(650) 697-4210
Parking: street parking
Last Visited: June 21, 2015
Food: 2 to 3 stars
Atmosphere: 2 to 3 stars
Service: 2 to 3 stars
Price: $ to $$
Pho is usually pretty decent, and I was hoping that since Hoa Ky often seems busy, it might also be pretty good, but unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed. Service was worse than most Asian places which means it was pretty poor. We waited a while for someone to come take our order and it took the kitchen a fairly long time to get food to us (pho is usually super fast since it's about assembly of ingredients in the bowl and adding broth, but here, the kitchen took a very long time). Also, the tea tasted funny - I can't pinpoint what was wrong, but I can tell you it tasted off - how can you mess up the tea?
The atmosphere is very casual with menus and photos of various dishes found on the table under the plastic tabletops.
- Special Combo (with rare slices of steak, well-done flank, tendon, tripe, and beef ball) - I found the meat quality to be fair - although it came rare, it wasn't very good quality and you can taste it. The soup flavor was ok though - not bad, not great. Although there were the usual items in the accompanying condiments plate such as jalapeno, bean sprouts, cilantro, and lemon, it was noticeable that the thai basil was missing.
- Imperial rolls (3) - Filled with ground pork and glass noodles and served with a lettuce cup, cold rice noodles, carrots, green onions, peanuts, and dipping sauce, these were pretty good. They were hot and crispy right out of the deep fryer and tasted very fresh. The presentation could have been better - many restaurants put something in the dipping sauce to make it more appealing looking so that it doesn't look like a bowl of colored water. Although the prices are very reasonable, considering that there are other pho places on the same street and nearby neighborhood, I can't in good conscience recommend this place except perhaps getting the imperial rolls since they were ok.
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