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Pho Tre Bien
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
8 reviews for Pho Tre Bien
I have no idea what happened to my review of Po Tre Bien so I'll give the condensed version. As others have noted, its not compared to other food on the east or the west coast. Nor does it compare to eating in Vietnam. What it doe sdo is give you a decent plate and some bubble tea. bubble tea is great, and the fact that there is bubble tea in el paso makes me want to give Pho many stars.
I was bummed that I did not arrive at a time to listen to the local Casio rock out and instead has to listen to the sounds of the waterfall and bubbling brook.
Food: 4
Service: 4
Value: 1 1/2
So I had a craving for pho and since we drove past this place a few times, I decided to try it out. Being from Southern California, I suppose I had some expectations.
Externally, the place is like any other restaurant. Similar to the places in Los Angeles, but I walked in and it gave me this weird vibe that it's going to be expensive.
I looked at the menu and, yup, my concerns came true. Definitely overpriced. But since I hadn't had a good sit-down place this trip to El Paso, I decided to splurge a little bit.
2 Shrimp spring rolls came with a small amount of peanut sauce. It came... on a boat. I looked around but didn't see T-Pain. The spring rolls were definitely softened (re: Americanized) in order to appease everyone.
The bowl came along with a side-plate of herbs, jalapenos, lime, and bean sprouts. I was a little disappointed in the size of the large. Was the regular-sized meant to feed children? The broth was definitely toned way down compared to a lot of other Vietnamese places I've eaten at. The taste of it was quite good, but it was also toned down to appease everyone. The most authentic part of this meal was the uncooked bean sprouts and the tripe.
Speaking of the tripe, I added the tripe to my order. There's a "Large rare steak, brisket, tendon, and tripe" dish for a dollar more. So I'm not sure why I got charged $2.50 (oh by the way, that's also not on the menu) to add tripe to my bowl.
Two spring rolls with shrimp: $5.45
Large rare steak and brisket: $8.95
Extra tripe: $2.50
Tax and tip.
So while the food was pretty good, I wouldn't consider it authentic by any stretch of the imagination; however, being the only place in town (and I'm pretty sure they know it, so they can charge whatever), it's not bad. Just be ready to spend about $15-20 per person.
PS. I didn't see a bottle of Sriracha sauce (unless it's in the ketchup bottle) on the table. Total loss of street cred there.
As an official Californian Vietnamese Food Lover, I really can't say that I'm too impressed by Pho Tre Bien. Upon moving to El Paso, I decided one of the most important things to was the highly-rated-yelp recommended restaurant. I was really surprised that Vietnamese cuisine would be such a top-ranked restaurant on Yelp, but that's a different story.
To test out the quality of the Viet food, the bf and I had an order of pho and bun (vermicelli). Having not eaten pho at a restaurant in a while, we decided to splurge and pay the $10 for a large bowl of pho, something that would be unheard of in CA. Yes yes, I know El Paso isn't California.
When the bowl of pho came, we were extremely disappointed. Judging from the order of medium pho at the table next to us, the large bowl of pho was basically a medium order in a larger bowl, just with more soup. Well...ummm, okay I guess. What made it a crime though, was that my large bowl of pho came with about 3 slices of beef total. Maybe my expectations were too high, but isn't everything supposed to be bigger in Texas!? Well, I guess not everything.
When we asked our server if a large bowl of pho is only supposed to include merely 3 piece of thinly sliced meat, she said yes and asked us if we would like more - "duh" would have been my response if I wanted to be a difficult customer. She came back with a plate of beef for the pho, which I suppose made it a tad bit better, but we were still disappointed.
Time came to get the check, and she handed us a folded receipt from her pocket, it didn't list the extra meat, "Cool," we thought, "Maybe they realized how ridiculous tiny their portions were." I handed her my credit card, and when the bill came back, I received a fresh receipt which included an extra portion of meat, already charged to my credit card. Alright, now I don't mean to sound cheap or anything, because I would have gladly paid for the stupid meat, but who in the world takes your credit card, tell you they were going to charge you one price, and then comes back charging you more!? Isn't that illegal? This really pissed me off, but considering we were the only two Asians in the restaurant, and we wanted to (maybe) come back again in the future, I didn't make TOO much of a fuss, because they probably would remember us.
Anyway, to Pho Tre Bien's credit, the vermicelli actually tasted decent, and is correctly portioned. Sure, it's a tad on the expensive side (compared to CA i mean), but it's pretty tasty. I don't think it's tasty enough for me to go back a 3rd time though.
Dropped by last week and was unimpressed. Overpriced food that did not even compare to the Vietnamese food I was used to on the east and west coast.
I love this place. i've been going here since they changed locations. It's even cooler now since they have a nice outdoor patio with a water fountain and a koi fish pond. I'm a big pho freak and i always order pho and a vietnamese chicken sandwhich.. thai bubble tea too. it's always great. Everything always tastes so fresh!
I dream of the vegetarian crepe.... My mouth just watered. I love the new location also, it is so nice. I really recommend sitting in the patio, if you're able to. It's a tad pricey but I feel that it is worth it. The service was really good too. We went really late, 30 mins til closing time, and the staff was still really nice to us and didn't try to kick us out or made us feel uncomfortable. I recommend it to anyone who isn't afraid to try something new!
For El Paso not to bad. I love their porch, with asian style garden, little bridges and water, fountains etc. Unfortunately it is right next to I10, so you have a constant background noise of cars.
The food is ok, nothing exceptional, but good. The portions are huge, so beware.
All in all you get good value.
Oops, my GPS didn't pick upon this new location! The vegetarian crepe was excellent. However, the three-color dessert wasn't so awesome. There was a lot of ice, and the sweet parts were flavorless. I enjoyed sitting in the covered patio with the nice garden decorations. The prices of the dishes were a bit high than other Vietnamese restaurants I'm accustomed to; my boyfriend attributed it to needing to pay for the expensive-looking decor.