Culantro & Basil Pho Bistro — Restaurant in West Covina

I'm pretty disappointed with the pho here lately. It actually smells weird or bad. Like they're reheating the pho in plastic containers. No one talks about phthalates when eating out. A lot of restaurants will do this or even put food in the microwave with plastic wrap on top. But something about the way that the soup smells lately is kind of foul. I think it used to taste a bit cleaner or better too. Been dreading to write this

Also the service can be very good usually in appearance but if something goes wrong, unless it's obvious, there's very little accountability and they will practically gaslight like you're crazy and nothings wrong which is a shame. No one wants to complain but they need to listen to customers better.

They have been excellent in the past so hopefully something can change and this can be deleted. Any successful venture will have a reckoning eventually. Maybe I'm wrong but what's up with the pho smell? It's not even beefy, just so strange. Wasn't like that before. Everything else they make has been great. Also odd that there's a female employee who tries very hard not to make any eye contact, it's kind of...

I was skeptical to try to this place because it looks too modern. Sounds silly, but I usually like hole-in-the-wall places for "foreign" food because I have found that those places tend to have more authentic dishes. However, I have been to so many pho places around here and I can say that this one has a very tasty pho. The broth was very flavorful (the last place I tried had ok/good pho but I mentioned in my review that the broth there was lacking some in flavor). Also, I like tripe as a meat topping (which isn't as popular around here) and I don't always find the right meat combos that I like on other pho restaurant menus and the combo with all meats has some meats that I don't prefer. I like that here they have a two-item meat option and I can pick the two meats I really want. There is also a meatless and a vegan option with vegetable broth.

Would definitely go back to try...

Stop what you’re doing, stop thinking of where you could go and make this trip! I’ve eaten PHO at least a 1000 times in Cali and I just found the most flavorful, delicious, PHO I have ever eaten!

I had the Charbroiled beef PHO with extra noodles and I’m saddened that I ate every last bite have have none left to eat!

Over joyed I found this place, because it’s now my goto PHO, pho sho!!

My reviews don’t exaggerate, I don’t embellish, I will tell you if a place isn’t worth it, which is why I’m telling you to stop thinking of what you might want and come here to...