Went for breakfast on a weekday. We grabbed our own menus and sat ourselves. It took a while for the server to attend us. She didn't seem interested. The menu is large with a lot of pictures and descriptions. I ordered the bahn mi, crab rangoon, and firecracker shrimp. The food took a while to come out. The sandwich was good, but too dry. The bread was crusty and warm. It had a decent amount of filling. There wasn't much pate. The crab rangoon were ok. The wrapper was chewy, a little flaky, and the filling too sweet. The firecracker shrimp were nice but too rich to eat more than one. May return.

If you’ve read my other reviews, you know I can eat quite a bit, but I was genuinely impressed by the portion sizes at this restaurant. The Pho, which is packed with meat and noodles, was so generous that I couldn’t finish it during my last visit—something that rarely happens to me. I usually stick to the basic Pho Ga (Chicken), but I've also tried their craft drinks and appetizers, all of which have been delicious. I particularly enjoy their spring rolls and egg rolls. The spring rolls come with eight shrimp divided between two rolls, making them a standout as particularly large.

The staff is consistently friendly, and the prices are quite reasonable—perhaps even lower than other Pho spots around Des Moines. My only minor complaints are the lack of refillable fountain drinks (soda can be pricey) and the absence of accessible nutritional information on the menu or website. Given Pho's generally low calorie count, highlighting this could be beneficial for health-conscious diners like myself. In either case, I'll definitely be back sometime and encourage you all to try it if you haven't.

All of the food has been good, but what has impressed me most is their homemade sauces. Amazing every time

Great Viet food in a no frills atmosphere. Got the shrimp spring roll and pho with rare steak and meatballs. Spring rolls were pretty good, would prefer them cut in half. Pho broth was very rich, meat was good. Would recommend.

Best Pho in Des Moines, and best we have had in Iowa. Service can be slow, and the brisket is fatty. Otherwise phenomenal.

Can’t believe I haven’t written a review for this place yet!

Food:
Their pho is definitely
the best in Des Moines. They give a generous amount of meat/protein and their broth is flavorful.

Service:
Nothing special - they take your order, give you your food, skip the small talk and that’s ok! everyone is different

Atmosphere:
Place is outdated, booths are ripped, and tables are bent out of shape. Lots of seating. Not the cleanest place but sometimes that’s how you know a place be bussin’ (definitely not the case for all places lol)

$30 for 1 large pho tai, and 1 regular pho tai bo vien

Restaurant was very dirty, the tables are all worn out and the colors are coming off. The seats were some what overused and ripped. The waiter wasn't too friendly...she just seated us and then came back within a few minutes to take out order and gave us a look like she was in a hurry and that we should just pick something or place our order quick.

Overall the food was okay, the pho has somewhat of a flavor but I think it was a little too beefy for my liking. Egg rolls were good and crispy.

Food is amazing. Gigantic portions. Location is scary and misleading. Will make you think that you are about to die of food poisoning. Far from it, clean kitchen, delicious food. Good price. Service is neither good nor bad.

Best Pho in Des Moines, and best we have had in Iowa. Service can be slow, and the brisket is fatty. Otherwise phenomenal.

Great Viet food in a no frills atmosphere. Got the shrimp spring roll and pho with rare steak and meatballs. Spring rolls were pretty good, would prefer them cut in half. Pho broth was very rich, meat was good. Would recommend.

Went for breakfast on a weekday. We grabbed our own menus and sat ourselves. It took a while for the server to attend us. She didn't seem interested. The menu is large with a lot of pictures and descriptions. I ordered the bahn mi, crab rangoon, and firecracker shrimp. The food took a while to come out. The sandwich was good, but too dry. The bread was crusty and warm. It had a decent amount of filling. There wasn't much pate. The crab rangoon were ok. The wrapper was chewy, a little flaky, and the filling too sweet. The firecracker shrimp were nice but too rich to eat more than one. May return.

Best Pho in the metro.

Been going here since I was a kid! Amazing food as always.

Great food and customer service

Best Pad Thai and Pho

Employees super chill food was great environment was great.

Great place.. dishes are good and they fill your belly. Downside is that the food sometimes takes for ever to arrive..

Ask for tip or they just over charge you lol.we came in once and had to wait 20 mins to get our menu. Seem like They prioritize white people first. And the lady with the stupid hair color always has an attitude but the gentleman in his 50s (I think ) is very nice and deserves all the tips.

Food is amazing. Gigantic portions. Location is scary and misleading. Will make you think that you are about to die of food poisoning. Far from it, clean kitchen, delicious food. Good price. Service is neither good nor bad.

They never miss. I love this restaurant.

i came today and waited to order at the table but no water and to order i went to the counter to order my food myself but waited a long time still no food and no drinks but the next people who came got drinks really unacceptable i have been here many times but this is the last time i will never come back too bad for the service staff

The pho was a decent price for the amount and it helped me recover from a cold.

2nd

If you’ve read my other reviews, you know I can eat quite a bit, but I was genuinely impressed by the portion sizes at this restaurant. The Pho, which is packed with meat and noodles, was so generous that I couldn’t finish it during my last visit—something that rarely happens to me. I usually stick to the basic Pho Ga (Chicken), but I've also tried their craft drinks and appetizers, all of which have been delicious. I particularly enjoy their spring rolls and egg rolls. The spring rolls come with eight shrimp divided between two rolls, making them a standout as particularly large.

The staff is consistently friendly, and the prices are quite reasonable—perhaps even lower than other Pho spots around Des Moines. My only minor complaints are the lack of refillable fountain drinks (soda can be pricey) and the absence of accessible nutritional information on the menu or website. Given Pho's generally low calorie count, highlighting this could be beneficial for health-conscious diners like myself. In either case, I'll definitely be back sometime and encourage you all to try it if you haven't.

Nice boba

Best Banh Mi in town 🩶

The food is great and the atmosphere is good to. I had phone rare beef with jasmine tea.

Can’t believe I haven’t written a review for this place yet!

Food:
Their pho is definitely
the best in Des Moines. They give a generous amount of meat/protein and their broth is flavorful.

Service:
Nothing special - they take your order, give you your food, skip the small talk and that’s ok! everyone is different

Atmosphere:
Place is outdated, booths are ripped, and tables are bent out of shape. Lots of seating. Not the cleanest place but sometimes that’s how you know a place be bussin’ (definitely not the case for all places lol)

$30 for 1 large pho tai, and 1 regular pho tai bo vien

Been craving it! Fresh is all I got!

foods is good, they gave you a lot ,reasonable price, but place is not clean, and the staff is not friendly.

The beef noodles are delicious, and the Thai milk tea is also delicious. But the hygiene here is worrying, the toilet is very dirty, and there is thick dust everywhere! It would be great if you could pay more attention to the sanitation of the environment!

Have good food, seemed like price has gone up quite a bit. Took my grandson there to have lunch and was doing fine until a big old cockroach come crawling down the wall in our booth, enough we left.

Loved the food, but the floors were sticky. I don't like that.

Food is pretty good, yes, but it’s hard to enjoy it when the place is filthy. Light fixtures had a thick layer of dust, condiments, floor, and table were sticky, and don’t even think about going to the bathroom. Yikes.

All of the food has been good, but what has impressed me most is their homemade sauces. Amazing every time

Love it need it want

They are a little slow, but food is great!

Good facility for purchasing cigars, in Yborg City, Tampa. Go in, friendly owner, as she helps people to rest or make their purchases

Second time there food is good I'm Mexican but love Asian food so always going out for dinner if food is good we go back if not satisfied never return,
I'll recommend you to anyone go and try it it's great food

3/14/24
Grilled pork and egg roll bun was fantastic! Service wasn't great but they were understaffed and apologized, so it was fine.

Older
Revamped menu is fantastic! The pork bahn mi and pork/shrimp/egg roll bun were great and service was good too.

Place was a bit old, staff shortage was noticeable on a weekend as food took quite a while to prepare, but my egg roll and grilled pork Bun Cha was fantastic.

Has and always will be a family favorite for over a decade. Majority of us all now live out of state, but we always come back to visit the ones remaining, and make sure we get to Pho88 for a great authentic Vietnamese family dinner. Thank you!

Yes. You should eat here.
We come here all the time because it’s consistently the tastiest and most authentic pho we can find in the Des Moines area. You won’t be impressed by the building, but the food more than makes up for it. Some of my favorite places to eat aren’t much to look at, but I’m not going there to look around, I’m going for food. You may even feel like you been plucked out of the Midwest and plopped down in a restaurant somewhere in Vietnam or at least on the West Coast. I like the vegetable pho and Lemongrass Vermicelli with tofu (not on the menu anymore, but they can still make it). They load up the pho with all kinds of veggies, a richly flavored broth and fresh crisp bean sprouts, Thai basil, jalapeños, lime wedges and culantro (yes culantro, not cilantro) to top it off.
Remember to use your chopsticks and spoon together. Noodles will slip right off your spoon, but you want a little broth with each bite.

The food used to be so much better, it's been about a year since last are here buy when we went 2/2/24 it was terrible. Service was horrible. Ordered 5 entrée and an appetizer, never got the app, only three of 5 entrée were brought so two of us didn't get to eat. Then they charged us for all 5 meals and simpl6 said "sorry" while shrugging their shoulders. Couldn't have cared less. The food wasn't even as good as it used to be, so now there's nothing that makes eating here worth while.

god awful service. we waited over 2 hours for our food. just for our server to come tell us that she completely forgot to tell us earlier that they ran out of noodles.

I wish I could give ZERO STARS. I visited this restaurant yesterday and order the Pho Tai. When they brought me the pho I noticed something odd in it. I pulled it out and it was a COCKROACH. the owner apologized and said that sometimes the roaches fly into the broth! To have a pest infestation that bad is outrages ! Completely unsanitary.

Best Vietnamese food in Des Moines (I've actually tried all the places)

Great place to get a bowl of pho and very big portions. There is also a variety of options available. Service was very good and on top of what you need. The thai tea was very good and the bubble tea was very good

The people are friendly, the food is okay not bad but nothing to write home about. The restaurant itself inside is as you can see from walking in the walls tables shades dust dirty. I don't know how they pass inspection.

Visiting Des Moine for 2 weeks. So far this is the best pho ( and all around food in general ) I've had here so far after 5 days.

Will definitely be coming back.

Vermicelli bowl was great. Beef pho broth was I'd say 4 out of 5 stars. The rare steak and tendon was OK.

Health inspector where are you ?

My favorite place to get pho.

Hard to beat their pho.

Food was very good hot and fresh, service that can't be beat been coming here for years hard to find good food but pho888 hits the spot every time

Always closing early. Great food but bad business, stay open for the time you say especially on a Saturday

Best PHO in DSM, hands down. I tried them all so you don't have to. You're welcome!

Everything amazing the best i recommend you to try Mhoca bubble tea 🧋 the best of the best no words 🤩🤯😍😅

Loved the Pho

Best pho I ever tried

The service was great. We had a table of 6. It was somewhat busy, I was the only one not having my food yet, I ordered a large pho, and it took a while, but it was worth the wait when I ate it. The chicken was a bit dry, but I was full and couldn't eat the rest of the chicken. Anyways, the quality of the food is 10/10. I will come by again to order a small chicken pho so my stomach doesn't have to be really full 😆

They close at 7pm. We showed up at 6:25 and they said they were only accepting carry out orders. Restaurant was full of people.

Quick service and tasty food at a reasonable price. Highly recommended!

We came for the pho but ordered sandwich and beef broccoli 🥦 😋 👍

Love the Phō 🍜

The inside of the restaurant was kind of dirty. The service was good but slow despite the restaurant being mostly empty. The crab rangoons we ordered as an appetizer were excellent, but neither my partner nor I was very happy with our pho. My tofu pho was ruined by terrible tofu; it tasted like it had been fried in dirty oil and smelled weirdly musty. My partner thought the beef in his pho was overcooked and flavorless. However, we got a lot of food for the price and the broth, noodles, and vegetables in both of our dishes might have been really good if it weren’t for the tofu/meat in them.

My first time eating here! Polite, fast, friendly service. The inside of the restaurant is cafeteria style, not fancy. The food makes up for that! Excellent! I'll be back. Bringing some friends next time!

Their pho is better than the other one in town. A little too greasy though

If your looking for an authentic Vietnamese food, this is your place. Good service, really good food and you're going to feel like eating with family at home 😁🥹

I enjoy their food! I absolutely love their lychee bobba! Could need an update in decor.

We Found a hair. Last time, I found someone’s bandage with blood in my pho, I didn’t get a picture of it. Dirty.

I've only been here one time; so, maybe it was just a bad day. They do speak English. The service was good. The food was okay. I got my food to go. There was a very bad, strong smell in the restaurant. I took my food home. The food had absorbed the smell, and it was very strong even in my home. I found it hard to eat because of the smell.

THE WORST RESTAURANT IVE BEEN TOO ITS SO DIRTY THE SERVICE WAS HORRIBLE DONT SPEAK ENGLISH WELL. RUSHED TO ORDER I GIVE THIS PLACE A 0000 ZERO WILL NEVER RETURN AND ILL BE SURE NO ONE I KNOW WILL WASTE THIER TIME OR MONEY ON THIS RESTAURANT............. NASTY RUDE (&#^^%%@&@&

Food was good but service and cleanliness not good. Price fair.

Pretty good service good 😁

Grateful nice service as usual and I brought a friend over and she said it was the best chicken soup she ever had.

Grilled shrimp vermicelli. Crab Rangoon. Pot stickers. Yummy!

Best place in the metro for Pho!

Great service. One of the best places to get pho in Des Moines.

Friendly staff, but it took a long time to get my Pad Thai, my friends finished their dish before the Pad Thai came out. The Pad Thai was okay, 2 out of 5.

Was there on busy sunday afternoon. Vibe of the place is good but service is average.

Crispy noodles and lomein : vegetables cuts were too big and sauce was ok

Bubble tea: worst bubble tea i ever had. Tapioca balls were chewy and tea was icy

Very nice family owned restaurant. Full disclosure that I work with a family member of the owners, but that doesn't detract from their Pho being phenomenal. Try it with a vietnamese coffee. You won't be disappointed.

Ramen shops were all closed and didn't want to wait half an hour... Walked in and saw cheap china buffet decor. Was thinking the food would be sub-par, but the staff didn't talk my ear off, got our food quickly. Food was great!

The food was really good. The only thing that was lacking was service.

So great! Food, service, atmosphere. Food though... is just amazing.

Delicious pho soup. Their banh mi sandwiches are amazing.

Unfriendly service and mediocre food. Would not recommend.

Dirty, horrible service, food good but not worth it when the person serving you sucks. Took way too long to get a simple drink and utensils.

Bad. Skip

Best pho in DSM metro area and it’s not even close imho.

Best menu around in this category.
Pho, spring rolls, pork chop, vermicelli 👍

Great place for pho in Des Moines! Chicken wing appetizer is also a must-super crispy with a sweet n sour dipping sauce. The pho broth is a perfect balance of beef/spices. The restaurant was little dirty and my water glass was questionable, but that will not deter me from delicious authentic food. Would come back again!

Best Pho in the area!

Best in town by far! Great pho, big menu for everyone and lots of things can be made vegetarian if needed.

They gave us pho instead of fried rice, I mean how could you even messed up fried rice with pho. Smh

Good food!!! Very authentic.

1st time there, won't be the last. It was great food. Lots of it and decent priced.

LOVE THIS PLACE! The food is so amazing! I will travel very far it! 🤤

I am Pho lover since 2018 when i taste for the first time i was like wow and i go there at PHO888 every month once or twice. Its a medicine to if you get common cold the hot soup will swipe all your cold and you will feel relief. Thanks

The food was amazing. The Boba is really special. I love this place. Thank you t my aunt.

Food was good, inexpensive and large portions. Floors under the tables were really dirty.

The food is exquisite, delicious, and filling.
The service though... meh.. it wasn't even busy. if it wasn't for the food I wouldn't be going back as often.

Great place to eat. Wide variety of Pho. Great Chinese food.

Know those places that look iffy but have the BEST food. This is one of those. Only place to go for pho!

Got pot stickers , and lo mein. Both delicious. Definitely coming back to try more items.

Must dine southeast Asian cuisine. One of the best. Just watch the waiter or waitress serving your pho make sure their thumbs are not swimming in the soup. Great food otherwise however slow service. We waited almost 30 minutes for food and it was not busy.

Some of the best Vietnamese in town

The food was pretty good and served a decent amount for the price paid. I personally really like their chicken fried rice and the Taro Boba. The service is not too attentive, but overall friendly. If you’re looking for a pho at a decent price I would recommend coming here. The pork spring rolls are really great too.

Best vietnamese I've had in the metro. Extremely good value.

I only care about the food. It was outstanding. Had rare beef Pho. Wow. I will be going back

Got my food to go and when I got in the car I realized there were bugs all over my food

I'm not Asian but my hubby is. His family is known for their pho... meaning I eat pho regularly and it is exceptional. This place is probably either #1 or #2 for the best pho I've had. It rivals my family's. If you haven't eaten here and you enjoy pho, you must! Your in for a treat.
Side note it's well know and busy but they have good fast service. We also tried the papaya salad, ban mi, vermicelli salad and their boba tea. All great.

The best pho I have had. Everywhere I travel if can I go to vietnamese restaurant andtry their pho, and none surpasses Pho 888's. I been going to this restaurant for about 20 years.

This is an authentic place. Had one of the best banh mi sandwiches I’ve had in years. Super delish!

I love the food!!! Thank you chief!!!

But the worst customer service ever! I have been there couples times and every time I came back from that restaurant, I felt bad! And I tried not to complain and I usually don’t complain but this time I must!
I asked for receipt and they refused to give me and didn’t give me! Instead they asked me to take picture of the note abbreviation paper which doesn’t make sense!. I needed a clear clear one of how much each dishes cost, plus taxes. And what! I was told the tip was included! Wait! You don’t even deserve the tip! Only the chief deserve it. And it was not that busy at all at the front desk! And hey I was a waitress too! I never treated people that bad or look down on them!

Hey! Is it because of my skin color?
It’s so annoying!

Burned noodles. 45 minute wait time. To be fair we came at an odd hour when there may have been less people in the kitchen. Food tasted good but 2 of our four entres were slightly burned, but enough to make the meal sub-par.

People person very clean polite especially the food is excellent I like everything that I try and Excellent English it’s easy to communicate

Took Asian peoples order before us and we came in first.

The best food around DSM

The pho was good but the service/atmosphere was not.

The wait to order was about 20 minutes and then once the food was dropped off we were never checked on and we ordered food to go that ended up being made incorrectly. There were crumbs and smeared sauce on the table we were sat at.

The pho makes it worth it but if you are looking for a nice experience at all, this it not it.

Restaurant was very dirty, the tables are all worn out and the colors are coming off. The seats were some what overused and ripped. The waiter wasn't too friendly...she just seated us and then came back within a few minutes to take out order and gave us a look like she was in a hurry and that we should just pick something or place our order quick.

Overall the food was okay, the pho has somewhat of a flavor but I think it was a little too beefy for my liking. Egg rolls were good and crispy.

Best Pho in Iowa

Good restaurante, 👍

Love the Pho broth and how my BF seasons it with the condiments on they have on each table. Many places dont offer the condiments like hoisin, chili paste, fish sauce etc. Vietnames "eggrolls" are good as well. Ask for nuoc mam sauce to dip in.
(Bathroom is awfully dirty though 😕)

Delicious food, where has this place been my whole life? 😋😋

Terrible service. We were the first group waiting for a table and there were two other groups behind us. Took about 7-8 min for servers to notice everyone by the door because of a trifold divider that blocked all of us from being seen. Once we were seated, we noticed that everyone that was behind us got their drinks, menus, etc. The servers just kept walking past us. After 15 min of waiting, I went up to the front and had to ask for our menus and drinks. It took another 20min for us to get our orders taken, AND that was only because we waived them over. Our food didnt arrive until 40min late (we ordered pho.) My pho was salty. First and last time going there. Good luck ya!

It was ok

Very good pho. Best in DSM hands down. Local spot that embraces the culture. Love this place.

Alright! Can't complain! The Chilli sauce is the best!

have loved this place a long time. So many good memories with amazing food.

This place is the number 1 spot in DSM for pho for a reason. They’re always packed, always busy, consistently accurate and delicious. They work hard and passionately and it’s conveyed in every dish.

Oh es muy rica la sopa y sobre todo muy igienico buen precio

Service is typically friendly.

Pho was ok. The noodle is of good quality with the right amount of bounciness. The soup is not flavorful, just salty. The meat is too well cooked by the time it reached me and I had ordered rare beef brisket. The bean sprout and herbs given was just the right amount.

Overall, it’s pho is very average.

They have the best Pho!!!

Great food!

Solid pho experience. Had the special and an iced coffee. Gets the job done. Also the BBQ pork spring rolls were better than expected. OK atmosphere.

First time trying this place...food is delicious.

One of the best pho 🍜 I've had in Des Moines. It came out steaming hot and delicious. My guest tried the noodles with chicken, beef, and seafood. They really enjoyed it. Staff was polite and attentive. There was a consistent stream of groups of people dining in, which tells me it has more food to explore as it has repeat customers. Will definitely eat there again.

Amazing food, great service!

Horrible experience from the service to the food to the atmosphere. Meat looked really bad silverware was extremely dirty bathrooms were dirty. No one was checking in with us, the restaurant claims that their internet doesn’t work and that they need to take photos of our debit cards to charge later don’t recommend

Awesome, authentic food with very friendly staff. Highly recommend!

The best!! So good!! Great service!!! Can't wait to go back when I'm in Des Moines Iowa again.

Service sucks!!
But the food is great!

Came here to try it out. Says they open at 10. Arrived around 10:10 and place wasn't open. Tried calling to see if they were permanently closed or just late on opening but no one ever picked up. How disappointing.

Best pho and vermicelli out of the places I've been in Des Moines and West Des Moines. About as good as Mai Pho in Cedar Rapids. It was a place recommended to me by friends and acquaintances from South East Asia and it's surpassed my expectations.