Pham’s Deli

I eat here about once a week. I LIVE for their fresh spring rolls. You feel healthy eating it because it’s so light and delicious.
I love the Phở too. And the egg rolls. The only other thing I’ve tried is the Lo Mein — which is honestly not mindblowing — but the portion you get is enough for 3 – 4 people so, throw some soy sauce on it and call it a day.
And yea — unless you get their lunch buffet before 2PM, you will likely have to wait 5 – 10 minutes for your chow. 80% of it is cooked to order, when you order it. I personally call ahead about 10 minutes and my food is ready when I get there.
There is very little on this earth that requires cooking and can be ready to eat in less than 5 minutes. Relax and enjoy.

5 minutes for a Banhi Mi sandwich, really? It wasn’t bad but it’s not a Lu’s. The bread was spongy, not crispy. I’m not a fan of their pâté, just not the flavor I like. Good price. Stuffed with pork and veggies and some serious heat from the peppers. I also got a chicken egg roll, nothing to write home about here. Being this close to Lu’s on Eat Street, I’m going to head over there next time.

The menu looks and sounds Vietnamese but the food seems to be some confusion on what it’s actually supposed to look and taste like. While I wouldn’t call myself an expert, I’ve had enough noodle salads to know how they are supposed to be. What I got from Pham’s was served warm, had about six shreds of lettuce and was doused in a brown sauce. Definitely not what I was expecting and definitely much worse than what I’m used to at other places.
My husband got the lo mein. Even that was dry and bland.
Blah…

It’s been a couple years since i’ve been here for the bubble tea, so I came today and got a coconut bubble tea. The flavor was pretty good, not amazing. I regret not paying the extra $ 0.25 for extra boba because they were pretty stingy and the boba seem smaller than normal. But overall, pretty good for $ 3.75.

They have got a nice big menu. The food is pretty standard Vietnamese food. Was a little disappointed that i got here about 15 minutes late for the lunch special and they wouldn’t give it to me. Was a fine experience. You can definitely find something better in the Global Market.

The food is mediocre, but they do have bubble tea, which somehow makes mediocrity just a little more special.

Just threw out most of what was the single worst chicken «curry» I’ve ever had. It was essentially moo goo gai pan with some curry powder and red pepper flakes mixed in. The weird, ammoniated flavor was made worse by the abundance of baby corn, which has no place in curry. In retrospect, I should have demanded a refund.

For the price, they offer very good food for your money. So long as you order your meal directly, and don’t take the lunch line. Each meal is cooked to order, and it’s worth the wait. They will make it as hot as you like. I would definitely recommend the Mongolian Beef. The only thing that they’re menu is missing is beer.

I go to Pham’s regularly for their noodle soup, which just tastes like health to me (probably not, but …) It’s chock full of broccoli, carrots, baby corn, and I add chicken to it. Very simple, cheap ingredients that are pure yum to me. Oh, and the large is huge, so for only a couple bucks, I get at least two or three meals. I’ve never ordered anything else off their menu, though my husband likes the pork banh mi.

I took a few bites of super gross Szechuan Chicken and pretty quickly decided to throw it away, even though I was quite hungry and hate wasting food. I am very sorry that a chicken had to die for that. Really, really bad.

Meh. This place looked promising, with offerings ranging from Vietnamese Phở to Banh Mi, to Chinese dishes and spring rolls. They did everything quite poorly. The reason it gets two stars is they have fast service and good peanut sauce for the spring rolls. Unfortunately, the spring rolls are just a mass of vermicelli noodles with 3 shrimp inside– the dumplings come out of a store-​bought bag, and the Chinese chicken dishes are not a high quality.
If you want to get anything from this place, go for the Bubble Tea or the Banh Mi ($ 4 or so each).

service at PHAM’s DELI was painfully slow — especially discouraging since i was the only one waiting for food.
i was expecting a crusty, rice-​flour baguette but my BAHN MI arrived up on a big, squishy «ITALIAN» roll (has anybody had a roll like that in ITALY?) that spent enough time in the oven to seem more stale than toasted. there was very little roast pork and what there was was dry and tough. there were only a couple scrawny sprigs of cilantro and no jalapeño slices. a limp pile of pickled daikon and carrots were too sparse to provide any sweet-​tangy crunch.
my wife took whatever the photographer’s equivalent of poetic license is posing my BAHN MI after she’d arranged all the ingredients on one end. great photo but this time if the picture tells the story it was a lie. VIETNAMESE sandwiches are already minimalist so under stuffed on an oversized roll was pretty much like having a giant, nearly naked hot dog bun with all the character of WONDER BREAD for lunch.

Located inside the midtown market.
Spring rolls — cheap but not very good
The bun, the noodle salad also not very good
The chicken sandwich was just gross. Threw it away. Overall not happy.

Strangely, the most authentic Vietnamese sandwhich in the Twin Cities, hides in the Midtown Market at a small counter lunch booth, staffed by the nicest people in the building. The sandwhich is not only authentic, it’s authentically priced.

I couldn’t decide what to do for lunch one day so I decided to head over to the Global Market and browse around for something tasty.
I stopped at Pham’s thinking that I wanted to try my first Bahn-​mi and obviously had to get their spring rolls because it’s me. I must try every single spring roll in the city and world. The service was friendly, but the order took about 10 minutes to make, which being how slow it was didn’t make too much sense, but I let it slide.
I got the Mock Duck Bahn-​mi and it was good, and since I’ve never had one before I can’t really compare it to anything. The «meat» had a nice flavor but I think it was lacking in every other department. There wasn’t enough insides to fill the bread out and I ended up tearing the ends off and making it a shorter sandwich. I really wish their was more pickled veggies, they seemed good, just not enough. The bread I thought could be better since this sandwich is supposedly heavily influenced by the French culture.
The spring rolls were okay. I generally don’t like plain veggie spring rolls so shy away from my veggie ways into the pescetarian world and opt for the shrimp. There were 4 shrimp in each one, which is awesome, if they had any crunch to them. It was just kind of squishy and meh.
Overall it was cheap and easy. I’ll probably try out a different spot next time.

I recently acquired a new taste: spring rolls. I decided to get some spring rolls from this place because of a friend wanted try the place and because of my mad craving. She also got some spring rolls and some boba tea. I was impressed @ their protein options not just for the spring rolls but their other dishes: tofu, meat, shrimp, and mock dock. They also do plain simple veggies too :). It was a little busy, so my order took a little over 15 minutes.
Boba tea was good but the spring rolls were rolled like fat Chipotle burritos. I had to eat them with a fork because all the insides fell out! It was truly a hot mess. Taste was good but I wish there was more cilantro and other basil or something. There were tons of noodles and lettuce, which overpowered the burrito type spring rolls.
I haven’t really tried other things on the menu, so I won’t write it off. The people who work their are pretty nice, and they always seem busy.
The menu has all kinds of dishes: rice, banh mi, boba tea, phở, noodles, appetizers, stiryfry, etc. From the looks of their menu, they always have specials, including daily lunch specials.
I’ll probably go back sometime soon. Will let you know how something else is :).

I come for the Phở. I get the same dish every time and I am always satisfied. I know there are some that will argue where to get the best Phở in the cities. Maybe Pham’s isn’t it but I have consistently been happy with what I get there. I also love visiting the Global Market and stopping at Salty Tart for dessert.
The Phở has that wonderful both, the massive mound of noodles, the extras, all served in the iconic large bowl that I can’t wait to dip my face in! I eat around the meatballs unfortunately. They just aren’t a texture I can wrap my head around. I am still on my quest for the BEST Phở in the cities but this is hitting the spot in the mean time.

Had Pham’s Deli for lunch today and it was excellent! I had the shrimp lo-​mein and it was awesome. Great Job! I need to go back and try the bubble tea.

I first discovered Pham’s when Bön Appetite magazine featured it in an article.
The beef phở at Pham’s is awesome! It has a deep rich complex taste while maintaining the lightness that makes phở what it is. The beef is always raw (as it should be) when added to the broth to poach it. There is beautiful Thai basil that they serve with it as well as sirracha chile sauce, hoisain sauce, fresh lime… the noodles in it are amazing and the portion is HUGE. I go there about once a week for the phở and it really is one of the best in town.
I love their traditional banh mi sandwich. The bread is flaky in crust and chewy inside as good bread should be. There is a parade of flavors — from the crisp pickled veggies, the chile pepper the wonderful sweets and sours… the pork is perfectly tender with a traditional vietnamese bbq on the outside… this is a really beautiful taste balance and is a wonderful example of traditional vietnamese cuisine.

I stopped by on a visit to the midtown global market and tried one of their bahn mi.
I liked the meat and the balance between the amount of meat and the amount of other fillers. The spice was also good, spicy but not unbearably hot. The 2 pitfalls for me was the cilantro stems that were not chopped and made the thing kind of difficult to eat and the bread was a bit too crumby and soft, I would have preferred a slightly crunchier crust. The verdict is a very good bahn mi.
The rest of the menu seemed like all the other Asian restaurants. Same dishes and sam pics. Not sure about how they taste, but I would assume they’d be tasty, albeit maybe not too healthy.