Phở Cali — Restaurant in Milwaukee

I've been to Pho Cali a handful of times and have never been "blown away" or anything. It's very average Vietnamese food but for some reason my fiancé likes coming here. I met him here for lunch today and it will most likely be our last time. We both ordered pho and an appetizer, banh khot. The pho came out right away and immediately I noticed how oily it was. Not only was it incredibly oily once we started eating, the noodles were horribly overcooked and the "rare steak" was chewy. Rare steak in pho is supposed to melt in your mouth. They also gave us lemons instead of limes..... why? I don't know. We did see a squeeze bottle of concentrated lime juice on the table but c'mon, that is going to alter the taste of the broth since it is supposed to be enjoyed with fresh lime. The real tragedy here was the banh khot, our appetizer that came 20 mins after we received our pho. It was undercooked. Mind you, this is supposed to be cooked until it is bright yellow in color, crispy with seared edges. It was also terribly oily. The reason why we will not be returning is the lack of service that we received. We were never asked how our food was or anything. When the guy came to present our check, I pointed out that the banh khot was undercooked - emphasizing the one piece that wasn't even cooked at all (it was literally raw and white on top. Banh khot is bright yellow when cooked due to the turmeric that is added to the batter, similar to banh xeo). I really wish that I had taken a picture of the raw banh khot. He literally did not give a crap and pretended like he didn't hear me. He went back and sat down, continuing his phone call that was apparently more important than customer satisfaction. We were going to get a banh mi for our employee to go but after the service and food that we received, we were turned off. I should have went with my gut when I walked in and saw there was a letter B on the window from the Health Department, which is actually very hard to get unless you have several violations. If you're looking for delicious and authentic Vietnamese food with great service, this is...

We got delivery with uber eats. This review is just the delivered food experience.

House Special Pho Uber says this is $13.95, but when you add to cart, you have to choose a size, and you only have the option to choose “large” for an extra $2. So this is a $16 dish. Don’t like the price hiding game folks… Also, the dish was missing tripes. My favorite.. I believe the extra $2 I paid was probably just for the noodles, as it came with a huge amount of noodles, but not really a large portion of meats. I could have also used a little more sprouts. Soup flavor was good, though, as I remember it at the restaurant.

Calamari Stone Not sure why it’s called “stone”. But it’s fried calamari. It’s got an interesting redish color. It was cold upon delivery. Not warm, not lukewarm, but cold. Like it came out of the fridge. Meanwhile the pho soup came piping hot, so I know they just put this on a container from the fridge without reheating or cooking fresh. I don’t necessarily mind cold food, but this one wasn’t good cold. The squid was chewy and the batter was separated. Sad. I didn’t think you could really go wrong with this dish.

Papaya salad with shrimp Meh. Another disappointment. It came with sauce on the side, but the salad was already tossed in sauce. This dish was also underwhelming, mostly because it was probably pre-made and sitting there for a lot longer than the 30 minutes it took for delivery. The papaya and carrots were wilty from having been sitting on the vinegar based sauce. Only saving grace were the huge shrimp pieces that were cooked just right.

I would go to the physical location, but I’m very underwhelmed by the delivery option. Will not...

I came back to add more details than just five stars. I've wandered into a few places (five now) in Milwaukee for pho, and this is the one that keeps me coming back. I believe the broth is superior to other places in town, and ultimately what I come for is good food. Whatever it is, the proportion of onion, stock, cilantro, and salt always puts a smile on my face - especially great on a cold day.

To set expectations, Pho Cali is realistically a counter service diner that happens to have table service. Service isn't really their strong suit, and I don't care about that when I come here. Many of their employees have less than perfect English, and ultimately I think they are just trying to reduce interaction. They always both take my order and bring my food in a timely fashion - for this reason I don't worry too much about the lack of pleasantries.

Many people who complain about service are likely referring to waiting for the check - go to the register. They don't care and will take care of you promptly for taking payment. There is enough difference in language/culture I don't think they embrace any "norm" about it.

I like this place enough and have been here enough time that today for the first time they asked me if I want "the regular". I had food within 5 minutes. Pho is great that way - the broth is simmering when you...