Phở Crystal Noodle House — Restaurant in Santa Ana

We often search and use yelp to find the highest rated restaurants around and most of the time it's on point, but due to the human nature of opinions we get such variety of priority and importance on the experiences. Case in point within 5 miles of my office Crystal had the highest rating, so of course I went to check it out and after a few experiences I've formed my opinions.

Small and unassuming without the often traditional decorations. It could easily be missed as it's a bit lost in the sea of bland looking stripmall motif. The noodle aspect of pho is overlooked often because it's all about the broth and they do it really well here, clear and deep in flavor, often the broth can be too thick and murky at the bottom, not the case here. Sometimes the noodles can be mushy or hard or bricked at the bottom, none of that is the case here. I'm a fan of the meatballs and in getting the large sort of everything combination some places throw them in free, but not here, pricey upgrade. I prefer my pho without flank or tendon and extra tripe and usually it's a 1 to 1 trade off and doesn't cost anything, but here again another pricy substitution. We've all had our pho served in places where the server has their thumb in the soup, all their soup is delivered on plates and there are no thumbs here. They don't overdo it with the onions and the thai basil is the freshest I've seen around. Spring rolls are excellect, but the peanut dipping sauce had a tad too much fish sauce, but a nice crunch. The BBQ short ribs are excellent and their rice is light and fluffy, the rice meals are more reasonably portioned than a large pho which is a lot for most people. The free corn tapioca pudding is a pleasant surprise. The brisket and rare steak are thin and already somewhat spread-out rather than clumped and although I asked for extra tripe I kind of feel I never have enough. The barbeque chicken could be more moist and their menu could be more vibrant and enticing.

To me experience and overall menu means more than just 1 item, service is also key in any industry and although I usually have to wait to have my water filled the food comes out really quickly. I see a lot of potential for me to up their rating, but a good product and soup base isn't enough to rest...

Pho is food for the soul on a rainy or cold day/ night. =)

Overall: 3.5 stars for their yummy broth; good for this area but doesn't compare to Little Saigon area ;)

This is a small hole in the wall Mom & Pop Pho joint that serves decent Pho where most of its recurring patrons are from the surrounding neighborhoods.

Pho Xe Lua: 4 stars Broth is very good & flavorful but didn't have much pieces of meat in the bowl. -1

Pho Seafood: 3 stars Good broth but small portions of noodle & not many pieces of seafood here either. -1

Shrimp Rockets (Appetizer): 4 stars Very crispy & crunchy; my fave out of the dishes. Sweet sauce was a great compliment to this dish, balancing out all the flavors.

Decor: B+: No fancy place here, just a clean, plain no fuss no muss neighborhood hole in wall Pho restaurant.

Service: B+ Typical Viet restaurant where you have to waive the waiter down to get extra service but they're quick to get what...

I wish that I could point out the guy in question ................. But from walking into the door and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting . Now there was a little table in front of me but I am a large man so I was trying to get a larger table . This guy.........the only employee who was mad at the skillful interior of the restaurant came up to me and did everything short of karate kicking me in the knee and pushing me down into the small table that I repeatedly refused three times in a row , before huffing and puffing and finally cleaning off my table the whole wild letting me know that he was cleaning my table!🙄 sorry to say that I cant do bad service for good Pho! Anymore and I would have screamed!! But my meal was awesome! Vietnamese BBQ Beef with two heaping mounds of white rice and a small green salad. It was so freaking good. The moment the meal ended so did that great...