Pho Vinh Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in San Carlos

I'll start by saying the service here is top notch, especially for a Vietnamese restaurant. Two people were always watching if I happened to glance up, and I was served promptly and graciously. The food here is very palatable, and it arrive quickly and fresh to my table. My issue with this place is that the food does not taste like Vietnamese food to me. I was still craving grilled pork when I left, although the grilled pork I had here was not bad. There was fresh white onion slices and served on my place along with the veggies, but that was a first for me. Another variable was price. For a rice plate (grilled pork with imperial roll combo, $11.95 as of posting) and a drink (Vietnamese iced coffee, $4.50 as of posting) my total came to $17.93, leaving me to leave put an end evening tip, leaving me a whole $20 lighter when I left. Knowing I can get a similar meal for $3-4 cheaper in my neighborhood in SF and knowing I would leave with my flavor cravings satiated, I will most likely only return to try their pho. From the looks of orders from other tables, maybe that is what they do best. For my first experience, I would say excellent service, about 25% overpriced, and a rather different flavor combination than usual for their rice dishes. Being an avid Vietnamese food lover, I will return...

If you are an experienced Pho 'Foodie', I would not recommend this location. The Pho broth tasted like there was some type of bullion cubes and or some type of instant broth powder added.

I also ordered the vermicelli with pork and egg rolls. The Noodles seems like they had been sitting in cold water before served to me and the pork was sour. The Egg rolls had that kind-of white layer like freezer burn on the outside and the meat-mix inside was mushy and also sour.

To top it off, I wasn't even going to complain, I took a couple of bites and actually left ALL my food. But then she asked was everything okay. I offered to pay after leaving an entire meal, I gave her some brief feedback and she still charged me. LOL!!! She acted concerned but not concerned enough to make it right. I'm not trying to get something for free.

Bad first experience. I personally will not attempt to try there again. Like I said, experienced Pho-eaters beware. If you havent been to too many good eats, maybe you wont know the difference.

Bad...

We had stop here to have lunch before making our way back home to Stockton and this is the most nasty, horrible place I have ever ate. I thought this city will be clean and sanitize because it’s in the Bay Area, I was wrong. The bathroom was disgusting, no paper towels, there was water all over the floor, the sink was dirty and the toilet had paper and nasty stuff in it. We order a combination pho, combination meaning having meat balls and all in it, there was no meat balls and the the noodle was soggy, the juice taste horrible and has 1 small piece of tendon. The rice plate we order was gross, didn’t taste like lemongrass chicken. Taste like the Asian can fish at the grocery store. Pricy was way too high. About 18 dollar for the pho and 18 for the rice plate. Not worth it at all for the taste of the food and customer service was horrible . Gave me a dirty utensil, when ask for napkins and stuff the staff was rude. This will be the first and last time at this place...