Viet's Phở — Restaurant in Albuquerque

Viet Pho is, by far, our favorite Vietnamese restaurant. It has an interesting origination story as well.

For years, a top Vietnamese restaurant existed about a mile east of where the Viet Pho is now. To say it had a great reputation and did a good deal of business isn’t to say the half of it. This place, which shall remain nameless in this review, had a very friendly almost family feel to it. For reasons which are obscure to this reviewer, the management decided to change some policies which ended up adversely affecting much of the wait and kitchen staff.

The disaffected just happened to be the best employees but for a while they were unable to figure out how to counter the management moves which were averse to their interests. As they were pondering this, one of the wait staff met with Mr. Ko, who owned a successful Chinese restaurant he was on the cusp of closing so he could retire. Mr. Ko offered the disaffected Vietnamese restaurant staff a very generous and kind bargain if they’d take over the space he was planning on leaving.

The unhappy staff met and decided to follow the American Dream by pooling their money and opening the Viet Pho using the cream of the wait and kitchen staff from their old place of employment. The Vietnamese community supported this move. You’ll regularly see members of this community dining here which says more about the quality of the place than anything I can say.

That won’t stop me from commenting, though. We’re both happy to again have a place which serves absolutely top quality food along with friendly service and all at lower than expected prices. You will not find better in the city and maybe for a long...

I gave this place a shot because of all the reviews, plus I was in that part of town. Also, please note that I usually only write positive reviews so I'm torn with this one. I've been to about 5 or 6 other places in Albuquerque for pho and I will never go back here again. Maybe it was an off night, but the noodles were too soggy to pick up with chopsticks and I had to use a fork....then the middle wasn't cooked enough. Hardly any meat in a rare beef pho. The broth was excellent. Spring rolls were plain, flavorless, and small, and the peanut sauce was thin and bland. Service was alright but I felt judged when told "these are for the soup later" as the herbs/vegetables were put on the table. I've been to probably 100 Vietnamese restaurants across the country. Price (which I was surprised at how low it was) reflects the quality. If you want cheap food, go here. If you want tasty food, spend a few more bucks at other...

Excellent food and service. I went last night for a quick meal. It was doing a brisk business for a Wednesday, but I was seated right away and was in-and-out in a half-hour. It has one of the largest selections of soups I’ve seen, and not just pho. But I was in the mood for something else, so I tried the crispy egg noodles. Very good. The noodles were thin, like vermicelli or Angel hair, but yellow. They were deep fried into a nest, maybe 2 inches high on the sides. Chicken, beef, and shrimp were nestled in the center with a brown sauce. It didn’t have the usual Vietnamese flavors you would expect, more like a Chinese dish, but the sauce was thin, not gloppy. Not at all greasy. The noodles softened when they came in contact with the sauce, which gave a nice contrast to...