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Real People. Real Reviews.®
Category: Vietnamese [Edit]
2126 Center Street
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I had dinner with my uncle here during our apartment hunting trip last month, and we were both happy with the food and service. I ordered the shrimp noodle soup and it was pretty tizasty. Then again it's so cold up here, anything steeped in warm broth would be bomb if not acceptable. A bit on the pricey side ($8.95) but it was a mammoth portion so all good. My uncle said that his papaya salad was "okay."
The husband and wife team who runs the place seem nice enough. I'm not really sure about the decor... there's something off-putting about it. Also, I wish they would keep the kitchen door closed.
to quote Sarah Silverman: oh Pho, oh Pho Pho PHO!
( http://www.youtube.com... )
People, this place is not a slick little momofuku, and it never was, but it is a great Pho joint.
When I used to travel to China and Vietnam a lot, I would get back to the states and crave pho. Le Regal is my #1 favorite hole-in-the-wall spot with great service and YUMMY BEEF PHO. I never get anything else, and it always my first stop when coming home to Berkeley.
Friendly service, but I've had way better Vietnamese food then this. The pho wasn't flavorful at all. I had actually forgot I ate here until I was looking through my Yelp bookmarks. That right there, tells you how forgettable the food must have been.
Take my advice and go somewhere else.
I was full of high hopes when my Sister & I walked by and saw it pretty full during lunch time. Unfortunately, those hopes were dashed almost immediately upon sitting down. Menus were thrown at us by the one harried waitress who was handling all the tables and the cash register. She then poured water all over the table, messed up my order, and took forever to bring us the check. The food was bad - I had vegetable fried rice that came with some sort of flavored tofu, even though the tofu wasn't on the menu - it was gross. My sister's meal was steamed veggies and tofu that came in a mystery gelatinous sauce which she found inedible. Skip it, you're better off at Quiznos next door.
I haven't been in here in a few years... but since they closed my favorite Pho place in Berkeley I was searching for a good Vietnamese restaurant. I'd been here in the past, 3 years ago was the last time I was here and the food was pretty good and reasonably priced... so I decided to give them a chance and I went here today...
I read the reviews and it didn't seem like the same restaurant that I liked... but I decided to try anyway.. WHY DIDN'T I LISTEN... This restaurant has gone down hill... We had something sticky on our table I asked the waitress if she could please wipe it off for us. She got a soaking wet rag and tossed it on the table wiped just the edge of the table threw some napkins down and waked away leaving the table soaking wet and STILL DIRTY and sticky. A few reviewers talked about the bad and unclean smell of the restaurant ... It smelled so bad.. kinda like a porta potty. No seriously it smelled of dirt and pee. So we moved tables. I thought it was just the smell flowing in from the outside, it wasn't. But still we stayed (don't ask why). I ordered #27 BBQ pork, shrimp and egg rolls rice plate. It came out within 5 minutes of us ordering it. Fast service huh?? NO ... the food was COLD... the BBQ pork was dry and the shrimp was not grilled. I still can't figure out how they cooked it. No matter how much fish sauce I put on the BBQ pork it didn't matter it was still cold and dry. The egg rolls were somewhat crispy but the wrapper got stuck in my teeth. I spent more time picking it out of my teeth then I did eating it.
I still can't believe that the food was just luke warm... isn't that illegal or something.
Now that I think about it.. I didn't smell any food cooking coming from the kitchen. Normally at lunch time you smell food, right? .. Especially since there were people sitting at the tables.
The waitress was snappy and argued with a customer about the amount of change she gave back.
I asked her a simple question and she looked at me with a blank stare.
I should have walked out the minute I smelled pee in the restaurant.
One good thing... they have good water.. and give you lots of Ice.
This is one of those places where you really have to wait to write a review until a few days later, since the food might still be fighting a small war in your stomach for a few days and nights after eating...
I've been in search for the best Pho in Berkeley, and thought I'd give this place a whirl since it's close to work. Went with some co-workers for lunch. Upon walking in, I was kind of taken aback by the pungent odor in there - it smelled mildly like rotten food and dirty dish rags. Usually this makes me turn around and leave, but sometimes you can get pretty good food in not-so-good-smelling places.
The wait staff is pretty terrible - I was pretty taken aback when the server sloshed food and broth all over the floor when delivering to different tables, and didn't clean it up. Explains the old food smell a little bit.
Everyone in my party got Pho - either with steak or tofu. The portions were big, and I will admit that the pho was pretty tasty. The broth was not too greasy, and the noodles were not sticky or doughy. I will say that they skimped on the steak a bit, though. Overall, it DID taste good.
Unfortunately, I was up all night that night with sharp pains in my stomach and on the verge of vomiting...it could only be the food from there, as I didn't eat anything else suspicious. My coworker complained of similar issues the next day...
The moral of the story is: if a restaurant smells dirty inside, most likely everything in there IS dirty. It's safe to say I'm still looking for really good Pho in East Bay...
I think my Chinese friend said it best when he summarized our experience eating at Les Regal: "That food was not clean". Granted, there is a little bit of mistranslation, but the food was certainly not fresh or even decently prepared. My friends skewered shrimp were burned, and my pho bo vein meatballs were so tough and chewy I LITERALLY ALMOST COULDN'T CHEW THROUGH THEM. The bamboo shoots they served with the pho were even old.
You can do better for Vietnamese food in Berkeley. Much, much better.
So, my GF is in love with this place. No other place that we go to for Pho lives up to it. Now don't get me wrong...it's ALLRIGHT...but that's it.
The woman who waits on you is a pleasure, and contrary to past reviews I have never seen her with long or dirty nails. You can see into the kitchen, everytime I am in there she is cleaning and I can see everything shine.
She also takes great care to make sure that I never order anything with any shrimp or seafood base. Why? Because she remembers my food allergy.
I will keep going back, but mostly because it's close to my gf's house and she is in love with the place. Would I go back on my own? Not likely.
In search of a good Vietnamese place in Berkeley for quite a while now, and stepping foot into this place I've already had a sense that this Vietnamese place probably isn't going to be a good Pho experience here at Berkeley. I hesitated to give it a try, but hey we only live once.
So the service is as expected(with us being the only customers in at that time) to be excellent. We were greeted upon entry, and sat us prompty, the food is was as expected not good. And on top of that it was really expensive for a small bowl of Pho that you can probably get somewhere else.
So to keep it short and to the point, skip it, there are way better places for Pho.
I love a hot bowl of Pho on raining evenings. They have really good Pho. Nothing fancy...just fresh broth, fresh mung bean sprouts, fresh basil, and fresh lime. Did I mention everything is fresh...never wilted? I eat here often enough so that the woman who works here knows what I'm going to order and doesn't have to hassle with bringing me a menu. It's my Regal Beagle.
I love that they had vegetarian pho...but it was pretty bland. It was missing something that I can't quite place my finger on. The service was OK. Our waitress was nice, but not very attentive (and it wasn't busy).
The decor is nice...and I love that they had fresh spring rolls because a lot of places only have rolls of the fried variety. I'll probably stop by again for the spring rolls (which were excellent) but I think I'll pass on the pho.
Listed in: Go Bears!
I really like Vietnamese food and was excited to have spotted this place while walking out of the bank today. Although my usual Viet meal is Pho, the Imperial rolls with vermicelli sounded better. I ordered to go with some flan for dessert. The vermicelli was cold! and I don't mean it-took-me-5-minutes-to-get-my-food-back-to-work-t o-eat-it cold, I mean someone-threw-some-noodles-in-cardboard-and-tried- to-pass-it-off-as-an-acceptable-meal cold. The imperial rolls were so/so. The flan tasted like it had been sitting in the fridge with a lot of other stuff and it had taken on those flavors. I ended up tossing it.
Too bad. I'm pretty tired of Pho Hoa and would have loved to have found a new and improved Viet place to go in Berkeley.
I shoulda walked up the street to Top Dog, or even BongoBurger, BUT
I said to myself , Elle,here's a nice looking restaurant , it looks warm and comfy, you deserve a treat--------------- Had I been able to Yelp it, well, I would have saved $$$. I had the shrimp and "vermicelli"
Salad Bowl.
The shrimp was not just rubbery, but rubber. The vermicelli, which we used to call noodles until the Italians invaded Vietnam, was OK- but as far as the salad--- there were a few lonely leaves of cilantro.
Always look for one good thing about a bad situation, my mom used to say,
The one good thing-----at the next table were a group of paleontologists
discussing digs and bones.
Ah the joys of living in a college town!!!!!
Stress got the better of me yesterday & I knew pho was the cure-all. Not wishing to subject myself to a drive into downtown Oakland, I headed over to my usual spot in Berkeley (which was SUPPOSED to be open, but wasn't). Hmmm....now what? I discovered Le Regal & took a chance.
At first I was somewhat suspicious- no one else was in the place & it was nearly noon. No matter. I ordered the Imperial Rolls, and a bowl of Pho Ga. Everything was exceptional! The rolls came with fresh lettuce (green leaf, not iceberg), ultra fresh Thai basil, and a spicy dipping sauce. The pho came in an enormous bowl with the basil, fresh lemon, chiles, bean sprouts, & cilantro. I left feeling much better. So much so, that we got more to go for dinner!
Stuart had the pho ga & some vegetarian rolls (the veg rolls were kind of chalky), but the soup was delicious. I had a bun salad...everything was very fresh & tasty. I wish there was a way to have certified organic or free-range meat, if a meat option is what is chosen.
The atmosphere is not exciting, but the server is very sweet & the food is definitely curative! I feel better already & will go back again for more selections on the menu. Worth checking out, tho' parking near here is not good. I suggest walking, if in the area.
Cary L's review cracked me up. I too just moved here from San Diego and I too thought to myself that authenticity is questionable when the place looks too nice... I too thought that the prices were $2 more per item than comparable restaurants in San Diego... and I too was eventually lured inside by the same woman popping her head out the door while we were looking at the menu boards trying to decide whether to give it a shot.
I'm glad we did. The servers were very friendly and attentive. The three dishes we ordered were spot-on (cha gio, bun thit nuong cha gio, and com chien dac biet). The cha gio (spring rolls) in particular were crispy and fresh and delicious.
After we left my friend realized that he left his jacket there so we called and the lady (probably the owner) said she chased us but we disappeared too quickly... then she waited around after closing so we could return to pick up the jacket.
Best Vietnamese food I've found in the area... and walking distance from home. Dangerous to my waistline and my wallet. But kudos to the nice owners of a solid restaurant.
Listed in: My Neighborhood
We came by looking for Pho, which is what they have, but they called it noodle soup on the menu.
We ordered fried rolls (okay not great) and both ordered the "noodle soup". They charged us 13 dollars for a big bowl of broth rice noodles and the sprout accoutrement plate on the side.
They closed at 10, but at 9:30 she turned off the light and started to try to rush us out. I'd only had my soup 6 minutes and wanted to enjoy it, but she actually made us so uncomfortable we decided to leave because she wanted us to pay right away before being done so she could close the cash register. Uh.....
So we asked for a to go box and she took 75% (4-6 cups of my soup, and only gave me a little 3/4 cup bowl. So basically I was rushed out of the door with about 30% of my overpriced meal. &^%*&^% LAME!
I will not be going back.
It has been confirmed - this place is 100% meh.
I was dragged back here because it was close to the movie theaters. I think I would rather eat one of those thousand year-old hot-dogs on the hypnotic rolling pins inside the theater, rather than go back for a third trip to Le Boring.
Listed in: Worst Restaurants
Apparently "Regal" in french-Vietnamese translates to "ho-hum." I can't say I would ever crave… Read more »
Reasons to go: fresh rolls with shrimp, Pho
Reasons not to go: somewhat bland decor. They tried to address this with a bubling fountain of 4 horses, which instantly makes me think of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse every time I see it.
I'm not familiar with a lot of Vietnamese cooking and dishes, so I found this place to serve my needs to branch out into some south Asian meals. One of my co-workers is Vietnamese and recommended we try it one day a few years ago. I will miss this place, but will surely find a new one in SF when work resumes tomorrow!
My favorite dishes are the green papaya salad and the bbq beef on a skewer w/rolls and rice. The fish sauce is tangy and spicy enough to complement the dish.
As one reviewer noted, this may not be the place for truly authentic Vietnamese cooking as Le Cheval in Oakland...but it worked for me. It might not be the best, but it is good for those who have not ventured much into this area.
Update - I am becoming increasingly obsessed with the #32 (the shrimp, pork, imperial roll combo). I have gone like 3 days this week. It is delicious. And I saw hoison the tables.
__________
4 stars if they had hoison for the pho. BUT they do give a LOT of Basil, which is important to me.
Otherwise, get the combo w/ "egg roll" (really mini imperial rolls), shrimp and yummilicious pork (Vietnamese make the BEST pork). Service is a little pushy in terms of ordering, BUT you can chill there for a while with no pressure.
I am obsessed with the Veggie Pho-it always delivers!
I think the beef pho here has the beefiest broth for pho around Shattuck. The soup is a little on the greasy side, but if you can handle that, then I think you'll enjoy the pho. The meat is in chunks and they aren't very generous of the portions.
The people there are a little bit rude, but I don't really mind it. The restaurant is kind of dark, but it seems clean. They recently raised their prices, so a bowl of pho is about 7 bucks now.
Listed in: Some Pho-lovin'
If you go here in search of a good noodle soup you will be disappointed. The broth was too bitter and the noodles were overcooked. My girlfriend got the beef soup and I ordered a soup with seafood which was rubbery.
The above average prices for soup combined with the poor quality bring it down to the 1 star level.
I am not a huge Southeast Asian food fan in general. I have an irrational aversion to coconut milk and peanut sauce, which counts out most of Southeast Asian food joints. However, Vietnamese food tends to go well with my lunacy. Tonight I had the beef ball pho. It was a hug portion and came with lots of Thai basil, bean sprouts, and jalapenos to mix in. They also have a few Vietnamese beers to wash it all down too. The woman that runs the place is really hospitable and let us stay well after closing to chitchat with our friends.
I stopped in here because the quiz-nos up the street is evil.
The "Mi" noodles were OK but the broth smelled sour?......how can meat based broth smell sour ?
The restaurant says Vietnamese, but the entire crew was speaking Cantonese? They also like to take over a table, have a communal meal, and talk in very loud voices.....during business hours.
Made my lunch pretty weird....cause it felt like home.
Well...
I really wanted to like this place. I love Vietnamese food and the lady serving us is so nice. I want all the local restaurants to thrive...yet, what I had was just lacking in every aspect. The shaken beef was drenched in overpowering sauce, and even the vermicelli salad lacked solid ingredients. The soft-shell crab appetizer was good, but I can understand why there's usually not a lot of people eating here.
For a cheap but excellent meal there's great Vietnamese vermicelli bowls at Le Regal. I recommend the one with BBQ beef skewers. The beef is great quality and everything else in there (sprouts, fresh herbs) tastes great. The boyfriend tries that dish at every Vietnamese restaurant he goes to, and he's always disappointed because nothing lives up to Le Regal's. That's all we've ever ordered there, so I can't comment on the rest of the menu.
Since we moved from Berkeley, my boyfriend most misses Le Regal of our old haunts.
Listed in: Eating Within Walking Distance…
I have been looking for a Pho place for years! I ordered Pho and was amazed at how bad it was. How can you screw up Pho?! I went home with a horrible stomach ache. Will not go again.
Wandering through the steets of Berkeley on a laid-back Martin Luther King Day, I popped into this joint on a fish-sauce inspired whim.
Decor: Utilitarian, featuring those mirrored walls Asian restaurant owners seem to love so much, and which equallly unnerve the patrons. Vietnamese pop music, played at a comfortable level, and even the occasional item of Vietnamese art scattered here and there. Perfectly nice.
My father ordered the #32 - BBQ Pork, shrimp skewer, egg rolls with steamed rice ($6.95) and I ordered the shrimp and pork with green papaya salad (7.95.) Service was quick and friendly, although the restaurant was pretty empty at the time of our visit. (And I apologize, if the owner is reading this, that my father was talking on his cell phone throughout our meal.)
The food arrived soon enough. First impression: the papaya salad was near perfect, a Vietnamese riff on the traditionally spicy Thai preperation. Doused in fish sauce and with a liberal coverage of roasted garlic, peanut ,chilies, and fresh mint and coriander, it had a pungent and clean taste that made me very happy indeed. The roast pork and shrimp were good, but not the main attraction - the happy interplay between all these elements made the dish for me. Very highly reccomended, especially since I can't recall seeing it on a Vietnamese menu before. A little hit of Srichia sauce for spice and I was in heaven. (This preperation is subtle and not spicy, unlike the Thai versions I've encountered.)
The combination dish was good as well, with smoky, if slightly chewy pork, and tasty vermicilli noodle spring rolls, filled with pork and what seemed to be a little mint. The grilled shrimp were also well executed, if nothing to write home about. Rice is rice, folks - you don't notice it unless it's really horrible or really smack yo' momma good. Le Regal's was neither.
In short: a nice and clean Vietnamese restaurant offering good prices and the occasional suprise (like that papaya salad.) I'd reccomend it in a heartbeat if you were in the mood for something fresh, light, and vaguely exotic in the neighborhood.
All I've ever gotten here were spring rolls (both Fresh & Fried) and Pho.
I always liked the Pho, but it was standard and nothing amazing/to rave about.
The fresh spring rolls were good for what they are, but I'm not a fan of them in general.. but my dining partner enjoyed it
The fried spring rolls destroyed my soul. They were delicious, but anything deep fried is- right?
All in all, I don't think this place is BADDDDD, just that there are better food alternatives (Vietnamese included) in the area.
Oh, also annoying is that they generally play the same CD of provincial French music over and over. I don't know how the staff handles it....
Delicious, beautiful food! Friendly and fast service, too. I'm actually planning my next trip back, already.
Favorite dishes are the Sirloin beef cubes over rice, and the Shrimp & cabbage salad.
I can't comment on the pho there, since I never have it, but as another person mentioned, the vermicelli bowls are great -- I'm partial to the bbq pork, and my wife likes the bbq shrimp on skewers. I've also enjoyed their tofu & eggplant dish.
It's almost never busy there, the service is prompt and courteous, and it seems reasonably priced. While I wouldn't drive far out of my way to eat there (that's reserved for Le Cheval), it's a good choice for a calm, quiet, healthy lunch or dinner in downtown Berkeley.
Listed in: Lunch in Downtown Berkeley
We were actually on the way to Saigon Express when we stumbled upon Le Regal - it looked so inviting that we couldn't resist.
We both ordered the BBQ Pork and Imperial Roll Vermicelli Salad Bowl. The portion was very generous, the pork yummy if a bit dry, and the noodles were generic. The imperial rolls were also good, but served whole so they were a little unwieldy.
The drinks we had were exceptional. Halida (a beer from North Vietnam) and Fresh Soda Lemonade (or Lemondade - as it is described on the menu). The beer was something we hadn't seen before and was light and refreshing (the other imported beer choices 33, Saigon, and TsingTsao are fairly common).
The lemonade soda was unreal - it is the flavor that Sprite could only aspire to. The lemon flavor was SO fresh, with a syrupy sweet flavor that was perfectly accented by the amount of soda spritz..
The service was good and the ambiance was relaxing and comfortable. Although, why they chose to hang a southwestern garland complete with cacti and cowboy boots on one wall is beyond me.
Hm, maybe that fact that there was no one else in here should have been some indication...
Seriously, NO ONE!!
From the vegetarian menu we had eggplant and tofu and green beans and soy protein. I think the sauce was the same, or very similar. The kind that chain "Chinese" restaurants keep in 20 gallon tubs and that comes in 3 variations of soy sauce and corn starch and sugar. It wasn't bad, but good might be a stretch. It didn't taste too Vietnamese either.
There was a weird mist blowing fountain thingie in the front that was interesting to look at.
We went here after a Cal football game. I'm a huge fan of pho and this sounded like it would be really satisfying with the cool windy evening. The place had decent decor and we were immediately seated. We looked at the menu and both my girlfriend and I settled on a nice bowl of beef ball and beef pho.
Our pho came and I was really excited until the first bite. The pho was totally underwhelming. The beef balls were good but the beef was really tough and not very flavorful and there wasn't much to the broth even with all of the extras that I added.
Service was alright but after it got busier we were forgotten about. I understand that since it was really busy after the game and not too much of a problem.
Needless to say the pho wasn't as good as my favorite place, Pho 777, in Reno, NV. Also, I ordered a salty lemonade and got a regular lemonade which was a little disheartening. All in all not the best pho I've had but decent in a pinch.
I became addicted to imperial rolls when I used to go to Pho in Oakland. Then I went to some mediocre Viet place in Berkeley where they were passing off eggrolls as imperial rolls - and that put me off of experimenting further.
A few weeks ago I went to Le Regal, and I just ordered the imperial rolls. They were different from the ones at Pho (smaller and crispier), but they were still good. They were kind of expensive - I think around $8 for an appetizer portion? But since the imperial rolls passed muster, I will definitely hit Le Regal again at some point in the near future.
Also, I like their misty fountain!
i think this is the place ive eaten at a few times...just not sure of the name. altho it does sound familiar...le regal, always reminds me of "the regal beagle" from threes company...but anywho back to topic...
ive eaten only the shrimp fried rice...and i never complained...its one of the best Vietnamese fried rice dishes ive tried....ive tried other V. fried rice...and i always compare it to Le regals... the others have a lot to live up to...its near one of the bongo burgers too....how perfect is that?
now i have yet to try other dishes..but im sorta stuck on the fried rice for now
I thought the food here was pretty good. The waitress was very friendly and the pho/vietnamese spring rolls actually tasted better than the ones in SF.
i lost my vietnamese food virginity at le regal!
somehow, i still feel like saying, "meh. i've had better."
The pho and spring rolls were good. I've been with people who liked the salad bowls also. The woman who runs the place is always really friendly to us, so that's a plus. The only issue I have is that they put corn syrup and not sugar in their soda chanh.
Listed in: Best Part of Work - Lunch
Neighborhood: Downtown Berkeley
Neighborhood: UC Campus Area
Neighborhood: North Berkeley
Neighborhood: Downtown Berkeley
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