Pho Sam

Totally a different place than previous owner. The restaurant is much cleaner and brighter. The food is good and the service is very good as well.

So clean and friendly. All our food was so healthy and delicious. New owners with years of restaurant experience are adding to menu. Loved the spring rolls

Delicious food at very reasonable prices. I will definitely make a point to come here whenever I find myself in San Ramon. Thanks, Pho Sam!

The chicken noodle soup is fantastic. Also, the spring roles are the best I've ever had. Very welcoming atmosphere.

Excellent soup base, not oily yet naturally flavourful! Great meat cut, and fresh veggie with no black dot in leaves, lots lime and hot green peppers I can take home! Large portion too, M serve me good! Quick food speed, nice shaded outdoor seating. My co-worker yelled at me at the end of the meal cuz we have different opinion on covid, leaving a sour taste, but I will be back for sure!

+1

Excellent food. Great atmosphere. Huge improvement with this new ownership!!

A small place, yet big in taste pho place. The soups, rice, and vermicelli plates/bowls are made to order and there is lots to eat. The coffee/teas are also a treat

Thu was so sweet! Would recommend eating here. 10/10 food, atmosphere and hospitality!

Amazing pho and banh xeo! Long was so kind and really on top of our needs as customers! (Ate the pho before a photo could be taken but trust it was good size and so good!)

Great food at a reasonable price! I got the veggie spring rolls, banh mi sandwich and pho. You can call ahead and pick up your order and it was quite busy when I went in (which is a good thing!)

+1

Under new management, Delicious pho and a good Vietnamese coffee. This will be my go to in my neighborhood

4.5. Pho is outstanding, slightly sweet broth and fresh meat cuts. Service and dining experience is meh.

Me and my husband love this place! The food is delicious and the broth will warm your soul! Any order and combo of pho you get will be amazing. Run by such an incredible and welcoming family that remembers you, chats with you, and always gives you fantastic service. Also don’t forget to grab a Vietnamese coffee on your way out!

Great food, presentation and service. Love the Avocado milkshake, not very sweet - just the way I like it. Hard working friendly owners, greeted everyone and thank them with gratitude. Will definitely go back again. Next time will try Pho.

Pho Sam is one of those spots in San Ramon that you must try when you are craving a big, cozy bowl of pho. It has a super chill, casual vibe, clean tables, fast service, and that amazing smell of broth as soon as you walk in. The pho tastes like real comfort food, with broth that is rich and full of flavor, not watered down. The portions are generous, they give you plenty of meat and noodles, plus a huge pile of basil, lime, jalapeños, and bean sprouts so you can load it up exactly how you like. They also have all really good rice plates, and spring rolls. What makes it even better is how fast everything is. You sit down, order, and your food comes out quickly, making it an easy choice for a quick lunch, weeknight dinner, or takeout which is perfect if you don’t feel like cooking. It is the kind of restaurant you keep going back to whenever you want simple, really good Vietnamese food that hits the spot every time.

Absolutely hidden gem located in San Ramon ! After moving from San Jose with some of the best Pho restaurants Iv been dying to find a new restaurant to scratch that itch Pho Sam has definitely done that and more apparently they have gone under new ownership And they are killing it! The meat was fresh the broth was flavorful And the staff was so friendly! Would definitely come back!

Food is good, everything nice and friendly love it 👍

Excellent and authentic food. Very delicious ! Highly recommend !

Sal M

Great food, presentation and service. Love the Avocado milkshake, not very sweet - just the way I like it. Hard working friendly owners, greeted everyone and thank them with gratitude. Will definitely go back again. Next time will try Pho.

Crystal Schannon

Pho Sam is one of those spots in San Ramon that you must try when you are craving a big, cozy bowl of pho. It has a super chill, casual vibe, clean tables, fast service, and that amazing smell of broth as soon as you walk in. The pho tastes like real comfort food, with broth that is rich and full of flavor, not watered down. The portions are generous, they give you plenty of meat and noodles, plus a huge pile of basil, lime, jalapeños, and bean sprouts so you can load it up exactly how you like. They also have all really good rice plates, and spring rolls. What makes it even better is how fast everything is. You sit down, order, and your food comes out quickly, making it an easy choice for a quick lunch, weeknight dinner, or takeout which is perfect if you don’t feel like cooking. It is the kind of restaurant you keep going back to whenever you want simple, really good Vietnamese food that hits the spot every time.

Jonathan Lucia

Absolutely hidden gem located in San Ramon ! After moving from San Jose with some of the best Pho restaurants Iv been dying to find a new restaurant to scratch that itch Pho Sam has definitely done that and more apparently they have gone under new ownership And they are killing it! The meat was fresh the broth was flavorful And the staff was so friendly! Would definitely come back!

Diana G

Excellent and authentic food. Very delicious ! Highly recommend !

Jonathan

Food is good, everything nice and friendly love it 👍

What a delightful place for a meal. The owners are such gracious hosts with great conversation and constant free drinks like milk tea and hot tea. The food was delicious and recommend a visit.

This review is long overdue! A couple of weeks ago, my family was feeling under the weather during the rainy days, and a friend recommended Pho Sam. I'm so glad we listened. We ordered two soups, a chicken Vietnamese sandwich, chicken with vermicelli noodles, and fresh shrimp rolls. Everything was absolutely delicious and full of flavor. This was exactly the kind of comforting food we needed. We’ll definitely be back!

Fantastic pho and Vietnamese grilled chicken, shrimp and beef over rice with healthy flavorful vegetables! Delicious flavor and generous portions. The service was outstanding—warm, attentive, and friendly. One of the best pho spots we’ve tried. This was our first time and we’ll definitely be regulars now. Highly recommend!

My husband and I went to Pho Sam for the first time today. I immediately loved the quiet atmosphere. The background music, decor, artwork, flowers, and video screen with Koi were beautifully cohesive in this intimate Vietnamese cuisine restaurant. The service was friendly and professional. The crepe was so good as was the Pho with beef broth. The vegetables were fresh and tasty. The additional lime wedges and sauces for seasoning were perfect. Great location and plenty of free parking. Perfect for singles, couples or families.

Jeanette Kislanka

This review is long overdue! A couple of weeks ago, my family was feeling under the weather during the rainy days, and a friend recommended Pho Sam. I'm so glad we listened. We ordered two soups, a chicken Vietnamese sandwich, chicken with vermicelli noodles, and fresh shrimp rolls. Everything was absolutely delicious and full of flavor. This was exactly the kind of comforting food we needed. We’ll definitely be back!

Adina Solomon

Fantastic pho and Vietnamese grilled chicken, shrimp and beef over rice with healthy flavorful vegetables! Delicious flavor and generous portions. The service was outstanding—warm, attentive, and friendly. One of the best pho spots we’ve tried. This was our first time and we’ll definitely be regulars now. Highly recommend!

Anthony Leidelmeyer

What a delightful place for a meal. The owners are such gracious hosts with great conversation and constant free drinks like milk tea and hot tea. The food was delicious and recommend a visit.

stephen cordellos

Delicious food at very reasonable prices. I will definitely make a point to come here whenever I find myself in San Ramon. Thanks, Pho Sam!

K Young

My husband and I went to Pho Sam for the first time today. I immediately loved the quiet atmosphere. The background music, decor, artwork, flowers, and video screen with Koi were beautifully cohesive in this intimate Vietnamese cuisine restaurant. The service was friendly and professional. The crepe was so good as was the Pho with beef broth. The vegetables were fresh and tasty. The additional lime wedges and sauces for seasoning were perfect. Great location and plenty of free parking. Perfect for singles, couples or families.

Laurel Ritter

So clean and friendly. All our food was so healthy and delicious. New owners with years of restaurant experience are adding to menu. Loved the spring rolls

Used to come here all the time. Food is excellent, Service is prompt, Price is reasonable. Have never had a bad experience here.

Was close by and went here during lunch. Pho is always good on a cold day. The place is small so our party of two waited a bit. Only one guy handling all the tasks and he was very efficient given the situation. I tried the large pho combination. It's comparable to other Pho places in the area. The sprouts didn't look as fresh as other places. I will come back to try other items in the menu. The seafood fried noodle looks pretty good.

This was our first visit since the change of ownership. Although the taste is different from before, overall, both the food and the service were excellent. We will definitely come back.

Ordered Pho for lunch, XL size was decently priced. I think the broth might be a little bit more msg. Friendly staff though .

Mao N

Ordered Pho for lunch, XL size was decently priced. I think the broth might be a little bit more msg. Friendly staff though .

I was craving my favorite pho today, and, upon arrival, discovered that ownership had changed. We have been going to Pho Sam for more years than I can remember. From out first visit, our go to order has been the #21 (rare beef and beef ball pho) and the pork banh mi sandwich. We have raved about the broth to anyone who would listen. Unfortunately, the pho is not as good as before. The broth is oily, and has no depth of flavor. The quantity of meat is paltry, and the clumpy noodles were hard to eat. The banh mi was also a disappointment. More bread than filling. The service was good (hence the 3 star rating) so I hope the new owners can find their way, but until then we won't be back.

Unfortunately, the owners have changed. I used to frequent this place a lot with my wife and the man knew our order over the phone and would joke with us a lot. The broth isn't as rich. It's fine, but from what I was used to, it's not the same. The tables used to have the menus under a glass panel, tables all have little holes where the glass was secured under.

Toni Baur

I was craving my favorite pho today, and, upon arrival, discovered that ownership had changed. We have been going to Pho Sam for more years than I can remember. From out first visit, our go to order has been the #21 (rare beef and beef ball pho) and the pork banh mi sandwich. We have raved about the broth to anyone who would listen. Unfortunately, the pho is not as good as before. The broth is oily, and has no depth of flavor. The quantity of meat is paltry, and the clumpy noodles were hard to eat. The banh mi was also a disappointment. More bread than filling. The service was good (hence the 3 star rating) so I hope the new owners can find their way, but until then we won't be back.

David Allen

Unfortunately, the owners have changed. I used to frequent this place a lot with my wife and the man knew our order over the phone and would joke with us a lot. The broth isn't as rich. It's fine, but from what I was used to, it's not the same. The tables used to have the menus under a glass panel, tables all have little holes where the glass was secured under.

The egg roll appetizer was underwhelming and seemed like they came from the frozen section of an Asian supermarket. Ordered the shrimp and beef vermicelli dish. The shrimp was crispy but not fresh. The beef was dry, under marinated and had a an unexpectedly sour taste. We went here based on the Google ratings and left disappointed.

Under new management, the broth recipe has changed drastically and lacks the depth of flavor that this restaurant once proudly served. The warmth and familiarity of the previous staff is also gone.

Been coming here for the last 12+. I'm not the most memorable person, but somehow they always remembered my order on the phone or in person. Anyways, not sure if it’s new owners or what, but at least it’s a different staff in the front and back. Some of the items were not available, like the banh xeo. Food is pretty bland. The pho soup based didn’t have much of flavor. Even the peanut sauce for the spring roll just tasted like water down peanut butter. We got a lot of noodles in the pho, not so much meat. The eggroll was surprisingly tasty. Pricing is still good for the area, and we might come back to see if the flavor improves or not.

Michael Chang

Used to be my go to. New ownership, small portion, less meat and pho noodle. The large size bowl is about medium elsewhere, maybe not even. The bowl is shallow resulting in a thin layer of soup, not hot enough to cook the veggies even. Owner is super nice, talked about how she uses the bone broth etc. take it for what it’s worth. A lot of other options in the tri-valley area

Alan Kwan

Been coming here for the last 12+. I'm not the most memorable person, but somehow they always remembered my order on the phone or in person. Anyways, not sure if it’s new owners or what, but at least it’s a different staff in the front and back. Some of the items were not available, like the banh xeo. Food is pretty bland. The pho soup based didn’t have much of flavor. Even the peanut sauce for the spring roll just tasted like water down peanut butter. We got a lot of noodles in the pho, not so much meat. The eggroll was surprisingly tasty. Pricing is still good for the area, and we might come back to see if the flavor improves or not.

I usually don’t like leaving negative reviews for local restaurants, but I had a strange experience here. There was an unusual smell in the restaurant — at first, I thought it might be from the broth or something in the kitchen, but the longer I sat, the more it resembled an unwashed, musty odor. While the food itself was good, the smell was so off-putting that I couldn’t enjoy my meal. I’m not sure what caused it or if it was just a one-time issue, but unfortunately, it left a strong enough impression that I wouldn’t return.

PLEASE -- AVOID THIS PLACE. I'm pretty sure many of these reviews are not genuine. This is the second time I ordered from them. First time, they served me shrimp rolls that had gone bad. I didn't bother complaining because I thought it was a fluke and just one dish had gone bad out of 5. I didn't want to bother. However, I ordered from them again (huge mistake) because the one I usually go to was closed. I ordered vegetable noodle soup, vegetable spring rolls, and chicken rice here tonight and went in to pick it up. First of all, the place is FILTHY (first time going into the restaurant vs. delivery) -- I was appalled. The bok choy in the noodle soup was yellow and wilted, rubbery, and tasted awful (see pic next to jalapeño for color reference). The tofu in the soup had turned and gone bad, and the tofu in the spring roll has also gone bad. I called to complain and the rude owner did not care and claimed there was nothing wrong with the food and hung up on me. Restaurants with poor quality control like this is how one can get food poisoning. There are better places near by including the one across the street from them. Food is better there and owners are much friendlier.

Please do yourself a favor and AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS. The waiter wreaked of alcohol and the place was dead…. I wouldn’t want anyone like that handling my food. I didn’t read to reviews prior to going but then as I ordered and sat there for a sec went through the reviews I had to make my way out. Don’t be that person try something else!

New ownership, broth is bland, portions are smaller. Not like when LD and his family ran the place. We tried twice to like this place but we're disappointed both times.

This used to be my favorite Pho spot to go to, I was a regular when it was owned by Long and his parents. It's under new ownership now and the quality has left the building. They used to have the best broth, homemade and full of flavor.

DO NOT COME. I wish I read Elle Davis' review before I ordered. First, I used to be a regular customer of Pho Sam... a few years back. Today my sudden urge to eat Vietnamese food made us decide to return to this place and we ordered banh mi and kho (dry noodle). First, the noodle was horrible: the peanuts were stale, making the entire dish taste stale; also, the grilled port bits so so tiny that I cannot use the word "piece" to describe, the port portion is roughly 1/4 of the pork portion of the other vietnamese restaurants nearby and there wasn't enough vege in this kho dish. With a price range similar to nearby competitors, this dish value is FAILED. Now the banh mi sandwich. It was smaller than that of the other vietnamese restaurants; it was dry (not much sauce typically in most banh mi), bread a bit stale, not much vege, at least the meat portion is decent (better than the dry noodle). The staleness was the biggest disappointment. I understand there is keen competition around this area due to increased food options, but there is no excuse of using stale products and cut the portion size but still maintain high prices. This will only drive the customers away. I would not return to this restaurant ever again. I do hope the owner can learn the importance of retaining customers.

Again, as others have said, new ownership. Really don’t like whatever they did. Food came out and the portions are way way smaller and more expensive. Also found the broth for the chicken soup to be a severe downgrade in depth of flavor. Hardly any chicken or noodles in the medium. I was a steadfast regular of the old shop, but time to try other places going forward.

Do not go! NEW OWNERSHIP! The pho is not good. There is no taste and lacked seasoning. I went with my gf and we both looked at each other and were questioning whether there was any beef broth or was it just boiled water. Also, the portions are now smaller at an increased price with a lack of napkins and cleanliness. I ordered my regular combination pho and I noticed there wasn’t any tendon in it too. They do not have a credit card system set up yet, so expect to pay via Venmo or Zelle or cash. I was a regular under the previous ownership. The owners were always funny and the food was consistently good! I always felt like the pho was handcrafted and homemade. Sad to see them leave and happy retirement to them! Regulars and new customers you have been warned! 😔

NEW OWNERSHIP: the pho is not good. My husband and I have loved coming here over the past year, but we were shocked to walk in and find that the restaurant is under new ownership and a completely new establishment. The pho broth isn’t great and the portions are now smaller at an increased price. I got a pretty severe migraine shortly after eating, which means the new menu contains MSG. I never had this issue before with eating at Pho Sam under the original owners. The new owner confirmed that the food is not from the same menu or Pho Sam’s original recipes. They do not have a credit card system set up yet, so expect to pay via Venmo or Zelle only. We will really miss the original owners as they were always so kind and the pho delicious. Wishing them well, they truly were a local gem.

Jordan Murray

Again, as others have said, new ownership. Really don’t like whatever they did. Food came out and the portions are way way smaller and more expensive. Also found the broth for the chicken soup to be a severe downgrade in depth of flavor. Hardly any chicken or noodles in the medium. I was a steadfast regular of the old shop, but time to try other places going forward.

Andrew Misuta

Do not go! NEW OWNERSHIP! The pho is not good. There is no taste and lacked seasoning. I went with my gf and we both looked at each other and were questioning whether there was any beef broth or was it just boiled water. Also, the portions are now smaller at an increased price with a lack of napkins and cleanliness. I ordered my regular combination pho and I noticed there wasn’t any tendon in it too. They do not have a credit card system set up yet, so expect to pay via Venmo or Zelle or cash. I was a regular under the previous ownership. The owners were always funny and the food was consistently good! I always felt like the pho was handcrafted and homemade. Sad to see them leave and happy retirement to them! Regulars and new customers you have been warned! 😔

Stephanie Nishi

NEW OWNERSHIP: the pho is not good. My husband and I have loved coming here over the past year, but we were shocked to walk in and find that the restaurant is under new ownership and a completely new establishment. The pho broth isn’t great and the portions are now smaller at an increased price. I got a pretty severe migraine shortly after eating, which means the new menu contains MSG. I never had this issue before with eating at Pho Sam under the original owners. The new owner confirmed that the food is not from the same menu or Pho Sam’s original recipes. They do not have a credit card system set up yet, so expect to pay via Venmo or Zelle only. We will really miss the original owners as they were always so kind and the pho delicious. Wishing them well, they truly were a local gem.

E Y

DO NOT COME. I wish I read Elle Davis' review before I ordered. First, I used to be a regular customer of Pho Sam... a few years back. Today my sudden urge to eat Vietnamese food made us decide to return to this place and we ordered banh mi and kho (dry noodle). First, the noodle was horrible: the peanuts were stale, making the entire dish taste stale; also, the grilled port bits so so tiny that I cannot use the word "piece" to describe, the port portion is roughly 1/4 of the pork portion of the other vietnamese restaurants nearby and there wasn't enough vege in this kho dish. With a price range similar to nearby competitors, this dish value is FAILED. Now the banh mi sandwich. It was smaller than that of the other vietnamese restaurants; it was dry (not much sauce typically in most banh mi), bread a bit stale, not much vege, at least the meat portion is decent (better than the dry noodle). The staleness was the biggest disappointment. I understand there is keen competition around this area due to increased food options, but there is no excuse of using stale products and cut the portion size but still maintain high prices. This will only drive the customers away. I would not return to this restaurant ever again. I do hope the owner can learn the importance of retaining customers.