Pho Ba Co — Restaurant in Irvine

In my quest to find the best pho in Orange County I'm revisiting some local favorites. Local as in 15 minutes or less from my work.

I actually found Pho Ba Co a few years ago on the hunt for ramen within this same radius. I saw the $10 bowl a few doors down and pretty much turned around when the Tonkatsu was extra and the things I wanted would bring my total to $15 for just the ramen. Walking away, shaking my head in disbelieve I stumbled upon another, different golden broth'd palace of equal stature in my eyes. Some pho places don't like to have their pho specifically to go and the reason is covering pho will spoil the broth.

Protip: let it cool uncovered to room temp, then place in refrigerator.

Unlike most they nicely separate everything here, but don't particularly like the raw thinly sliced beef in a baggie when ordering to go. I do like their baggie having everything you need, just not the right proportions. Barely any hot sauce, or hoisin.

Spring rolls are a little basic and the dipping sauce is a little weak, not impressed. Egg rolls, overcooked and not packed tightly enough, fell apart (not enough egg).

The pho broth was a little oily, middle of the road in terms of clarity, but lacked the complexity. Maybe hit it with the double spice bag. Something that I found when I let cool and stored was the amount of fat, definitely not skimmed after paraboiling. I think I mask it with the loads of spice and hoisin and other things

Service is good, but all in all I like the overall experience of Pho So 1 in terms of my lunch radius for pho. It's a large location, hidden and doesn't stand out next to other ho hum shops, it's certainly expanded due to the split bathrooms and décor. No thumb in soup bowl.

Vermicelli noodles were fresh, but not tossed for my to go order, rice is sometimes undercooked and not quite as broken as I'd like, again I tend to overspice as a counter measure. I do really like their chicken, charred to perfection, well marinated. The beef BBQ is really good cut and flavor....

It was at 430pm on Tuesday 09/28/2021. Ordered #20 large and #20 medium for my girlfriend and 4 spring rolls (I'm a weightlifter and had a lot of room in my stomach)!

The rolls came out in an instant which were delicious and good. The noodles came out a few minutes after. It was only until at the end of our grand feast that we had realized the #20 medium was the wrong order - the meat was well done, NOT rare; there was NO tendon; and there was NO tripe, as mentioned in the menu.

Did they leave out the portions of tripe and tendon from Medium sized bowls? I don't know, but after mentioning this to the guy working there (5'7" Vietnamese chubby guy in his 20s or 30s with thick English accent) stood there awkwardly and murmured "sorry" and proceeded his business as if nothing happened.

Food was average, service was decent. There are far better places for Vietnamese pho than this place in the area. Try Westminster.

As for me, I wouldn't be coming back to this place NOT due to getting our orders wrong but because, like others have said, it's overpriced for the quality. Pho Ba Co knows that Irvine residents have cash, and they'll do anything to take advantage of that due to fewer competition by using the cheapest ingredients available. Big disrespect to Irvine. I recommend driving a bit north up to Westminster to get the real taste of...

Hmm.. Am I eating at the same place that everyone wrote great reviews for? Wow I don't want write a bad review but I must. I first tried this place maybe about 3 years ago and being pho deprived this place was excellent. I have eaten at Pho places with no other Pho places within 100 miles and those places are MUCH BETTER than Pho Bac.

I order my usual combination Pho Large. I get a bowl the size of a bowl I use at home for eating 10 cent Top Ramen. It came with about 2 or 3 pieces of meat. I was thinking no way! Maybe the quality will make this 7 or 8 dollar pho worth it. The soup tasted like can soup and the noodles didn't taste like normal pho noodles. Yuck. I tried saving the taste by adding tons of hot sauce and small side vegs they include. This was the first time going to a Pho place where I didn't see any Vietnamese people workers or customers. That is a bad sign.

After paying 8 bucks for a "large" snack. I don't believe I will return. For the rest of the reviews please write more! There are tons of great pho places in Lake Forest or other areas near by. NOT...