Pho Leo & Grill — Restaurant in San Diego

(3/5 stars means solid, as expected)

Update: the second day went much smoother since they made guests wait to be seated rather than seating all the open tables.

We got both the egg and rice noodles dishes dry, meaning the soup came on the side. The toppings were the same and portion sizes were the same. The side soup was a pork broth and was good. This is what should’ve came with the broken rice dish we got but was probably mistakenly pho broth.

Rice noodles hu tieu - note: the true meaning of hu tieu is a starch chewy noodle. This was not hu tieu, it was fresh pho noodle. The texture of fresh pho noodle is soft. This one was a little on bland side.

Egg noodles mi - the sauce was way too salty and there was a giant clump in the egg noodles that was raw in the center. But I enjoyed the egg noodle texture way more than the rice noodle.

I would recommend egg noodle between the 2 if you had to pick. But for $16.50, the noodle portions were too small. My senior parents have smaller appetites and even they were still hungry after.

Bottom line: stick to the pho dishes since those are better flavor and portion size for the price.

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This must be the biggest cleanest Vietnamese restaurant I've ever seen! Also very bold promotional choice offering 50% off all food items. Though it’s hard to tell if they shorted the portions due to the promotion since our broken rice Leo was missing pork chop and spare rib.

It used to be a Chinese buffet back in the day that my family have been too. Very cool how they've changed the space for this restaurant. All the tables, chairs, and booths are new and have firm cushion.

We took my Vietnamese parents here on the first day and no line at 10am opening time--walked right in.

All the servers are friendly and well-informed. They checked on us frequently and were apologetic for the kitchen delays. Alexis was great!

We ordered egg rolls, pho special, pho short rib, pho Leo, and broken rice Leo.

The eggrolls came out fast, hot out of the fryer and were tasty. The fish sauce has a nice spicy kick.

For pho, they have the regular (chewy) noodles or the fresh rice noodles that are wider and not chewy. We prefer chewy noodles so we all got the regular. The fresh noodles become soggy in hot broth. The regular noodles had nice perfectly cooked texture.

All of our pho also came out quickly. The pho broth was sweeter than we like. Just to note: The pho special doesn't come with meatballs, but the pho Leo came with meatballs. The pho Leo was huge and came with so much noodles!! It was like the XL train bowl size of the old days.

In their pho the rare meat is ribeye so it is super tender and has good flavor. The short rib beef meat slides off the rib bone and is tender, but not seasoned.

The broken rice Leo took much longer to come out. Overall it was okay. The pho broth it came with didn't really go well together. The pork meat was cut too thin to enjoy only 1 piece. It was missing 1 spare rib and 1 pork chop and lacked flavor.

Pho is solid and we would like to come back to try their other dishes.

Parking is plenty and easy in the large parking lot. Location is...

A newly opened pho spot in Point Loma. The interior is large and very open. They have lots of seating available. The bathroom is clean as well. All the workers here are kind!

For an appetizer we went with the Nem Nuong Goi Cuon, it came out with the slightly orange colored sauce. IYKYK. I found it a little thin and lacking flavor, but after adding some sriracha it was more tasty. The goi cuon was freshly made as the Nem Nuong was still hot. I wish they added some vermicelli noodles or daikon, but am happy with the amount of veggies that were paired with it- carrots, cucumber, lettuce, green onion (that flat one), beansprouts, & mint… since they cut it into four (two rolls) it was easier to share with the table.

We also tried their $7, Dirty Thai Tea. I believe the dirty part refers to having espresso, or perhaps in their case— Vietnamese coffee added on top. I’m not exactly sure if we actually received it because it didn’t have much of a two tone color compared to other images I saw. Regardless, the drink was creamy and not too sweet. It was nice and cold and delicious!

Then, we ordered Pho Ga and Pho Tai— I don’t know the exact name of it that we chose. But it had several other meats inside and we asked for the rare steak to be on the side. I thought it was going to be the usual thinly sliced meat, but it was actually very red. The waiter mentioned proudly that it was thinly sliced ribeye. If I’d known, I would have not asked for the rare meat to be on the side. While the broth was very hot, it wasn’t hot enough to cook the meat while I ate everything else. It was still quite pink as I finished up my noodles. By the way, the noodles were perfectly cooked!! For the broth, I would have liked a little more flavor from the spices, but overall not bad. They also gave us a large plate of beansprouts, pho basil, lime, etc. If I had to choose between the pho, I would order the pho ga again. It was piping hot and the chicken flavor was very prominent. The broth was clean, not overly salty, nor too sweet.

They also have banh mi options, egg noodle soups, and rice dishes available to order. The drink menu also has che 3 mau, salty lemonade, and Vietnamese coffee! The price for three people, 2 pho, 1 app, and a specialty drink … was not too expensive! I would...

This is my very first review ever, and honestly, I felt I had to write it because the experience was that bad. I ate here during their soft opening, and everything about it was unprofessional from start to finish.

Service & Staff: The restaurant completely messed up so many orders, not just ours, but other customers’ as well. I saw multiple tables getting upset because there were plenty of open tables and plenty of staff just standing around, yet customers were waiting over an hour to be seated. Our server (I think her name was Ashley) acted like she owned the place but completely disregarded customers. Even the person sitting at the table next to us said they couldn’t believe how terrible the service was. Staff were handling drinks by the mouth of the glass, none of the waiters or chefs seemed professionally trained, and the woman with black hair at the front desk (possibly the manager) was extremely unprofessional and rude when speaking to customers.

Food: The food was just as bad as the service. I ordered pho with brisket and flank, but they only gave me one meat. When I asked about it, they took so long that I just told them to forget it. The meat I did get was incredibly chewy, which shows poor quality. The broth was very dark, and if you’re Vietnamese, you know that usually means it’s not clean or well-prepared. Everything about the dish felt low quality and careless.

Overall Impression: I’ve seen people on TikTok saying this place is worth trying, but please don’t be fooled. It’s not hype, it’s not authentic, and it’s definitely not professional. Whether it’s a soft opening or a grand opening, restaurants should be prepared. This place was a disaster in every way—service, food, and professionalism. I wouldn’t recommend...