If you're coming here for pho, you're not coming here for authenticness cause it's not. You're better off in Mira Mesa for that.
Wait - Yes, there's usually a long wait. There's a bar next door though to kill some time.
Parking - I usually have to drive around a few times to find street parking a few blocks away. It's just how it is.
Food - I've only had the pho here but my friends have had other dishes and enjoyed them as well. Like I said earlier, it's not authentic, but it's still good.
Drinks - Lots of beer woohoo! Has lots of flavored sake also. This is why I come here. I try something new each time since their drink menu is quite extensive.
Noise level - LOUD! Be prepared to not be able to hear what someone across the table is saying.
Despite the wait, parking sitch, and noise level, I still come back here.
Love this place! Friendly staff, amazing food and huge beer and sake selection. It may take a while to get a seat but that only cause everyone knows how good it is here. Super cute hostess Christine said it would be a long wait but got us in in less time than she said it would be.
Once I ordered a random beer off the list and they said good choice, you get a free sake bottle with it!
Try the chicken wings, amazing!
Craft Beer lovers--you're in for a treat. These guys have a rotating beer menu that you must sample during Happy Hour. The service here is amazing even though it's packed all the time and every waiter we've had has been friendly and fast.
As far as Pho goes--this place is pretty damn good. Their standard bowl seems small when they drop it off on your table but don't be deceived--I can never finish mine. The broth is the most important part of Pho and this place does it right for sure. It comes with all the traditional toppings and generous portions of meat and noodles. My only complaint is that they don't serve Bánh Xèo here (that egg crepe filled with veggies and meat).
F always gets the Sizzling plate of Korean Ribs--potentially the best thing on the menu and worth the price. We've had the Spring rolls, wings and egg rolls. You really can't go wrong with anything on the menu.
Love people watching here too--it's a lot of OB locals and people fresh off the beach!
We came here on a Sunday morning around 11am.
We were seated and given sticky menus, which is fine. I get it, this place has a skeezy/OB "we're-too-cool-to-care-about-sticky-menus" vibe. Fine by me as long as the food is good.
We waited for our appetizer for over 25 minutes. It was fresh spring rolls, literally the only effort involved: roll and cut in half. The person making the food was either not there yet, or just doing other things because once our appetizer came out, everyone else started getting food too.
Fun tid-bit: An older couple (apparently regulars) came in about 30 minutes after us, sat down next to us and placed an order. They got their food SO FAST, it was incredibly obnoxious and a great way to alienate new customers. We kept waiting, and waiting and waiting while the clearly hung over staff just did whatever they wanted. They kept running across the street, which I found strange.
Then finally, WE GOT OUR FOOD... it felt like forever and we were starving!!!
I was so excited to try this Pho stuff, I mean daaaang the reviews on here make it sounds like soupy delicious heaven! BUT........ NO unfortunately, this was not good. Not even a little.
Maybe it was the drunk staff, or whatever, a "bad morning" but this stuff tasted like mediocre, bland, five spice sprinkled broth with random crap thrown in it. The steak wasn't even good and the "raw steak" was supposed to be amazing! It was so tough and chewy, I ate one piece - that's it. The noodles were thin and sort of clumped together and fine I guess, I was expecting something more substantial and appetizing.
I'm willing to bet that this was an off day, but frankly it was enough to scare me away. I'm glad we didn't deal with the wait times, lines etc because this food is just not worth it.
PS: THE SAKE WAS YUMMY! One star for the raspberry infused SAKE :) and our waitress was very nice. She was the only person doing any real work, seriously she was apologetic and helpful and seemed to be at the mercy of whoever ran the show in the kitchen.
So I think when I keep going back to the OB noodle house, I have amnesia about the previous time I went. I won't be back this time!
Appetizers are passable e.g. Spring rolls and Edamame, and the beer selection is decent BUT the Entrees are awful. Â We had the two dishes- crunchy noodle with seafood and crucnchy noodle with pork- they were disgusting. The mushrooms and carrots are clearly frozen, sauces full of MSG and the quality of meat that I wouldn't feed my dog. The seafood dish had crab tube steak....what is that!? God knows!
I will not be returning. Ever.
This is by far my favorite place for dinner! I go here at least once a week - the food is amazing! the service is spectacular! the drink menu is stellar! My only complaint is I wish it was bigger! It's so wonderful - everyone wants to go here! I usually carry out when it's busy and it's fast and easy! The owner is usually on site and very in tune to his customers! Two big thumbs up!
Review Source:A-OK. Albeit, my rating would likely be higher if we'd gone during happy hour for that heck of a steal on the beer. Buuuut since we came during dinner on a Wednesday night.. this place was just alrighhht.
Except for those garlic spicy wings. Those were bomb. Probably my favorite wings from any sit-down place ever (note: I don't like saucy wings--they're dry here and actually have some heat which was perfect for me). The plate comes with more than enough to share. Would probably get a plate of those all for myself next time.
Large tap list was pleasing. Just didn't like how it was only located on the chalk board behind me since we were seated at one of the booths under it. Luckily, they brought out a printed tap list in the form of a receipt for us for easy pickings.
Melon sake was potent. woo! It'll creep up on you a lot faster than a soju will.
Entree-wise though, I got the steamed rice w/ chicken and bf got it with pork. The pork was tastier than the chicken since it was kind of dry and burnt a little. The soup that comes with these rice dishes is always my favorite and the soup here didin't disappoint. Only thing was that it got a little salty towards the bottom.
Service was good, not sure if I'd be willing to wait again though (esp. if its not during happy hour). The place was incredibly loud, so I was very impressed with our server's ability to hear me shouting my order from the other end of the booth. Props.
Go here for only two things... The PHO and the OB special fried rice. The $5 special two beers and a sake is a pretty good deal, except for the fact that my beer was warm, so warm that I barely touched it and wasn't bout to complain for the mere $5 fact.
Tried the chicken lettuce wraps as an app.
Decent. good. not great. why?? Because it was just the chicken the lettuce and some sweet n sour type sauce.. not your usual lettuce wraps where you get the fixtures of carrots and cucumbers and peanuts and goodness you can have fun and enjoy making a wrap with.
The couple next to us had the Tofu lettuce wraps and enjoyed it though.
Char grilled shrimp teriyaki with vermicelli noodles... What the. This was literally plain vermicelli noodles with grilled shrimp on top with some veggies on the side. Uh ok. I mean if I wanted to get something plain and healthy, hmmm minus the noodles then I guessss I'd get this. or maybe not.
and yes the couple next to us haha... had one of the pan fried crispy noodle dishes and said it was alright.
We also ordered the Seafood fried rice, but I believe on the menu it was the special so whatever that was it had shrimp... And that was legit! Except for the fact that they ONLY have white rice. no brownnnn whhhhaaaa :(
Always busy in here because it's a pretty small restaurant so not a good place to take a party larger than 5.
Went here a while back and remembered loving the pho so just get that if you come here.
There is nothing better in this world than noodles and beer, and OB Noodle House does it right! Awesome beer selection and very tasty food. Only downside is the wait, but that turned out to be nice since we went to Lucy's next door to have a beer first.
Here is a list of food that either myself or friends have had and are delicious.
*Pho - w/ extra veggies
*Vermicelli noodles
*Lettuce wraps appetizer
*Sizzling fish
Next time I'm getting the chicken wings. Those looked so good!
the pho beef noodles were really tasty and the spicy chicken wings were really good, especially for someone who grew up eating spicy food like i did! :)
The only drawback was that the offers weren't explicitly stated and we ordered drinks not realising that they were not part of  the offers.
Love this place. I've come probably 10 times, and the food is consistently great. Â I would recommend coming during happy hour when beer on tap is 1/2 price! And they have probably 20+ GOOD BEERS on tap
This time I had the golden Belgium beer @10.5% it was strong and delicious, others in the party tried the strong Belgium and the Coronado milk stout. We all got the OB special-all meats with extra large serving of noodles all for $7.25.
Loved being able to eat, drink and watch the baseball game and Stanley cup.
My two gripes: the wait, we were quoted 45 mins and it took over an hour fifteen...plus people after us got seated before us. And we were the same party size. Strange.
Also the music is dang loud. Please turn it down. Can't hear anything. Except the extra loud drunk woman cackling at the bar.
I like "The Noodle House" or Casa de los Noodles as I like to call it. I've tried different foods on the menu in the past but after discovering the only dish prepared from scratch is the pho, I don't eat here as much. I don't like frozen or pre-packaged/prepared foods so when I'm craving a hot soup, I always come here and order the vegetable pho - no tofu with a small side of their spicy sauté sauce...AMAZING!
The atmosphere is fun and clean, the service is great. The staff is really chill and friendly. I enjoy most of the music they play and I love that any time you walk into The Noodle House, there's always a badass kung fu movie playing on the television above the bar. They offer limited outdoor pet-friendly seating with sun protection, the restrooms are usually clean and the owner is almost always present and interacting with his customers. I love that.
I came with a group with reservations. Empty booths, 4 of them and still we are waiting to be seated. They are not Gluten free, like they told us. Peanut sauce with gluten came with one of our spring rolls. Egg roll was not gluten free either. Noisy noisy noisy, it was no wonder our orders got mixed up. Conversation amongst our group was not an option the background music was so high volume.
An hour and a half into our meal, and the waitstaff had not cleared our appetizer dishes or asked about our drink refills.
Yuk.
Even though the spring roll was quite nice, I am not tempted to return.
Happy hour.
I think the zillion other reviews have brought home the point that this is a GREAT, affordable, tasty place with an equally great beer selection. Plan on waiting for a spot, and a long one if you are a big table.
I definitely enjoyed the lettuce wraps. They had quite a bit of garlic, which I love. The shrimp app was plentiful, but certainly nothing special.
The service was phenomenal. I appreciate how even though they are a small place, they up the number of servers, expos, etc. to match the volume they are pushing through. Good on you management. Many small, high volume eateries could take note.
I came here for the "noodle soup" as my friend described it to me haha obviously he was talking about the pho.
We both had the number 1 XL pho which was kind of EVERYTHING in it. It's awesome and probably the asian food I like most. So the food itself was awesome.
Unfortunately, the service was kind of..whatever. When I asked for a box to take out, I had to fill my soup in the plastic box by myself which of course created a mess on the whole table. Maybe I have too high expections but I'm used to having the waiter to this for me, right?
And the music was literally loud, I couldn't even understand what my friend was saying and felt like my brain is close to exploding.
I would eat again, but maybe put a pick-up order so I don't have to eat at the actual place.
(OB is cool though)
This place is awesome. Really lively atmosphere and GREAT staff! They even threw in an extra sake and a "misspour" (a free pitcher of beer) for free! The food was also great. I liked the fried eggrolls and I can't wait to try the Pho. Dollar beers for happy hour too! Can't beat that. Another great gem in OB.
Review Source:One of my favorite OB lunch spots. Great pho (tried the seafood today, but the rare steak is my favorite), and great atmosphere - relaxed, cool, you can feel the ocean breeze through the big windows. Â Tasty broth, generous servings, and great selection of beer and sake too (including infused). Â
There's often a line down the block of hungry folks sitting patiently on the sidwalk in little plastic chairs, but today we came just after lunch hour and lucked out w/ the prime corner booth. Â Our kids love it now, too - the steak pho, the chicken teriyaki w/ rice, egg rolls and edamame. Â This place is classic OB.
Some great vegetarian options, too - like the vegetarian spring rolls, vegetarian lettuce wraps (great flavor!), vegetarian chow fun (very tasty) and vegetarian pho (gotta love the pho).
On a recent visit to San Diego we had the opportunity to try OB Noodle. Â We really liked it, the dishes were tasty and fresh and they accommodated our dogs wonderfully. Its proximity to OB Dog Beach was helpful for us. We stayed in San Diego five days and ate here three times.
My husband loved the Pho and spring rolls, I really liked the Chicken Wings and Pan Seared Crispy noodle dishes.
The service was fine, but a couple of times we had to remind the waiters to bring the Sriracha we had previously asked for.
Overall we look forward to returning here on our next visit to San Diego.
Really if I could give 0 stars I would. THIS PLACE FUCKING BLOWS.
The food is good, I won't discredit them on that. Here is where my issue lies, and it seems like this is a reoccuring problem.
Went to the bar on newport, have a drink, call ahead to put our name down so by the time we walked to the noodle house we would be getting seated.
The douche wad on the phone answers, "uh hello?". Â You don't think maybe a, "Hello this is OB NOODLE HOUSE, how can I help you?" would suffice? Shit announce the fucking business at the very least. I ask him how long the wait is, and he sounded like Keanu Reeves from point break. Stoned and retarded. "uhmmmmm like 15-20 minutes." Ok I'd like to put my name down, and he responds, "dude you have to be like 20 minutes away..." Â I responded, "Yea I am on newport turning on Bacon." He "took" my name down, or so I thought.
We get there 10 minutes later, and I walk up to the front. Â OF COURSE the 'host' is some neanderthal in long baggy shorts, a teal t-shirt, and a seahawks hat. He's chatting it up with friends, and doesn't want to be bothered immediately. Finally I get his attention and I ask about my name on the list as I called 10 minutes ago. OF COURSE they don't have my name down, why would they??? He explains it will take 10 minutes to wait for a table...
THE BEST PART--- Â This fucking idiot seats 4 other groups. The first group was 5 people, the second group was an older couple who walked in grabbed menus, and grabbed an empty seat and he got them 'started'. The third and fourth groups were the trendy idiot bafoon OB LOCALS ONLY BRAH type. Obviously his friends.
At this point I thought it couldn't get any worse. Until he explained to the newhire
"WE HAVE TWO COUPLES WHO HAVE BEEN WAITING TO GET SEATED, PLACE THEM WHERE THERE GOING TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE, THAT WAY THEY LEAVE AND WE MAKE MONEY."
Uh goodbye. You don't deserve my money, by the way, was something to the tune of $75-$80. I don't give a shit who you are, that's money lost. OB NOODLE HOUSE is certainly not forbes 500.
OB Noodle house is definitely one of a kind. You'll never find a "Vietnamese" pho place this "popping" and full of young pretty people, and white.
I love the concept of a bar/noodle house. If I were to open my own Pho place, this would be the meer image of it. They have bar seating, serves a variety of beers & saki. The place was also dark, had loud music and basically the "cool trendy 21st century pho place"
I have never ever ever in my entire life, even in Vietnam waited for an hour to eat pho. Most pho places you go in, you're out in less than an hour. We waited an hour and 15 minutes to be seated on a Friday night. Was it worth the wait? In my opinion, if you are here to eat the Pho, no, it is not worth the wait, but if you are here to hang out, kick it with some friends, drink, eat, lounge around, sure, the wait would be worth it, it's a cool hang out spot with cheap decent food & booze.
Food: I'm 100% Vietnamese, and this place was just okay. I was hoping for something amazing since the wait was so long. But the broth lacked flavor and the pho portion was a little on the small side for the price. (I'm sure you're all thinking, really?!) Yes, really. I've been to my fair share of pho places from Paris, London, Boston, Westminster to San Jose to V-town, and had my fair share of pho and love pho, but this place did not do justice for me. It was just okay, wasn't bad, but wasn't amazingly awesome for that hour wait. I wouldn't rave about the Pho, I'll rave about how cool this place was. We also ordered the eggrolls and the fried dumplings. I really like how they made the fried dumplings, reminded me of my mom's! The eggrolls were decent.
P.S. I think I was the only Vietnamese person in here, except the manager/owner dude. If you want good pho, this isn't the place, but if you want a good time hangingout with friends, drinking and laughing, yeah OB Noodle house will be great for that.
It's such a pity that the serving staff think they are running a Hollywood night club - you cant sit in a booth because there are not enough people I was told yesterday. Apparently the booths are kept open for tables of 4 or more and we were three and they could see how cramped we were going to be at a table for two when they had more than one booth open. I then asked the question - would you rather have an open booth and unhappy customers to which the server said yes as its restaurant policy not to seat less than 4 people at a booth. You can imagine our annoyance not even 20 mins later seeing two separate booths with three people in each of them and when asking the waiting staff about this I got another bs answer which annoyed us all even more.
This is not the first time this has happened to me as well as friends of mine here - this is beyond bad customer service which ends up overshadowing your amazing food. I regularly take out of town and overseas visitors to SD here but after yesterdays experience I am not sure I will be going back there in a rush and I will definitely be sharing this annoying story with whoever cares to listen.
OB Noodle House
SD: OB
9pm Thursday 4th of April
Five Stars
Update
We had to wait 25 minutes to get a seat. Â They are actually so busy that turn people around because the wait time was half an hour and their kitchen closes at 10pm. Â We sated at the bar. Â Sara ordered the Tofu something or another. Â I had to try the Pho 20 Challenge: A Dark Beer, 1.5 pound of meat, 2 pounds of Noodles in 42 minutes. Â The experience was worth the $25. Â The eyes of the whole restaurant were on me. Â Some people cheered, some people jeered, and others bragged about being on the wall. Â They give you a water glass filled with ice to cool it down. I drank 80% of the beer to start. Â Then I ate and ate and ate and there was no end in sight. Â The food was amazing. Â The hot broth, thin slices of beef, and more rice noodles than imaginable. Â I ate about 60% in 20 minutes and then I accepted failure. Â I didn't really want to be sick. Â So I picked at for a bit and left a lot. Â
All in All, trying and failing this food eating challenge was super fun. Â The people were nice and I didn't vomit all over myself. Â The $25 is Worth every penny and every moment.
Obsessed. There is always a long wait for dinner, but its soo worth it. I get the Veggie Pho every time and load in the Sriracha.
So good every time, I crave OB Noodle once a week. They have great service too!
Good to note, they do take out even for the pho if you wanna skip the wait.
Had a really good experience here.
Went at an off-peak hour, 3 p.m. on a Wednesday. I was promptly seated and got my order (the OB Special) in about five minutes. The $1 draft beer was really good too, some kind of brown ale with "mud" in the name. Mudslinger? Think that was it.
Pretty cheap, lots of food. The waiter was very courteous, especially after seating me so quickly. I'd been dreading the hour+ wait time other people mentioned. Can't think of any negatives.
Ive been trying to get here for ages and finally managed when my cousin was in town. Â Beer and Pho sounds like a wonderful combo! Â Im a big supporter of OB and lived there for several years. Â He lived here with his wife also until getting a great opportunity to go to Graduate school overseas. Â So our visit was a bit nostalgic.
Positives
They have a great beer selection
They serve Lambic which is one of my favorites and hard to find
The Pho isn't bad, like the sauces on the table, broth wasn't really up to par though
Decent vegetarian options
Good drink deals
Negatives
Hmm, definitely tell its popular with the 21-26 crowd, they freaking linger which equals a really long wait for the rest of us
Kind of over the hipster and 30K millionaire deal, its just tired
So for the Lambic alone I would come back, helps that the food isn't bad :) Â I can laugh at the rest!
For happy hour, this is literally as good as it gets. Select draft for $1 from open to 5pm?? $4 for a pitcher?? Even on weekends?? 1/2 off beers from 3-6p?? Mind blown. They have a great selection of beers on draft as well. So if you're just looking to grab some cheap drinks with buddies on a warm summer afternoon, this is the place to be.
As for the pho, it was aiight. Small portion for what you pay. Noodles were meh. Soup base was OK. They do have a fun challenge where if you can down the pho 20 = 1.5 lbs of noodles, 1 lb of meat, 1 Stone IPA within 42 minutes, you get the meal free along with a shirt, photo on the wall, and endless props. Otherwise, you pay $24.20 for the meal :P
Aw. Â It's so frickin' adorable how you think you're the only hipsters in the whole world. Check out Austin. Â They out hipster you any time.
Entire bar staff was wasted, which is most likely why my vegetarian order had chicken in it. Â Really rad, kids. Â No, really.
I get it. Â You think you're the shit. Â But the lack of apology and removing only that one thing from our order when I very kindly lost it as I have not eaten poultry in decades? Â Lame. Â Kind of nodded (out) and went right back to your drink behind the bar. You'll be a grown up someday, I promise.
Even without the meat surprise: over an hour to sit at the bar and have an entire staff ignore anyone NOT in the trendy bullshit birthday party? Happy Birthday, you're a cliche! Â No thanks. Â Far more and better places to eat in OB without having to bow to a giant bunch of heirs to the Massengill throne.
I'm eating pho in a bar, and I freaking like it!
If you are used to your typical Santa Ana pho shops, you will be in for a big surprise! We walked up and thougth we were in the wrong place. Mi Trangs all over, beer on tap, and it was dark....BUT there was sriracha and tuong den (brown sauce) on all the tables. Intriguing, confusing. We walked in, and the menus had no Vietnamese on them at all, and even phonetically spelled out "FUH". We were a little scared, but cold and starving, and nothing sounded better than a big bowl of pho.
So we stayed, and ordered a beer. We danced to a great music selection while we waited. And then it happened -- the FUH/PHO was great! The broth was tasty, rich, and very flavorful. Each of us finished every last bite! Each bowl is smaller than your typical place, so we split the "extra large" (really the size of a normal bowl) between 2 people, with some dumplings on the side. Good amount of food, and I appreciated that they didn't upcharge on the bowls. The extra-large was $7.25, not bad at all. They even had bean sprouts, a lime, and the right leaves to put into your broth.
Overall, while it first looks like a bar, this is indeed a legit spot to get some real pho. Get over the darkness, order a beer, and enjoy a bowl! You may be confused, but you'll like it!
By the end of the night, everyone in our party was saying how they should open up more of these "Pho-Bars" in LA, so we can go munch after going out or going to sports games! I call that fusion success!
My sister and I finally came to OB Noodle House to figure out what all the fuss is about. Â The place was packed but it was a short wait to our table right by the window. Â It gets a little loud and it seems like their tables are oversize so it tends to feel a little cramped...but the food and, most importantly, the MELON SAKE made up for it!
My sister and I ordered a noodle dish that was pretty standard and the garlic wings which were plentiful and seasoned to perfection. Â On top of that we took a look at their beer receipt aka their beer menu (cute touch) and ordered a couple. Â
A friend of ours who works there ended up bringing us a chilled melon sake which came in a cute craft with a hole in the middle stuffed with crushed ice. Â It was sooo good! Â I'm not a fan of sake usually, but this was dangerously good!
The service was good especially for a busy night, and I'm telling you...for your own good, please try the melon sake...it's that good!
The food here is amazing, every dish is incredibly good. The pho, the sizzling fish, all of it. ESPECIALLY the WINGS!! They are not buffalo wings, but if you are a fan of wings you have to try the wings here. They are some of the best I have ever had, EVER. They also have an amazing beer selection. I'm not sure of the exact number of beers on tap, but it's a lot. They also have a really good happy hour, and their Sunday beer deal is pretty good as well.
If you tell them it's your birthday they will have you compete against another customer in a sake chugging race. If you're up to it this can be really fun.
They also have Kung-Fu movies on TV!!
The only reason I wouldn't give them a 5 star rating is because they have become too popular and often times there can be a very long wait, and by long I mean an hour+. There is a bar next door to kill some time, but unfortunately it's a cash only bar. You can order to pick up though and avoid the crowd.
Aside from having to wait SOMETIMES, this is my favorite place for pho.
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