Pho 881 Restaurant — Restaurant in Long Beach

This is my first time trying this Vietnamese restaurant. Located off the busy Anaheim Street. Parking is available, but it's shared with others.

Mom and Pops operated. Nothing fancy, just a simple dining area with minimal decor. Even the menu is just a simple printed paper menu.

I ordered the Oxtail Pho. The bowl came out piping hot! Decent size bowl. The broth is clear, loaded with cilantro, white onions, and green onions. You can definitely smell the fresh herbs and all the spices. Great balance, nothing overpowering. First slurp, I was in heaven. The broth is rich but complex. You can definitely taste the star anise and cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom. Not too sweet, with a hint of fattiness from the oxtail. The noodles are perfectly cooked. They only give you two decent size oxtails, and I wish that they cooked it a little bit longer. Minus 1 STAR 🌟. The fresh herb condiments are fresh and generous. I wish it's limes intead of lemons. Also, they don't have Sriracha but they have chili oil.

Overall, it's a great quality pho, authentic tasting. I didn't have to add anything besides the squeeze lemon and the fresh herbs. Will be coming back for...

The pho was tasteful along with the garden rolls. Although the outside may have been a bit tainted by old graffiti, dont let that stop you from the quality of the meal and cost of the bowls. The serving was a smaller size bowl than expected for a large, and the flavor wasn't bold that would make it stand out from what I can compare to. The host was very nice. The peanut sauce was a little too liquidy. The pho with noodles only, would be the only one I would not recommend, because no taste, and extremely bland. The decor is a bit shabby, but again not what you come for, but the bowls of pho. Id recommend changing the menu to look better and add a little flair with some viet soft music. Other than that we may come back if were ever...

In my 40 years of living in the long beach area, many pho places have come and gone. When I really want pho I would usually go to little Saigon to the source. Pho 881 is definitely in my opinion the best pho in long Beach. I used to go to pho hong phat/long before but it just isn't as good when it was pho hong long. After trying pho 881 for the first time today, I highly recommend this place if you don't want to drive to little Saigon. I ordered the pho dac biet and was delicious.

Broth was nice and clean. Very flavorful and a generous amount of noodles. Only issue I have is with the noodles being...