Phodega — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

I placed and order on grub hub. It was supposed to take around 40 minutes to be delivered. When it said “coming soon” I went down to get it, it wasn’t there then it said delivered so I checked the other building entrance and with the doorman, nothing. I started a chat with grub hub who said they cannot contact the driver because they have their own drivers and so I call the restaurant and they say when it shows as “delivered” that’s when the delivery guy leaves the restaurant with the food, so wrong of them. While I’m on the phone with them grubhub canceled my order entirely and then the restaurant sees that and says they will reprocess the payment and the delivery guy will be there in 10. I tell grubhub what the restaurant said and leave it at that. Well after 20 min I let grubhub know to make sure the restaurant doesn’t actually charge me again when I didn’t get it. I call the restaurant back and she says she contacted grubhub and since they couldn’t reprocess the payment they canceled the delivery guy. However, they never called me to let me know that so I was sitting in the lobby waiting for nothing. I told the lady we love the food and were excited to see it on grubhub but that their service was trash and she tried to say something about not being able to give me free food, no duh I’d have given my card info over the phone had I received a call before waiting twice as long as she said it would take for the food to be delivered. And I ended the call with “this was trash” because it was and grubhub was severely upset too and the rep made a formal complaint on grubhub also. Great food, only good authentic pho in the city but don’t order on grubhub or anything like that. It was insane, a whole 2 hour process to not even get my food! I’m very disappointed as we got here a lot because my boyfriend is Vietnamese and it’s his comfort food but we might have to look around for another place, sorry to say. I’ve met a lot of the guys that work in there and they’ve always been great with everything, above and beyond even. They’ve been perfect till today. Might give it another try in a while. Will...

Phodega just moved to Division St in Wicker Park, but used to be located close by on Ashland St. I visited their Ashland location just before it closed. Overall, while I thought the food I ordered was just okay / decent, the place really stands out to me with its fun, casual ambience and excellent, friendly staff. The menu is creative and unique too, with an eclectic array of Vietnamese and Asian fusion dishes. They also sell a bunch of Asian / Asian-themed snacks.

I ordered the Salt & Pepper Chicken Skins as an appetizer, which was good— oily and flavorful. I also split the Viet Dip Banh Mi and Spicy Chicken Banh Mi with a friend. I liked the pho jus dip for the Viet Dip Banh Mi— it elevated the flavor and texture of the sandwich, making it much softer. The sandwich as a whole though was pretty average in flavor. The spicy chicken banh mi had better flavor, especially when adding their spicy sauce and extra hoisin, but was lacking on texture and ingredient diversity. I wish there were more / more substantive ingredients in the sandwich besides the chicken, because after a few bites the flavor and texture became boring.

Overall, while I wasn’t obsessed with my order this time around, I’d love to come back to their new Division St location and try their other popular menu items— like their chicken rice, which looked delicious, as well as their other types of banh mi (like the new pho loco burger!). While “Pho” is in their name, I’ve heard from multiple friends that you can skip the pho here, and try other stuff on the menu… but I’ll have to try for myself, eventually. The prices aren’t bad either, especially compared to surrounding restaurants...

New location & as menu as of Aug 11!

I've asked five thousand people where the best chicken rice is in Chicago, including other chef friends & coworkers. No one had an answer. I've also been disappointed in every other chicken rice spot I've been to in Chicago, including ones in Chinatown

I now declare this my NUMBER ONE CHICKEN RICE SPOT. They actually use real chicken broth + chicken fat cooked rice + the sweet soy + chilli sauce + garlic ginger sauce I needed. Just makes me so damn happy 😭 took me so many years to find this 👍

HIGHLY RECOMMEND the combo rice, pork belly rice , Vietnamese coffee & pho loco burger. They have all my favorite childhood snacks too which I loveee

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗴𝗮 Started in 2019, by Nate & Anthony who's moms came from Vietnam & Singapore. They specialize in Pho and Singaporean rice and wanted to create a place "where [they] could sell everything we wanted." Including the OG Asian snacks, drinks, and household items 😂

𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘂 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗲𝘀 -"Over rice" $12.99-$13.99 - beef, pork belly, pho loco (beef patty + pho gravy)

Sandwiches $9.99-$11.99: special banh mo with pork roll, pate, & aoli, pork belly, stir fried beef, or pho loco burger

Dumplinga & pizza puffs ran out today but they'll have more later!

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 Pho $12.99-$13.99: beef , veg, or chicken broth with lots of toppings

Chicken rice $12.99 : hainan, fried, or combo

Salt & pepper cracked wings $10.99 for 5 or skin for $4.99

Sandwiches: viet dip with sliced ribeye $10.99 or spicy chicken banh mi $10.99

𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 Opens 11-9pm (come early because it gets super busy at 12pm) Outside...