A true turn off for pho! My appetite turned sour the moment my raw beef landed in front of me. I asked the waiter, "why is the beef brown? Isn't suppose to be red??" He said he didn't know and he asked the kitchen. He said the kitchen doesn't know either and showed me the rest of the sliced beef from the kitchen. I didn't want to lash out at him so I just handed him my plate of beef and said I didn't want it. It irritated me more when he brought out a new plate of beef (that is 1/3 brown instead of 5/8 brown). I just left the 2nd plate at the table since it seems pointless to attempt anything any further and ate my meatless pho. Furthermore, the waiter did not comp anything when the check arrived and didn't say anything when the plate of beef was not touched at the end of the meal. From USDA website - "After beef has been refrigerated about 5 days, it may turn brown due to chemical changes in the myoglobin. Beef that has turned brown during extended storage may be spoiled, have an off-odor, and be tacky to the touch." A word of wisdom, eat beef pho only at places with high turnover. read more

Pho 1 - raw beef slices for pho - Vietnamese Near Me - Woburn, Massachusetts

Been here many time since the COVID. The good is cheap but good quality especial very clean and fresh. Their Indonesian fried rice with crispy chicken, No. 44 and No.54 are all so good! read more

It's ghetto and cheap, but really tasty. They have both vietnamese and thai menu items, but I would only order the viet dishes. We did get one of the thai dishes, but it was disappointing, so we stick to the pho and viet fried rice. Definitely check this place out if you are in the mood for vietnamese! read more

Pho 1 - Trimmings for pho - Vietnamese Near Me - Woburn, Massachusetts

Good pho however the meat is not consistent. We ordered pho with brisket but they gave us like a scrap shredded meat. Another time it was Dac Biet but the meat was again like scrap and missing tripe. It was sad because we love the authenticity of the flavor. Ordered beef drunken noodles and also gave a cheap piece of meat that tasted like rubber meat. The meat overall is a very low quality. I guess you get what you pay for being cheap. I am a foodie, I have high respect for our Pho 1 folks but I hope this rings a bell to call out their attention because this restaurant is amazing and has loads of potential read more

Was happy to find this local Vietnamese place nearby. The food is good. Almost no difference between here and Chinatown. Had the chicken pho and it had good flavor. Perfect winter night comfort food. Also tried the sliced pork rice plate, which was pretty good, but not as well executed as the pho. The fresh spring rolls with rice paper were great. Really fresh veggies (lettuce and mint), shrimp, pork and a great peanut sauce with a dash of hot sauce (hot chili). Service was solid and got the job done. They did go above and beyond on my shake order. I always go avocado shake at a Vietnamese restaurant but the staff notified me the avocados weren't ripe enough to make a shake. I've been to places that have given me rotten as well as unripe avocados and they just aren't right or just plain bad. Loved that they told me risking me actually not ordering it. I ended up getting a strawberry shake because it was one of the ones they make with fresh fruit. This was great, featuring little chunks of strawberry throughout. Really refreshing, nice to counter balance the salty savory pho. Vietnamese food is always reasonably priced and this place is no different. We had this good sized meal for only 24$ with tax. At the price you can keep coming back, and we plan to! read more

See all

So happy I found this place on the way to Wilmington. I was surprised at the high yelp reviews as it's a Vietnamese place in Woburn which isn't exactly know for it's Asian delicacies. Me and my boyfriend really love a good bowl of pho and this place did not dissapoint. Ended up coming back the next day for the same dish. I had the chicken noodle soup pho with beef broth. It came with tender shredded chicken and was bursting with flavor. I added some of the table side red pepper oil and it was perfectly hot, as I like it. Delicious. I even took half of my soup to go, which I've never done and it was delicious the next day. I ordered a green tea bubble tea, it was more of an ice cream smoothie than cold tea milk drink. I was expecting a drink more than a dessert. Not a big deal. The bathrooms aren't great. But the service is quick so you don't have to worry too much. Ill be going back soon. read more

Pho 1 - MEdium chicken noodle soup pho with beef broth - Vietnamese Near Me - Woburn, Massachusetts

Hole in the wall - good service. Food was solid - nothing hit out of the ball park. Very reasonable prices. Chicken wing appetizer was super crunchy and yummy. The scallion pancakes were thin and done perfect- I didn't like the dipping sauce as it was Karo syrup and sweet chili - I prefer a soy/scallion based one. I had pho (chicken) - medium is HUGE - it was good but I've had much better. The broth was super basic. My hubby had a bun with pork and spring rolls and he really enjoyed it. We would go again but wouldn't make a special trip. read more

A GREAT hidden gem. Small and unassuming. Food is amazing. Combination dinners $14-$17 Includes soup, 2 mini-appetizers and your meal. The Tom Yum soup is spicy treat, and the crispy rolls are to die for. My wife said her wintin souo was the best part of her meal. A+++++++ read more

Great pho without traveling into Boston - we love to come here, the food is really good, and best of all BYOB....place is a bit dingy and cold...but come for the food. read more

I understand things are slow right now but that's not an excuse to blatantly steal people. I ordered shrimp fried rice .. the rice was so old and in blocks! Stale and has been there for days .. I ate the 4 shrimps and threw the rice away $12 down the drain. I ordered shrimp tempura. There was not a SINGLE shrimp in there it was all fried vegetables!!!! When I called to let them know The person that answered the phone acted like I am lying to him and wants free shrimp.. after much back and forth he said well come back and we can give you some shrimp... I had already driven back and was home at this point... it was a to go order. You are going to inconvenience me because you screwed it up and didn't get it right the first time. It's not like the place was busy and they made a mistake. that was almost $9 for the shrimp tempura I paid almost $26 for the 4 pieces of shrimp in the fried rice and couldn't touch anything else! I am still hungry I now have to go get food from somewhere else after I just spent $26 dollars at this place!!! SO NOT OKAY! Disappointing! Covid or not -- you can't run a business like this. Will never pay a penny at this place again !!!! I would give a negative rating if that was an option. read more

Probably the worst take out meal ever. Probably the worst Chinese/thai/Vietnamese food I've ever had. I ordered shrimp tempora as an appetizer. It was battered in this disgusting batter, not tempora batter. On top of that the shrimp were burnt. Why would they give us burnt food? My entree was "jungle" curry. It was advertised as spicy, which it was. It had zero flavor, just heat. The sticky rice should have been advertised as a rice block; Solid and inedible, same for the rice noodles. The complimentary soup tasted like pond water. The meal was so bad we threw away the left overs. The bill came to almost $100, seriously. I will never go back. read more

Dac Biet was not fresh so I had a diarrhea. It was not the first time and also happened to other family too.

Got take out from here recently and we were not disappointed! We loved they had combo selections and the portions were large. The Duck Tamarind was crispy and succulent. The Kra Pao Chicken had just the right amount of heat and a sweet/spicy flavor. We also got the Chicken Pad Thai and though it was good, but a little watery. We will defiantly be back to try more. Also, they do have seating but it's limited. Not good for big groups, ample street parking, and takes credit cards. read more

Decor - 2 stars. Not a looker but don't let looks deceive you. The food is actually pretty good. Service - 4 stars. Friendly and attentive. Food: Summer rolls - 3 stars. Freshly made. There was pork and shrimp in these rolls but you can also get the ones without shrimp. #32 - 4 stars. the gigantic bowl of pho with beef. The soup was delicious. Tons of meat. What could Be better? If the soup was piping hot. Ours was like warm. #41 Bun Bi Hue - 3 stars. Soup was tasty. Tons of brisket. However, I was hoping there would be some pork knuckle and Vietnamese ham. The soup was also like warm which was disappointing. Three color iced beverage - 4 stars. Yummy coconut drink with green beans, red beans, and jelly. Literally the best dessert after a meal. read more

Great food and customer service! Best Pho around. The prices are reasonable for all that you get. 10/10

As others have said, there's not a lot of room for diners (next time, I'll count tables) and parking can be awkward (but not impossible). There are so many Vietnamese restaurants (this is Vietnamese/Thai, BTW) names Pho #1 that it's easy to think it's a chain. It isn't or, if it is, this one isn't part of it. This Pho #1 is in the finest tradition of "hole in the wall". It's easy to walk right by due to its unpredisposing exterior. In fact, we might have. We picked it solely because it was convenient for both of us arriving from different directions. We had second thoughts upon seeing the exterior, but decided it would be too much trouble to go elsewhere, so we gave it a try. I'm so glad we did! I'm a bun fan. My companion for this visit is a Pho fan. We both agreed that this is among the best Vietnamese food we'd had. This has been added to the list of each of our Go To places, should we find ourselves in the area at mealtime. read more

The 4-star rating on here makes me so mad! This place is run by Thai people, not Vietnamese and therefore, not authentic at all. Living in the area and having a late lunch, we decided for the first time to get pho around here instead of driving 25+ minutes and turned to yelp for some guidance. As soon as I stepped into this tiny spot, I immediately wanted to leave; dirty and dingy. Second red flag: menu was fake, written in Vietnamese but with no accent marks, and a very strange variety. The moment I should've left: hearing them call back my order in Thai! Thai people make a beef noodle soup that is similar in broth and taste, but very far from actual pho. The bowl itself came with only a few slivers of non-quality beef that looked like scraps. Bun bo hue was unrecognizable at sight and taste! For non-Vietnamese people who claim they've had legit pho elsewhere and saying this is up to snuff, clearly don't know what they're talking about! Of course nothing will ever compare to mom's homemade pho, but I never expect it to; just some resemblance to get me through cravings since I don't want to spend 6 hours making it. read more

Upon stepping into Pho 1, it's pretty apparent that the place is quite dirty and rather small- I'm going to guess that the restaurant can seat a maximum of 40 people or so. The tables were in need of a good cleaning, and the menus have grease all over them. That, combined with the weird smell, was a bit off putting at first. But whatever, as long as the food's good, I was willing to glaze over all this... We ordered the Goi Guon (fresh rolls) as an appetizer. The rolls were fresh, but the rice paper layer was quite thick and hard. 3 stars Bun Bo Hue- The soup itself was too bland and wasn't strong and meaty enough for my liking. The meat was good, though. 2 stars Com tam w/ sliced pork- The pork was average. I've had this dish at multiple Vietnamese restaurants, and the meat's usually sweeter, softer, and juicer at other places. 3 stars Pad See Ew- Slightly sweet noodles with beef and vegetables. I think out of the four dishes we ordered, this one was my favorite. The dish packed in a lot of flavor, beef wasn't dry or hard, and the portion was generous as well. 4 stars Overall, Pho 1 is a decent alternative if you don't want to drive all the way to Boston. They have a large selection of both Vietnamese and Thai dishes, so I'm sure that you're bound to find something that you'll like. read more

Pho 1 - Top to bottom- pad see ew with beef, sliced pork with rice, bun bo hue - Vietnamese Near Me - Woburn, Massachusetts

According to NYC, Philly and VA standard I would never step in their doors again. But according to local standard I would probably give them another try only if I'm in the area. read more

Best pho I have ever had in my entire life. That's a bold claimer but it's true. Everything else here is amazing too. read more

Pho 1 - Vietnamese Near Me - Woburn, Massachusetts

See all

You would never give this place a second look by the signage and interior, but man is this food good! We have been there countless times to dine in, and take out. Take out doesn't stand up as well, but that's to be expected for something like pho ga. We've had everything from the pho to the various curry dishes. Love it all, but the green curry is my hands down favorite. The staff is very pleasant and accommodating, but don't expect fast service, or even the food items to come out of the kitchen in proper order; appetizers then main course, because that rarely happens. I still give it 5 stars though because between the extremely affordable dishes and the delicious food I'll deal with that. read more

In search of Asian food (Korean, Thai, Chinese) so Pho 1 came up when we Yelped this area. A friend and I arrived on a Friday afternoon a little bit after 1 PM. Upon arrival the tables were all taken and one party was leaving. We start awkwardly between tables waiting for that one table to be cleared. Two waiters seem to be very busy and walked past several times without acknowledging us (one of my pet peeves) so we waited patiently. After about 5-10 minutes, the table was cleared and we were directed to sit there. Menus were quickly dropped at our tables. It took us a bit to review the menus as there were so many options. About another 10 minutes passed after we were seated before a waiter asked if we were ready to order. We decided on the spring rolls with the shrimp and shredded pork, a seafood pho, and a lunch combination stir-fry shrimp with vegetables. Iced water was then brought to our tables and the spring rolls followed shortly. They were very appetizing looking but contained very little to no pork and shrimp. The two spring rolls were cut in half and the two halves my friend got didn't even have any protein in it, all lettuce. The peanut dipping sauce that was served with it was good. The shrimp stir fry arrived first. It contained 5 medium to large shrimp perfectly cooked with a generous about of baby corn, some red peppers, pea pods and carrots with a side of white rice. The sauce was excellent! The pho was piping hot and contained two shrimp, a piece of crab, some squid and one fish ball cut in half with vermicelli noodles. I thought the pho was perfectly seasoned but my friend that was a little salty and fishy. Service: 1 Spring Rolls: 2 Stir Fry: 5 Pho: 4 Value: 5 (total tab excluding tip: $22.30) Overall: 3 Scarce street parking only. We would return and try other menu items. read more

We love this place. Some of the best Pho around. The food is always fresh, and fantastic. Highly recommend!

Pho 1 is the type of place you know is going to be good the second you walk in there. A cute and tiny shop with pink walls and only a few tables. The menu had a lot of options, but we went specifically for the pho, upon recommendation from a friend. It was amazing! I got the traditional pho, spicy, and medium size. I definitely could have gone with the small because the portions are huge! But I got to take home leftovers which were great the next day :) highly recommend this place and will be returning! read more

Pho 1 - delicious pho - Vietnamese Near Me - Woburn, Massachusetts

Great food at amazing prices. Service was fast and pleasant. One of those small restaurants except with a fair amount of seating. We were seated right away and food came at a reasonable time. It's not like the place was dead, more like you stop in for a quick warm meal, so turnover was pretty fast. Summer rolls are nothing special, mostly lettuce. But it's only $3.95 so it's still a decent appetizer. A large Pho Dac Biet was $7.95 which is a steal for us considering we come from Albany where we pay $13. And their Pho is delicious. Good amount of meat and noodles. Small side of bean sprouts but I'm sure you could request more. The rice dishes are all around the same price as well ($7.95). The grilled pork was good but a little too sweet for my taste. I don't like saying it's "good for the price" because it really is good regardless of price. But factor in prices and this is definitely a good place is you want something fast and tastey. read more

Pho 1 - Vietnamese Near Me - Woburn, Massachusetts

See all

Of all the Thai places around this is the best. They are slow with takeout, so I GrubHub because they seem quicker with that. But the food is worth the wait and it ALWAYS comes hot read more

My son and I had lunch (closes at 3pm), we had terrific food, mixed seafood dish(#105) with squid , shrimp, etc, and beef pho. My son is very picky with restaurants and food - proof if the pudding- he called mom and said he was having delicious meal and great time. I had the large beef pho - the broth was savory with hint of sweetness- yummy! There was generous amount of rare beef and the noodles were cooked just right - not too soft/hard. Restaurant was clean, on street parking - highly recommended read more

I feel bad for this review as this was my former go to place. I called it a diamond in the rough, and I'm hoping this gets their attention to address some post Covid bad supporting habits. I supported this place during Covid through Uber eats regardless of the drastic price increases due to the delivery service. Now that Covid rules are relaxed I went in person for dinner and left not wanting to go back. I was told that anything stir fry would take at least 30 minutes to make. Little did I know it was because of all the delivery orders that they had. Orders that they were behind on and orders that they were taking while I was there. I watched over a dozen delivery drivers walk in to the dining area and stand next to me while I was eating which frankly became very annoying. Anyhow, back to my order: I ordered a pho beef tai soup, fried egg rolls and chicken wings. The wings were good ( but I didn't go to pho1 for fried wings, this was a order just to order something else), but the pho beef soup was totally different than Prior times, it was tasteless, warm (NOT HOT) and very disappointing. I will attempt to try this place again with the hopes that they take care of the in person sales as much as the delivery sales. read more

I have been here many times and the food was always excellent. Tonight something had changed. The portions had gone down and the quality was not quite as good. Summer rules were smaller and the quality of the chicken was it great. The chicken in the chicken curry was in great either smaller, darker, tougher pieces. Too bad, was one of my favorite go to places. Staff was very polite. Place needs to be cleaned up a bit tattered. read more

Just awful! The food was horrible. We ordered salmon teriyaki and massaman Curry for lunch. Salmon was pathetic and massaman wasn't anything like massaman. Can't believe it took them 20 minutes to serve that reheated and raw stuff! waitress didn't even bother to offer a proper apology when we told her that we didn't like the food. read more

I don't know what happened to this place, but the food was underwhelming. My husband and I went for lunch and he ordered a rice and seafood dish and I ordered a flat noodle dish with chicken and veggies. Both dishes lacked in the amount of veggies, seafood and meat. All you could see in my husband's dish was a large plate of rice with 2 shrimp and a few inedible pieces of squid. My dish also had invisible ingredients aside from the large potion of flat noodles. Several years ago I used to frequent this place, but no more. Also, I found the inside of this place to be really dirty looking especially in the restroom. Do yourselves a favor and go elsewhere. read more

I would love for this place to change it's name to Thai 1 and not Pho 1. The pho is disgusting. Not edible. No human should eat this pho and have it associated in their head forever that this is what Vietnamese food should taste like. As a Vietnamese cook I am embarrassed that they call this dish pho. More like pho-king fake... I'm sure the Thai food is wonderful, but I haven't tried it. Even my ten and three year old said this food is disgusting, their review you can take to the bank. I will not be returning. On a brighter note the staff was friendly and the location is convenient to get to. Honestly, drive the extra 15 minutes to Dorchester if you want good pho. *update* we threw up read more

Pho 1 - Not edible - Vietnamese Near Me - Woburn, Massachusetts

While visiting Boston we wanted some Pho, so we found this place 2miles from our hotel. Everything was good, but my only issue was they took forever to bring out the pho. I'm from California, and there's pho places everywhere and it takes less than 5mins for them to bring out the soup. This place is good, reasonable price just takes a while for the service. read more

This place is more of a Vietnamese and Thai fusion. I come here a lot because it's closed by my home and their food is good. I always order the same meal which is the pho dac biet, Vietnamese fried rice, and their rice with pork chop (com suon bi cha). They have the best Vietnamese fried rice. It has a lot of flavor and perfect seasoning. It can get busy and parking can be hard to find. read more

See all

Hmm...4 or 5 stars? My husband, baby, and I dropped in for the first time today. My first hesitation was with the confused menu of Thai and Vietnamese. You just can't be excellent at both. Second, the waitress brought over a high chair from the bathroom. When I went to wash my hands, I noticed there was another high chair stored in there :( Since the toilet seat is not covered, imagine all the germs, especially with each flush! If I wasn't a mom, I probably would not have noticed this health and sanitation violation. Good thing I had my mini Lysol spray handy :) We ordered the drunken noodles (chicken), mango curry (chicken), and fresh spring rolls. I'd give the fresh spring rolls a 1. They were small, had hardly anything in them (scant pork and the tiniest shrimp I've ever seen) and were mostly rice paper and noodles. However, we were hungry, so we scarfed them. My mango chicken curry was pretty tasty, but the portion was so tiny. There were about 4 minuscule shreds of chicken, scant mangoes, and hardly any vegetables. It was mostly the curry sauce. I'm a 100 lb gal, and I could have easily eaten another whole dish! I must admit the saving grace of our experience was my husband's chicken drunken noodles, which was pretty good. Unfortunately, I don't think it's worth coming here again. read more

One of the best pho soup I had in the US for years. I also had the beef macadamia which tastes great too. Will definitely come back more in the future. read more

Good food. Came nice and hot. Only thing I wasn't happy with was that some of my dumplings came burnt. I mean I wouldn't have served these, but I guess since not all are burnt it's ok. read more

Pho 1 - Dumpling - Vietnamese Near Me - Woburn, Massachusetts

Pros: Food is great. The pho was delicious and well priced and they have a huge menu full of other Vietnamese dishes as well as lots of Thai options which are also relatively cheap. Not quite as wonderful as Les in Brighton but still good. Cons: Service stinks. I wanted a mango bubble tea (which they offer in their menu) and the waiter tells me, sorry no mango. OK fair enough. I then ask him, what flavors do you have? He says, No flavors, we are too busy. What?? I wasn't aware that bubble tea took such a monumental effort to make but apparently it does. Not only that one of the people I was with got the wrong order and they didn't try to fix it. Luckily he was a good sport and ate it anyways but still. Overall I probably will never actually physically eat here again. They do take-out so that is really your best option since it's not the food that is the problem but the service. read more

My search for the perfect bowl of pho somehow brought me to Woburn, MA. As many of my fellow Yelpers know, I'm a bit of a pho-Nazi. To my surprise, the pho there was absolutely delicious, despite us showing up just before close. The broth -- wow, one of the best I've had. I even had 10-12 spoon fulls, which is very rare for me. I had the largest size, which was manageable for a hungry person. The meat was fresh and not as fatty as other places. The tendon was very tender. My only complaints were that they use the thin dry noodles (not fresh) and it was $8, which is slightly expensive for pho. I was willing to overlook both these things. read more

My husband travels a lot on business, and I often accompany him along with our baby boy. We've had spectacular Vietnamese food in the L.A. area, and wonderful variety in Falls Church, VA. We stay in the Woburn/Burlington/Lexington area a few times a year when he's teaching for Sun, and Pho 1 has become one of our "no-brainer fallback" restaurants. Haven't tried any other Vietnamese places in the Boston area, so I don't know how it compares locally, but I consider it "above average" when it comes to mom & pop Vietnamese. We always have trouble deciding what to order here - they have an extensive menu of Vietnamese and Thai dishes. This review is based on our repeat experiences, but the details are from our most recent visit. No salty limenade, which was disappointing, but had their "fresh limenade" last time, and it was lovely and indeed fresh. (My husband had bought an allegedly "not from concentrate" limeade from Target on Sunday that was the polar opposite of this one.) I love lime drinks, so I started dinner happy. Convinced them to make a cafe sua da (Vietnamese iced coffee) with boba for my husband. Coffee was good, the bubbles were a little stiff/starchy this time. Got a Vietnamese salad, but can't remember which one. nice blend of medium spicy flavors, though. Ordered one of the Vietnamese rice combo plates (pork chop and shredded pork skin with a fried egg) - sorry, can't find the Viet name as it's not listed at their Web site. Good solid version thereof. The tamarind duck was really nice - not as emphatically tamarind as I'd have wanted, but a nice twist on sweet & sour chicken type dishes. The duck was tender, the breading wasn't oily, and the vegetables served underneath were crisp - snow peas, carrots, green beans, baby corn, broccoli, straw mushrooms, red bell peppers. (Nice assortment, too!) The shredded daikon and carrot on iceberg with cucumbers salad was dressed with a light hand, which I prefer. Dunno how the service is in general. We tend to go late at night when the place is almost deserted, and thus have never had a problem. I've never tried their pho' - we're always too distracted by the other offerings. Not the cheapest place, but we've never been upset by the price, either. read more