Pho 88 Restaurant - Vietnamese restaurant in Lowell - 1270 Westford St, USA

On a chilly Thursday night (January 17, 2024), during a business trip from CT to ME, I decided to dine at Pho 88 restaurant due to its convenient location. The frigid weather, with temperatures hovering around 0°F (excluding wind chill), made finding a warm spot crucial. As a solo diner, I was seated at the restaurant's bar. However, I quickly noticed an issue. The bar was right by the entrance, and every time a customer entered, a blast of cold air invaded my space. Since I had removed my coat for dinner, these gusts were quite discomforting. Despite its appearance, this seemed more like a bar in name only. There was no bartender; instead, staff members intermittently moved in and out to serve drinks. The staff frequently came and went, sometimes leaving water in front of me, creating the illusion that it was meant for me. For my meal, I opted for a portion of Mi Vit Tiem (S8). The soup here aligned perfectly with my palate. To my surprise, they included peanuts in the soup, which was an intriguing twist. The addition of peanuts provided a unique and enjoyable flavor. The duck was tender, aromatic, and simply delicious. I wholeheartedly recommend trying this delightful bowl of soup. If I were in the vicinity again, I'd certainly return. Before departing, I visited the restroom, which I found to be quite spacious. In summary, Pho 88 has delicious Mi Vit Tiem (S8) and cheerful service. The only drawback was the seating arrangement, which made me somewhat uncomfortable due to the cold drafts. Therefore, I believe a 4-star rating is reasonable.

Went here December 9th, 2023 at 11:15 AM to use my gift card. I'll split this review into two parts: today's visit, and previous visits to explain the rating. Today's visit: Long was my waiter and he gave great service. I got the 36c (vermicelli bowl with grilled hamcake) which is $18 ($17.95). As much as I like the hamcake appetizer, it's hard to justify paying $15 ($14.95) for two skewers of hamcake and having to order a side of white rice. It turns out asking for hot tea is now $1.50; before covid, I remember it used to come at no cost if you asked for it. The tea still has the same issue of being light in color and tasting close to just slightly different than hot water. The vermicelli bowl is the most consistent item I've gotten and it's hard to screw up, so I got it today's visit. As you can see in the picture, it is effectively an assortment of ingredients and you get fish sauce with paste to pour over the bowl. A plus here is that the vegetables are neatly placed on one side of the bowl so it's easier to add more fish sauce in one area than the other. It was good, although here was what the bill came out to: - $17.95 for the vermicelli bowl - $1.50 for hot tea - with tax (before tip), $20.81 - with tip, $25 There was another person that left a review about broth and raw chicken being left out in the hallway where the big fan is. I also saw the big fan this visit, but not the buckets of broth; but it was just shortly after the restaurant opened for the day. I'm not sure if they still might be doing that whole "fan cooling" business. Previous visits: Other dishes tend to be hit or miss. The "bird's nest" yellow crispy noodle dish, I stopped ordering ever since the time I got the stale tasteless noodles. It seemed like the soy sauce used was old, and the noodles might have been expired. The beef noodle soup/pho is now significantly more expensive than I remembered. An extra large bowl of rare steak pho you could get for around $12 before covid. Now you're paying closer to $20 for it. Service has usually been good in my previous visits. Conclusion: It's really hard for me to justify paying this much when there are so many other great places around where you can get food for less or around the same price. There's Sushi Yanagi in the plaza right next to Pho 88, there's China Buffet not that far away, etc. The 3 star rating factors in the surrounding restaurants in the area where you can get a great meal for less or the same price, and that you may experience inconsistency here for some of the dishes.

I was excited to come try the pho here of the first time and started off with some chicken teriyaki. I but into it and the chicken was ice cold and completely raw. Will not be coming back and management didn’t speak to us or anything when we told them about it.

Delicious bún bò Huế in a clean and welcoming place with great service. Bún bò Huế is one of my favorite dishes, and this restaurant does the dish justice. I think this is definitely a place to go to in Massachusetts for this dish. All the flavors are there in the broth, existing in harmony. You can also smell the fragrant of fermented shrimp paste (that’s not overwhelming)! While enthusiasts may enjoy the dish with pork leg, I love the fact that there’s an option to switch it out for for other meat cuts, which I prefer personally. The beef brisket is good, tender, though not really melt-in-your-mouth. I love the meatloaf toppings. The vermicelli noodle is thick and springy, which I love! Of course I can nitpick and say that there aren’t banana flowers, which is my favorite thing to eat with this dish, or other accompanying herbs/condiments. But I think all in all, it makes for a delicious, self-contained, coherent dish.

We are here before , few years ago, experience was really good, great foods, but now the foods is just trash, pho was lack of flavor, sour Vietnamese soup was bland, caramelized fish was bitter n no savory sweet, rice was undercooked 🤦 chicken wings were soggy n just doesn't taste good. They gave us rice on the plate to eat with sour Vietnamese soup 🤦, asked for fresh cut chillies n fish sauce they gave us chillies paste 🤦, nice lady served us, but this is not a Vietnamese restaurant, we made mistake to even try here. Went to the restroom n saw how dark the broth is ( like sewage water) they left in the buckets with fan to cool down.Definitely won't come back. We didn't bother to finish the wings, they came with only 4 pieces, presentation is the worst.

Deep fried chicken wings were too hard to bite. Don’t remember the name of the noodles soup but it was good.

Great food. Simple ambience. Staff is friendly and sweet. Quick service. I tried their seafood noodle soup.

Just like many other restaurants, the business is understaffed. The wait to order drinks was about 15/20 mins, it took another 14-20 for drinks with constant reminders. The fresh goi couns were not fresh, they were hard and had very little filling. The dipping sauce was watery. Noodles in the fried dish were too hard, tasted precooked/stale. Quail was salty. Bun Bo hue tasted like same broth as bo koh but with different noodles. One dish was never served.