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    Monster Pho

    4.2 (1.4k reviews)
    Closed • Closed
    Updated 3 months ago

    Order Monster Pho Takeout or Delivery

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    Business Info

    MONSTER PHO ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Classy
    Moderate noise
    Good for groups

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    Recommended Reviews - Monster Pho

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    katrina a.

    We are here for an event so I don't know what the regular menu is but I'm sure it's just as amazing as what they served for breakfast. What i love about this place is they give back to the community too! Right now they are having a backpack drive. Everyone is so nice here. Love the vibe of this place!

    Monic R.

    The service team is lovely and very positive. The pho is solid and tasty just like the other location. There's a nice vibe here and love the community involvement.

    Fresh Spring Rolls(GOI CUON)
    May Z.

    Top 3 banh mi I've had!! It's huge, basically a double sandwich. We got the beef and it was delicious. The spring rolls are fresh and they have multiple options: pork, shrimp or tofu. I got pork today. I love how much this business owner pours into his community. They're always doing give backs, fundraising, and affordable foods All around great place. Next time I go, I'll definitely try the pho, and grab another banh mi!

    Felicia H.

    I ordered the beef banh mi sandwich, and it was absolutely delicious! The meat was juicy, tender, and packed with flavor, and they didn't skimp on the portion. Be aware--the sandwich comes with a lot of jalapeños, which was pretty spicy for me. I paired it with coconut water, which was super refreshing and ice-cold. The atmosphere is nice, and I love the new location. They even have a robot that brings your food, which is a fun touch. The staff was amazing, with great customer service. Definitely a spot I'd return to!

    Chicken Pho (GA), Monster Vermicelli Combo(BUN DAC BIET)
    Cynthia P.

    Happy to have gotten the opportunity to try Monster Pho for the first time! We ordered to go since it was new years! (Called to make sure they were open). We ordered the monster vermicelli combo (bun dac biet) and chicken pho. Everything was delicious! I really enjoyed the soup base for the chicken pho and the shrimp for the combo. Price is a bit more than typical, but I expected it!

    Holiday toy drive
    Veronica L.

    Super festive holiday themed decor and a wonderful toy drive for the community. Always good pho here and the weekend angus beef special was superb. Huge hunk of beef cooked so well the meat fell off the bone. The noodles and broth were also delicious. Nice beer and wine options. There's a hazy monster IPA beer collab that you can pick up in a 4 pack also. Cute toy and candy vending machines for the kiddos to play with as an incentive to behave and eat their meals. The pandan waffle was super fresh, fluffy yet dense, and delicious with the whipped cream and vanilla ice cream. Tee, the owner, is so gracious and down to earth. Doing a lot for the community and giving back. Felt good to support a local small business that is doing big things to help others in times of need. And it was a filling meal and both my kids ate all their food which is always a win win!

    Monster Pho Combo (PHO DAC BIET)
    Dominic V.

    I've lived in Oakland my whole life and I've never been here for whatever reason. It's hard to find parking cuz it's only street parking and there's a lot of people picking up to go that's double parking around. The inside when you first walk in reminds me of an arcade cuz there's a few "gumball" machines and a Photo Booth with a lot of different lights and colors catching your attention. Put your name and number of people down on a sign in board and wait to be seated. T introduced himself to me right away, super nice guy. As soon as we got our table, we got water and you order from the QR code that's on the table. Since it was my first time here, I got the Monster Pho Combo and it was delicious. It was a rainy night so the soup dish hit the spot. You can tell the broth has been cooking all day, it was flavorful and the meat was tender. I personally like to add hoisin and sirarcha sauce to my pho but after I get a sip of the broth as is. My friend ordered their beef vermicelli and it looked so good. My friend said their grilled beef is one of her favorite things there so she will usually get something will grilled beef on it and I believe it. Coming back to try the rest of their menu. The banh mi sandwiches look good.

    Mike L.

    Monster Pho is a reliable place to get some traditional Vietnamese eats. They used to be located a couple blocks over on Broadway between 39th and 40th. The quality of their food has been consistently good. They've also started the Monter Pho Foundation where they've been doing community/charitable work/charitable giving, which I think is just as important as their food. - During COVID they partnered with World Culture Kitchen, and offered free meals to whomever asked for it, no questions asked. - They're doing the same thing currently as people are feeling unsecure with their SNAP and health care benefits. I've had equally good experiences with both their takeout and dine-in experiences, their team provides good service. Their current restaurant space is larger than the last one and has fun decorations, also robots that bring trays to tables. There are a lot of great Vietnamese places in Oakland, Monster Pho is in my top 2 or 3. I support local businesses that support the local community, so please support Monster Pho!

    beef pho (half eaten!)
    Tomoko S.

    Sometimes you just want to dine somewhere dependable and good, and Monster Pho is just that. When we came here on a Sunday afternoon, we sat outside, as it was pretty busy inside. The tables were clean, service was quick (QR code menu, order and pay on your phone; few minutes later, the server brings your food, piping hot!) It was such an easy, pleasant dining experience. I usually like their beef pho, but everything here is decent. Great place for a quick casual lunch.

    Monica B.

    I always enjoy coming here. Inside it's decorated, fun, and colorful. There's a skittles machine and a Pokemon card machine right near the entrance lol among other things. Constantly tempted to buy a Pokémon card and live out my childhood dreams lol. I love the nostalgic vending machine vibes! I like the pho here - beef and chicken are both quite good! The employees/service is always very friendly and quick. I also know they give back to the community - I've been to other events here where they provide free pho, no questions asked! Amazing. The owner is sweet, and it's authentic food I think using his mom's recipes (from Vietnam!). I love the Monster logo and generally the merch lol it always tempts me when I come here! I've also come here when they had like Thursday nights live music, it's always a good vibe! Recently I came on a Sunday afternoon with a friend. They were actually busy inside - they have limited seating! We were starving so we settled for outdoor seating, the patio is a great option too! We could order and pay on our phones via QR code so it was super convenient especially to do separate tabs. Overall I love coming here for my pho fix, come through and support these good people!

    Main menu
    Paul H.

    Was looking for a good bowl of soup and had been to Monster Pho in the past. Decided to give it a try and found that they had relocated to 40th Street. Food options range from pho soups, rice/vermicelli plates, salads with drink choices ranging from craft draft beers to coffee/teas/juices and a few dessert options. We chose the regular sized chicken pho soup and the rice plate with chicken and settled for just water to drink. Both dishes were good and hit the spot. Overall service was also great.

    Rare Steak Pho
    Kyla M.

    I was wandering around with some friends looking for the closest Pho spot we could find, and stumbled onto this spot. Decent street parking along the block, you shouldn't have to walk more than 10 minutes to it. You sit yourself, and are greeted with friendly service. I was surprised to see that this location has a robot server that brings you your order and even waters. It's a fun thing to watch if it's new to you; however, the servers tend to tables as well, so it's not guaranteed that you get the robot server. Let's get to the soup now; I was served a beautiful bowl of pho, with a perfect amount of thinly sliced onions, plenty of good quality meat, and strong broth. A pet peeve of mine is when you can tell the meat has been frozen for a while beforehand (making it tough and chewy), and I am happy to report that I did not have to experience that here! If I were to make one critique, it would be about the number of green onions. It was just enough to get me by, and it is truly not a big deal. I am just a green onion lover and can never get enough. Overall, great solid bowl of pho!

    Beef Banh Mi
    Nancy V.

    The staff is extremely friendly and will regularly check in on you. It felt very homey and welcoming in terms of service. I ordered the beef banh mi and would come back to order it again - I thought the portions were generous, it felt like I received 2 banh mi's! There's plenty of seating as well and you can find their logo on mainly everything around the restaurant, which I got a good kick out of.

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    The food was great and really flavorful, along with fast serving time with talking robot waiters. Definitely a must try for a family meal.

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    Monster Pho Reviews in Other Languages

    Ask the Community - Monster Pho

    Does the new location have outdoor seating? We have a dog with us!

    I didn't see any outside dining last time I visited but you can call and ask.

    Yo tee can you get on another app other than doordash?

    Is the chicken pho made with chicken broth?

    Yes 100% chicken bones and we simmer for over 10+hrs

    Are both locations under new management?

    Hi Samm! No our management is still the same. Thank you for your business !

    Is there gluten in the pho or vermicelli bowls?

    The proprietor said that all forms of pho are made with rice noodles and are gluten-free. Everything else uses soy sauce marinades and are not gluten-free. Pho is delicious.

    What's the parking situation is it easy to find a spot?

    Theres usually street parking right across when I go!

    View All 12 Questions

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    4.5(1.5k reviews)
    0.4 mi•Temescal, North Oakland
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    Came in around 4 PM before the dinner rush and had such a great experience! We ordered the kimchi…read morefried rice, noodle spicy rice cakes, half order of the garlic soy chicken, and fried calamari. Everything was delicious, and the portions were huge--more than enough for three people to share and still have plenty of leftovers. Service was quick, and we didn't have to wait long for our food to come out. They were also really nice about packing the noodle spicy rice cakes in a sealed container for us to take home, which I appreciated! Plus, they had a great K-pop playlist playing in the background, which definitely added to the vibe. Overall, such a fun spot with good food, generous portions, and great energy. Definitely would come back to try more dishes!

    I've been here a few years ago, but recently came back with some friends. Perhaps there has been a…read moredip in the quality, like some other reviews are noting. We still had a great dinner, and the staff was nice to us, but I found the food to be somewhat of a letdown, especially at its price point. We ordered a lot of dishes and drinks and split them among three. We ordered more than enough food and ended up with some leftovers. Sundae was okay. The combo set is heavily marketed, but we actually didn't need all that food; there was not enough soup to justify another plate of sundae. Beware, don't fall for the marketing like we did! Beef intestine stew was very disappointing. Did not taste very flavorful at all, just a little bland and a little bitter. We had a whole casserole of it, and we barely touched it. Rose tteokbokki and the seafood noodles were our favorites. But those are very heavy dishes, especially the tteokbokki, so I can only have so much before I get full. And finally, forgot to mention that our wait was around an hour! We went to a nearby bar to grab drinks and then came back. Wait at your own will I suppose.

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    Mensho - Signature Smoked Toripaitan Ramen

    Mensho

    4.5(679 reviews)
    0.5 mi•Piedmont Ave, North Oakland
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    Loved Mensho! They turn the tables super fast so even on a busy weekend we were seated in about ~30…read moreminutes. The food was delicious - my partner had plenty of veg-friendly choices for ramen and appetizers. I had the smoked toripaitan that was perfectly balanced in flavor. I find many ramens too salty but this was perfect. We would definitely come again and bring friends along!

    Fair warning, I'm an honest yelper! I came here this past weekend with a group of 5 including…read moremyself. A few friends had been here before and raved about the Garlic Knock Out ramen. It lived up to the expectations. We ordered A LOT of different things. I'll just share what my husband and I ordered. The Wagyu jerky roll (really good, when is Wagyu not good?!!), enoki chips (mushroom chips) so crunchy and savory, A5 Wagyu w/ lkura (Wagyu sushi roll 2 pieces) delicious!!! And of course the Garlic Knock Out ramen, add an egg. Egg is smoked somehow and comes out perfectly jammy in the ramen. We spent a pretty penny here. And for the food it was worth it. Now on to the service, friendly at the beginning but my one huge complaint is honestly the service system. Each server walks around to each table, ready to ask you almost immediately if you are ready to order appetizers, then main course. The servers had such bad attitudes towards us for not being immediately ready. It was a really odd scenario, having multiple servers stop by the table to ask "ready to order", then that one goes away, rolls her eyes, then 1 minute later, another does the same.. I understand this is a quick Bay Area bite, and I'm all for it! But I wanted to look over the menu.. as I'm sure others do. Aside from the rolled eyes and attitude, the food was delicious. I hope not everyone gets that rude experience.

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    Me Va Con Vietnamese Kitchen - Beef carpaccio

    Me Va Con Vietnamese Kitchen

    4.5(275 reviews)
    1.3 mi•Rockridge, North Oakland
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    Extremely flavorful chicken pho noodle soup, I can see why! They have outdoor seating and I am so…read moreglad I sat outside. It was extremely busy inside. I will be back with my family! I ate my fresh shrimp spring rolls so fast, it was so good but I was also really hungry lol I had to order the mini shrimp pancakes because it looked like it's a "must" order... The waitresses were super friendly and quick with taking my order! To the owner(s): Please do not change your ingredients in your food menu! Thank you for offering delicious pho!

    This was our first time here. We started off with a simple cup of Napa cabbage soup just to see…read morewhat it was since it was only $5 and there were no pics. It was tasty. Pretty underwhelming but, it had a nice seafood forward broth and it was very hot with tiny pieces of shrimp and lots of cabbage. I'd get it again. Then we got the chicken salad. Delicious. Shrimp chips were fun and the dressing had a great balance of sweet, and vinegary flavor with lots of chicken and fresh veg. Pork bahn mi was just okay. I've definitely had better. Bread was good. Meat was pretty sparse and the pickled veg could have had more flavor. Probably would order the pho next time. Everyone seemed to have that on their tables. And the sizzling beef looked great. Service was quick and courteous. I'll be back to try more

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    Soba Ichi

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    4.1(637 reviews)
    1.7 mi•West Oakland
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    WOWW!! Super good…read more Everything I tried was solid or stellar nothing was a miss. Plenty of seating both outside and inside. Lines can look intimidating but goes by fast - order first then find a seat and they bring food to your number. Apps - tofu was pretty normal but done very well - nice smooth consistency not too spongey, flavorful dashi based sauce that complemented the tofu, paired really well with the toppings (scallion, shiso leaf) it came with but overall leaned a bit salty - duck meatball + breast ; omg so yum; love the pairings they did here with texture and flavor. Meatball with ground meat was unified with creamy egg yolk sauce, duck breast had nice onion sauce and was cooked perfectly well not overdone slight smokiness!! Pretty balanced too Mains - Nishin soba hit - broth is a bit fishy / acidic leaning so didn't drink the entire thing but they give you pepper flakes which helps cut into it. Herring was cooked really well still tender. Had a bit of citrus zest too. SOBA WAS amazing texture right between the edge of al dente and soft - ikura soba (cold) had more refreshing taste went well with wasabi (wanted more wasabi) and mountain yams - creamy textures meet chewy soba

    Ambiance 4/5 Service 4/5…read moreFood 4/5 Loved the cozy outdoor feels of this spot by the industrial side of West Oakland. The wait line could be long, but the hand-made noodles and variation of warm broths make it a cozy investment worth taking.

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    Seoul Gomtang - Spicy chicken stew with kimchi and rice.

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    3.9(667 reviews)
    0.4 mi•Mosswood, North Oakland
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    Even though this standalone Korean spot looks like it was once a fast food outpost, I found out it…read morewas actually an auto parts store in its former life. Jamie W and I came here because we like to see what delectable options there might be on Oakland's Kimchi Row. Hey, I didn't make that nickname up. We came here because I heard they make an awesome Korean beef soup. Time to get our Korean on. Now I have to admit it took us a while to figure out how to enter because there were no transparent windows or doors on the street-facing sides of the building. We almost did a full rotation of the restaurant before we could get in. It's rather spartan inside, more like an old-school Shoney's. The menu consists mostly of soups and hot pots but also includes traditional Korean favorites customers expect. Jamie went with his favorite, the $20.99 Dolsot Bibimbap, steamed rice mixed with vegetables and beef sizzling in a stone pot (Photo 7). That was executed just fine with plenty of variety and heat retention. I wanted to try one of their soups and ordered the $30.95 Kkorigomtang, a bubbling cauldron of thick beef broth with submerged chunks of oxtail (Video). It required some patience to sip. Once it was temperate enough to taste, the broth was hearty but started to get blandly redundant once the tails were scooped out. This is where the Banchan came to my rescue as I dipped mouthfuls from each dish to spice up the broth (Photo 6). A bowl of rice and Jamie's leftovers helped, too. Authentic tasting food and very much a mom-&-pop shop where mom was tirelessly serving and cleaning. FOOD - 4 stars...solid Korean fare, soup requires creativity with condiments AMBIANCE - 3 stars...no-frills kind of place SERVICE - 4 stars...mom works hard for the money TOTAL - 4 stars...a true soup kitchen RELATED - Exploring Oakland? Here's a collection of places I've visited and reviewed: https://yelp.to/DWArNHxl1p

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