Pho Ha Noi

About Pho Ha Noi

Pho Ha Noi is a Vietnamese restaurant at 185 University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto. It is part of a growing Bay Area group that started in San Jose's Vietnam Town shopping center in 2016. According to Hoodline, owners Helen Nguyen and her husband Harry, who has a software engineering background, entered the restaurant business that year. Cupertino followed in 2019. The Palo Alto restaurant opened on May 25, 2023, as the group's fourth location. It took over the University Avenue space that had been a Wahlburgers.

The group has kept expanding since. Its website now lists restaurants in San Jose, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Milpitas and Fremont, plus newer openings in Fountain Valley in Southern California and on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley.

The broth and the ingredients

The name refers to Hanoi, the capital in northern Vietnam. On its website the company describes its food as classic Vietnamese cuisine made from ancestral recipes. It also names its suppliers. It says it partners with Harris Ranch for Angus beef and with Stockton Poultry for free-range brown chicken. It adds that its pho spices are harvested in the mountains of what it calls Vietnam's Central Valley. It also says it sources fresh ingredients from local farms with an emphasis on organic produce. When the Palo Alto branch opened, Hoodline described a bone marrow beef broth simmered for 24 hours and a free-range chicken pho.

What is on the menu

The Palo Alto online menu, ordered through Toast, is grouped into appetizers, beef pho, chicken pho, specialties, sides and drinks. Examples include:

• Beef pho such as rare steak pho, along with other cuts
• Chicken pho, including a chicken thigh pho
• A No Meat, Beef Broth Pho and a vegetable pho in chicken or beef broth (no vegan broth is listed)
• Imperial crab rolls among the appetizers
• Specialties such as a sizzling steak
• Vietnamese egg coffee, a sweet whipped egg and coffee drink associated with Hanoi

At opening, Hoodline also mentioned bún chả, the Hanoi dish of grilled pork with rice noodles and herbs. It also described crispy garlic sticky rice served with roasted chicken. The group promotes seasonal specials across its locations too. Menus change, so check the online menu for current dishes.

How to eat pho

If you are new to pho, a few basics help. The bowl arrives with noodles, meat and hot broth. Taste the broth first before adding anything. Many diners then add herbs, bean sprouts, lime, chili or sauces from the table to taste. Rare steak is placed raw in the bowl and cooks in the hot broth, so eat it soon after it arrives. Chopsticks in one hand and a soup spoon in the other is the standard way to manage the noodles.

Ordering and catering

You can eat in or order online through the restaurant's Toast page, which says orders placed there go directly to the restaurant without commission. The group also offers catering through its website, which is useful for office lunches downtown.

Who it suits

A bowl of pho is a quick, warming lunch on a cool day and an easy dinner for families, since children often like the mild chicken broth. The menu covers beef lovers and chicken eaters and has tofu dishes for vegetarians, so mixed groups can order without much negotiation. Sizzling steak and the specialties give larger tables something to share. If you are short on time, the online ordering page makes takeout simple for a downtown office lunch.

Tips for visiting

Note the break between lunch and dinner. The restaurant closes from 2 p.m. on weekdays and 3 p.m. on weekends until 5 p.m., so a late lunch needs planning. Pho Ha Noi is a short walk from the Palo Alto Caltrain station at the train end of University Avenue. Our downtown Palo Alto guide covers parking. For more bowls of pho and banh mi around town, see our Vietnamese food guide. For other Asian restaurants, try our Asian food guide.

Location and getting there

Pho Ha Noi is at 185 University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301, in the Downtown area of Palo Alto. Our Downtown guide covers what else is around.

The Palo Alto Caltrain station is less than a quarter mile away, a walk of a few minutes.

Parking: street spaces and city garages with posted limits (see parking in Palo Alto).

Hours

Hours from the business's own website, checked October 30, 2026.

What is nearby

• Palo Alto Bicycles, studio or gym, under 0.1 mi
• Scoop Microcreamery, bakery or dessert shop, under 0.1 mi
• T-Mobile University Avenue, shop, under 0.1 mi
• Yummy Future, cafe, under 0.1 mi
• Starbucks University Avenue, cafe, under 0.1 mi
• Lytton Plaza, under 0.1 mi
• University Avenue, under 0.1 mi
• Cogswell Plaza, 0.1 mi

Other restaurants nearby: Tane Vegan Izakaya (under 0.1 mi); Rangoon Ruby (under 0.1 mi); Sprout (under 0.1 mi); Onigilly (under 0.1 mi). Browse the full restaurants list.

Before you go

• Popular dinner spots in Palo Alto fill up on Friday and Saturday nights, so book ahead where the restaurant takes reservations.
• Many kitchens close earlier than in big cities. Plan to order by about 9 p.m. on weeknights unless the posted hours say otherwise.
• If you have allergies or dietary needs, call ahead or check the current menu on the restaurant's website.

About this listing

Checked October 30, 2026 against Pho Ha Noi official website; Pho Ha Noi Palo Alto online ordering (Toast); Hoodline: Grand opening of Pho Ha Noi in Palo Alto (2023). How our listings work. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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