Pho Hoa-Huong Restaurant, otherwise known as Pho Hoa Linda Vista, or just plain Pho Hoa, is known for two things in my book.
Pho Hoa has some of the darkest Pho broth I’ve seen in San Diego, and some of the fastest service I’ve encountered. It is possible to to get out of Pho Hoa in less than half an hour, if you keep up your side of the bargain…then again, it’s almost as if they can’t wait to get rid of you.
Pho Hoa, is slightly hidden, behind Yum Yum Donuts, and Le’s Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese restaurant on Linda Vista avenue. But that hasn’t stopped Pho Hoa from being very popular.
A typical lunch goes like this. I walk to the door, one of the Servers(all male, all looking like they’ve had severals cups of high octane) points to a table. As I arrive at the table, a menu is dropped, and one of the Servers is standing there looking at me, pencil at ready. And I haven’t even picked up the menu yet…… Feeling the pressure, I open the menu and blurt out "number one", mainly because it’s usually the Pho Dac Biet($5.20). As I do this one of the Servers walks double-time to the kitchen, while the Dude with the pad walks to the counter and drops off the order at the cash register.
In a blink my water arrives at the table. Within a few seconds my garnishes arrive, at light speed.
A bit on the stingy side, but with Ngo Gai(Saw leaf), one sprig of Basil, lime, bean sprouts, and some Jalapeno slices.
Within 2 minutes my Pho arrives.
Todays broth is merely a light brown, I’ve had it when the broth looked almost like Niu Rou Mein(Chinese Beef Noodle Soup) broth. The broth is usually on the very cloudy side, I’ve been told that a muddy broth is a no-no, but the broth at Pho Hoa has always been pretty good. Dark Pho broth does not necessitate a richer soup, as it’s charred green onions, onions, and ginger that will impart much of the color to the Pho broth. Todays broth was mildly beefy, a bit too salty, and without any real distinctive anise or clove flavor. That’s not to say the broth was bad, I usually find it satisfying, because the large amount of green onions and the basil impart alot of flavor to the broth.
The meat at Pho Hoa is usually pretty good, and today the rare beef and tripe were very good.
The tendon was a bit hard, and the brisket had nice flavor, but the fat was too tough. Still not bad, it’s hard enough to get decent rare beef.
One other item I notice about Pho Hoa, since everything is put together so quickly, is that the noodles are really hard when the Pho arrives, but gets soggy very quickly. I’m not quite sure if anyone who has eaten there has noticed this.
Still, I’m quite sure that I got out of there in under 30 minutes.
Sooooo, recently, in need of some amusement, and in my own typical weird fashion, I decided to make my lunch at Pho Hoa a sporting event of sorts. I call it the "how fast can you have lunch at Pho Hoa" event. My objective, to have lunch at Pho Hoa in under 30 minutes from the time I enter the restaurant, to the time I leave, without causing myself any gastric or other related distress…and of course without making a mess of Myself.
I set my stopwatch as I stepped to the door front, and was waved in. I walked to my table as if flames were licking at my butt(9 seconds). The menu was placed on the table, but instead of taking time to actually open my menu and order, I just blurted a number out. I don’t even remember what it was(10 seconds), and zip the Dude was gone. A minute later(actually 30 seconds) my water arrived, and 90 seconds later my hot tea. 3 minutes later I found out what I had ordered, Com Tam(broken rice) with Charbroiled Pork($5.20):
This is when I decided to slow down a bit, and try to enjoy my food. The portion size was quite 
good. The dish came with a bowl of very well flavored broth and Nuoc Mam Cham, the usual dipping sauce. On the good side, the Com Tam was steaming hot and sufficiently moist; too many times I’ve had hard and dry broken rice. The meat was also moist, and though very tender, it was still devoid of the tough inedible connective tissue we call "sugi" in Hawaii, named after nylon fishing line. I did find the meat to be rather bland, and though the Nuoc Mam did help, I still didn’t think it had a whole lot of flavor. I think I’ll stick with the Pho’.
As I stood and walked to counter to pay, the rather stoic Gentleman who I think is the Owner, looked at me and said; "aaah, you eat fast", and I felt like I had just won the Gold Medal at the Pho Hoa Games…….Total time 20 minutes, 35 seconds!
Seriously, the Pho at Pho Hoa will appeal to those who enjoy a darker, medium oil, balanced broth. The meat can be wildly inconsistent, but on this visit was good. The service is fast, but you may feel rushed. When in doubt, there’s always number 1……….
Pho Hoa-Huong Restaurant
6921 Linda Vista Rd
San Diego, CA 92111
Open Daily 7am – 8pm