Phorage

I've been here a couple times and will continue to partake in homely style Vietnamese. The quality of everything is a notch above the rest. While everything comes out fresh, I have to say their Pho lacks flavor, compared to rivals. It's unfortunate because it's just so fresh and beautiful. I do applaud their to-go containers. Simply the best I've ever seen. Continues to keep everything fresh even after Door-Dash delays your order beyond recognition.

2 stars for this experience. We’ve been here before and really enjoyed the food, a bit pricey, but obviously worth it for us to repeat. However, this time we rang in for a pickup order and were essentially denied. Buckle up for this one. Their own website states 11a-10p, Google Maps says until 9:30p, so we decided a call at 9:07p would suffice, cause we hungry. The unlucky fellow who answered the phone, had to play middle man with the kitchen while trying to explain to me why the kitchen was already closed, but he wasn’t sure why it was closed and thought maybe ordering online would work, but not over the phone, cause…ya. When reaffirmed that the closing time posted was at the earliest 9:30p, he responded with “ya, we need to fix that, the kitchen closes at 9:15.” Again I explained that it was 9:07p and inquired if that would be enough time for a pickup order, and sadly was answered with “ya, it would be better to come tomorrow.” No, it would not be, we hungry tonight. Listen I don’t mind closing earlier for whatever reasons, heck even lie and tell me you ran out of food. I worked food and hospitality for years, it’s tiring and taken for granted. But the strange confusion of whether or not you are closed (during stated open hours), with unclear communication about the finality of closure and dismissal of how unusual and unhelpful the conversation was led us to blatantly exclaim that we will not be returning tomorrow, or soon at all. We’ll probably go back, but goodness I hope they figure out if they’ll be open when it happens.

I decided to try this place out and they are currently only doing to-go orders. I ended up getting their Jidori Chicken Broken Rice Bowl, Pho Birria de Res, and a Thai Tea Boba. The Jidori Chicken Broken Rice Bowl was simple and had a good amount of chicken with rice and some veggies on the side paired with a sweet fish sauce. It was simple, but tasty and straightforward. I kinda wished that it had some more herbs and veggies to lighten the overall meal. The Pho Birria de Res was very interesting since it is a fusion between the Mexican stewed broth with Vietnamese pho. I really like the concept, but the broth itself was a bit lacking in flavor and was missing depth. The rice noodles that it came with were a bit too clumped up together as well and took a bit of reheating to get it to separate. The veggies that it came with was shredded cabbage and jalapeños with plenty of limes to brighten the dish. It's an intriguing dish, but can be executed better. The Thai Tea Boba was decent. The tapioca pearls were a little bit tough, but not too bad. Not the best boba that I have had, but alright. Hopefully when they are able to open back up for dine-in the quality will improve.

Food is ok but customer service is …odd and rather inconvenient and inconsiderate. We arrived for lunch in late April 2022 and they were only open for take out. We asked how long has it been this way and why not update google or their website?? The they said, and I quote “yeah we don’t update that. We’ve only had take out since vivid started. Lol. Uh ok. And then we asked how long for take out. They said oh about 20-30 min. Lol. So we went to the Vietnamese on Venice blvd 2 min away. Hate to be the one but really?? Good luck.

I have had the Chicken Pho and other dishes a bunch of times and keep coming back because its filling and has a clean flavor. The experience picking up though is really bad and enough to make me go elsewhere. The lobby is tiny and if there are multiple delivery app drivers waiting, it is a kill or be killed experience. People are always cutting, and if you wait outside due to covid, you will just wait forever. The cashier is so busy, they have no concept of who came in when, which invites conflict. Twice I have had to put people in their place verbally. If this place was better organized, they could mitigate this.