Pho Sinh

Helle all, this place has awesome ph i always come here for the best phở. I usually called a mixed phở style. My favorite one is free range chicken with skin n rare steaks with tripe n special tendon which is crunchy n chewy from the well done brisket. The phở here always fill me up. The boss is very friendly unlike some customers said. They possibly experienced personal matter that is why they gave this restaurant a 1 star. It may raised up a couple cents but because you all have to understanding that food price is also going up too. It’s a small business as well for phở sinh. So we should give them a better recognition on their best trying to provide us the best food they can.

It’s against my principle to give a 1-​star review to a Phở restaurant in my beloved hometown of Alameda. The diversity of food and culture is one of the main charm for this island town. But ever since its opening 5 years ago, Phở Sinh has steadily gone downhill in terms of food quality and service. I used to order Chicken Phở for my wife at least once a week from here. I gave it a 5-​star review because we really enjoyed the food.
But a few years ago we noticed that the portion keeps getting smaller while the prices have risen. The broth (which is the key ingredient of Phở) gets worse and worse every time. It often leaves a nasty MSG after taste in your mouth. We also suspect that the cooks used old broth from the previous day to save money. They mask the foul flavor by putting in more MSG. The lady owner also doesn’t seem very friendly to the guests. She hardly ever greets us, and never once does she say thank you after I pay at the counter.
Fast forward to last week, I decided to take a buddy out for lunch. We came to SideStreet Phở but it was closed on Wednesday. We were hungry and didn’t want to drive to Oakland for Phở. So we took a chance on Phở Sinh again. It’s was a big mistake. The place was dead at lunch time. The Phở was the worst we ever tasted. They hardly gave us any herbs. Other Phở places usually give you a full plate of herbs and bean sprout. I think Phở Sinh was trying to save money by skimping on the veggie. It’s simply a bad business decision. We couldn’t finish our bowl because the MSG gave us a big headache while we eat. We truly regretted our choice to come in. My friend complained about it and I felt bad that I treated him to such a horrible meal.
I just have to write this review to warn other folks about the low quality Phở here. It’s such a shame that this place has gotten so bad. No wonder people still drive to Phở Ao Sen in Oakland and wait for 30 minutes for a table there. We should have done that.

My husband and I love eating here. This is our usual spot for phở! Friendly staff and yummylicious phở. :)

Delicious! First time having Phở and Bun! Had well done flank, with beef balls and the Bun with bbq pork, shrimp… and the hot lemonade! What a treat full of flavor at an affordable price! I recommend it to others!

Phở Sinh! I love this place because they have fresh rice noodles instead of those boiled pre-​packaged ones. (Though, you’re going to have to request it.)
The owner is extremely nice and is always extremely courteous when serving her customers! I always get a reg. sized phở nam bo vien sach, and they make the phở and everything just right.

My food was just okay. We ordered a Tsingtao beer, bowl of beef phở, spring rolls, and the lemongrass chicken rice plate. One, I might be a young 23 year old, but I have extremely high expectations when it comes to equal treatment and high quality service as well as cuisine. The restaurant did not deliver my expectations. I work quite a lot of hours. I graduated from Cal at the top of my class before hitting 20, so imagine the insult when my server makes a statement that I «look like a student». Yeah, you already lost me there. My lemongrass rice plate had dry chicken, mushy rice, and old vegetables alongside a bowl of what mine as well have been Swanson chicken broth. I don’t like repeating myself either, so when I make a variety of requests like a glass for my beer and a metal spoon, please don’t make me repeat myself — this is why we invented pen and paper. I gave what I consider an EXTREMELY generous tip of $ 4 for a meal under $ 30. Either my server was overwhelmed, tired upon a long day, apathetic, disrespectful, or all of the before mentioned descriptions in any number of combinations. If my server would have treated me with equal respect, then I gladly would have tipped my usual 20−25%. Goes to show that my advice for this server and management is to treat your patrons equally. We appreciate quality and attention to detail. You never know if that young restaurant patron is some young high level attorney or just someone wanting equal treatment like any other formally dressed patron. I left disappointed.
Next time will probably stick to phở. Will give this restaurant one more chance.

First of all, i love this place don’t get me wrong.
The lady that normally works here was not working today this is probably why the whole place was a mess.
We walked in and there were tables that were not clean. They seated us, gave us the menu and had us waiting for so long. No water, nothing. I stared at them, they stared back, still didn’t come up and ask for our orders. I have a baby and I have limited time until she starts acting up. What made me irritated, and decide to leave and not eat here was when the waitress took the couples order that came 10 minutes after us. BYE. We were there first, you saw me looking at you and ignored me, you lost a customer. Thanks for the water… oh wait there was no water.

Review for late lunch (after 2p) on a Friday:
— ordered Phở Tai: great broth, loved all the cilantro and green onions in the soup, basil was fresh.
— if you like your steak thin and ordered on the side, they do it differently here: it’s more chunky and they add it to the soup. It’s pretty good as it adds texture to the dish.
— a little expensive (SF prices), but if you’re in Alameda, a nice place to eat if you’re craving phở.
Real test: would I come back? Yes!

Finally – a really good phở place in Alameda. Rivals Kevin’s Noodle House on 14^th Ave & E 12^th in Oakland. Simple is best – the broth is fresh and clear, the meat ingredients are there (sliced beef, tendon, beef balls, etc.) and the fresh vegetable garnish is plentiful (bean sprouts, sliced jalapeño, basil tips, lime wedge).
I haven’t tried the banh mi but I will.

Tried the Phở here and it was delicious. Lots of flavor to the broth but not over powering. The meat was tender. The noodles were very good. It was served with Thai Basil, lime, jalapeños and raw bean sprouts. Don’t forget the Siracha too. I tried the Deep Fried Tofu. It was very crisp on the outside and silky on the inside. And last I tried the pork Banh Mi, this was quite possibly the best Banh Mi I have ever had. The Vietnamese Coffee was good and strong, definitely freshly made. Seven of us ate and it was only $ 60 bucks with tip. Great food and affordable.

Standard Vietnamese food. The only plus about this place is the people are really nice. We rolled in 10min before they closed, didn’t realize it until later. But they still treated us like we were the first people to walk in the door. Everything food wise was typical of a good/​decent vietnamese noodle place. Nothing special but good service and clean atmosphere always wins me over.

This place is my and my friends’ go to place for Vietnamese foods in the east bay. Their foods are consistently great: phở, cha ca, bun cha. They also serve fresh phở noodles which is hard to find.

Yummy!
Food is so authentic & delicious!
I’ll definitely come back here more often.
Staff are nice & friendly.

I like to eat the ph here it is one of the closest to north vietnam ph noodle soup. There are other food which is really good, bún ch Hà Ni, bò lúc lc, and other specials. They now have bún riu cua, chicken curry with steam rice, or chicken curry with bread. Which are good. They are putting up some new food each time.

Dishonest restaurant. Charge 13% for tax? And after I pointed out the error, still overcharged on tax and gave me back the change based on the original incorrect amount. Do you think none of your customer can do math?
Be careful of your final bill amount while dining here!

This place is no where near as good as the phở places located in oakland. ! trust me. and one of the owners children had messaged me asking for my personal info and then started using racial slurs against me in my inbox. i posted a picture of the responses and it was token down due to the racial slurs on it. after i posted that post the profile name was switched to KAYLA L.
if you want to eat at a establishment that is prejudice and has roaches (look at the other picture i posted of my first time there) go ahead…

I don’t know why a phở place would allow itself to run out of beef broth, but they didn’t tell us for a while. The substitute chicken broth was good, fortunately. There was barely any chicken in the chicken noodle bowls and the beef in my bowl came bright red when it got to the table. Soup was hot enough to cook it. The portions were small, as if they ran out of ingredients (which they did admit later) and service was horrible.
It took 40 minutes to get four bowls of noodle soup. They forgot an order of banh mi, and we had to ask about different items a few times.
It’s the worst Vietnamese restaurant I’ve ever gone to. It was unfortunate that the phở place we had intended to go to was temporarily closed, but there was no way to know that this place would suck so much. Next time if in same situation, I’d rather try the other ones on the other side of Alameda.

I’ve been here five times and every time I try something different and presumably out of my culinary comfort zone to my pleasure I have landed each into some yummy – corny I know but true. Give this place a try. Like 5x tries and you’ll love it each time. The staff are great an friendly.
Let me know how your five trips are.
Oh order the Banh My Bo Sot Vang (beef stew with bread on side) very good and tasty.

Dropped in for dinner with my parents and brother and was really pleased with the vast array of items on the menu, ranging from rice plates to vermicelli, to banh mi to phở. I decided to go with the Com Bo Nuong (grilled beef with steamed rice), and for only $ 8.50 a delicious plate of perfectly grilled beef, a pile of steamed rice, and a salad was brought to me.
I couldn’t get enough of the beef, which was tender, juicy, and delicious in every way. I felt like there could’ve been a bit more on the plate, as the strips were pretty thin, and I had to ask for more rice, but I didn’t leave hungry. My parents each ordered a rice plate as well, and my mom’s lemongrass chicken and my dad’s BBQ pork and shrimp were all cooked and flavored well and to their liking. My brother got a bowl of phở (I can’t remember which meat he ordered), and it was pretty huge and filled with meat and veggies. It smelled delicately fragrant and he was very satisfied.
Fast, friendly service and delicious, very well-​prepared food. The prices are really great, as well.

I’ve gotten stuff from the «Ha Noi Cuisine» section so haven’t tried the namesake Phở as of yet.
First visit was Bun Cha Ha Noi (BCHN $ 11.95, Marinated broiled pork served with vermicelli, salad wrap and special sauce) which is like a deconstructed version of the more common Bun Thit Nuong (grilled pork vermicelli bowl) with extra pork meatball patties.
I was excited to read the «Salad Wrap» in the description (I like wraps of my BCHN), but the lettuce came out pre-​cut like a salad so not big enough for wrapping anything (
).
I’ve had this twice and the first time I had this the veggies were just some mint with the lettuce (and would have had cilantro if I’d not specified), but the last time the greenery also had perilla and Vietnamese balm for some nice flavor variety (
).
There are both grilled pork slices (thit nuong) and ground pork patties (the ‘cha’ of Bun Cha) served in a fish sauce based broth (aka special sauce) with pickled carrots and minced garlic (
). The last visit the pork patties were a lot thinner and pretty dry even soaking in the sauce.
More recently I had the Cha Ca Thang Long, the famous Hanoi Tumeric Fish with Dill ($ 14.95, Sautéed filets of sole served with vermicelli, salad wrap, topped with peanuts and special sauce)
The description sounds pretty similar to the BCHN except with tumeric fish so I was expecting something similar to this picture with the fish separate from the other dish accoutrements and sizzling tableside (
).
Looks like things have changed over time and this dish has turned into a Bun Cha Ca (rice noodle bowl) with the fish atop a bowl of vermicelli next to some crushed peanuts and pickled veggies with fresh veggies buried underneath (
).
Anyway, there was maybe a dozen small, bite-​sized pieces of the tumeric fish with a *lot* of green onions that dominated the flavors when mixed up. The fish was moist, but was a little oily and needed more seasoning (
).
A little inconsistent so I’ve been preferring Sidestreet Phở, for Northern Vietnamese in Alameda,.