Pho 11 Vietnamese Restaurant — Restaurant in State College

I lived in state college for 4 years and went to this place 1 - 2 times a week.

I would give this place a 420 69 out of 5 if I could. First off the outside. Theres free parking, no street parking or ramp parking required. Yes the parking lot isn't paved with gold and the hedges weren't cut by Miyamoto Musashi, but if the shrubbery lining the building is going to offend your dining experience maybe you should just stay at home and order mein won.

Next the service. Shaun the waiter is probably the most attentive, high energy, quick footed waiter I've met. Kind and caring, but most importantly consistent. I never knew if he was having a bad day because if he was, he never let it show or take it out on the customers. He treated everyone with respect. The other waiters are just as good.

The pho is also consistent and comes out fast. I've since moved to the west coast and have yet to find a place that rivals their broth and flavor. It is beefy and packed with incredible umami. It is not overpowering and it is not full of MSG. The interior is also clean, none of that sticky table bs.

They are also a family owned business and are authentic to their craft. Please give this place a try, you...

Cute little place. I liked the convenient POS ordering that made it easy to pick what I wanted and eliminate what I didn’t want. The only downside to it is that you have to decide your tip before you are ever served. I got the grilled pork vermicelli with winter melon tea to drink. The pork was AMAZING and super tender, but it was served over bland noodles with undressed lettuce underneath. The fish sauce it’s served with is very sweet and wasn’t what I was expecting, but I explained that to our server and she quickly brought me some that wasn’t quite as sweet. I took the remainder of my vermicelli home and will dress it with plain fish sauce. The pork vermicelli was also served with pickled carrots and daikon, which were very good. There was also something else that was green - I’m unsure what it was, but it tasted similar to honeydew melon and it was tasty. We also got an appetizer of pork wontons that were very good on their own, but I wasn’t a fan of the sweet sauce that was served with it. The winter melon sweet iced tea...

As a party of five, we decided to go to this restaurant after a long day of rock climbing. Five American guys who were tired and drained entered this establishment to experience food from across the world. The workers gave us dirty looks when we entered. Like yeah okay I get it we are young adults but we did not do anything disrespectful. The food was adequate, edible… you can say. Cat outside on the street that was dope. Not dope I tell you what they only accepted two payments when we went. One was Vietnamese cash and the other was tap on a card. In our party of five local Americans, one we did not have foreign cash in our pockets and two local banks did not have tap. OUR FRIEND WHO WAS VISITING HAD TO PAY FOR EVERYTHING!!! This is by far the worst experience I have had in State College. Only enter the place if you have a tap....