Phở Ca Dao Restaurant — Restaurant in San Diego

NEW (Mar 7/19): This place has gone from being my fave in the region since Feb 2009 to being in the bottom 3. (UPDATE (Mar 8/19): My brother-in-law informed me that this location is under new mgmt. Which might explain why the service has gone from passable to "jerkoff", and why the portion sizes have dropped significantly, and the taste changing from great to barely mediocre. Whatever the case, PCD just lost several former loyal customers primarily because of the bad attitude of their staff.)

The 3 young male idiots that work here are always snickering to each other in Vietnamese (I'm assuming; might be wrong) when I ask questions (I worked in a Vietnamese restaurant in Canada). And today, I asked about an item on their Web site which is numbered differently in their store menu. I asked if "pork patties" meant ground pork, which I wanted. Young idiot #1 says yes but his mouth must have glued shut because his lips tightened and he wouldn't say more. I ask does the item come with "salad" (e.g., bean sprouts, shredded carrots and cucumber strips). "Yup," and again with the tight lips and no other words. Clearly, me being a customer to them is a big chore for them.

When my takeout is ready, I open it and see what looks like pork hotdog cut in pieces. I ask if I can squeeze some sriracha on it -- the first "r" is silent, but I forget because it's a personal joke to me ("sri" is an honorific in Indian languages similar to "mr", and I have an alter ego "Sri Sri Racha"). Young Idiots #1 and #2 speak in Vietnamese and laugh, but not before I caught the YI#1 saying "see-racha".

I tried the "pork patties" when I got home and they tasted like sour chalk. Worse, Pho Ca Dao's noodle portion, at least today, is about 1/4 to 1/3 what it used to be, and the $10 I paid (including tip and tax) was in no way worth it. It used to be; not anymore.

Long story short, the older staff is always at least neutral (not friendly in the slightest) but no one at this location or at most Asian restaurants know anything about service and friendliness. The only place where the staff/ owners are actually nice are at Bolsa Vietnam (up the street East about 1.5-2 miles), and Banh Mi Blvd (also up the street, a bit before Bolsa). I will not be going back, and I will tell everyone I know who loves this place (namely my in-laws) to go support other restaurants where people are friendlier.

OLD: This is probably one of the most consistently tasty Vietnamese restaurants in this area. A little small on portions but delicious food that is relatively affordably priced, compared to the half dozen other Vietnamese eateries within a few miles. UPDATE: Read the "NEW" review above. The overall experience here is now very...

In my opinion, Pho Ca Dao is one of the busiest pho places in the Mira Mesa area. Whenever I come to eat here, it is packed with people inside. They sell pho, rice combinations, sandwiches, eggrolls, spring rolls, and drinks/desserts like boba and ice coffee. The food is affordable and $10 can get you a decent meal. Out of all the pho places in San Diego (and even Orange County), I go to this one the most. I visited here on July 20, 2017 at around 20:00 with 2 of my friends after one of them came back hungry from comic-con. He was craving for rice and this place hits the spot. Despite it being busy, parking was not hard to find. As we walked in, the host asked how many (3 of us) and we were immediately seated. Then, we were served with water and menus. I decided to get the number 1 order of the standard Large bowl of pho (I think it was $7.10). I do not know exactly what my friends ordered, but I can tell they were happy. Our food came out in about 5 minutes. My friend ordered 6 egg rolls so we each got 2. I liked it as it was very crunchy, fresh, and tasty. The lettuce was fresh. The sauce was good. After another 5 minutes, my pho and my friend's orders came out. I liked my pho. The pho noodles were great, the meat is okay though. Nothing to complain though, but for some of us picky eater in food, the meat is going to be average. I dd not mix my pho with the bean sprouts, basil/mint or lime until I only had the broth left. It was fresh. I did not use oyster or the spicy sauce this time so I can taste the broth. The broth is good, but has a small msg taste (typical of most Pho restaurants), but it is not that strong. After eating the main food, about half of my bowl is covered in broth (also typical of most Pho restaurants). My friend's rice dish was good. My other friend's pho bowl was good except that it was a bit greasy, but his food is suppose to be that way. He enjoyed it though, but he rather have mine over his though. But overall, my friends and I liked the food. The service was great. The person who welcomed us was patient and smiled when my friend custom ordered his rice dish with extra meatloaf and other food. The server had to repeat our order, which was appreciated of him. They were attentive with our water cups too. I think they came back 3 to 4 times to fill our water cups. Also, when my friend got his food order, he asked for some extra tomato and the person came back with it. I just thought I also mention how clean the place is. The restrooms are nice and clean. Their waiting area is roomy and I like the layout of this restaurant. TL;DR: One of the greatest pho and Vietnamese food at an affordable price with great service in Mira Mesa. Still will come back...

One of mira mesa's best places to eat. Can't beat the speed, price, and menu offerings. I live for their fried spring rolls . Once found a baby snail on one of my leaves of lettuce and was turned off for a few months, but came back eventually. At least its probably organic lol! Customer service has seemed to be taken over by the next generation, as it feels more Americanized , but still that same great speed of service and quality of food . I agree with another reviewer that I would like to see more meat in the pho , but you can order extra anyway if it's not enough for you and price is still decent. Personally a fan of the marinated pork with broken rice. They have some bubble tea drinks here too which are a plus !

Edit : sadly my family and I have had a few bad experiences here lately . Im wondering if there's an issue with management or employee retention , as the kitchen has been painfully slow the last few times I've been here....but what I experienced last night was the worst, which compelled me to come back, remove stars, and share. It was admittedly quite busy, and we had terrible and unapologetic /insincere customer service. Name was supposedly accidentally skipped over on the waiting list , took almost 45 min for food to start coming out , and my meal arrived at the end, maybe 20 min after my family had already finished their food ! All I got was a simple "sorry" and that was that, even after I made my frustrations clear as day. I felt like maybe the waitress was avoiding me after that. she eventually dropped off the check and said "take your time ". Maybe she meant she wanted to take HER time because she never came back and my husband had to walk to be front to pay instead. Luckily , the food is still tasty...but I found this series of customer service faux paux quite unacceptable . It will be a while till I'm ready to give this place a other chance as I am extremely disappointed on how my family and I were handled, and there is way too much competition in Mira Mesa to put up with this again in the near future.

Edit (again lol): looks like this place might be under new management as the looks and vibe of the entire restaurant have been upgraded. Since my bad experience I gave it another shot and have been here a few times without incident. There are a few people I recognize from when I first started coming here but lots of new faces on the staff that are providing much better customer service. This place has been redeemed in my...