Pho King Noodle House Oakland

Above and below: grilled beef over vermicelli noodle from our 11/9/18 visit.

Above: grilled pork & shrimp cake over vermicelli; below Spring Rolls made with shrimp & thin sliced roast pork with in-house made peanut sauce (house made chile oil just off camera). All of these dishes are the best versions I've ever had.

Above: Chicken Soup with wide noodles. Below: Crab Soup with Udon Noodle. (7/23/18)

Please note that Pho King is moving in mid-August 2018 to their new location, a few blocks north, next to Lucky.

Hadn't been to Pho King in a while. Been missing the roasted quail, basted with 5 spice.

You can see we got some of that incredible Vietnamese Iced Coffee.

Pickled cabbage that came with the quail.

Here's a first: spring rolls at Pho King. That peanut sauce was made in-house, I'd swear, definitely not off a Sysco truck. Sublime spring rolls with a bit of pork slice.

Beef Stew, then Beef Short Ribs. Absolutely sublime.

If there's a better Vietnamese restaurant around here, someone please tell me about it. We've been here before and were blown away. Usually there's a pretty long wait to get in, but we showed up during the mellow dead zone between lunch and dinner. When we walked in, we could smell the beef stock, star anise, ginger, chiles and other wonderful aromas.

Whenever I see one of these, a jar of fermented dark chiles in oil, I know what's coming is going to be good.

Quail roasted, likely lightly brushed with soy sauce.

Note the pickled cabbage & carrot. The quail was perfectly cooked, crispy skin, very tender, succulent, & juicy meat.

Last item listed under "Bun," this wide noodle dish was a mix of elements I'd never encountered in a Vietnamese restaurant. Onion, cilantro, roasted peanut, pork rib, shrimp, bacon, noodle, and a broth that was probably chicken based with spices, garlic and ginger.

Oh yeah, plus served with a rice & sesame cracker.

Robin ordered Beef Round Pho. Deep & soulful. The spices practically bellowed for attention, star anise above all. Easy to imagine this as Royal cuisine.

Best Pho broth I've ever tasted.

Oh yeah, so I positioned the three meats on top of the cracker so you can see them. Shrimp, bacon and very tender pork rib on the bone.

That Pho: all about the broth, IMHO.

There's a lot of small bones in quail.

As an afterthought, we decided to get some Vietnamese Coffee, even though 4:30 is pretty late in the day for me. I'm glad we did--these folks must have their own special source, because talk about high quality, freshly roasted & ground dark roast. Normally, I don't have high expectations for Vietnamese coffee as most of their beans are Robusta, but who knows? Maybe these guys get Arabica? Seriously, this is probably the best coffee drink I've ever had in the Bay Area, and way, way better than any Vietnamese Coffee I've had anywhere. 

http://www.pho.com/oakland-ca/pho-king