Pho Saigon Pasteur — Restaurant in Alhambra

My partner and I came here for the first time after our usual spots were closed that day. We were immediately greeted and sat, and the sweet woman was so kind to us! I ordered the beef rib pho and my partner ordered her usual Bun Thit Nuong Cha Gio. We also ordered the pork spring roll and they even offer the nuoc beo (which I HAD to get for my soup) and I gotta say, we were thoroughly impressed with how good everything tasted!

The beef rib pho comes with THREE beef ribs, which was a first for me. The ribs were almost perfectly tender but had good flavor. The broth was perfectly balanced like a ballerina standing on one toe - it was delicate and graceful yet had my tastebuds dancing in symphony. The noodles were cooked well and was the perfect accompaniment to help deliver little morsels of beef rib meat and carry some broth.

My partner's charbroiled pork dry noodle dish, the Bun Thit Nuong Cha Gio, was so good that she wants to come back as soon as possible so she could have more. It's rare that it is executed well for her, since our options of good Vietnamese restaurants are limited to the SGV area because Ktown can't do Vietnamese food.

We were not only impressed with the food, we were also blown away at the exceptional service. As we waited for our orders to be made, we observed the restaurant go from a trickle of guests to a full house within the span of 10 minutes. The woman running FOH was handling the guest flow like a boss, acknowledging every person that came in and with a sweet tone and big smile. As someone who has worked in the food service industry for 20 years straight, THAT is how you run a restaurant!

Now, everyone has room for improvement, and one thing I did notice was that when it was a little slower, everyone in the restaurant managed to end their conversations at the same exact time. This is when I realized there was no music playing and the silence was screaming in my partner's and my ears. I would suggest possibly getting a speaker system set up if there isn't one already (I tried looking but didn't see anything) and get some good music playing!

As for parking, you can either park in the garage behind the restaurant or find street parking if the garage is full.

This is my new favorite spot. I'll be sure to be back and order more of the other dishes and update this...

So far, a lot of the pricing for a bowl of pho and cup of ice coffee ranges around 15.00-20.00 per person. It's just a matter of taste, quality, and location at this point. Pho Saigon Pasteur is located on Main street across from Mancora and 85degrees bakery. The only pho joint close to Pho Saigon Pasteur would be the one on Main and Garfield which I've tried many times as well; and as much as I want to give it a great rating I just can't due to it's previous wonderful heydays then vs now (that's another story). Anyhow, food at Pho Saigon Pasteur is high quality. The choice meats are in my opinion a higher grade than other restaurants I've been to and pay more. For example, their beef balls seem to be fresh made as from I can see the way the meat was minced and push squeezed swirled is a give away that it's handmade vs the premade type where it's more chewy and has a uniformed consistancy. They have options like extra pho noodles and meat. There is no xe lûa here which is fine. The customer service is nice as well. It's a nice simple design withany other food options like broken rice and dry noodles. Out of 5 stars I give it 10 galaxies.

Update 12/7/22. The food is still good. The service was a bit of a miss. They forgot my coffee and a water. The atmosphere gave me some off vibes; feels like clientele. Other than that...

Came around dinner time and there were no tables inside so we had to wait for a table. We stood for around 5 minutes before we got a table. The restaurant is small so I could see why it took a while to be seated. However, since the store is small, we ended up getting a table right by their side entrance door so we felt cold wind every time someone entered or exited. This made our dining experience not as enjoyable since it was a pretty chilly night so the wind was cold and interrupted the meal.

We ordered the Filet Mignon Pho (15.5) and Shabu Shabu Style Beef Pho (15.5). They were served pretty fast which was good. The noodles and soup were alright, nothing super special from other pho places I have been too. The beef quality for both pho noodles we got were pretty good though. The meat wasn't tough to chew and was easy to bite and swallow. The shabu shabu style beef was nice and unique as well. It made the pho experience different than others. The portions are very generous though for the price. I could have shared it with another person because there was a lot of noodles.

Overall, the pho here is pretty average and the only unqiue thing is their shabu shabu style pho option. Their service is also just normal, you have to go to the cashier to pay for your table at the end of the meal. I would recommend just coming...