Pho Central

We normally hit up Phở Goodness but the problem is you have to eat quick and leave as there’s always a long line to get in.
Phở Central however due to its size, it’s more of a restaurant where you get to eat slower, enjoy your meal and chat with friends without feeling rushed.
Food is on par. Grilled lemongrass chicken is the bomb. Just ask for extra chicken. They also always have mango salad which is delicious.
Great place to go with a group of friends. Great food. Highly recommended!

The phở was not bad (although they seem to reuse the bean sprouts since there was rice stuck to it). I also found a piece of hair in my spring roll — before finding it, it was indeed very tasty. The place did not have any AC so it was a bit hot. I also ordered Vietnamese coffee and that was good. The service was not bad.

Little hole in the wall. Don’t come for ambience. Don’t come for fantastic chatty service.
Come for great phở, good value and robotically fast and efficient service.
Do it, I think you’ll like it. Also don’t you find it is difficult finding crispy, light and yummy spring rolls downtown? Well look no further, they got you covered!

Broth is extremely greasy.
They probably put some milk in their sate noodle soup as my hubby got a stomachache after having their phở. He is an lactose intolerance.
Also their noodle was not cooked properly.
I like the place beside of this one better.

Surprisingly good Vietnamese food in this part of downtown. Solid 4.5 stars.
Parking is available in the side streets.
The place is pretty brightly lit, and almost looks like a lounge because of the pink bar lighting. Almost felt like the place doubled as a nightclub. Furniture is nice and classy, with nice stone tables and dark wooden chairs. Place actually looks and feels clean. Amazing.
The staff were friendly and helpful.
The food here is something. Special mention goes to the lemon grass clams. The soup broth is just right, and locks in the flavours. This dish comes with a tangy peppery dipping sauce (similar to that of Phnom Penh). I would almost recommend having this dish over everything else.
The grilled chicken on rice came with a nice large chunk of meat that was nice and moist, but also didn’t contain much fat. They really get this right here.
I also tried some of my friend’s Bun Bo Hue soup, and it had a nice light spicy kick.
Definitely one of my new go-​to places for Davie Village. Recommended.

Great phở! I loved the rare beef, tendon and broth. Received good service and the restaurant was clean and welcoming. Would strongly recommend (and I eat a lot of Vietnamese)

Love this place ! Probably the best phở in Vancouver and the service is great too. The servers are extremely attentive and appreciated my custom. Will definitely be back :)

Honestly great food here. Lemongrass clams came in a beautiful salty broth and lemon pepper dipping sauce, high recommended. Lemongrass chicken and spring roll on vermicelli had nice char marks, was mostly moist, and a generous portion size. Their condensed milk ice coffee was standard fare. My friends were just as impressed with their meals. The atmosphere was affected by the club next door, with spillover machine fog coming through the vents and the bass occasionally ripping through the atmosphere.

Generous portions, very reasonable prices. I’m a little biased as well, being that my wife and I eat here once a month for our fix of Phở comfort food. It was also the first Phở I ever had. and the owners are pretty funny as well (once you get to know them).

Phở Central is my go to place whenever I have a craving for a bowl of phở. I must say that I am a little biased here, since it was of the first Phở places I’ve been to many many many many years ago. They used to have a much smaller place across the street.
Now, on to the food. I usually order the Phở Tai Nam, which is a mixture of beef brisket and lean slices of meat. The broth itself is very good, though it might be a little too salty for some. My friend usually drinks the entire bowl of broth, which makes me wonder how much sodium did he just take in. I did order the spring rolls, but I’m not too crazy over it.
I’m sure there are better Phở’s out there. But if you’re in downtown or the West End and have some Phở or Vietnamese food cravings, you really can’t go wrong here. It might not blow your socks off, but it definitely does not disappoint.
PS: For those who do not like raw bean sprouts, you can get them to blanch them.

Salad roll was filled w raw bean sprouts to make it look larger. I don’t even like putting raw sprouts in my phở I usually ask for it steamed so this was an off-​putting filler. The sauce for the salad rolls was also too watered down. The spring roll was meh. The phở soup broth was just ok. The staff forgot to add extra onions to mine as asked. The meat that wasn’t marbled w fat was inedible. It was chewy like rubber. Wasting meat always makes me feel guilty but I honestly couldn’t eat it. Service was horrible. I tried to get someone’s attention three or four times being ignored and avoided. My arm had to wave around embarrassingly (come on it’s not even a big joint to lose customers in). My friend said the stew was good but can’t say that I tried it.

Just ate here and the phở is horrible. I ordered the chicken phở and the broth did not have the phở taste to it and also had a weird after taste to it. The noodle itself had a bleach smell to it. Only thing good there was the grilled lemongrass chicken skewer. I came here thinking it would be good cause of the good reviews I read on Unilocal.The egg rolls was ok not great. Also ordered the steam lemongrass clams. Clams was not fresh and broth also had a weird aftertaste.

Alright, let’s break it down:
Noodles ³⁄₅
Standard rice noodles but a bit too soft and overcooked in my opinion.
Broth ³⁄₅
Flavourful and not oily but they overdid it on the MSG! I had to down 2 glasses of water when I got home.
Beef Balls ⁴⁄₅
Bouncy with no gristle (always a bonus)
Extras ⁴⁄₅
All the good fixings (no lemon for lime substitute BS here!)
Spring Rolls ²⁄₅
The non-​standard ingredients caught our eye (taro, black mushroom) to try these bad boys but in the end they were over-​fried and hard. Although they do use the extra crispy spring roll skin that I love, it couldn’t save them from being less than mediocre.
This was my first time being back since they’ve renovated and moved to this new space. I’m glad they’ve upgraded to the bigger space but I don’t remember their broth being so packed with salt!

For the most part, every time I travel I try to get my viet fix when possible. I was staying near Davie Village and this place was way too close to my bnb.
Food: I had a bowl of bun with lemongrass chicken, fried egg roll with the usual fixins’. Also, decided to order myself some spring rolls and of course, some che for dessert. The bowl of bun was okay. I’ve definitely had better flavored chicken, but it wasn’t terrible. Meat quality was great, chicken was just a bit on the drier side for me. The portion was large, plenty of meat, veggies and vermicelli in the bowl. Spring rolls were okay, I wouldn’t get them again. Just mediocre, but I think it was just unnecessary since I wasn’t super hungry to begin with. I loved my Che. I watched the owner make it for me, so it was definitely fresh! He didn’t add a ton of ice, but instead added more red bean, etc. I was really happy with my che, because he also didn’t make it overly sweet like most places.
Service: Better than most Viet places. Maybe because a lot of the people dining here were not Vietnamese, so they have to provide better service? Not sure, but my waitress was attentive to me, constantly refilling my cold water and hot tea. The owner was sweet as well!
Price: Average price, large portions, good deal!
Overall: Good and authentic Viet food. Great service and fairly priced. If I’m ever in the area, I’ll definitely come back here.

The table was dirty and so were the tables around us. It was really off putting. The service was incredibly slow because there were only two people working.
The phở was atrociously small. The so called «regular» size here is a small at most places. Which makes the small here even smaller than… well. other places’ smalls. I digress. It was small, my extra noodles weren’t anywhere to be found, the soup was mirky and oily but not in a good way. There was barely any content in my bowl. The beef carpaccio was good but it came when I only had a few bites left of my phở. Even then I wasn’t satisfied nor was my friend. We went to Phở Goodness to get a sandwich since theirs is far superior. While waiting for our glorious sandwich, we decided it was time to call it quits on Phở Central and venture elsewhere next time a phở craving hit.
I’ve given this place so many tries and their inconsistent food quality, wait times, dirty tables etc just make it so difficult to want to return now. I’ve given it a fair shake and I left so disappointed that I’m giving up on it.

It was delicious and very inexpensive! Also it is very centrally located in the gay-​borhood. I love phở (and noodles) order a phở with the meats (no balls or tripe tho). It was perfect specially for a rainy day (any other day in Vancouver). Services was friendly as super quick

Best Vietnamese food in town period. Bonus is you can get extra noodles or beef balls or whatnot for any phở order.
The mango or papaya salad is to die for.
Staff are Vietnamese so you’re getting the real deal here. This new location just across from where they used to be is roomier and way nicer. Also, two HD TVs always have sports on so that’s a bonus.

Beef balls and rare beef soup — good broth but over-​salted and plenty of meat. Ok Price. $ 8.50 regular/​large bowl
Vietnamese cold coffee — good and strong $ 3.50
Smell of urine in the entire restaurant — surprised people did not even blink. Went into toilet area — stronger smell. ¹⁄₁₀ ratio of bleach to water !!! On a hot day, you can imagine an alley way smell. Décor was like an evening lounge — booths tight and claustrophobic.
Service was very spotty. Had to flag them down bc otherwise they did not even look in your direction, much less look at you. Expected a 15 percent tip, which I gave, but still was choked about it.
Asked for extra plate of bean sprouts etc and it came as a small pile and put in front of me. Smaller and less option than the original. Had to ask for extra limes — was brought 5 of ¼ pieces.
No napkins on tables and getting service was nearly impossible and the man and woman were flying around to different tables.
The coffee needed more liquid and condensed milk — the coffee itself was perfect!
Did not see any hot peppers in oil on any table, only hoisin and sirarcha sauce
Would not order beef balls again — maybe my palate was not used to it… consistency of hard liver and tasted a little like it.
The beef was plenty and great. Portions in general good.
Menu is too large, so may not be fresh unless ordering the staple– Phở
Expected to see some green onions in broth and did not, just regular onion a few pieces here and there.
Great vermicelli noodles.
Total $ 14 w tip

Bright, new, clean, sloooooow
Took a while to get our food and the server was telling us it’s a slow night for them.
They would get 4 stars as the phở was FANTASTIC, the service tho was so so, so I’m taking one back. I’m happy to see a local place make it to the big leagues from a quaint little place.

Compared 2 (2.5 star) phở places, literally right next door to each other, it came down to Phở Central having a website. Upon getting here, to our delight, there was a wait, so that was our first good sign.
And just an FYI for you non-​Canadians, they call fried egg rolls, «Spring rolls». Where as what I usually call «Spring rolls» in rice paper are called, «Salad Rolls».weird. Either way, the fried eggs rolls weren’t good, and were super doughy.
The Phở Dac Biet (everything) was fantastic though. Also gave large servings of meat and tendon, etc.
There was some inconsistency in service, where I believe that may be where the 2.5 stars stems from? Either way, delicious.