Pho Icon

If I could this place 0 stars, I would. Maybe I came on a bad day or something, but my family and I are definitely not coming back. I have never had this bad of an experience at a restaurant before. Terrible service and food. I don’t know this place even has more than 2 stars.
The day I went, it seemed like they were understaffed with 3 – 4 people working in the front, but the restaurant wasn’t that full. I also saw a woman behind the counter not really doing anything. When we came in there were 5 – 10 tables filled with people. There were about 5 or more dirty tables that weren’t cleaned, even after we left.
So it took us about 5 minutes of waving our hand around to get a waiter’s attention to take our order. My dad and sister got their orders of phở about 10 minutes after ordering, but they left out the beef balls out of her order. We called the waiter and he came back in 5 minutes with a bowl of beef balls. About half an hour passed, my dad and sister were done eating, and my other sister hadn’t gotten her rice dish and I didn’t get my order of vermicelli either. We didn’t get our drinks either. I also so that some tables that had come in after us had gotten some of their orders. So we called a different waiter to ask about all our orders.
The drinks arrived and my sister got her rice dish. I finally got my food, which was a disappointment. The vermicelli seemed very cold and bland. The egg rolls and nem nuong weren’t good. I tried drowning it all in the fish sauce they gave me, but it wasn’t enough to mask the taste, so I had to use my sister’s bowl too. I didn’t end up finishing it, which made me feel really bad, but it was way colder than I was used to having my vermicelli.
I mean, their other food seemed not bad, but with my experience, I don’t think I’ll ever want to go back and give them another try.

I thought it was sort of weird that thai people were running a Phở place but it was good! The first time I went, I ordered phở with brisket and it was surprising good. The restaurant was pretty empty so we had plenty of attention which was really nice too!
The last time that I went I got, green curry with beef. Deeeee-​lish! Although it was a bit sweet so I think there was a little too much coconut milk in it but it was still really good! It’s worth a visit! It prices aren’t crazy and the waitresses are great!

I’m not going to lie, I was a bit skeptical of a Thai/​Vietnamese restaurant. After riding a tandem bike (with no gears) from Monrovia to Rosemead, my boyfriend and I were pretty much ready to eat!
DECOR
The seating and décor is casual and welcoming. The tables aren’t over crowded.
The Valentine’s Day decorations they had up were kind of cute, you can tell they were homemade, but made with love! Around the restaurant they had planters with fake flowers and candles, which is typical of Asian places and suited the restaurant.
FOOD
My boyfriend got the customizable phở (you select up to 4 different types of meat). A regular size bowl was plenty big (he probably would not have finished a large).
I got the boat noodles (my favorite Thai noodle soup). The soup base and noodles did not impress me and I did not expect the noodles to be those they use for phở. I like the big flat noodles and I’m used to that for Thai cooking.
DRINK
We got the Thai tea, which was on promotion for $ 1. The flavor is pretty much what you would get from a Quickly or Tapioca Express type tea shop (not as authentic as I would like).
Unilocal 100 Challenge 2013 — 13 of 100

I LOVE this place! Phở icon has a letter A as their health inspection grade, which is a huge plus because you won’t see me walking into a restaurant with anything lower than that. Not only is there food delicious, but they also have excellent customer service!

Literally half the menu was not available. She said the Vietnamese section was not available from #23 to 50 something. Soursop smoothie was not available either. I wanted this fried trout. Found a hair in my food

Food: I tried the Thai food rather than phở. The red curry was pretty good, green curry was not.
Service: Service here is pretty good.
Price: $ 7-​$ 9 bucks per dish/​plate
Overall: It’s an ok place, I would come back to try something else.

Glad to see others have discovered this place too! I’ve been here 4 times, and look forward to more. My boyfriend discovered Phở Icon & likes it so much we had his 12-​person birthday dinner here. At first we were skeptical of the Thai-​Vietnamese combo menu… usually think mixed restaurants = bad idea. But the food is good. We had simple pad see ew once with shrimp, and the shrimp surprised us because it was plump and big, and cooked tender & delicious — made me realize that most other places then, are totally overcooking their shrimp!
The family here has both a Thai chef & a Vietnamese chef. We’ve eaten more of the Thai dishes and now this is our go-​to Thai place in the SGV (even driving from Highland Park)… because of good quality & great prices. We’ve enjoyed: Spicy mint noodle w/​Shrimp, Pad see ew, Crab fried rice, a delicious Thai soup (name?), green curry. My favorite is the thai whole fried fish: (don’t remember if it is Pad prik king? or other name? … there is a picture in the menu) But the thai basil, & sauce… YUM. Our friends who don’t usually order a whole fried fish with bones quickly got over it & devoured it. Even their orange chicken was surprisingly light & well, yes, better than Panda lol. Oh and Thai iced tea for $ 1. Seems not many reviewers have had the Thai menu items yet, and the photos don’t show the extensive Thai menu. I recommend trying their food because the family is Thai. The name of the restaurant, Phở Icon, I agree, is confusing. It’s because the previous owner had that name & the new family didn’t want to change it immediately. But hopefully in the future they can come up with a name that better involves the Thai & Vietnamese sides of their offerings.
The mother and son owners were more than accommodating to our party and everyone enjoyed the food.

The TL;DR:
EAT AT PHO ICON. It’s worth driving all the way out to the ass-​end of Rosemead for.
Pros:
–Devastatingly rich green curry and pan fried noodles
–Properly balanced flavor profiles on curry and fish
–Willing to substitute similarly priced items
–Sweet and friendly staff
–Rarely seen and much appreciated method for cooking fish and noodles
Cons:
–Local news, gossip shows and talk-​dramas on the plasma TVs and BOSE speakers
–Dried out BBQ chicken
–Way too many menu options
Misc:
–Service isn’t slow but it isn’t exactly fast either
–Restaurant might have too much real estate.
Full disclosure: I’m one of THOSE people – the ABC who can’t speak Chinese but somehow gets the brass to rate the authenticity of Chinese food. I speak with the same amount of undeserved authority about Thai food. That being said, I say with clear conscience and a palette honed by a year of living in Chang Mai: «Phở Icon’s green chicken curry will make you wet your panties».
Investing the same 10 dollars in D batteries won’t give you nearly the same satisfaction.
Following through with my recent trend of only ordering from the pictures from inside the menu, I ordered (obviously) the green chicken curry; spicy beef Thai pan fried noodles; BBQ chicken with sticky rice and papaya salad; and a puffy fried fish. Then proceeded to mix everything together because I eat like a 3 year old freshly introduced to fingerpaints.
The BBQ chicken tasted like a Stephanie Meyer novel: an idea that should be reliably good but turned dry, distasteful and insultingly simple. To be fair, I asked my dear waitress to make the substitution. Maybe she was trying to teach me some buddhist lesson about trying to control my fate.
Our waitress was sweet in the old-​fashioned sense of the word. Nice in the kind of genuine way that makes you feel like you’re in the Norman Rockwell version of the 50s. Except you’re eating Thai food in the Latino-​Southeast-​Asian part of Los Angeles surrounded by 40″ flat screens.
A shame about those flatscreens – there’s a couple littered about the restaurant, precariously mounted on the walls looking down upon all diners as Moses walking down from the mountain top. The screens are connected to a system of powerful speakers which exude the TV’s words with lush, resonant clarity that blends in seemlessly with your own thoughts. And with this power, the restaurant insists that you hear – nay, FEEL – a ceaseless stream of inane celeb gossip and agonizing runs of 2 and a Half Men.
The same problem of wasted-​potential does not carry through to the food. Despite manically trying to serve a (deeply) limited vietnamese selection (not to mention adding «Phở» to the restaurant’s name), Phở Icon nails the Thai selection with unspeakable skill and balance.
Perhaps the quality of the food is a result of miracle more than of management. Regardless, the time I had at Phở Icon allows me to say with confidence…
The Bottom Line:
The food was so good that I blacked out, wrapped my arms over her round shoulders, and thanked her using the Thai pronoun for Auntie. I think I also asked to adopt her. It’s all kind of fuzzy.

I came here once for the thai food and had the tom kah, green curry, and thai tea.
The green curry: I can’t say this was good, so I wouldn’t recommend it. It didn’t have enough curry taste and was on the bland and bitter side cuz of the herbs inside. We got the pork it tasted like pork that was around for too long, you know that smell! Yuck!
Tom Kah: I liked it it was okay but nothing to write home about, it was better than the green curry that’s for sure.
Thai Tea: only a dollar! It was good and cheap
Bill came out to be about 20 bucks including the rice for 1.95 I believe. Overall I would say a 3 star rating was about right. Average is the right word to describe this restaurant. The service was good the waitress there was very friendly.

I give it 3 stars, partly because I seem to come back. I like the mix of Thai and Vietnamese. Enough choices for the whole family. But the place smells like old stale grease, and the carpet is in desperate need of replacing.

I know the place is called Phở Icon and that leads you to think simple Phở place, nope, they also specialize in Thai food as well. I had their Stuff Chicken Wings & Thai Boat Noodle. The stuffed wing was very large & had a nice great thickness of crispy skin. The boat noodle has the nice dark & strong broth, Overall not bad Thai food in the Rosemead area.

UPDATE 11−18−2012−−− This place has really tuned up their Phở. the broth is NOT oily anymore and the service has gotten even better than before. I have truly enjoyed my meals every time I have come here. I come here every weekend. Love it.
Not bad at all! I was skeptical at first because the prior owner and restaurant was such a dump inside. The new owner (s) have completely remodeled and this place is clean. Came here for the Phở. The broth is a bit oily; feels like chapstick after you’re done eating. The Phở isn’t bad, but isn’t the greatest either. The pork spring rolls weren’t as good as they look. $ 1 Thai Iced Tea is awesome and it tastes good. I will come back for Thai food eventually.

Food is not too great here.
Phở = look like old meat … Salty broth
Thai fried rice = too dried no flavor
Pad see ew= too sweet
Thai tea= it’s alight
Wouldn’t come back haha

My Family and I stopped here for lunch, there phở soup are pretty tasty, definitely coming back here…

Mom and I stopped in here before spending the whole sunday grocery shopping.
The place is very clean and nice. The employees were friendly, and attentive. Though the busboy didn’t look too thrilled with the notion of me snapping pics of our food. My mom noticed it, but I didn’t, and they didn’t mind either.
I ordered the Rice Combo, which consisted of grilled pork, steamed eggs, Shrimp roll, with a side of salad and soup. The soup was pretty good… not too salty, though the salad was kind of bland, they given how cheap the restuarant was, they decided to give me salad instead of the traditional cucmber slices, and pickled jicama and carrot strips. Was also kinda miffed about how small the steamed egg was, especially since other places, the steamed egg looked like pie slices, whereas this one looked like the same size as the squared version of the Reeses Pieces candy you get on Halloween.
My Mom ordered the Flat Vermicelli noodles with pork meat. The noodles were sliced thin, and tasted great. However, the pork meat tasted like it was going to expire. Luckily, my Mom had cucumber slices and soybeans to go along with the meal, otherwise, she would have not finished it. Also, her dipping sauce was really sweet, and had to ask for some limes.
Overall, the place was a decent joint. Nice new place to eat, and of course, for Unilocaling purposes too :) Odds of returning, maybe…

Personally, I do like this place for the service and being English-​friendly. I really like the option of building your own bowl of phở — whether you want flank, tendon, etc. I don’t remember whether or not I saw an option to order dac biet (house special). The bowl sizes are pretty large and I definitely took note of that.
I’m glad they remodeled this place — it used to be a sketchier place where Asian gangsters used to go. It’s brighter and has a better vibe. I also believe the restaurant is family-​owned which is a plus in my book. I would not worry about my safety too much going in.
Unfortunately, I feel like they need a little more «umph» in their phở — maybe I like more MSG than your average person, but I noticed their broth was a bit light in color. However, it’s not enough to deter me from coming back and I’ll try again :)

Came here for the 2^nd time already. My mom seemed to like the GOAT CURRY with the noodles. I personally don’t like goat but my mom is picky with her goat dishes and if she came back for this dish I’m assuming its pretty good.
the first time i had banh uot … it was alright. but i’m a fan of the shrimp cake. this time i got phở tai bo vien. it was alright. it came out really hot. however, this wasn’t the best phở that i’ve had.
my uncle this time got the oxtail noodle soup. he really liked it.
and we got the order of the fried shrimp cake/​green bean cake as well. it
came in really big portions
overall it was okay. it wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad. def. a place to come back to if you can’t figure out what to eat.

Came here today for brunch with my parents, and eh– it was mediocre.
This place used to be another Vietnamese restaurant– but it was more of a dinner place. And now, they changed it up– with nice purple décor and a younger set of staff.
I ended up getting the Banh Uot (41), while the parents got phở. Apparently, the phở was pretty typical. My dish was mediocre– I could’ve found somewhere that serves a better dish of Banh Uot.
Service wasn’t that spectacular. We didn’t get our drinks until we reminded them that they forgot– just because humans do get thirsty.
Overall, this place has potential to be a magnificent restaurant, but the problem is that they need to focus on a specific dish and make it better. Along with that, service needs to slightly improve.
Until this place gets better with their entrees, I’ll reconsider coming back. Other than that, I don’t think I’ll be coming back any time soon.

So, its amazing how they have super upgraded menu-​ordering system. I like the create-​your-​own-​phở, but they have really bad service. Maybe it was because I was tired or the somewhat «hung-​over» feeling was creeping on me, I did not enjoy the service. I didn’t order phở but ordered Bun, a vermicelli noodle dish. All my friends had their food on the table and I didn’t. I waited and waited, no dish. By the time my friends were nearly done, I didn’t even have my food. Finally the waiter came by and said «can you wait like 2 mins? We had the food sent out and no one claimed it so he’s remaking it.» BULLSHIT. no one came near our table to call out the Bun. Once my dish came in, it was completely different from what I ordered. It was a 2 item instead of 3…
giving it 1 star for cheap prices.

Brand new place that replaced Banh Mi So. 1 that had been there years prior.
We walked in and were seated quickly. There were a couple of other tables that were taken, aside from us, as this was past the lunch rush.
The menu is fairly simple. Plastic, nothing but pictures, and the only list that was in it were the drinks section. They have several choices for appetizers, build your own phở, pastry, vermicelli, and french roll meals.
The servers there use some type of device to take orders. It’s not like an iPod or anything but it did use a stylus. This didn’t slow anything down either.
I ordered the strawberry milk tea, egg rolls to start off, and built my own Phở Tai Nam Bo Vien (Rare Beef, Plate, Tendon, and Beef Ball). My friend ordered a dessert drink (che), nem nuong cuon (grilled pork roll), and a banh cuon dac biet (pork mushroom flour roll special).
The strawberry milk tea wasn’t bad. It was a little on the thick side, almost smoothie like, instead of being liquidy.
The eggrolls were nice and hot, wrapped in egg roll wrappers and not rice paper as some places. They gave an abundance of vegetables to wrap as well. Did I mention the egg rolls came out hot? I think I burned my tongue eating one.
The phở broth was clear and piping hot. It had a unique flavor that I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. They gave a lot of noodles and meat as well. The beef slices were huge, and I mean HUGE. I’ve never seen it cut so big in a bowl of phở in my life. Overall, thoroughly enjoyed it.