| Location |
| 226 3rd Street , corner of University Avenue |
| Hours |
| Mon-Sat, 10am - 11pm |
| Sun, 11am - 11pm |
| Phone |
| (530) 589-8888 |
| Payment Method |
| Cash, Visa, Debit |
| Web site |
| facebook.com/phoking4 |
| Price range |
| $5-8ish |
| Menus |
| Menu |
| Established |
| Opened Pi Day 2012 in Davis |
Pho King IV is the fourth addition to the Pho King chain (there's a Pho King 2 in Sacramento), having made its way to Davis just in time for the winter season. It is one of two Vietnamese restaurants in Davis; the other is Sunrise Restaurant. It's in the location where Orange Hut used to be. Come for a "Pho King" good meal. Sign in at the counter for a table; they'll seat you, take your order at the table, and deliver your food to you. Pay at the counter afterwards. Chopsticks and soup spoons are in containers at the table. There's soup (small, large, extra-large), stir-fried entrees, spring rolls, egg rolls, plenty of specialty drinks and juices, and even a kid's menu.
Pho Tos
FREE SODA (in a can) for the First Two Weeks of Opening (until March 28, 2012, offer still available for time travelers). 
Pho King strangely possess a promotion board bearing the Quiznos logo.
2011-10-18 12:55:18 hrmmmmh
I will take my respectable older Vietnamese friend here to sample the FUUUUH, then I will report —StevenDaubert
2011-10-26 14:57:04 I've been to Pho King 2 for Bun Bo Hue (Pig knuckle, blood cake, spicy beef soup) and it was excellent. I think Daubert and I may have the same "respectable older Vietnamese friend"....haha. My hopes are high for this restaurant. —aroach12
2011-10-26 15:25:30 I'm very excited to have pho so close to campus — very much hope that it's good! —CovertProfessor
2011-11-02 13:08:47 also awesome play on words with the name kekekekek —StevenDaubert
2011-11-03 17:37:42 As long as they have very meaty pho dishes available, I will be a huge fan. I love Pho Bac Hoa Viet very much as is. —EricWecker
2011-11-29 08:35:52 omgggg if this place is anything like pho king 2 in sac, i will eat here all the time and have no reason to go to hoa viet ever again. i concur with the comment about the excellence of pho king 2's bun bo hue. —JenniferGiang
2011-11-30 04:59:19 bbh bbh bbh bbh —Kafani
2011-12-29 21:39:42 when are you going to pho king open? —argyle
2012-02-01 12:41:36 Heard it will be mid February. They are just waiting on inspections. —LokiAbbi
2012-02-27 17:54:41 Posted the times from the window. Damn I wish this place would open soon. :O It's got two more days to open in February lol...—BmetalV
2012-03-04 17:18:24 Per Pho King 2 staff on 03/04: Davis location will open mid March. Work to meet inspection requirements just completed. Good timing now that gas prices are ridiculously high for no apparent logical reason. We can now bike to noodles and iced coffee. :) —Kiefer
2012-03-08 21:10:02 I biked past the place today and a banner was up with a grand opening date on March 14!!!
2012-03-15 12:48:00 Came here on their Grand Opening Day! Who cares if it's raining or wet? A bowl of pho will fix that up! As mentioned before, I am from San Jose, Bay Area, aka the capital of Vietnamese Pho in NorCal. Judging by the standards of Pho in Davis (not Sacramento), let's see how they measure up. Visited this place with a friend during lunchtime 11AM.
Food: B. Seriously BETTER Than Bac Hoa Viet or Sunrise by far! My friend would not stopping saying that fact outloud and it was so funny because they were overstaffed their first day (I'll get to that). I got the Pho Tai Nam Sach Large for about $6.95. There was plenty of meat in the bowl (they don't skip out on that) and the pho was fresh. My friend just told me that they probably cooked it too long so the noodles were slightly clumpy. The bowl was huge and they offer noodle soups in 3 sizes (Small, Large, XL). Not sure where the Medium went, but I ordered a Large to be safe! The prices were fair, ranging from $5.95 to ~$8. They also have other noodle soups such as Bun Bo Hue (Spicy Beef Noodles), which my friend got. She said it was decently delicious but added too much pepper. Remember you can always add more spices but never "unspice" them! Received a free can of soda, and they offer free tea and water in the beginning.
Location/Ambiance: B. Located where Orange Hut used to be, you enter and they offer Chinese take-out food! 1 entree/1 side for about $4...yes you read that CORRECTLY! Then the prices and sizes go up from there. It looked and smelled delicious. Then you walk towards the cashier and the staff greet you and seat you promptly. Inside there are red tables furnished with your utensils/napkins (chopsticks and spoons), sauces (hoisin, hot), and other spices. The place is actually quite small. Great for a party of four. There is a huge, long table in the back area for parties of 6+ as well. Overall, they made the place look tidier and cleaner. There's also a TV in the back as well.
Service: B. For the first day, my friend and I predicted that they would be overstaffed by their partners from Sac...and low behold, they had a lot of workers running around. Service here is Asian service. They ask you what you want, hand it to you, you eat, and then pay/go. I noticed some servers were occasionally asking customers how was the food but I thought it was because it was the grand opening gesture. Point being, the staff were all nice, accommodating, SMILING and did not have attitudes (unlike some other places which I will avoid in this article). I hope they keep up the friendly service since Asian establishments are notorious for bad service. Just note, that the staff are NOT wearing any uniforms or indications that they work there. Just regular clothes, but you can kind of tell if they start speaking in Vietnamese or walking into the kitchen lol.
Can't wait to see what they will improve on and what changes await for them. I hope the Davis community will support them since they have legit Vietnamese food that isn't compromised by Americanized standards or quantity in their menus. I rather have a smaller menu but more quality food as Pho King IV has established so far. The manager lady I presume even greeted us on the way out and apologized if there were any mishaps during our first visit. My friend and I chuckled, because everything went fine. How nice of them. **Disclaimer on any price errors! Apologies!**
2012-03-15 22:29:01 The older man who served my friend and I gave excellent service, which is why I'm writing here! The food was pretty decent. I ordered the tomato and crab noodle soup, but I specifically asked if there was any beef or any meat in the dish. The guy told me no, just crab and tomato. When I got my dish, there were so much meat in there and a few eggs, which looked nothing like the picture on the menu. The server's English was not good at all, so I tried my best to explain to him I didn't eat that type of meat. Not a problem and no fuss! He took it back and ordered what ever I wanted on the menu, which came out in two minutes! If this happened at the other Pho Bac, I'd probably be getting lots of attitude and they would most likely argue with me. So overall, great experience!! —RebeccaCho
2012-03-16 09:17:45 This is *the* place to go for pho or spicy beef noodles in Davis. Their menu includes other tasty dishes and drinks too (spring rolls, beef/pork rice plates, slow-drip/pressed coffee, fresh squeezed lemonade, etc.)...something for everyone. This is a welcomed addition to the diverse food scene in Davis. —Kiefer
2012-03-16 09:18:49 Went here today around 3PM; the restaurant was packed! My beef noodle soup (with steak) came with bonus tripe, which I was not expecting, and picked out. —JudithTruman
2012-03-17 13:34:19 I have tried the pho at Pho King II in Sacramento but even there, I thought it was only average (the Pho King in Oakland is much better). So really, I went here today with no expectations despite the hype. I tried coming here on Thursday night but they were sold out. Oh well, no biggie, I went to Hoa Viet instead (which I love). But today, I came in just before the next big rush and got seated pretty quickly. But, they were super busy and since my friend and I got the table right next to the door, we were neglected and not given much attention. Since I work at a very busy coffee shop, I understand how stressful and irritating it can be when you have an endless rush of customers. So, I patiently waited for them to both take my order and bring me my pho. When they brought us our food, they forgot to give us the plate of bean sprouts and limes and we had to ask them for it several times. And when we politely let the waitress know that we still didn't get our iced coffee, she gave us an attitude and said "I know. I'm making it now." From where we were sitting, we could look into the kitchen and no, she wasn't making our coffee yet.
Now on to the food. I ordered a #2 which basically comes with everything in the #1 combination but with beef balls. When I got my bowl of pho, the first thing I noticed was the smell of the broth. It had a distinct scent that was strange but not exactly a bad strange - though, not good either. I can't quite put my finger on it but it is a smell that I usually do not like in my pho. I ignored it and put my sliced steak (ALWAYS GET IT ON THE SIDE!! makes a huge difference hehe) into the hot broth. My first sip of the soup was pretty disappointing. The broth tasted watered down and not hearty like I was hoping it would be. The noodles were excellent though. After a few bites, I realized that I did not have any beef balls. So for about 5 minutes (which felt like 10), I tried to flag down a waiter or waitress to let them know. Finally, one of the waitresses came to the rescue and when I told her, she went into the kitchen and brought me some in a bowl of broth. The sliced steak was also disappointing. It was rough and didn't melt in your mouth like it should.
To sum it up, the pho was VERY mediocre, prices are average, and service is a hit or miss (probably depends on how busy they are).
You guys are going to kill me for saying this but YES, I still love Pho Hoa Bac Viet more and would rather go there for pho.
I love pho a lot but this place made me love it not so much. —reeeeeow
2012-03-19 11:47:19 Awesome Bun Bo Hue. One of the best... —PeterNguyen0341
2012-03-19 19:17:06 I visited for dinner last night with my fella. The service was mediocre, as was the food. He ordered the #2, and I ordered the #1. They are essentially the same, but the #2 comes with meatballs. Neither of us got any tripe in our bowl (I can't speak for him, but I was rather looking forward to the tripe). I brought this up when we went to pay. The guy at the counter said "yeah, we ran out of tripe yesterday." I tried to tell him that he should let the servers know to TELL THE CUSTOMERS THAT WHEN THEY ORDER so that we have the option of ordering something different if we want. He smiled and nodded awkwardly and we decided that he didn't understand what I was trying to express.
They also have at least two large flat-screen TV's hanging on the walls, but not turned on. Given that it's such a "cramped" venue, TV's blaring seems like it would be incredibly distracting and a major detractor from the ambiance. I hope they stay turned off.
Overall, I wasn't really impressed. I'll probably give them a couple of weeks to get their act together (the cook doesn't seem to know the menu, based on other comments about missing/additional ingredients in dishes) before I try going there again and hope it's really good. —StephanieStudebaker
2012-03-20 02:40:21 Came here twice, the day after it opened and a couple of days later. Both times in around 2pm-3pm. Both times they were relatively busy but not during rush period. First day I ordered the #2 combo pho. Took a while but finally got the food. The soup base imo, is better than the Hoa Viet. Hoa Viet's soup taste particularly bland compared to good pho. Pho King's soup base has more flavor but it's different. It almost has a slight hint of starnaise in the base, which i don't mind. The texture of the noodle is much better than Hoa Viet and the steak/meats are about equal to Hoa Viet. The beef balls are a bit strange though, they taste very spongy, which I'm not used to. Overall, I enjoyed it more than Hoa Viet's Pho.
2nd trip I went, I ordered the pork chop over rice. The pork chop was very good. Good developing flavors and nicely marinated. That dish was very enjoyable. Only thing is that the waiter didn't know to bring out knife and fork when pork chop is ordered, oh well, at least the food was good.
Over-all my experience at Pho King has been pretty decent but I've had much better. I hope by having pho king around, it gives Hoa Viet incentive to make better pho because they're not the only Pho place in town anymore. Competition is always good. —C.Ling
2012-03-22 20:09:02 Came here twice and had the bun bo hue and the bun rieu. I'm happy to have these options in davis now. The bun bo hue was nicely flavored, but could've been stronger. I wasn't a fan of the bun rieu (my mom makes a wayyy better one). The one here had too much fish sauce. I tried a bit of their pho broth, and it was bland and just a little off in flavor. I actually like Hoa Viet's pho better. Overall, I'm happy to be able to satisfy my bun bo hue craving here! —SaThai
2012-03-23 01:29:54 had the pho here just today. nothing wrong with service, but nothing great with the food either. although they gave me extra noodles free of charge, they were ridiculously overcooked. And the broth, itself, came warm, not hot, as it should have been. all in all, an unwelcomed disappointment. —kiddmit3
2012-03-23 19:26:44 I went here for dinner today. Being from the Bay Area, I wasn't all too impressed with the food, but Pho King IV is a welcome addition to Davis. Decent prices, decent service. I'll be back for more. —Roarasaurus
2012-04-22 19:04:05 This place has the best pho in town hands down. There is a good amount of meat in each portion, the tendon is nice and thick and chewy and the noodles are chewy too. The bun is good too, this is my new favorite place to eat. I have eaten here about 7 times in the last 2 weeks, delicious! —DagonJones
2012-04-30 10:29:46 Tried for the first time with a co-worker. The Pho was Ok, but if you don't like things like tendons, then be careful what you order. My co-worker order a spicy specialty dish and the description did not include that it had tendons. Service wasn't very good. We had to track to our waiter after a long wait and it just wasn't very friendly. Paying was a treat as you have to stand in line while they pull your ticket. Kind of amusing. —LokiAbbi
2012-05-01 16:45:23 This is the best Vietnamese restaurant in Davis. I love their flavorful Pho and Bun No Hue. They also have excellent grilled shrimp with rice noodle. The people here are supernice. Today I got myself locked out from my car and they used their triple A membership to help me get the keys out of the car. I offered to compensate for their membership fee but they did not accept it. Come here more often. Not only the food here is very good, the people here are great too!
2012-05-08 22:14:23 I'm from the Bay Area and while I don't exactly know what exactly is authentic Pho, I can at least gauge if the Pho is good or bad. So I went for a fundraiser at around 1pm on a 90 degrees C temp. (xD!) I arrived and was lucky to have one seat left indoors, otherwise I'd have to eat Pho in the hot weather outside (What a thrill!). I was seated and given ice water. At the time, the place was packed, but most of people were already eating or almost done. I ordered the number 1 (to me, the number 1 is like the norm. I usually order in most Viet places.) (Note: X-Large - about the length of a pair of chopsticks there) and an Iced Viet. Coffee. When the food arrived, the bowl felt hot, which is a good thing. (I was afraid that because it was a hot day, the soup would be warm and not hot). About half-way my meal, I finally received my iced coffee, which I felt should have arrived before my Pho. After finishing everything, I went to paid for about 11 dollars. Summation: 1= poor, 3 = ok, 5= Great Taste: I'd say 3.5-4. While the food tasted slightly better than the other Viet. Pho places, I found the taste slightly off from other places I've had before in the Bay. However, I couldn't pinpoint what made me feel the Pho wasn't amazing, but it might have been the hot weather that day that made me feel that way. Service: 3.5-4. Being an Asian, I wasn't expecting service like a waiter/waitress coming to your table asking if everything is doing good. Considering the quickness of ordering, bringing your food, and everything else, the service is decent. I just didn't give the place a 5, because I'd prefer the drink coming before my Pho. Price: I would say the pricing is about average for most people. For me, I believe for the price I had to pay was above avereage by a bit, because I didn't find the meal very worth it. The Pho had a good amount of noodles, which I am happy about, but there was a very small amount of meat. At other places I have been to, they serve at least two pieces of tendon, tripe, and the brisket, flank, and sliced steak were placed on top, which covered the bowl's surface area (at least half the bowl). At Pho King, there were barely any tripe, one piece of tendon, and small pieces of meat (flank, sliced steak), and I found only one slice of brisket. If they placed slightly more meat, I'd be more than willing to pay the price I was billed, but I am willing to try again to see if it was just by chance mine had less meat. Lastly, the cup of ice coffee didn't feel like it was worth the 2.75. Over more than half the cup was filled with ice, which meant that after a few sips, you were practically done with the drink. Overall, Pho King 4 isn't a bad place to eat Pho.
—AWai
2012-06-02 22:51:23 The Pho is good, just the noodles are a little bit harder than what I'm used to. I once ordered a rice plate once, and once they gave it to me I found a long strand of hair stuck onto a sliced cucumber. I first wasn't sure if it was part of the food but I lifted it up and confirmed it was hair and told the lady who worked there. The lady said "Sorry" and took my plate to the kitchen and I didn't receive my order for another 5 mins. She came back to me with the EXACT same plate with the hair, maybe just moved the food over in different positions so it looks like "it's new". How do I know it was the same one? I had confirmed it with my friends who were there who saw the hair in my plate, saw that the egg shape was the same one from before. The thing that gave it away, you remember when I said I found the hair ON my cucumber, well I got it back. How can I tell? There was the indentation of the hair across that one cucumber when I removed the hair... Maybe it's this experience that will make me not come back here for awhile. —JaceWinter
2012-07-15 14:39:46 This place was pretty good. My boyfriend and I came here somewhat late into the evening, and only ordered pho so I can't comment on their other dishes. I like it better than the place on 1st and A; the soup tastes better and I think it's cheaper (or at least, my boyfriend exclaimed "Wow, that was a cheap dinner!" excitedly after he paid the bill). For the combo pho's, you didn't get much of each, but if you get one type of beef you should be okay. The only thing I didn't like was that the steak wasn't rare when it came out... I didn't see "rare" before the steak on the menu so that might be accurate, but I assumed that the steak at most pho places was rare. Overall, good, fast meal and for a good price. —kimmisan
2012-07-28 11:22:18 My boyfriend and I came here one day for lunch to both try pho for the first time. After reading reviews about Pho Bac Viet we decided pho king sounded like a better bet even though we didnt exactly know what we were in for. I had come to this restaurant before when it was the Chinese place, and it was not very good and the building was dirty. When we came today the restaurant was very busy, but looked clean and the waitstaff was very friendly and attentive. We both ordered the pho with beef broth, flank steak, and another kind of steak (we did not want the tripe or tendons) and it came out very quick. We ordered larges and next time will definitely order a small (Price of large was $6.50 small is around $5) the portions seemed huge. We both took home leftover, and we plan to go back to Pho King to either get the pho again or try another dish, overall no complaints! —cj2012aggie
2012-07-28 11:48:01 I checked this place out a few weeks ago with DagonJones. Absolutely delicious. We ordered pho and a noodle dish and traded them back and forth a few times. Both were fantastic. Great prices, quick and friendly service, and above all, great food. Generally pretty healthy, too! —TomGarberson
2012-09-04 00:06:26 I was disappointed by the lack of blood cake and pig knuckle in the Bun Bo Hue, but other than that it was a very solid meal and probably would come back if somebody suggested it. —HarrisonM
2012-10-12 14:15:36 Major, major lunchtime fail today during my first (and probably only) visit. It looked somewhat busy, thanks to the cool, cloudy weather. My wife, son and I were seated upstairs. We felt forgotten, and had to flag down a guy to place our order. It didn't feel personal, though, because everyone else around us was getting the same treatment. Our food arrived relatively quickly, but no utensils. In fact, our table was bereft of napkins, sauces and everything else. It took two trips back downstairs to once again flag down a guy to get utensils and rooster sauce, while our food rapidly cooled. Other tables around us faired even worse. We saw two other tables (totaling 10 people) get up and leave after waiting 40 minutes for their food to arrive, and watching other tables (that ordered after them) get their food in the meantime. The food was in the range of OK to good, but not spectacular. I probably won't be going back; I feel like we beat the odds already just by getting served food at all, and I don't want to roll the dice again... —RobWestergaard
2012-10-22 15:34:01 Went for lunch on 10/10/12 and left after waiting for 45 minutes. We left without eating. We had to seek out a person to take our order, to get us water, to explain why it was taking so long... They didn't even care. They hadn't even started our order. They seem to be avoiding us. They acted like it was our fault, not theirs. It was a horrible experience and we were all pissed because we were starving. Don't think any of us will give them another chance. You lost 6 customers and then some with all the people we will discuss this with. Advice to restaurant: Pay attention to your customers and be apologetic when you cannot provide quality service. —JamieParker
2012-10-25 14:08:33 I'm a server at Pho King and frankly I'm offended by the previous comments of Robwestergaard and JamieParker. Their families both came into the restaurant at the peak hours and cold weather and two of my coworkers called in sick. I did apologize to them multiple times and offer them free meal on their way out. In fact, Rob and his family came back for the free meal without thanking. I'm not sure any of these guests ever worked in the restaurant in their life but they certainly lack the ability to put themselves in other people's shoes. On average, every meal only costs only $7.50 and every single day I see many tables with more than 6 people leaving without a dollar of tip. I dine out often and even when I received a bad service, I still leave at least 10% tip. The reason is the service was already provided. I just hope people will use their common sense because it is a 21th century and we're all well educated here. Otherwise, I still do our best to accommodate the students and appreciate their understanding.—DougT
2012-11-19 15:10:45 I really like this place! I miss Orange Hut but I was really delighted that a Pho place opened in its stead. I think their noodles are pretty good and reasonably priced (#4 is where it's at for me!). It gets busy, but I've always had pretty good service, the several times I've been. I've never waited very long for an order regardless of how busy it was there, though I have had to flag people down a few times (and that's to be expected; it is a bit of an awkward layout, with walls hiding workers from view). But I really enjoy it here and hope everyone gives it a chance! P.s. try the three-color dessert! —HannahToru
2012-12-03 12:51:05 This will be the 2nd time I have been here to eat for lunch and I will say my lunch was about average. To begin, I had the number 1; a large Pho Bowl + shrimp rolls w/ peanut sauce + a "Taiwanese" Milk Tea, which they have messed up and gave me a Jasmine Milk Tea instead... (sad face)
The Food: Well, I've had Pho at various places and I would say the Pho here is below mediocre. The soup tasted bland, but the portions have somewhat increased by a tiny bit. There were actually a few more slices of steak this time than the last time I came. I remember as I recall eating the Pho there for the first time and had almost to none steak/meat in my Pho. But the major disappointment to me was that the soup was warm and not hot. To me, Pho should be HOT and not warm. The next disappointment I had was that the side dish of bean sprouts was very tiny... I would say take an 8 oz regular Asian Bowl (google search image if you want to see) and half of that bowl was the amount of bean sprouts they gave. While the basil leaves and the customary lime was there, I am still disappointed with the amount of bean sprout they gave. Next up, the shrimp roll w/ peanut sauce. This was actually decent. The portion was 'fair' (2 rolls per order, which came to four pieces total). There was just enough sauce for me to finish the 2 rolls, which I guess kudos, because then the sauce isn't wasted. Can't say that the sauce was bad not knowing if they made it themselves or bought it as is from a store. The roll's taste was good as it didn't taste like it has been sitting there for a long time nor was it cold, which indicate that it wasn't sitting in a fridge waiting to be served. Then again... I might be wrong with that. Then the drink. When it first came, my first thought was: "Oh hey, there is like an inch of air in the drink! Was this purposely left blank?" Then the next thought that crossed my mind, "Wasn't this part of the Tapioca drink section? Where is the Tapioca?" I looked again and I am really confused. The section is listed as Tapioca, but when served, it has no Tapioca. Then I saw the section: Add-On. Well, that was misleading. I think the menu should be more clear if the drink had tapioca in it or not to begin with. But, to be honest, last time I came here, my last drink was practically full of ice so there was barely anything to drink. So I would say I'm slightly happy about getting something to drink. More over, the container they served it was a to-go cup. Perhaps this was how they did it, but if I was dining in, wouldn't it be better to serve the drink in a cup, and not a to-go boba drink container? Well, continuing on ... I ordered the Taiwanese Milk Tea. It came to me as the Jasmine Milk Tea. At first, I thought the milk tea tasted different as I did not recall a Taiwanese Milk Tea tasting as such, but I dismissed it as I thought "maybe I am wrong." Since I had no way to tell until I saw the receipt. Lo and behold, when I saw the receipt, they did bill me for Jasmine Milk Tea. So I was disappointed as I do not like Jasmine Milk Tea. Which leads to the service part.
The Service: To start, placing the wrong order for me is the first thing I'll dock points off. The server is most likely a student like myself, because I can hear him complaining to his superiors or co-workers about having "lots of finals and shitz." When he was taking my order, he didn't write anything down, but did it by memory. Perhaps this is why he go the order wrong? Because after I listed what I wanted, he repeated the order, and I heard Taiwanese Milk Tea. So maybe the time it took for him to give the order, he forgot about it, and just stated ... Jasmine Milk Tea. Regarding another thing, I am not sure if this is how the restaurant operates now, but I am used to the service of being given a cup of water and then being asked if I was ready to order. I received the reverse treatment. I was asked if I was ready, and I was given a cup of water after I ordered several minutes before my food came, which took awhile. Considering a table near me was serviced the same way, I'm not sure what to make of it. Next, the server avoids eye contact. He would direct his eyes towards you to initiate, but just as you talk (give your order), he averts his gaze to somewhere else. To me, he was staring at a blank table. No clue if it was on purpose, but you should give your attention to the person ordering. I would understand if there was another person making a scene, but the restaurant was pretty much empty when I was there. Lastly, the server appears to not even want to be there. His expression during the whole time was apathetic and impatient. Like wanting his shift to be over. I understand that with "finals and shitz" going on, you don't want to work at this time. But hey, you took the responsibility to work (for reasons you know yourself), so even if finals week is coming up, you shouldn't complain nor have such an expression as you chose to do a part-time job. So in all, the service was definitely below average. Thankfully, I wasn't seated on the 2nd floor, where I have heard/read stories of receiving almost to none service. I guess that makes sense... if first floor was below average for me... then the 2nd floor would have been horrible.
But of course, this is all subjective and I would say still go try them out for your own judgement. —AWai
2012-12-22 14:17:12 I like going here, especially if I feel lazy cooking. May not be the best tasting Pho, but I'd rather go here rather than the other one which is just a few blocks down the street (which one is that? —DavidBarnum) and beats driving to Sac. —Jondguzman
- Probably Hoa Viet. —CovertProfessor
2013-07-07 18:02:44 I do not like the service here. It isn't horrible but my experience was frustrating. I ordered two drinks to go here, two different flavors. When I got the receipt, I saw they only charged me for the price of one, I thought it was wierd. Maybe it was because I ordered without the tapioca balls? But I double checked anyways. I flagged down the cashier who put down my order and I repeated my order, asked if the receipt was correct, and I also raised two fingers as I spoke to make sure she knew I ordered two drinks. I waited about 10 minutes before they started making the first drink. That's fine. I got it and waited for my second one. I'm kind of shy so I don't like to make a fuss, even though it's been about 20 minutes now. Then the cashier asks me whats wrong and I said I'm waiting for the second drink. Then they realize they made a mistake, even when I double checked earlier. The cashier looks at me and says, "Sorry! But well....I only charged you for one drink......." I thought it was a bit ridiculous that they didn't even compensate the second drink when it was their mistake. I mean, it's only $2.50...... Anyways, same thinking goes towards me, it was only $2.50 so I paid it. Got my drink and left.
Long story short: Got my order wrong even though I double checked with them. Wouldn't even comp a $2.50 drink for their mistake. —annechan
2014-03-03 12:54:00 Hands down worst service in Davis.
I TOLERATED their terrible service because I like pho. However, I can honestly say that I have never had a good experience here, and yesterday was the last straw. After waiting 40 minutes (while others were getting their food in 5-10 minutes) we finally complained, only to find our order never made it to the kitchen.
The worst part is that nobody apologized to us.
This is not a isolated incident, their service is consistently terrible.
The pho is like a 4/10 too. Mostly broth and noodles, with very little vegitables and meat. More like a fancy top ramen than real pho. —Zorninator
2014-03-04 19:55:12 The best pho king restaurant in Davis! —SteveDavison
2014-03-04 23:07:32 Better hope that you don't get seated on the upper floor. The last time I went here to celebrate my birthday with my sister, we had the unfortunate luck of being seated upstairs because all the tables on the ground level were taken. At first, it seemed like service was going very well—our pho came out rather promptly. But then when half an hour passed and our ordered drinks didn't come out, I started to get concerned. It shouldn't have taken that long for them to make our drinks. After all, aren't drinks usually the first thing to arrive on the table before the food? Our drinks eventually came, but not the tofu spring rolls my sister and I ordered along with our pho at the beginning. Since our waiter didn't even come upstairs again, we had to tell this guy who was cleaning the tables to alert the kitchen staff that we had been waiting for a really long time for our spring rolls. When he brought it up to us, it was the wrong one and we had to ask for the correct one. We finally got it at the end, but the poor service turned me away from coming here again. —MichelleNguyen
2014-11-30 13:25:10 Pretty miserable PhoKing today. To-go vegetarian pho came with 4 miserable shrivels of tofu, likely from days past. They made up for it with lots of cabbage. Good news for all the cabbage-lovers. —jdsalerno
2014-12-04 21:18:54 Food is okay, but service has gone way downhill. Don't expect waitstaff to check on you during the meal or give you refills of water. The bill comes quickly enough, but expect terse and awkward treatment in every other respect. —ScottMeehleib
2015-07-06 14:48:56 I found an insect when I almost finished, won't go there any more. —testtesttest
2015-11-08 14:02:23 WORST RESTAURANT IN DAVIS!!!! Periodically I go back with the hope the pho offering in Davis will have gotten decent. But every time I leave pissed from the crappy service and below average broth. Today against my better judgment I returned. We sat for 18 minutes with no service. None. No "let me get your beverages, or just a moment I'm busy." Nothing and they were not even that busy. So actually I cannot validate my opinion about the below average-ness of the food. But again another extremely disappointing dining experience. Why the old place at 1st & B closed I'll never know. But I will never set foot in that hell hole again. They suck. Negative star rating. —SFine
2015-12-10 19:09:42 My husband ordered Number 13 on the menu for to go on December 10, 2015. It says: "Beef Noodle Soup with Meatballs." When I opened the package at home, I found there was NO BEEF. When I called the restaurant, the girl on the phone said that the title meant "noodle soup in BEEF BROTH with meatballs.." So, there is no beef at all other than the flavor of beef! I was so disappointed. With $9.77, I expected more than just vermicelli, a few meat balls (definitely not many), and bean sprouts. The girl said they had received no complaints about this particular item before. If that is the case, I am proud to be the first person to express concerns about the misleading title of the food. Please OMIT the word BEEF entirely from the title, or describe the food as it is: "Noodle Soup in Beef Broth with Meatballs" (sounds yucky?). I do not want to buy something which I can make myself from material I buy at Dollar Three, such as beef broth. So when you buy food at this restaurant, make sure you get all the content you expected from a food item that you read on the menu! —evayulita
2016-01-23 09:22:30 this phoking place has gone way down hill. all these positive reviews when it first opened and now the reviews only go downhill. very symbolic of how asian's run business. leave strong first impression and then dont phoking care after that. my pho was served with PARSLEY. i'm being served by staffs who can't phoking differentiate parsley and cilantro. you should definitely try it. pho with parsley tastes like phoking shiit. perhaps thats why they named this place pho king. they saw the future coming. this place is literally pho king crap. but why do people go? its the only damn place open for some half legitimate pho. i am sad. —numberforty
2017-05-15 10:51:05 Actual Encounter Patron: What is "shaking beef" Waiter: Umm well, it's like beef, and like umm, well you know, it's um like, well, like pieces of beef, you know umm, well it's been a long time, so like I am not really sure, like, um, you know. Patron: So it's like a stir fry? Waiter: Umm, no I think its different. Not really sure. It's like beef. [Awkward smile] Patron: Such as? Waiter: You know, I don't really remember, you got me, I can't help you. I just don't know. The service here is a fucking train wreck. Just ghastly. Another waiter came by and began restocking the spoons at our table while we ate. No water refills. Spring rolls came long after the main dishes. The food has declined in quality as well. No Thai basil. Pho bland. Spring roll shrimp sketchy. This place used to be ok. We are never going here again. I would suggest you don't either. I know there aren't many options for pho in Davis. I wish we had a better option, but this place isn't worth wasting your calories on. —MichaelPlotkin
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