Pho Bistro

I come here fairly frequently. The ph, while OK, isn’t anything special — Phở ‘n Rice in Somerville does better. But where this place shines is the Rice in Clay Pot. Try it. You won’t regret it.

Only reason why I come to this restaurant is because it’s close by my house. I’ve given this place numerous tries because it’s a hit or miss on their food and service. I get the same rice plate every time I order and it only gets worst.
1÷18÷16 as of this date, I went back give it another try. Nothing has changed. I went with my friend and we order 2 individual items and when the food came out only one plate was served while the other was never written down. It makes completely no sense on why there’s one entrée and two guests. While eating, the employee was yelling at another employee who was new at his job right at the front desk. The things he said was just humiliating. It felt so awkward that I ended my meal and asked for the check. This place is unprofessional and the food isn’t as good as it was when it first opened years ago.

I’ve neglected to write anything bad about this place for years as it was my trump card for phở that doesn’t require me to drive 30 mins into Dorchester. However, they’ve once again disappointed me.
I’ll start with the pros. This place has the best flavor in their broth in comparison to all the other phở restaurants in the north shore area. The food itself is always a nice blast of flavor. The service itself, the staff for the most part is very friendly and nice. Linh by far, the nicest and is always joking with you.
The one and probably the only one that actually annoys me is this male waiter, probably in his mid 20s. I don’t even know where to start. He always looks like he doesn’t want to be there. He will take your order but the moment you ask for any substitution (ex. No cilantro) he starts looking like he’s frustrated at you, and guess what… The food comes out and there’s CILANTRO! He is also always rushing you. In a matter of 3 – 5 mins of the ordering process, he’ll ask «that’s it?» (With an attitude) there to enjoy my food and I do not want someone that’s always grumpy waiting on us.
Putting this guy aside, let’s talk about the food. I can honestly say that 90% of the time I come here with friends, the food is incorrectly brought out. I’ll order a phở with yellow noodle and a friend will order a Bun bo hue with no cilantro, and it’ll come out as my phở with no cilantro and a bun bo hue with yellow noodles. I understand when they’re busy and I’ll forgive them here and there but even once when my brother ordered a bun bo hue and added oxtails (I think it’s like $ 3 – 5 more). The soup comes out and there one small piece of oxtail in there. The manager then says that there’s more inside the bowl, but none found as my brother scooped around in front of him.
Today, we ordered a decent size take out order as I have family in town and it would’ve been more convenient to eat at home instead. I made the order in advance and the waiter said it’ll take about 30 mins. Ok great, let me go walk around for a bit then. Got there exactly 30 mins later and it’s still not ready, I even said ok, they’re a little busy, I’ll wait a little more. I placed the order at 2:14pm, I didn’t get the food till about 3:20pm. I’m wondering why does it take them so long to put everything together as most of the food have been pre cooked and all they had to do was just pack everything. Got home and not surprising… My brothers bun bo hue has 2 pieces of meat. And we were missing a whole order of spring rolls. My verbally-​ready brother called them to complain and yet, not surprisingly, all they did was say sorry sorry and sorry. Guess that’s not much they can do, but sometimes it’s even more annoying to be hearing sorry so many times when all you hope for is just more consistency from a local joint. Hate to say this but I think I’d rather be driving into town for my phở from now on.

Located in Malden Center, this is by far the cleanest phở restaurants I’ve been to. The phở tastes like any other phở places I’ve been to. The service is okay. The tri-​colored dessert is mediocre in my opinion. Not the best I’ve had. However, their mung bean shakes and red bean shakes are amazing. Their vermicelli bowls are amazing too. I usually never finish my vermicelli bowls, but coming here I usually do. I would definitely choose coming here over the phở restaurants in Chinatown.

I really really try to like this place but I can’t. Nowadays, if I want good Phở, I’ll drive to Chinatown or Dorchester. The service was okay. With the 5 – 10 table staffs they have, nobody ever was attentive nor care until you order or pay the bill.
The only thing I do not like about this place is when it comes to ordering the meatballs as part of the entrée or side. As the entrée, they are really really cheap on the amount of meatball quarters. 4 quarters of meatball in it! What kind of business is this? That’s like giving you one whole meatball that’s not even that expensive to buy from the package. Another issue is when you’re ordering it as add-​on. They give you 3 freaking quarters and charge you $ 2.00 for it.
So whatever you do, do not ever ever order the meatball as a side or entrée.

Not the cleanest place, unless you prefer that. The meat was not fresh whatsoever. The staff doesn’t greet you, they point to where you should sit. I’ve been here multiple times hoping they can improve but they just don’t have the staff to even try.

Craving Vietnamese food and the banh mi place was closed so I came here for soooomething, anything. Ended up having the grilled pork & shrimp w/​eggroll vermicelli bowl. It was nothing to write home about. The pork was the only thing that was flavorful in the whole bowl. The eggroll just had that fried and oily taste to it so you couldn’t really tell what was in the filling. Really just not memorable overall.
Service was okay, lots of waiters/​waitresses around but no one really paying attention. Décor was suuuuper cute though, had a southeast Asia vibe that I liked.

Let me preface this by saying that I really wanted to like this place.
Atmosphere: I’ll start with the good. The restaurant is spacious and well decorated, and the menu is American friendly. It would be a lovely place to warm up in the winter.
Service: I can’t speak for all the staff but our waitress wasn’t the most pleasant. She seemed sarcastic and a little rude.
Cleanliness: (or lack thereof) Someone in our party went to the restroom and discovered hairs on the urinal (don’t wanna know what part of the body those came from). In addition, their water cups were so dirty, we didn’t touch them.
last but not least. .
THE FOOD: The clarity of Phở broth almost dictates it’s quality and this broth was very dark. It was also really oily, and that took away from the soup’s flavor.
Overall, it wasn’t pleasant but I hope they improve.

The Phở here is simply TO DIE FOR. Always good, broth is always well seasoned. This place is always clean, the waiters and waitresses are always friendly relaxed vibes. I have tried Phở at a great number of different places and nothing beats Phở Bistro. Their other dishes are great also.

Beware: They stopped serving beer here. Therefore my friends and I went across the street to Saigon Noodle for our Phở + Beer fix.

It’s a pretty good place to eat. Staff are friendly. We come here a few times a month to get a fix of hot soup and noodles. Rice dishes are nice, too.
They used to have a deal of Phở with lemonade, I think that’s gone now. :(

Been here a couple of times, the Phở is excellent. The broth is flavorful. The portions are generous.
If you are a fan of noodle soup — give this place a try.

I’ve been here for twice— yes, that was my biggest mistake. I don’t wanna say anything about the food, because people have different tastes. I also can accept the higher price, if it’s worth. Today I just wanna talk about the service from the waiter, the only male waiter there. First time I came here was one month ago. We had 6 person. The waiter made a mean face to us all the time. At that time, I didn’t think too much just thought maybe because we had too many people so made him inpatient. Yesterday I went there again, just to make a small to-​go order. Luckily, I met the male again. —hi, may I get a phở for to-​go? — you pick-​up or not order yet? — not order yet. (Then the menu was thrown out from the counter.) —do you know what the difference between these two noodle soup? —I don’t know! Just say which number you want! —ok, may I have large size number 42? —$ 9.90! — ok, here it is. —10 minutes! (And my card was thrown out from the counter again.) he didn’t say any more to me. I sat close to the entrance to wait my order. About 10 minutes later, the guy took my order to my seat, threw it on the table and gone immediately. (that was 5pm. Only few customers there. Not busy at all. Two waitresses were doing side work at dining table: cut the used paper for writing the orders on.) I really don’t know why he treats customers by this way. Just like I owed his money. That’s terrible and I won’t come back again. Wish you guys never get this waiter serve you.
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update:
yesterday the owner of this restaurant contacted with me. he apoligized to me and said he talked with this waiter already. thanks to his concern and i believe i will be back again.

I like this restaurant, don’t understand why some people didn’t like it. Have been coming here about 3 years and no bad experience by far but sometime I have a feeling that all the girls work there seem happy but the boys not that much, seems getting better recently. anyway, the food is good, I love #70 and #100. one time I paied in cash and a waitress ran out the door gave me back a 20 dollar bill because I paied extra, appreciate their honesty, will be back!

I come here often when I want phở. Beef phở is good but the chicjen phở i dont recommend because the chicken meat is over cooked and have a lot of ecess skin. BBQ pork with egg roll vermicelli is good also. Servixe is better now since i notice they come around and refill your water. Décor is asian inspired lanterns hanging on the ceiling and vietnamese painting along with bamboo divider wall. Spaciose inside so if you ahve a family of 10+ it will be okay.

Come here occasionally. I still call them Phở Hoa, keep forgetting their name change. Food is decent. Prices are fair. They have a huge variety of phở dishes. I’ve previously tried the oxtail and filet versions, but was not impressed. When ordering, try to ask for less fatty cuts in your phở otherwise they’ll give you a numerous amount.
Service is decent. You usually get seated right away. The only issue I’ve encountered is the staff glaring at you your entire meal. Like, don’t you have anything better to do? Also, I’ve seen the servers tossing menus at customers once seated. Rude much? The lighting is also dim in there, which I fail to understand why.
Street parking only, metered also. Sometimes if you’re lucky you can get a spot in the little parking lot on Pleasant Street across from All Seasons.

I had just gotten off my flight from cancun so I wanted a nice comforting pick me up after my travels. I ordered a standard phở dac biet to go. Asked for largest size — portion was medium at best. I didn’t think the broth was that terrible the first time I went in a few months ago, but this time it was noticeably bad. The broth tasted like chicken bouillon based and chock full of msg. It was a really poor effort to try to replace that beef home broth flavor that is the basis of good phở.
Well, now I’ve experienced this place and will be likely not be trying it again. Next.

First time, experience was fine. Second time was good. Third time is the last straw. rude employees that get your order wrong and gossip with their friends. Didn’t like the attitude. Never coming back.

Convenient if you don’t want to venture into Chinatown or Dorchester. Not the best, but not bad considering the location.
Prices are good and portions are decent. I can never finish the bowl anyways.
Service is so-​so.

Service takes forever, and you literally have to wave them down after you get seated to get any kind of service.
The Phở and Bun Bo Hue soup were ok. The rice plate was spread out nicely to make it look big and its a little pricer than normal. If you’re in the area, then go for it. If not, take a trip to dorchester or chinatown for some better phở.