Pho Valley — Restaurant in Apple Valley

I went with my wife for my lunch break. Walked in and the place has a clean and open floor plan. They have 2 TVs with espn on. Service was quick and friendly. Water refilled quickly and they stopped quite often to ask about the food.

The pho has a lot of meat so thats a plus but the broth was subpar. It has a beef base with very light taste of onion and oil and a fleeting hint of pho spices. Overall flavor was just not there, tastes a bit watered down. If they reduced the soup as in boil off the excess water and it condensed or else add more spice then i would think about having it again. I give it a 4/10, passable but not special. But the base soup does not always mean you won't like it, it just means you probably will be adding more sauces than you would at other places. Meat to noodle ratio was good so there's that and it was very filling, big portions.

The banh mi was good after i added a little bit. The bread was fresh and soft inside with a crunchy outer shell. Perfect french bread and also very large. The ingredients were tasty and fresh but when you put them in the bread, the bread overpowers it all. I could not taste the mayo they used and each bite was so dry and a tastes mostly of bread. So I asked for more mayo, added some soy sauce and then it was better. Vegetables were very fresh and it had some pickling on the carrots and radish but i think it should pickle a little bit longer for the full flavor. The grilled pork was delicious but hidden behind the rest of the flavors. Overall a 5/10 i can eat it but with more mayo and some soy sauce it becomes a 7/10. I really wish they had pate with it, it adds that salty savory flavor from french cooking.

The vermicelli salad was good, the ingredients fresh, a heaping of grilled pork and 2 eggrolls! My only gripe was the amount of sauce i got with this huge bowl of noodles, veggies, and meats was too small, it made the flavor taste mostly of noodles. After adding a half sauce bowl, the whole dish came together and it was phenomenal. 9/10 for flavor and a big portion! Come for this dish the b27? Grilled pork and eggrolls. The eggrolls had jicama in it which I myself are not a fan of but my wife loved them.

I am going to come back to try a few more things such as the boba tea, and a rice platter to really...

I thought that I would give this a place a 2nd chance. Boy did I regret it. The 1st time I tried this place, I had the pho. It was ok. But I had better around this area (south of the river). This time around I decided to try the "other" food other than pho. I was there with family who wanted to try it. I ordered a vegetarian meal. The server asked if I was vegetarian, and I replied no. She suggested that I should try the other meals that has meat because they have "little to no tofu". WHAT?!! A restaurant that has a vegetarian menu selection, RUNNING OUT OF TOFU?!! That was not a good sign. So I ordered a chicken meal and several members in my party ordered their meals (vegetarian pho, vegetarian fried rice, sesame chicken, chicken pho, spicy chicken wings, bubble tea, amongst couple other items). 1st, the meals came out before the appetizers. We asked what happened. The response is that they were still making it. As soon as we asked, it was brought out within 5 minutes. The spicy chicken wings tasted like some "buffalo wing sauce" with some spices. Buffalo Wild Wings asian wings tastes for asian than these. The bubble tea drink did not come out. When we asked about it, they replied that they are making it. We canceled it (what's the point when people are already eating and you don't get to enjoy it? The chicken meal and sesame chicken had no flavor or taste. Very bland. Again there are better options around the area if you know where to look. I was suprised at the vegetable fried rice had NO tofu (the couple that ordered it came before me and specifically asked for the tofu fried rice and was told that they can do it.). They took it back and put tofu in it. Not much, but did it. The pho had more taste than the other dishes. The pho was definately better than the 1st time I went there. Again there are better Vietnamese restaurants. If you choose to go, order the pho (hence the name of the restaurant). The entrees are very bland. Several people in our group agreed on that and the pho was "good". The price is 2 out of 4 (1 is cheap and 4 is expensive). I will edit this review once I give this place a third chance (very...

They deserve more than 5 stars 🌟 🤩

We had a large group (12 people) come in an hour before closing. We stopped by on our way to have dinner before heading to MN Zoo for their Jack O Lantern event. I was pleasantly surprised to see the person greet us with a smile and such friendliness. We got settled down quickly and he came around, still with a smile, to take our orders. Everything came out fresh and fast. Again, to our surprise, we assumed the pho broth would've tasted watered down because it was the end of the night but the pho was exceptionally packed with more flavor than the spice packets itself. Although, the extra large bowl looked almost identical to the regular large for more $. We also had the bun bo hue, it was good, but maybe that was watered down because I couldn't really taste the shrimp and lemon grass flavor. The spring roll was good, decent size.

As for the service, A++. It's really hard to find good customer service (especially in any Asian owned business) but they surpassed me and my family's expectations. The tip was included in the receipt, but we also tipped extra generously, too. Hope these people thrive in their business and continue to see growth in...