Pho Dakao — Restaurant in Fountain Valley

Terrible service. I waited for over an hour for food and everyone around me already got their food even if they came after me. My family at a different table finished eating and our food still hadn’t come out and they even got ice cream and guess what I was still waiting for my food. And when they did bring out my food they forgot my fries, and I had to wait again adding onto the hour we were waiting. The fries are also soggy and oily like if I’m going to wait over an hour for you to make some simple fries make it good at least. I didn’t even order anything complicated. It was literally just fries and beef like do fries really take over an hour to make. My friend ordered string cheese wrapped in beef and they didn’t even try to make her food. They just stuffed a bunch of raw onions with barely any cheese so you can’t even taste it. The beef is not even wrapped properly and tastes like nothing. The beef is also not even brown it’s like a grey color and they poured a bunch like a BUNCH of peanuts on it. They also had a side of salad that iscut terribly. The lettuce is huge and long and the dressing it literally water like the lettuce is still wet and they just put it in a bowl with tomato and onion and that’s the salad. There weren’t even that many people there anymore, and they still couldn’t bring out our food. My dad talked to them about 3-4 times asking them kindly why our food was taking so long, and they told us to just wait and did absolutely nothing to make the process quicker. They were also a lot of employees just standing there talking and hanging out at one point. My friend got her white sweater all dirty too because the chairs were so dirty. Now, the back of her sweater has a bunch of brown spots and it’s disgusting. As if this is not bad enough, the food is terrible. My food had no flavor, and it is such a small portion for $13. My family also had plans to go somewhere afterwards, but this restaurant literally took like 2-3 hours because of the wait to get a table and our food. Never coming back and I recommend you don’t even...

My wife and I heard of this place so we decided to give it a try. The place is well lit, roomy and utensils looked clean. There was a nice quote of Anthony Bourdaine about pho on the wall. So far so good, we thought, but unfortunately that was the end of the thumb up. The chicken pho was so bland, it completely lacked the aroma to be called ‘pho’. It tasted like boiled chicken water without seasoning. The bowls were garnished with a FEW pieces of cilantro and green onions; so few that I couldn’t believe what I saw. They were being super stingy with the cheapest items that give the flavor when the pho was so bland, The service was typical, we ordered an appetizer and that came out after we half way done with the pho. Nothing memorable with the appetizer either, a beef grilled roll that was very mediocre, no grilling flavor whatsoever. We ended up didn’t finish the roll either. The cook should review Anthony Bourdain’s video about the bowl of pho he ate that made he wrote that quote. I am disappointed !! I am normally not this critical but I probably would not have been if I hadn’t seen the quote on the wall. For those who are not familiar with pho, this is NOT what Anthony Bourdain...

Famous for the pho ga (chicken)

I have been here a few times and finally returned since prior to pandemic, yes that's way too long.

It was a gray day in southern California therefore a bowl of pho was much needed.

This day, the husband and I arrived around 11ish and it was already crowded; however, we got the best seat in the house (well, at least I think it's the best seat).

Husband chose the bo nuong phomai - grilled beef with cheese served with salad and fries with ketchup for dipping. He thoroughly enjoyed it.

I went for the pho ga dui long - leg thigh (dark meat) amd gizzards rice noodle soup. It was so good. This is made with free range chicken. Really good and lean, awesome broth, served with herbs and bean sprouts on the side. The nuoc mam dipping sauce is a must! wow!

For drinks he had soda chanh (lemonade soda) and iced tea for me.

and before I forget...the sound system was playing some instrumental chill music, Oasis, and Beyoncé during our visit. The music, indeed, is very important to me. It sets the mood and this selection did not overpower our conversation and also eay on our digestion :)

Service was good and friendly.

Parking is...