Pho La Jolla

This place is delicious. I have yet to find a bahn mi sandwich that is comparable. The steak bahn mi is a winner and the phở is great too. Who can complain with fast service and good food?

My parents and I were in the area and decided to try to place out for lunch. Unfortunately, it was UCSD gradation weekend so everyone and their moms were waiting for a table at this place, too. I had to loop around the parking lot once in order to find parking. I’m sure on a normal day, this wouldn’t be much of a problem.
We waited a good 15 – 20 minutes for a table and opted to sit inside since it was a bit windy. There are TVs at different corners of the room so you can enjoy whatever’s on TV during your meal.
My parents and I all got phở and they come in a huge bowl, justifying the high price in the bowl of phở (~$ 10/​bowl). Compared to OC phở, it’s not as cheap, not as favorful, and not enough veggies on the veggie platter. It just gets the job done.
I notice this restaurant caters more to the non-​Vietnamese crowd since La Jolla isn’t really a predominant Vietnamese community. And I’m sure it caters to the college kids’ late night hunger since it opens until 11 PM.

After being seated, we took 5 minutes to glance at the menu and spent the rest the next 20 minutes trying to flag down someone to take our order…
Now, being Viet and probably x3 as pickier than other people when it comes to Vietnamese food — I normally wouldn’t go to Phở La Jolla for phở anyway. However cold nights, finals, and the craving for phở leads me to the closest Phở place at UCSD, which just happens to be here.
Prices have risen to $ 9.25-$ 9.50 for a bowl of Phở now and they only offer a large size option instead of regular and large like before. However, it just seemed like more soup was added if anything since the noodles and meat amount weighed somewhat the same.

I tried this place because my usual phở place had closed already, was very disappointed. The atmosphere was loud and crowded for 9pm on a Sunday. They will not add extra things to phở, even on the side, unless you order a dish with that item — and pay full price for it. (If a restaurant has a no substitution policy, totally fine. But we asked for a side of grilled pork and a fried egg. No-​can-​do on the egg. And we could order a «side» of pork, but it would be $ 8.25. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
Ordered the spicy beef noodle soup and the noodles were all about an inch long so I had to eat the whole thing with a spoon. It tasted fine but the overall experience was lack luster.
Would not recommend this place to someone if they had another choice.

The pink fried rice was a little different. The grilled chicken was bleh! Take away: don’t go to a phở place and order fried rice or grilled chicken. Not their forte…

Bad service except for one server
Food is good most of the time
And the place has become dirty!

Im no phở snob… in fact, a few of my favorite phở places are more trendy /​hipster and miles from the convoy area. cough, OB noodle house, cough cough. hey man… their broth base is outstanding.
So ya, white girl with no phở taste, checking in! Haha, hardly. im just not a snob about it and i give this place kudos for being in driving distance from my work — which is pretty much a wasteland of food options in general (up the hill in torrey pines across from USCD-​land). Amazing? no… perfectly good? yes. Busy as hell during weekday lunch? Yep, be prepared. and the parking lot in this complex is a big pain.
It was a typical may gray day and definitely phở weather… I had wanted to go out with some co-​worker friends for a quick-​meal and phở is always the recipe for all of this. I got the rare beef — meat on the side! — thats the way to do it if you don’t like your meat getting extra cooked sitting in the hot broth. It was tasty. We also got an order of egg rolls… which were also tasty. And I got a boba thai iced tea which was delicious and quickly gone before any food even arrived.
Not much else to say, if you are work or live in the area, its a fine phở place and pretty standard priced.

Very disappointed with our last visit. The pork was preformed in our spring roll & not barbecued, asked for fried noodles & got cooked ones instead. All around unpleasant experience, won’t be going back. Not what it used to be.

**REVIEW FOR PHO ONLY**
Not bad! The best thing about Phở La Jolla is the convenient location, and the quantity of meat you get with your phở. Good and plenty!
I had the phở tai (rare steak) + brisket.
Pro Tip: I always get my steak on the side so it doesn’t overcook in the broth.
The meat is of good quality. As far as taste– steak was good, brisket was excellent. Highly recommend.
The broth had pretty good flavor.
The noodles, however, were stuck in one huge clump, and did not loosen easily whatsoever.
To a certain extent, clumping of noodles is to be expected and nothing to complain about. But this was so severe that it affected my entire eating experience.
3 stars for decent phở and great brisket.
–2 for a clusterf*ck of noodles, and very slow service for a phở joint.
I’ll probably be back to try the Bahn Mi, but it might be worth the extra miles for better phở elsewhere.

If you want phở don’t come here unless you’re desperate and can’t make it to convoy. There was a bug in one of my friends food and the phở tasted really salty and filled with msg with no real depth of flavor. Vegetables were acceptable but not very fresh. Service and staff was just okay as well. Wouldn’t recommend unless you really need phở and can’t leave la jolla or don’t have a car to get anywhere else.

Great tasting phở. well done steak. fast/​friendly service. Its not like most phở places where the server doesn’t speak clear English. overall 10 of 10

I’ve been here a few times and each time,
I’m impressed. Huge portions, quick service (not the friendliest, but that’s not a big deal for me), and it’s reasonably priced. The inside of the restaurant is pretty big but beware that parking in this lot is absolutely atrocious.

Whenever I’m craving phở in the moment I almost always come here
Very very close to UCSD campus and for the amount you pay the quality and quantity are both satisfactory. Food also comes out pretty quick which gives them bonus points in my book

After spending a blustery weekend in Vegas and returning to cloudy San Diego evening, I was craving a nice hot bowl of phở. Since we happened to be at the nearby Marshalls, my boyfriend and I decided to give Phở La Jolla a try.
The restaurant seemed quite busy for a Sunday night but they managed to squeeze us into a table. Due to the crowded restaurant, it took a little while for our food to arrive but that’s to be expected on a busy night.
I ordered my usual phở order of rare steak. I asked for no onions but my phở still arrived with the onions floating on top. Thankfully, they were fairly easy to fish out. All the other toppings, like bean sprouts, cilantro and lime, were served on the side. I added some soy sauce and hoison sauce to bump up the flavor. It tasted quite good and definitely hit the spot. This is a great comfort food, especially on rare, chilly San Diego days. My only complaint is that the rice noodles were all stuck together at the bottom of the bowl and took some work to get loose.
My boyfriend, who is a vegetarian, appreciated that they offered a tofu and vegetable version in veggie broth. Plus, there’s a whole vegetarian section on the menu. I’m pretty sure that he’s adding this to his short list of restaurants to visit.
The woman at the register was very nice, which is always a pleasant find at a restaurant and seems rather rare nowadays. I loved her friendly smile and helpful attitude and definitely contributes to my desire to return.

I don’t understand why this place gets so much hate. The food may be more for the American palette and the prices may be a dollar or two more expensive, but the location and overall taste makes Phở La Jolla super convenient.
Whenever my friends and I had an urge for viet food, we would take the 10 minute trek down Gilman to this restaurant. I can’t tell you the countless times we would walk here for a post hangover meal, or whenever the dining halls closed (yay for being open until 11 pm). I find it pretty humorous that the servers aren’t Asian but they are super nice and are quite efficient with taking your order and serving your food.
I usually go for the large phở with rare steak (~$ 10) or the spicy beef noodle soup whenever they have it. I like how they are not skimpy with the meat, I usually have to leave a piece of two behind at the end since they give you so much meat. Sure you can get better phở 10 – 15 minutes away in kearny or clairemont mesa, but for this place to be literally walking distance from campus, I can’t complain at all.

Five Stars for TASTE but One Star for SERVICE:
One of the few places that offer a lot of variety of Phở other than beef options which I don’t eat. I love eating the Chicken Dark Meat Phở here and they always give big portions for reasonable price.
However, the service is consistently bad and sometimes borderline rude! It is very hard to get server’s attention or ask for things. I always say «thank you» and «please» whenever I order but the servers never says them, sometimes they won’t even respond and just nod, leaving us clueless whether they heard the order or not.
The only reason I keep coming back to eat at this place is because of the taste of the foods as well as the convenience of the location.

Because it is close to campus, I always like going here for lunch. But I won’t come back again. The price rises up a little, and I don’t think I got a fresh phở this time. The basil leaves we got has something unknown and disgusting.

Not the best, but not the worst I’ve considering places I’ve tried in San Antonio, TX. Prices were fine. I thought $ 6.95 for the phở tai was a decent price and comparable to Phở Ca Dao in Mira Mesa our to go spot.
The meat here is served a proper medium rare and the veggies are pretty fresh and served with lime wedges. The broth wasn’t the best I’ve had, but again not the worst. It wasn’t the most flavorful. I think maybe the bones need to be boiled longer or something. I do appreciate that the broth seems more on the healthy side. It’s not excessively salty or oily. After adding adding some hoisin sauce and a little chili sauce, the broth was A-​OK. My fiancé and I have also had the egg rolls here, which were average. They weren’t as good as Phở Ca Dao’s, but still satisfied the craving. We’ve also had the bun bowls here and they are also pretty adequate. Again, not the best but not the worst.
The service wasn’t very friendly or that great the last time we came though. Our male waiter just threw our menus down on a table and pointed. My fiancé was confused, but I insisted that yes he wants us to sit there. The female who came with our food seemed friendly though.
We’ve come here a few times as a couple and with my fiancé’s family when they come down to San Diego. It’s a decent option when you want phở and prefer to stay near UCSD. If convenience or time isn’t an issue I recommend you travel down to Phở Ca Dao about 10 – 15 minutes away.

Phở is one of my go to foods. The soup here is great… savory and not too much salt or fat. For me their portions are great. I got the regular and ate half for my dinner. I took the other half home and ate it for lunch the next day (make sure to separate the soup from the noodles so they noodles don’t soak up all the soup). It re-​heated well.
The service was on the slow side, but friendly. There’s parking in front of the restaurant. There’s other parking around the building but there were signs that said 30 min parking only– don’t know how strictly they enforce that.
One strange thing was that the waiter told us everything they were out of which was a good 5 items which was disappointing, but good he told us rather than us ordering those dishes and trying to cover up that they didn’t have those dishes on hand.

After my short ER stay, I came here to grab some dinner before heading back to LA. I was starving, so I’m glad my order was processed quickly. I got the large rare steak phở with an iced coffee.
As I walked in, I noticed that most of the customers are college students. The place is kept clean, and it is in a nice and quiet neighborhood. The parking lot was small, but no hassle finding a spot.
My rare steak phở was as good as the places I’ve tried in LA. Their iced coffee was awesome, it had a double shot of espresso that kept me wide away on the drive home. The employees were very attentive. An added plus is that they actually take credit card payments here, unlike some places in LA.
A great experience, I would repeat.