Pho Bac — Restaurant in Baltimore

TLDR: Decent pho, but on the pricey side. Service is very welcoming. Great option for city dwellers, but there is better viet food North and South of the city.

Vibe: 4/5. Located in the outskirts of Canton, Pho Bac is situated out of a corner row home with limited inside and outside seating. The interior mostly consists of a communal bar to sit at, along with a few 2 tops. Outside seating consists of a few 2 tops as well that are right on the sidewalk adjacent to the restaurant. Because the restaurant is on the small side, wait times during peak dining hours can become long, so best try to dine at off hours to avoid the wait . Overall, the restaurant is very clean, cozy and welcoming.

Service: 5/5. The staff at Pho Bac were amazing. My party of 2 decided to stop by for Sunday lunch and we were immediately greeted by the staff and seated at one of the handful of outside tables. Our waiter was great at getting us menus and getting our food/drink orders taken once we were ready. Even though we were seated outside out of sight, we were checked up on several times throughout our meal which was a nice touch. When it came to getting our bill and a fee to go containers, Pho Bac was very helpful in boxing up our food and getting our bill settled in a timely manner.

Food: 3/5. Even though we enjoyed our food at Pho Bac, we felt that we paid a premium price for food that was of mediocre execution. Being our first time, we ordered the golden crepe, a combo summer roll, a combo pho and a seafood pho to eat as well as 2 Thai iced teas as beverages. The golden crepe was very crispy and decently portioned, however lacked seasoning and required heavy doses of fish sauce and Sriracha to revive. The combo summer roll was fine, offering a nice meaty flavor from the bed and pork filling. Both the seafood and combo pho had decent broth, but we felt short changed in the noodles department, as I felt the noodles portion was half that of what I typically receive from other pho places. After tip, our bill came just north of $70 which is about $10-20 more than what I typically spend at Vietnamese restaurants in the county. Overall, Pho Bac is ok if you're really in a pinch and don't want to leave the city. I recommend making the drive out to the county for much better viet eats at such places as Pho La Cay (Columbia), Man vs Pho (Catonsville) or Pho Tan...

Rude, hostile, discriminatory owner and employees.

I've been eating at and ordering from this restaurant since 2020. A few days ago I brought my friend from out of town to enjoy some bun bo hue and was refused entry because of my service dog.

Upon entering the (empty) restaurant, the older woman/owner of the restaurant blocked our path and refused to serve me with my "pet." She demanded nonexistent registration papers when I informed her he was a service dog and began to berate me when I tried to correct her blatant misinformation and asked her to Google the actual laws and regulations around service dog eligibility. She straight up told me she "didn't care" and physically shooed me away from the restaurant.

My dog is clean, clothed, wears an identifying vest, and is well-behaved. He's been trained with both a non-profit org and a private trainer. Had he been misbehaving in any way, I would absolutely leave on my own volition (has never happened before). I have probably spent more money on his private training than this restaurant has on controlling their constant roach infestations.

They enjoyed my business just fine before my disability progressed but now I am not even welcome inside.

There are plenty of other Viet restaurants in Bmore that are cleaner and just as good (or better) + welcome and accommodate their customers of all (dis)abilities. Such a damper to an otherwise wonderful neighborhood.

ETA 1/1/2025 upon receiving a reply: 1.) My dog is ALWAYS visibly vested because he is not the typical Lab or Retriever. You are rewriting history in your reply. BTW, service dogs are NOT legally required to be vested. But my dog in particular always is when he is working. 2.) I told your owner straight out that he is my service dog and she told me, and I repeat, that she "did not care". I understand that it can be hard to be informed of all the laws running a restaurant but it was her terribly hostile attitude and refusal to even communicate that was my number one gripe in my review. Not to mention all of your other employees standing around and watching.

Your reply doesn't change anything I wrote in my review but does show that you guys would rather lie and accuse an honest reviewer of being in the wrong rather than own up. As well as pull the small business card....

This review is a bit overdue but we wanted to give Trang (owner), her daughter and staff our greatest thanks for their warm and inviting hospitality, caring service and delicious authentic food. If we could give Pho Bac 10 Stars, we would.

We were in Baltimore for a conference and hosted a group from Chicago for dinner. Most of our guests never had Vietnamese and they really wanted to try it. We found Pho Bac on Google and decided to try it based on the positive reviews.

First, cô (auntie) Trang is amazing. She is very friendly, kind and hands on with all our food order and service during dinner. She recommended several of her specialty dishes and a variety of traditional ones for our guests to try. Our guests were delighted as every dish was fresh and flavorful.

Second, the food was very well prepared and a variety of choices on the menu. We had someone who could not eat gluten and she had plenty of choices . The server made sure to let us know if wheat was somehow mixed into any of the sauces so she could choose a substitute. We ordered most of the appetizers; the shrimp and crab meat spring rolls, beef grilled in grape leaves, pork lemongrass rolls and dumplings were winners. The phở soup, grilled meats with rice , bún bò huế soup and bún chả hà nộ were a great hit- especially among those who have never had Vietnamese food.

Finally, Pho Bac is a neighborhood restaurant and it could easily be missed if you are not from the area. But we were happy to have found it. As a Vietnamese, I am always excited to introduce others to our authentic cuisine. This is a small, family owned restaurant - cô Trang and her staff just made us out of towners feel so welcomed.

Thank you cô Trang for the delicious food and your wonderful hospitality. We will see you when we are in...