PPQ Beef Noodle House — Restaurant in San Francisco

Updated review 6/19/2025: 2025 update. The older talkative waitress wasn't working tonight. It was just that shy young guy working alone. We've never had their beef carpaccio, bo tai chanh $24 before. Tonight we ordered it and it was OK. I would have preferred limes instead of lemons. Perhaps they should have pre-lemoned the beef before serving it to us. The five spice chicken garlic noodles $15.45 were great, as usual. Service was a bit lacking with the rookie.

Updated review 3/27/2025: Ever since another Vietnamese restaurant opened on the next block, PPQ hasn't been as busy. That other place is more fancy though. PPQ feels stagnant. It feels like a replica of Loi's that went out of business. Regardless, I still like coming here. The five spice chicken garlic noodles $15.45 remains excellent. The chicken has a crispy skin and moist inside. Their buttery garlic noodles might be the best in town without going to a Vietnamese crab restaurant. Service is OK.

Updated review 6/14/2022: PPQ is as good as the first time I ate here, back in the 1990's. The thing that keep me coming back is, they are opened late until 9:30pm. Sometimes I take a nap after work and by the time I wake up, most places are closed. My #1 pho dac biet, medium $11.25 was good. There's less meat now than before though. The imperial rolls $9.25 weren't great. They were too mushy in the middle. I would have preferred some rice noodles along with the cucumber, lettuce and mint leaves. Regardless, I'm just glad they were opened at 9:30pm.

Updated review. Indoor dining 4/21/2021. Tonight I had their five spice chicken garlic noodles with a fried egg. Even on a Wednesday, they were pretty packed. There's an endless flow of food delivery workers picking up orders causing the single waitress to be overwhelmed. Their little kitchen can't keep up. Their garlic noodles are not bad and the chicken was moist with good amount of flavor. Good job PPQ.

Indoor dinner 3/19/2021. Pho Phu Quoc PPQ no longer have outdoor dining tables, only indoors. They have five indoor tables and a few window counter seats. The waitress told me indoor dining started Wednesday 3/10/2021 for them. Sometimes the kitchen staff will make spring rolls in those window seats, so it might not be available all the time. I only came here because Kevin's pho across the street was packed. I didn't want to risk getting sick. I ordered their #1, pho dac biet $12. There was a mistake with the noodles and the waitress had to bring it back to the kitchen. I can totally understand why they messed up my order. The waitress was running back and forth with all those food delivery app workers. PPQ's soup broth was alright. It is authentic and I can taste that it was boiled for a long time. They are really stingy with the meats, tendons and tripe though. The menu clearly said "meatballs". There was only one meatball in my large pho dac biet. Regardless, my meal tonight was not bad. Good job PPQ staff. My bill was $15 with...

I live a couple hours south and visit whenever I’m nearby. Although they offer many good dishes, the curry chicken pho is SO good I rarely get anything else. Once, I asked how they made their potatoes so delicious and they shared that they fry them before cooking them in the curry broth. Amazing! If I want to know my “fortune” I count how many potatoes I find in the broth ☺️

The chicken is ample and high quality breast meat. After a hundred visits, I daringly tried a different broth, satay instead of curry (all their phos can be modified with different broths). Yes, satay broth is very good, but it does not include potatoes. I’ll be sticking with the most excellent curry for my next hundred lunches.

Once, I was in San Francisco all day, had the pho for lunch and thought, “I can have anything at all I want for dinner. The city offers such variety.” After much thought, I realized that nothing could match repeating lunch. So twice that day.

I rated Service at 4 stars because it’s quite good, but want to save 5 stars for something extraordinary. Atmosphere is fine. I wouldn’t ask for anything else, but it’s simple and functional and comfortable. My 4 star rating is no complaint, just an acknowledgement that there’s nothing extraordinary about it. The bathroom is clean and, warning, the water can...

The pho was okay. It was the only thing I tried and I made the mistake of ordering it to go. I already knew that pho is not the best dish to order to go but I was really craving some after recovering from a mild cold for the last few days.

I ordered the beef combination pho & the ingredients were all stuffed together in a paper takeout container. Other pho restaurants I’ve been to give you a bowl like container which makes it easier to pour the broth over & spread out the meats & noodles.

I also don’t think that my broth was hot enough when I got home & despite putting it in the microwave for an additional 2 minutes (also because I was unable to properly spread everything in a big bowl), there was a big portion of meat that did not get cooked by the broth at all & I simply had to take it out of my pho.

That being said, the portions are massive. I ordered the medium size and still did not come close to finishing it.

It did the job I suppose but not the best to-go...