Don Pho • Santa Ana — Restaurant in Pozos

I will rate this as a tourist from California which is not fair since San Jose California has one of the best Vietnamese food in the world. We tried this place because we have been in Costa Rica for a week and wanted to try something Asian. Vietnamese food are very consistent if you know how to make good beef bone soup. I was disappointed here.

The ran out of beef. 🤔 When a Vietnamese restaurant ran out of beef, that's usually a warning sign. They made their soup with beef.

The soup was lack of character, depth and flavor. It's better than nothing but it also not hot enough.

We ended up getting the chicken and the chicken meat was overcooked or dry. This may not be necessary a bad thing. Chicken breast is good meat for Caucasians but dark meat is the tender and juicy one.

Deep fried Spring roll was good.

Chicken wings which is really drum sticks were VERY good. Actually the highlight of the dinner. I would come again just for that. But not for pho.

Vietnamese coffee - it's not authentic Vietnamese coffee. It's more like regular coffee and add milk and condensed milk into it. It's not even 20% of the richness of a good Vietnamese coffee. Lack of the viscosity of the authentic...

Decent meal, just not authentic. Having read some of the other ratings, I came with the right expectations to find a localized version.

The chicken pho broth was utterly lacking in depth and they way overdid it with the clove. The noodles were also wider than they should be. The chicken breast was very juicy though.

The fried chicken wings themselves were also good. However, the spicy version just came with a side of straight up Sriracha as it were buffalo sauce to dunk the whole thing in — way too spicy. The fried spring rolls in rice paper were not bad, but were not as delicate and flavorful as the original version.

Lastly, the spicy sauce in the little metal container on the table was not Vietnamese chili but rather chili crisp, which is the Chinese condiment commonly known as Laoganma! I love that stuff, but never had it at a Vietnamese place before. For ticos, it’d be like being in Asia and going to a Mexican restaurant and finding Salsa Lizano on the...

The food here was, while not bad, wasn't all that good. It was almost like a Costa Rican saw what Vietnamese food was, and tried to replicate it with only limited success. There was nothing great about my meal. If anything, it was a bit regrettable as I could have gone somewhere better instead of here.

The food simply lacked flavor. Except for the lemonade: that tasted bad. I don't know what they put in it, but something tasted...