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Category: Vietnamese [Edit]
Neighborhoods: Nob Hill, Chinatown
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The pho bo kho here is amazing! Check out the photo I posted of it!!
My lunch crew always used to go to Golden Star across the street, but since it's so busy, we've started coming to Golden King, and I'm so glad we did! I always used to get the regular beef pho at Vietnamese restaurants, but because of Golden King, I discovered the magic of pho bo kho. It has thicker, spicy broth, and has huge chunks of delicious beef.
This spot has also gotten very busy lately (the crowds probably followed us from Golden King!), so go a bit earlier if you intend to go during the lunch hour.
Say it with me now... PHO BO KHO!!!
Came here last Friday for lunch with a bunch of coworkers. We decided to try it out because our usual spot (golden star) that's across the street was super packed, and we didn't feel like waiting. This is a bigger location, and no wait!
I ordered the chicken with imperial rolls with vermicelli. I thought the chicken was going to in pieces, but it was this giant chicken leg...so I had to borrow the knife my coworker was using for his pork chop to get through my chicken leg. It was very flavorful tho! Imperial rolls were delicious, I enjoyed that the most. The sauce that comes with the cold noodle wasn't that good - tasty saltier than normal. My coworkers did comment that the pho was better across the street.
Service was okay here...I felt like they were trying to rush us. And I had to remind them to get our water. But it was lunch time, and that can get really busy. At least they got all our orders right! Overall not bad- quick, good, cheap, and clean.
I recently came here with my father right before we went to a Chinese Tea Ceremony at the Chinese Cultural Center. He loves pho. I love pho. The pho in the East Bay is dirty, more expensive and smaller portions. I knew this place was nearby so all things worked out well.
There was some thing going on in the park with the Chinese instruments that have only 2 strings and a very organic, textural quality.
Inside, the place was fairly clean and well lit. It was not very crowded but that's because the service was quick and the tables were turned over several times.
I got the rare steak with tendon (steak on the side). The broth was a bit salty and lacked that strong herbal, spiced aroma. The meat was good quality and the tendon was nice and thick. I liked it a lot. I do not like the thin sliced tendon because it practically disintegrates in the hot broth. The restaurant did not have fish sauce at the tables but they brought it over when we asked.
After eating, they let my father and I sit around while I programmed his new phone. It was a bonding moment. I gave him a new telephone, I switched my mother's number to my father's old phone.
good - super hot soup with my pho
bad - only cliantro and bean sprouts. no basil with my pho
the aight - the noodles were of proper texture. the rib eye slices were lean but overcooked in the super hot broth. next time I will ask for the beef on the side. it was a good dining experience overall and I would not hesitate to come back.
I ordered #1 and it was good but I was hoping for more beef slices. All ingredients were tasty and with plenty of sprouts and basil leaves. With the iced coffee it's about 13 dollars. Not bad at all. Obviously it is hard to compare with the ones in the Little Saigon or Tenderloin.
Fast service though it gets crowded and you might have to share a table or wait.
Good Pho - very reasonably priced for San Francisco. Very aromatic broth. The Imperial rolls were second only to my mother's! The lunch plate of rice, egg, and grilled pork looked very delicious too!
However, no matter where I go in the USA - the best Pho is still in Falls Church, VA - PHO-75, next to Loehmann's Plaza.
Ok, this is my new place to go for Vietnamese food. Co-workers love to go to the Golden Star across the street, and not sure why.
Golden King has a much wider selection, cleaner, and not so damn tight seating. All those are big pluses in my book.
I ordered the Lemongrass beef w/ imperial rolls, egg, rice. Good amount of beef and it was thinly sliced...just as I like. I'd definitely be returning to try some of their pho.
I could go on and on about my love of SF and Chinatown most of all, but after trying several different pho places in my 3 days there I stumbled into this little gem of a restaurant after resting my feet at Portsmouth square. Not much in the way of décor, I was the only white girl in there, I was given hot tea and a bowl of pho and left completely alone.
These are all good, nay, great things.
I had the pho tai with the meat served on the side..I like it more raw than cooked and lemme tell you the broth was phoking goooood! Full of flavor and the noodles were perfectly done. Now if I can find a place this good in Dallas..
I eat here anywhere from once to four times a week. Suffice it to say that the pho is good enough to make me a repeat customer. This is not the best pho in San Francisco, but it is the best pho within walking distance of my work.
People seem to love Golden Star more than Golden King. I think the two places are comparable. The pho at Golden King has better broth, but I will give Golden Star credit for having superior quality meat (especially the steak and the brisket). I frequent Golden Star as well, but the ratio of trips to King versus Star is about 4 to 1. I guess broth is more important to me.
The bun and the rice plates are also pretty good, not the best, but definitely passable for a working stiff like me.
Alright, so the three pho places in Chinatown are Golden Star, Golden King, and Golden Flower.… Read more »
My Favee vermicelli ! vermicellis my favorite at pho places ! but.. heres the tricky part i ONLY get it here !
certainly filled me up for 6.75. i always get the grilled pork+imperial rolls. 2 birds with one stone ! #43 if you must=)
Their lemon soda is gross though. that was a bummer, but i can get that anywhere! its chinatown..=)
Used to come here alot when I used to pick up my wife from work when she worked in the area. Don't get a chance to come here anymore though.
What I remember was that they were cheap and they gave a lot of noodles and meat. It was a great place to go to have a quick dinner cause we used to go right around 5p and there wasn't ever any crowd at that time.
Quick and Cheap dinner and noodle soup, which in any form, is always one of my favorite things to eat....
It does seem a shame that Golden King is viewed as the ugly stepsister to Golden Star across the street. At least I assume they're joined at the hip since they share the same menu. But is this a case of Cinderella wearing dirty undies beneath her Vera Wang knock-off gown? I'm not sure what I meant either...but yes, the ambiance at Golden King is a bit on the dank side compared to Golden Star. Yet, Golden King has a health inspection code of 96, while Golden Star scored just a 90. Can it be that perhaps the glass slipper is on the wrong foot, your Highness?
Hmmm, not really. There isn't a hugely marked difference in the pho served at both places, but I do feel I don't get as hearty a bowl of goodness at Golden King. Maybe it's the haphazard way the place looks or the overwhelming use of formica or the plethora of plastic plants. I can't quite put my finger on it, but like many others, I come here when the line goes out the door at Golden Star. As usual, I was in a hurry for lunch today and ordered the $6.50 Pho Ga Dai, which is really a big bowl of chicken noodle soup (see my photo). Hmmm, not bad but not that special either.
I had to share a table with a spiky-haired youngster who kept yelling into his cell phone in Cantonese. My God, the 80's are over, my boy. Nope, we didn't bond.... So the Prince may prefer the skinny girl with the smudge on her face over the fat broad with the flat feet, but perhaps that fat broad wouldn't leave the Prince to play with the pool boy at a Sandals resort on their honeymoon. Again, I'm not sure what I meant either ...but hey, I guess I would pick Cinderella after all 'cause you don't care if ugly walks out on ya.
FOOD - 3 stars...passable pho
AMBIANCE - 2.5 stars...kinda on the dank side, even for Chinatown
SERVICE - 3 stars...speedy without the how-ya-doin' warmth
TOTAL - 3 stars...gee, if I didn't have that stupid meeting at 1pm, I would wait in line at Golden Star
I only came here because my friend lives in chinatown, I wouldn't have eaten here by choice.. The pho was plain, no amount of sriracha, mint, or lemon juice would have helped.
The conversations had were more entertaining or enjoyable than the meal itself.
I noticed a Golden-name theme amongst Vietnamese restaurants in my area. If I see 'Golden' in the name, I subconsciously think they must serve V-food.
My colleagues and I tried this place after we saw the long queue outside my ol' standby, Golden Star. Golden King was conveniently across the street with no line, but we did wait a few minutes for a table to clear.
The space is nicer if you are in the annex room or towards the front of the restaurant. Bummer we were sat in the back by the open kitchen area, and the stacks of boxes and...toys? It was like being in a cluttered person's apartment back there.
The food was average. Service was good - not super quick, nor slow.
Every once in awhile, I would walk all the way here for pho (and I work off of Embarcadero). So far, I've never left disappointed. I stopped going to Golden Star, which is across the street. This place is more affordable and the quality is just as good. The portions are just right. I always order a small bowl, and that stuffs me. This restaurant is pretty big, and I've never waited more than a few minutes for a table. Best of all, you get your own table!!! No sharing tables and elbowing strangers! That's a feat in Chinatown. The best part is the 15 minute walk back to the office because it helps me digest.
Pretty decent pho, but I usually get the non-pho dishes here because they are more delicious than the pho bowl....
The #47 Stir Fried Onion Lemon Grass Vermicelli with Shrimp is my favorite dish here. It's very garlic-ky but delicious! Make sure you have gum for the after meal!
The #28, Grilled pork chop with pan fried egg with rice is also very good too! But I preferred the #47 with Shrimp :)
Be prepare for slow cashier service :)
It's average Chinese-style Vietnamese, which is to say that you can get a bowl of pho relatively cheaply and it's relatively OK.
I go for the #16, soup w/ chicken and egg noodles. Because the rice noodles are nothing to write home about.
The wait staff isn't great -- they seemingly don't have much to do, but they had to wait for me to ask for a napkin (to clean up remnants of my Vietnamese coffee-to-ice transfer) before I saw a shred of paper come my way. And oh yeah, I never got the water I asked for.
Points for the plate of sprouts and basil. I like accessorizing my junk. I sprayed that lemon straight into my eye though... dang, that was like amateur hour.
I always order the same thing when I eat viet food. Chicken over rice (5 spice chicken here in Cali) and cha gio (imperial rolls). I prefer my chicken over rice to be heavily marinated and boneless. At Golden King, the chicken is bone-in and not heavily marinated. They marinate the chicken (leg and thigh) and then deep fry it. The skin is really flavorful but the meat is just plain chicken meat. It's good, but not as good as the boneless, marinated version that I'm used to.
The imperial rolls were really good here. They also serve thai iced tea, which obviously isn't viet, but I like eating my viet food with thai iced tea. It was pretty good here.
The star of the meal was my friend's porkchop over rice. It was heavily marinated and so damn yummy. I kept picking at my friend's food more than mine.
And the prices here are CHEAP. My kinda place.
Came here for lunch today with some friends because the line at Golden Star was too long. Normally I try to get to Golden Star either early or late to avoid the lunch rush, but we missed it today. So we lowered our expectations and stepped into this joint.
First off, I don't understand pho places that charge you when you ask for meat on the side. A $0.50 charge just so I don't have to eat my meat cooked well done? Are you serious?
Secondly, unlike Golden Star, they don't have napkins on the tables and maybe we were just too lazy but we didn't bother asking for more either... just took them off the table next to us instead.
The pho was decent... Not sure what it was, but I prefer the pho at Golden Star. Maybe it's the broth...
Anyway, I would come back here, but only as a last resort if Golden Star has a line out the door...
I come here all the freaking time when my friends are in CT, and I am absolutely in love with this place! My friend's relative owns the place, so it's nice to know who's making my food.
The pho is always good, no matter which one you get. The vermicelli, which I normally dislike, was also surprisingly good, even if I don't like the sauce that comes with it. The tea was good, and the service is wonderful.
Great meal, good prices, and the place looks nice. This is about as good as a pho restaurant can get! I always leave so freaking full. And I love that it's close to downtown and it's smackdab in the center of Chinatown. Just awesome.
pork chops + imperial rolls = one happy laura. i give it 3.5
went with a coworker this past monday. they were grilled, a bit different than i've had at golden flower but still good.
cash only!
2.5 stars
decent pho place near the financial district. i'll usually go to golden star (across the street) first and if the line is ridiculous, i'll end up at golden king. golden king has a lot more seating.
Just another thoroughly Cantonese restaurant serving below average Vietnamese-"style" food (duh, it's in Chinatown). No Vietnamese spoken here! So if you are down with that, then give it a try. It's not terrible. Overall they score around 2.75 hot cocks on the HCC scale but the service kind of blew so I am rounding it down to two. It's clean and attractive inside with a suspicious basement level kitchen (what is going on down there?) The chopsticks are artlessly arranged business-end upward in the tabletop container, meaning other diners' grubby hands are getting all over the part you put in your mouth. Either someone is dyslexic here or they just enjoy being unorthodox. Which is why you WIPE YOUR SHIT DOWN!
I was amused that the waitress automatically assumed that as a gwei-po I am chopstick incompetent and shoved a fork at me with my herb plate. Why do (some) Chinese restaurants do this? It never happens to me at Vietnamese places. Pho is probably one of the more difficult things for white people to eat with chopsticks, and I think I've got it down by now! So no thanks to your unsolicited fork! What the hell am I supposed to do with that anyway? Have you ever seen someone attempt to eat pho with a fork? Not cute.
I was equally perplexed by the leaves of iceberg lettuce floating in my pho ga broth, but pleased with the fried shallot garnish, which was a nice touch. The lettuce did grow on me. It really threw me at first but then I kind of got into the texture of it. Broth was served sizzling hot, but there was no mistaking the insta-mix chicken boullion undertones. The noodles came out overcooked and a strange grey color I have never seen before in a rice noodle. There were about 4 scant shreds of rubbery, tough chicken (not bad tasting, just not a good texture and not enough of them!) under the heap of grey noodles. All this loveliness was accompanied by a disappointingly bland chinese restaurant tea, nothing close to the usual snappy jasmine variety you get in most pho joints. The basil at least was fresh and had a nice kick. Oh and btdubs, they do lemons not limes here. Bah.
Saving grace? They are situated next to a cute little produce shop where I stocked up on delicious long beans and watercress. Eastern Bakery is right around the corner for an after-dinner sweet treat (which you will need to help get rid of the MSG aftertaste from your pho!) Also, it was cheap. Total bill for medium pho (the only serve one size -- it's not quite a large, not quite a small) and tea: $6.60 including tax.
-I like the chewy pho noodles
-yay for individual plate of sprouts and basil
-the broth taste weird like can opened broth
-ventilation sucks in here, you're sweating cause the lack of air flow and the pho is hot.
-I like that all the staff said 'thank you' as I walked out the restaurant. I felt like a boss
-I like the beef rounds in my pho--it was tender
-I felt welcomed here plus you can watch tv while you eat!
I order #11 Beef Stew Noodles all the time. The beef is tender and juicy! I can't get enough of it!
My mother had the Five Spice Chicken but it was a bit on the dry side for her.
The Imperial roll is good too!
we had a group of 10 and they seated us promptly. the pho place around the corner seemed a lot more crowded. but i definitely like it when i dont have to wait. i got the seafood pho when almost everyone else got the beef stew. the seafood pho was good. the broth was good. i drank it all. and i ate all the fish balls, fake crab, and shrimp. by then i was a bit too full to eat pho. so when i got to it it had gotten soggy. but it probably wasnt in the beginning.
bathroom is also pretty clean!
OMG. This place is nasty. DO NOT ORDER THE PHO. Any pho for that matter. First the noodles get soggy and lax if you don't eat it in 2 mins. That's not how pho is supposed to be. The people bringing the pho to you had their thumb in the noodles. Gross. My brother got food poisoning after eating here. We think it might be the beef or worse, bean sprouts and or veggies. We all know how easy bean sprouts can sprout bacteria if they are kept soggy and wet.
I would not come here ever again.
this place is a bit further out from work than i normally venture for lunch but since it was a nice day and we had a taste for pho soup, we went for it. actually we tried to get into sai's which is closer to us but since sai was packed with a 20 minute wait, it was a no-go. however, by then we still had our hearts set on noodle soup so i had a good memory of this spot and it was only another few minutes walk so off we went.
this place is a little bit bigger than some of the other lunch spots near by so it was easier to get a table without a long wait. the seating and order taking is pretty efficient. particularly novel i thought was writing down your order # on your paper placemat so that the person delivering the food gets the right food to the right person every time. that's good. food is cheap and the noodle soup (pho) is great! tea is tea (i.e. pretty good). tables are clean and everything was pretty much up to snuff.
our table-mate ordered the chicken salad. even though she likes soup, she decided on the salad. i did warn her that the chicken salad at a chinatown vietnamese restaurant was probably not the chicken salad you're used to from Royal Exchange or something. i was right and she didn't particularly like nor did she finish her chicken salad. she said it was "too sweet" whatever that means. i guess it's a too-sweet sauce. so my recommendation: stick to the rice and noodle-soup dishes. cheap and very good.
I have been going here since it opened and still have not been disappointed. One of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants. No MSG in their soup and the portions are big. I normally get #10 but just about everything there is good.
The owner and chef of Golden King used to be at Golden Star. Golden King is way better in terms of… Read more »
Walking up and down Clay street, how come I never really noticed this Vietnamese restaurant? Well, my friend brought me here and he said it's the only 1 of 2 Vietnamese places he likes in the area. So, I'm game.
I notice the prices seem a bit more and don't have a whole lot of time to peruse the menu because it's lunch and I have to order quick. I pick #2 ($5.00), which is the pho with everything except the beef balls. My friend orders #1 ($5.45), which is everything, of course!
They also give you individual plates of bean sprouts, jalapenos, green stuff, and lime, so you can pretty much take the plate and dump everything in your bowl without feeling like you're a hog or getting everything all over the table during the transfer part from plate to bowl.
When my bowl arrived, I understood why the prices were more - it was the BIG bowl! (Not the gigantic one at some places!) Well, it was a big enough bowl for me at least! I usually get the smaller version when they offer two sizes. And there was a butt load of noodles in there! They definitely weren't skimpy on that!
Service was standard. The waitress took our order, brought our orders quickly to the table, gave our check at a decent time, and our bowls were taken away when we finished. The place was clean overall, and had a mix of people dining there.
I would go back. I didn't leave hungry and the place was pretty decent. Perhaps the star ratings would go up if I tried a few of their other dishes as well.
Update! 09/14/07 - Went back last week for lunch on a Friday and it was packed! We ordered the spring rolls and the five spice chicken dish. The spring rolls were fresh and tasty. The five spice chicken was okay, not as good as PPQ on Irving though. The egg roll that came with my chicken dish though was really good. It reminded me of Chinese sticky rice at a dim sum restaurant, but deep fried. I think I'll have to order the egg rolls as an appetizer the next time.
(I added pics of my eating in the business profile section!)
Where to go for a low-key (aka not Slanted Door) business lunch with 6 people? Not here. Unless, of course, your budget is $40 total, in which case this place is perfect for you. (Note: cash only, but at these prices, you probably have the cost of your meal clanking around in your pocket!)
Not my kind of food (try ordering something without rice or noodles at a Vietnamese restaurant--they look at you like you just got off the crazy boat), but even if I were a big pho-fan, it looks rather average. The rest of my colleagues seemed underwhelmed by their dishes as well. My pork chop and egg were too sweet and greasy and lacking in spice.
On the plus side, they seated us immediately and the tables weren't so packed together that we couldn't share trade secrets.
A true whole in the wall with added flavors for the senses to boot. If you are the type who refuses to share a table then be prepared to wait.
I had to be back in the office by 1 PM when my colleague and I chanced upon this place a little after 12:15 PM. We waited less than 5 minutes when they asked if we wanted to share a table. Hell yeah was our collective answer.
We ordered the pho and it was not only large in portion but tasty as well. I usually put a crap load of plum sauce as I only used sirracha. I'd come back if my normal joint is full. Oh yeah, I made it back in time for my meeting with time to spare.
Vietnamese is a tricky cuisine - it is either really, really good or it's HORRIBLE.
Those are just the facts.
I have had trouble finding Vietnamese restaurants in SF which I found, personally, palatable. Imagine my shock when I discovered this little hole in the wall just a block from my very own apartment...
I particularly like the roast pork and shrimp vermicelli dish (#7) and the robust wonton soup.
It is not all great food all the time - it can be hit or miss; however, what they lack in consistency they make up for in expediency and just plain old customer service.
The owners of this restaurant are so friendly to everyone who walks through the door, despite how your food may or may not taste, it is plainly impossible to have a bad dining experience here.
I give it four and a half stars... it is one of those restaurants which is on my "I worked really late and don't feel like putting any effort into finding dinner" speed dial list...
In fact, I am dining there this evening.
I just got back from lunch here with my boss. I am not a big soup kind of girl, but seriously, I love this place. The only reason it isn't getting 5 stars is because I haven't tried many dishes and I don't feel like I can give it a proper 5 stars.
I usually go before the lunch rush because it can get packed and you stand around staring at people wishing them to be done so you can sit down and order your very own big bowl of soup.
The #18 is great when you are feeling sick, it is love in a huge bowl of soup. The bowls are big and they don't skimp on any of the the stuff in it, so the prices are excellent.
I love the noodles, wonton's, shrimp and pork. My co-workers #21 looked awesome today too (mental note for myself)
Basically, I love it here. I need to go back and try something new so I can give it 5 stars.
I have been to this place several times and as I remembered the previous times, it had always been good. But, for some reasons, maybe because of the recession.. they have been limiting on the food they serve including the noodle.. #1.. It used to be really good with plenty of meat. The soup has also been decreasing in quality.. it wasn't so tasty anymore and the price has also been raised. Anyway, I was kind of disappointed although the service was fast and friendly.
Great place to be, if you want to grab a quick lunch....
or to host a great dinner date........
Cause, this place is not your ordinary cheap fast-food restaurant....
They manage to maintain the price at the great rate, but with:
Spacious dinning area,
Freshly clean hemisphere,
Decent quality of food,
If you want great food~ this is the place
If you want to have a full meal with just ONE order~ this is the place
If it is just couple days before the pay-day~ THIS IS THE PLACE!
Good Restaurant, Good Vietnamese Food~
I love the pho here. Their service isn't too bad. They are pretty nice. They would get you whatever you ordered. Most of the time, the serve is good. Occasionally if you get that one lady, she had an attitude. I always come here to eat pho. I think it is the best place to eat at.
Come here for lunch once in a while. Fast service, cheap, good food. I usually get their #1 combination pho or the beef vermicelli bun. Can get a little crowded during lunch time with the chinatown/fidi people at times, but usually doesn't take that long for a table.
So I've had a hankerin' for pho lately, but timing and weather hadn't matched up and it remained a nebulous idea floating around the back of my head. Well, today I decided to do a lunch time wander until I found something to eat when I found myself in front of this place. Hitting random Chinatown spots is a dicey game to play, but I figured it was worth a shot as the aforementioned hankerin' collided with sudden pangs of hunger.
I got the 20 (basic chicken and beef pho) and spent the rest of my lunch in soup heaven. The meat was tender and perfect, the broth fantastic with only minimal application of hot sauce, just enough noodles, and it all came to about $7. That's a tough deal to beat, IMHO.
I only go here when the line at Golden Star Vietnamese Restaurant (literally across the street) is overflowing with thirsty patrons.
However, I will say the pho isn't that bad here. The 5 spice chicken is a hit or miss (3 out of 5 will be good). The seafood and beef pho is good, but not great.
The place is kinda dark and dingy, with annoying florescent lighting. Everything looks blah, but the service is nice.
And again, why the long pinky nails? What is the meaning of this???
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Vietnamese
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Vietnamese
Neighborhood: Financial District
Category: Vietnamese
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Vietnamese
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