Vietnamese food in Palo Alto

Vietnamese food in Palo Alto is a small category with real range. Downtown has a pho specialist and a modern Vietnamese dining room a few blocks apart on University Avenue. Town & Country Village has a counter that turns Vietnamese street food into build-your-own boxes. Midtown has a long-running Thai and Vietnamese restaurant that serves pho next to curries. Together they cover a quick bowl of noodle soup, a takeout lunch and a sit-down dinner for a group.

The list is short. We would rather be honest about that than pad it. Every place named below was confirmed as open in October 2026 through its own website, its own ordering page or a verified page in our business directory. For the depth of a true Vietnamese neighborhood, with dozens of pho shops and banh mi bakeries, plan a trip to San Jose. We explain how at the end of this guide.

What to know about Vietnamese food

Vietnamese cooking balances salty, sour, sweet and spicy flavors with a lot of fresh herbs. Fish sauce, called nuoc mam, is the backbone of many dishes. Rice is the staple, served steamed, turned into noodles or pressed into thin rice paper. The food is often lighter than other Southeast Asian cuisines because so much of it is built around broth, herbs and raw vegetables.

A few dishes cover most menus in Palo Alto:

• Pho. Rice noodles in a clear broth simmered from bones with star anise, cinnamon and charred onion and ginger. Pho tai comes with thin slices of rare beef that cook in the hot broth. Pho ga is the chicken version.
• Bun. Room-temperature rice vermicelli topped with grilled meat, herbs, lettuce and pickled vegetables, dressed with a thin fish sauce mixture called nuoc cham.
• Goi cuon. Fresh spring rolls of rice paper wrapped around shrimp or tofu, noodles and herbs. They are served cold with a dipping sauce.
• Cha gio. Fried rolls, often called imperial rolls on menus. Wrap them in lettuce and herbs before dipping.
• Banh mi. A sandwich on a light, crackly baguette with pate or grilled meat, pickled carrot and daikon, cilantro and chiles.
• Bo luc lac. Shaking beef, cubes of seared beef tossed in a hot pan with garlic and served with greens.
• Ca phe sua da. Strong drip coffee poured over ice and sweetened condensed milk.

Pho is the dish most people come for. In Vietnam it is a breakfast food, eaten early from street stalls. In the Bay Area it is an anytime meal. A bowl at lunch is the classic way to eat it here.

Where the restaurants are

The Vietnamese options split between three parts of town. Downtown holds two of them on University Avenue: Pho Ha Noi near the Caltrain end at number 185 and Tamarine at number 546, closer to Cowper Street. Both are a short walk from the Palo Alto Caltrain station. Our downtown guide covers parking garages and the walk from the train.

Midtown has Indochine at 2710 Middlefield Road and Teaspoon in Midtown Shopping Center a short walk away. That stretch of Middlefield works for a weeknight takeout run and has its own surface parking. The Midtown guide has more on the shopping strip. Across town, Asian Box sits at Town & Country Village on El Camino Real, across from Palo Alto High School and the Stanford campus.

Places to try

Pho Ha Noi, 185 University Avenue

Pho Ha Noi held its grand opening downtown in May 2023, according to Hoodline. Its online ordering page organizes the menu into beef pho, chicken pho, specialties and sides. The posted Palo Alto menu also lists meatless pho, but only in beef or chicken broth. The pho list includes a rare steak pho and a chicken thigh pho. Beyond soup there are imperial crab rolls, a sizzling steak plate, tamarind prawns and a mushroom rice claypot. The ordering page lists lunch and dinner every day with a break in the afternoon. Weekend lunch hours run longer. Plan around that gap if you want a mid-afternoon bowl.

Tamarine, 546 University Avenue

Tamarine describes itself as a modern Vietnamese restaurant. It is the sit-down choice for a date, a client dinner or a family celebration. Its website lists lunch Monday to Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dinner runs 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and until 9:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. A happy hour of drinks and appetizers runs from 5 to 6 p.m. every day, at the bar only. Tamarine books tables online and runs private dining and catering. If you bring wine, the posted corkage fee is $40 per 750 ml bottle with a two-bottle limit.

Asian Box, Town & Country Village

Asian Box is a fast-casual counter that calls itself a Vietnamese scratch kitchen. You build a box by choosing a base of rice, salad or chilled rice noodles, then a protein, then toppers and a sauce. Signature boxes cover a pho, a banh mi and Vietnamese hot chicken. Sides include spring rolls and green papaya salad. The company says its whole menu is gluten-free. It works for a quick lunch near Stanford or a takeout dinner.

Indochine, 2710 Middlefield Road

Indochine serves Thai and Vietnamese food under one roof, which makes it easy for a group that cannot agree. The Vietnamese side of the menu includes pho ga and pho tai, fresh spring rolls, crispy imperial rolls, a Vietnamese chicken salad, shaking beef and lemongrass chicken. Vietnamese coffee is on the drinks list. A dedicated vegetarian section and lunch specials Monday to Saturday round it out. It also does drop-off catering. Our Thai food guide covers the other half of its menu.

Teaspoon, Midtown Shopping Center

Teaspoon is a boba and milk tea shop that has served Midtown since 2017. Vietnamese coffee is on its menu along with milk teas, chai and fruit teas. It is a drinks stop rather than a restaurant, but it pairs well with takeout from Indochine.

Dietary notes

• Fish sauce is everywhere. It flavors dressings, marinades and dipping sauces, including many that look vegetarian. Vegetarians and people with fish allergies should ask for soy sauce or a vegan dipping sauce.
• Vegan pho is hard to find. Pho Ha Noi's posted Palo Alto menu has a No Meat, Beef Broth Pho and a vegetable pho in chicken or beef broth, with no vegan pho. Most pho broth is made from beef or chicken bones even when the toppings are tofu and vegetables, so ask before you order.
• Gluten. Rice noodles and rice paper contain no wheat. Hoisin, soy sauce and some marinades do. Asian Box says its whole menu is gluten-free.
• Peanuts. Crushed peanuts top many noodle bowls and salads. Peanut sauce often comes with spring rolls. Mention a peanut allergy when you order.
• Shellfish and shrimp paste. Some Southeast Asian dishes use fermented shrimp paste. Indochine flags shrimp paste in a couple of dishes on its menu.

Our vegetarian and vegan guide lists more plant-based options around town.

How to order and eat pho

A bowl of pho usually arrives with a plate of extras: bean sprouts, Thai basil, lime wedges and sliced jalapeños. Taste the broth first. Then add herbs and a squeeze of lime to your liking. Hoisin and sriracha are on the table, but many cooks prefer you put them in a small dish for dipping meat instead of stirring them into the broth.

1. Order rare beef if you like it tender. The thin slices of pho tai keep cooking in the hot broth, so they arrive pink and finish in the bowl.
2. Use chopsticks and a spoon together. Lift noodles with chopsticks and sip broth from the spoon. Slurping is normal.
3. Share the appetizers. Spring rolls and imperial rolls come in pairs or fours and suit a table.
4. Ask for takeout broth on the side. Pho travels better when broth and noodles are packed separately. Most pho shops do this automatically.

Timing and practical tips

Downtown lunch is busiest from noon to 1 p.m. on weekdays, when office workers fill the counters on University Avenue. Pho Ha Noi and Tamarine both close between lunch and dinner, so a 3 p.m. craving needs a counter like Asian Box, which serves straight through the afternoon. Dinner is the easier time to get a table without a wait at Pho Ha Noi. Book Tamarine ahead for Friday and Saturday nights and during Stanford events, which fill downtown dining rooms.

For budget eating, pho is one of the better values downtown because one bowl is a full meal. Our cheap eats guide has more ideas for eating well for less.

If you would rather have someone else plan the eating on a day in the city, you can browse Bay Area food tours and check each tour's stops before you book.

The bigger Vietnamese scene in San Jose

San Jose is home to one of the largest Vietnamese American communities in the country. Its east side holds far more Vietnamese restaurants, bakeries and markets than the Peninsula. It is about 20 miles south of Palo Alto on Highway 101. A meal there makes sense as part of a longer outing. Our San Jose day trip guide covers how to get there and what else to see. Closer to home, the Asian food guide places Vietnamese food in context with the city's Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Burmese restaurants.

Frequently asked questions