides were served with the phở, including bean sprouts, culantro, basil, jalapenos, and lime. This was a good bowl of phở. The broth was slightly aromatic and flavorful and the cuts of meat were tender.
Our server was attentive and very friendly. The restaurant had a steady stream of customers on a Saturday afternoon, but never got too busy. The owners asked me to try their non-​phở dishes next time. They seemed to be very proud of them, so I think I’ll take them up on their offer. Overall, Taste of Phở is a solid little Vietnamese restaurant in Duluth.