Phở Bắc Kỳ Restaurant — Restaurant in Tustin

3.0 star rating 1/20/2014

Enter Pho Bac Ky in Tustin. Its in the Stater Bros Shopping center close to the 5 freeway on Red Hill. The first thing I noticed was the owner greeting me. He was so friendly and you could tell so appreciative we came in. Always a huge smile on his face. He will never be as cool and hip as my previous Pho owner, but his friendliness really stood out. The interior is clean and neat but a little small. Nothing really memorable. At my old pho place it was very spacious. There would usually be cool alternative music playing or 2 TV's to watch. This place closes at 8:30 pm and at 8:30 it was 3/4's full.

My old place had a much better condiment selection. Pho Bac Ky is missing some of the things I loved. Satay sauce for one. They had a paste in a jar that looked like it, but it was really some sort of chili paste in oil. It wasn't very hot and sweet in taste. It wasn't bad. Maybe it was satay, but it tasted nothing like what I was used to. They also were missing the ground red chili paste with Garlic. On the plus side they had the Chinese pepper (white pepper I believe) instead of the regular pepper at my old pho place. I have a fetish about condiments at Pho places for some reason and most places are always missing the satay, chili garlic paste, and the saw leaf herb!

The spring rolls were incredibly average. Not as good as my old place. They lacked depth and complexity of flavor.Other places had the "pink mystery meat" in it and this only had some veggies, shrimp, vermicelli. The wrapper was soft and tasty. I found 2 shrimp kind of chintzy as well. The sauce did not have the peanuty flavor I loved and was kind of strong and salty. I probably will not order this again. I saw another table get some fried egg rolls and those looked really good.

I ordered the Pho with rare beef, tendon, tripe, and brisket. The veggies you get are slice jalepenos, bean sprouts, cilantro, and basil. I miss the saw leaf (Gai) herb. It seems like very few places have it outside of Little Saigon. But the Pho was AWESOME. The noodles were firm yet tender and had a great flavor to them. The meat was very tender and flavorful. The tripe was tender yet crunchy. The tendons were like beefy soft gummi bears (without the sweetness of course). You could taste the complexity of the broth. The anise, the beef, the slight sweetness. It was some of the best broth I have had. It also had a great "mouth feel" I don't know how else to describe it. When it went into my mouth it felt like it almost would vaporize in my mouth and release all its flavors. Then it would slide down my throat in a silky way. I drank the broth so the bowl was completely dry. My chick had the Chicken Pho which uses chicken stock instead of beef. I tried that as well. I could swear there were wisps of ginger. Very chickeny flavor in the broth. And the chicken is pulled from the bone as opposed to pre processed chicken.

Finally we ordered some drinks. Cafe Su Da and a blended Lychee drink with Boba. Intense coffee flavor. Not just strong, but flavorful. You can almost taste chocolate under tones, but I know they don't add chocolate. Very creamy and a little thicker than most Cafe Su Da's. This is why I give it the edge. Great great great drink. They have it listed as French Expresso or something like that

The Lychee drink wasn't that good. Too sweet and I don't know why its red. The boba's were very mushy and the drink separated (ice from the liquid) almost right way. At my old place, they were nice and thick and the ice was blended so smoothly it was like drinking a milkshake

Total price for 2 bowls of Pho, Spring Rolls , Cafe Su Da, and the Lychee drink was $24.00. I found this to be a tad bit expensive.

However the good far outweighs the minuses here. Its convenient and I really liked how the owner was so friendly. Service was fast and efficient and cheerful. And the Pho is spectacular. For these reasons, this will probably be our new regular place. I wish it would open later than...

This place is pretty legit, surprised that it's not 4+ stars overall. My friend suggested this place and as usual, I get the pho tai, just like I do at every pho joint. My new trend is also ordering spring rolls and this time was no different.

The pho tai included a fair amount of meat proportionate to the noodles. The meat tasted fresh and the noodles were cooked just right. I also liked the amount of onions. The broth was tasty and didn't leave a salty aftertaste. Also, I wasn't thirsty an hour later. Therefore, I don't think any MSG! Yay! Bean sprouts were also fresh and crunchy.

Spring rolls were good and packed of ingredients. The peanut sauce wasn't too salty either with crushed peanuts/strands of carrots.

Service wasn't too bad. There were plenty of staff members walking around. I was even able to flag one down to get more limes!

Prices were fair averaging about $7 a bowl. I'm willing to come back again when I'm in the area, but not sure if I'd drive down to OC just...

I visited this restaurant for a late lunch last weekend. There were about 4–5 tables of customers, and one server along with a person who seemed to be the owner were working in the dining area. The food was about 3 out of 5 — it tasted okay. However, the server forgot the lemon I asked for when ordering, and during the meal, they never once came around to check on our table or any other customers. Occasionally, the person who seemed to be the owner would briefly peek out from one side of the dining area, but that was it. When we first entered, the server was reading a book, so I assumed the server were off-duty or on a break. But when we finished eating and went to pay, I noticed the server were still sitting and studying in the same spot. If the owner chooses to pay an employee to use the restaurant as a study space, that’s their decision — but I don’t understand why customers should have to put up with that. Next time, I’ll just order takeout here or go to another pho...