Pho Saigon Restaurant — Restaurant in Pleasanton

I'm currently getting over a cold and needed some hot soup for lunch. I've driven past this place for the past year but never made the effort to come. I decided to change that today. The outside can be a little easy to miss as it's tucked away in an open strip mall, but parking is ample.

I was immediately seated as it was really packed for the lunch hour. The menu isn't huge on variety but in a good way. Too many restaurants try to pack too many items in, but this restaurant knows its identity and what they're good at. They stick to the classic Vietnamese dishes with little to no frills. I ended up with a bowl of beef pho with the rib bone. The food came out surprisingly quick which was excellent for those on a time crunch. The soup was flavorful and hot. They give you a good amount of meat and noodles. Side note - a lot of other pho places have been skimping on noodles lately.

Overall I was really impressed with the level of service and food. I would definitely be back to try other dishes. I was suggested to try the grilled chicken rice dish and the bun bo hue (spicy beef noodle soup). The decor is also really cute and trendy with a really laid back vibe. I definitely recommend it to anyone in the area for some good classic...

We tried the combo short rib pho. It fed 2 people comfortably, which is a huge plus, and a generous short rib. The con, the short rib was on the tougher side. It's advertised as having a bunch of types of meat, but it's not well distributed: a 1/2 meatball, one piece of tendon. The rest of the meats were reasonable. The soup was good, mostly a meaty beef stock and not particularly spiced. It was on the salter side of things. Unlike some places where the soup is good alone, here, the basil really brightened the soup up. Personally would have liked a bit of cilantro, too.

Take out was well packaged. Ordering online was easy. The system does not tell you when the order is ready, however. We just showed up when we were tired of waiting.

In short, one of the better pho we tried in the tri-valley. Would skip the short rib and go for a standard offering....

This place is not bad. I've been here multiple times over the years. It looks popular with lots of crowds. I would still go back to Oakland to get my favorite Vietnamese food though. Here you can stll get all the basics. The regular pho is much smaller than what I have normally seen. We had egg rolls which were quite good. My bun was so so. The pork did not taste like it was grilled. The nuoc cham was plain and boring. The beef stew was watery like a pot of soup. Even by western standards it is a bit thicker. So do not order the beef stew - not up to standards. Service is very average. I couldn't communicate with most of the employees there. My nephew asked the fan to be turned down instead it...