Pho Ha

I have come to Pho Ha to eat for many years. Before the food is very good, but now after they changed the new owner and the cook, the food is not good because they used a lot of MSG instead of meat to make the broth. After eating there, you have to drink a lot of water because of MSG.

This is a staple eatery for many of the Vietnamese locals; what does that tell you? Pho is top notch and the pork chops are great. Hey ,this Italian boy has eaten at every Vietnamese place around! Very Very Good and Very Very cheap!!! This is not a fancy place but the food speaks for itself. Try it,you will love it. You cant go wrong!!

So, I used to love Pho Ha . However, a month or two ago I went there with some friends. My daughter had her usual coconut drink. While she was drinking it I spotted a pretty big slice of plastic in the drink....spotting it fortunately before my little daughter put it in her mouth. I brought it to the attention of the manager. He said something to the effect that the coconut pieces come wrapped in the plastic so that's how it got in the drink..and that was all he said! He barely apologized (if at all) and didn't offer to take the cost of the drink off the bill or anything! I thought to myself wow, that's really lame management. Then, last night, we wanted to go get some Viet food, and for some strange reason, I decided to go back to my old fav, Pho Ha. I figured that the plastic in the drink incident was an isolated thing and maybe I over reacted and I shouldn't worry about it. To my utter amazement ...there was another piece of plastic in the food.! This time it was small (maybe nickel size piece) in my pho! - The tea cups had a strong chlorine/bleach smell to them, So strong, that I didn't want to drink out of them. - The plate of stuff (bean sprouts, mint leaves, lime, etc..) for the Pho was really lame! I noticed that other tables of the same size party got a much larger and fresher looking plate of stuff. I could speculate as to why this could be....maybe it was just uneven food prep? Maybe it's because I'm not a regular? Maybe they remembered me complaining from the first plastic incident (lol), who knows? I didn't even bothering complaing this time, I just wanted to get out of there.

Today a group of co-workers and I went to Pho Ha. This was my very first encounter with Vietnamese food. I had Pho Tai Chin-large bowl. The portion was VERY large. Pho has to be my new FAVORITE food. I am a soup lover and this was by far the best meal. Beatiful, fragrant fresh Tai basil and complementary Jasmine tea. Just can't wait to go back. Savory and satisfying. 3 of us ate 'till we were stuffed for under $20 not including tip. How do you beat that! I truly recommend a visit for Pho here plus there are other markets restaurants right next door to investigate. The shopping plaza has a parking lot so it's easy to get to.

Best pho in Philadelphia. Pho is awesome. Drinks are tasty. Super cheap for large portions. But the best feature is the parking lot! You can park (for free!), eat, then do some shopping in the strip mall.

I'm from out of town and did a lot of research on the web to find out who served the best pho in Philly. I decided on Pho Ha and was not disappointed! The bowl of soup was very large, far more than I could finish. But the leftovers made for a great lunch the next day. The broth was excellent and the ingredients very fresh and tasty. I like the fact that you could customize the dish pretty much any way you wanted. I would also highly recommend their summer rolls. These have become one of my absolute favorite foods that I always order whenever I find them on the menu. These were some of the best I ever had and considering the price, definitely the best value. I ended up ordering two extra orders for a snack to be enjoyed later. The restaurant was very casual and the service very good. Since it's located in a small shopping center, parking was very easy. I will definitely be going back there when I viist Philly again.