Pho #1 Catonsville — Restaurant in Woodlawn

Update 2/10/2024 I came back here over half a year later and order their bun bo hue again. It seems like they really improved it and their ingredients seem way more fresh! I really like their chilli oil.

I brought a little bit of my own shrimp paste from home to eat their sliced jalapenos and to add to the bun bo hue soup 😂 There is just something about that salty (shrimp paste) and spicy (jalapeno) bite that is great bon bu hue.

Their menu is huge! I took some photos of the menu, but not all of them. Something interesting about this place is that they offer alcohol also, such as liquor not just beer. I didn't order any so I can't comment on that.

The servers were also extremely attentive and refilled our water probably 4-5 times! There is plenty of free parking outside.

Previous Review: I think I have been here before to have pho, but I guess I never wrote a review! I came here again last weekend and I ordered my usual: bun bo hue! It has all the authentic ingredients that you'd expect from a bun bo hue, such as pig knuckles and blood jelly!

It seems like they do not boil their bun bo hue soup with the pig knuckles, because the knuckles were very pale looking and did not have any flavor. I thought their bun bo hue was overall okay, but the soup was quite sweet to me.

Good customer service, but I probably won't come here again unless no other pho...

July 2023 update: it breaks my heart to update this review with a three-star downgrade. I'm not sure if it's a change in management, or the cost of ingredients rising with inflation, but my once favorite restaurant has fallen far. Soups are watered down and there are no longer traditional Vietnamese desserts. Service is down right depressing and everything tastes plain. They've even switched to an off brand Sriracha. The location grows ever more uninviting as neighboring store fronts become more dilapidated and litter swirls about the line of cars parked in the fire lane. Head over to Pho Saigon on N. Rolling.

Original review: I'm half Vietnamese, so maybe I get half street cred. I've been coming here with my family for almost 20 years. I bring my children here now and almost always order the bún riêu. The pho is pretty good, but what I really love is the variety and authenticity. Try the bún bò Huế or bún măng vịt, because you won't find those dishes at most restaurants. They also have better seafood and vegetarian options then the one-pot-broth-shops around town. Desserts are good too. Try a taro boba...

I never write reviews but I had to for this one. Me and my family recently came here for dinner and everything was great at first. We were served our pho and everything was perfect until as I was grabbing some bean sprouts off of my plate and saw a piece of chewed gum on my plate under the bean sprouts. I thought I was tripping when I saw it and asked everyone at the table if they accidentally put their gum on the plate. Come to find out none of us had gum prior to eating. I was completely shocked to see this. I’ve been coming here since I was a little girl and to see this really broke my heart. My theory is that they took a plate of unused toppings from someone else’s table after they were finished and just gave it to us and didn’t care to check anything. I have no clue but thinking about someone else’s spit and stuff under my toppings made me loose my appetite completely. It really sucks having to write this but it...