Pho To Liem on Casino Road Is the Everett Pho Spot Locals Try to Keep Quiet

Is Pho To Liem the best pho on Casino Road? Yes. Pho To Liem at 209 E Casino Rd opens at 9 a.m., pours a beef broth that delivers real depth, and prices a bowl of Pho Tai Chin at $16.50 — the kind of Vietnamese restaurant locals quietly tell each other about and then regret sharing. It is the pho spot on Casino Road.

Casino Road’s Best-Kept Pho Secret (That Isn’t Really a Secret)

Casino Road is the most interesting mile of food in Everett, and everyone who eats regularly on it has a favorite stop they defend like it’s their family. Ours is Pho To Liem. It sits at 209 E Casino Rd in the strip center near Evergreen Way, the kind of unassuming Vietnamese restaurant you’d drive past a hundred times if nobody pointed it out.

Everett has a lot of pho. Downtown has pho. North Broadway has pho. You can get pho at Asia Noodle House, Pho Hung, Le’s Pho, and half a dozen other spots that are genuinely fine. What makes Pho To Liem the Casino Road answer is the combination of three things most pho shops get one-right-and-two-wrong: the broth, the bread, and the hours.

The Broth

The broth is what a pho shop lives or dies on, and Pho To Liem’s is legitimately deep. Not muddy, not flat, not the under-salted version a lot of American pho shops settle for. You can taste the hours — the cardamom, the star anise, the bones. The beef broth runs clean enough that you can drink the last inch of the bowl straight without a garnish. That’s the test. Pho To Liem passes it.

The Pho Tai Chin (eye round steak and brisket, $16.50) is the order. You get a generous portion of meat and noodles, the rare eye round cooks to perfection when you drop it into the broth, and the brisket carries real beef flavor rather than the stringy pot-roast character you sometimes get. If you’re feeling bolder, the Bun Bo Hue (spicy lemongrass soup, $19.95) is worth the extra four dollars for the lemongrass heat and the pork knuckle it comes with.

The Mi Bo Kho ($17.75) — egg noodle soup with beef stew — is the underrated pick. It’s not pho. It’s a Vietnamese beef stew with egg noodles, cinnamon-forward, rich, a little thick. When you’ve been eating pho for two weeks straight, Mi Bo Kho is how you reset without leaving Vietnamese food.

Banh Mi, Rolls, and the Supporting Cast

The Banh Mi Xa Xiu (BBQ pork sandwich) is $10.50 and absurdly good for the price — crusty roll, properly charred pork, pickled daikon and carrot, cilantro, jalapeño, a smear of pate-mayo. It’s the lunchtime grab if you’re in a hurry and don’t want a bowl of soup in your lap at your desk.

The Cha Gio (fried spring rolls, $8.50) and Goi Cuon (fresh spring rolls, $8.95) are what you share while you wait for the soup. The peanut sauce for the Goi Cuon is thinner than some people like — if that matters to you, ask for extra hoisin. Nobody will be offended.

The Hours Matter

Pho To Liem opens at 9 a.m. This is underrated. A lot of pho shops don’t open until 11, which means if you’ve been out fishing, worked a graveyard shift at Boeing, or simply want a bowl of noodle soup at 9:30 on a Saturday morning, you’re driving somewhere else. Pho To Liem is the Everett answer to breakfast pho. It’s also the one to hit if you’re stopping between Seattle-to-Vancouver drives — the Casino Road exit off I-5 puts you there in two minutes.

Service is quick, which matters when a bowl of pho wants to be eaten at about 190 degrees. The staff is genuinely friendly rather than performatively friendly, and the Vietnamese regulars at the counter are a good sign every time you walk in.

The Casino Road Context

Everett’s Casino Road is one of the most diverse stretches of food in Washington — pho next to Salvadoran pupusas next to Mexican tortas next to Cambodian noodles next to Ethiopian injera. Casino Road gets written about as if it’s an undiscovered wonder, which is insulting to the families who’ve run these restaurants for decades. It’s not undiscovered. It’s just not in downtown Everett.

Pho To Liem is part of what makes Casino Road work. You walk in, you sit at a laminate table, you order in about sixty seconds, and you eat something that would cost you $8 more per bowl in a Seattle neighborhood. That’s the deal. Honor it. Tip well.

What to Know Before You Go

Address: 209 E Casino Rd, Everett, WA 98201. Phone: (425) 355-0245. Parking: ample, right out front in the strip center lot. Cash and card both work. The dining room is small but turns quickly. If you’re going at peak lunch on a weekday, call ahead or plan on a ten-minute wait.

Price range: $10-$20 per person. No alcohol program. No dessert ambition. This is not a date-night restaurant. It’s a noodle-soup restaurant, which is the whole point.

The Verdict

If you live in Everett and you haven’t been to Pho To Liem, you’re doing the Casino Road diet wrong. Order the Pho Tai Chin, add Sriracha and hoisin the way you like it, squeeze the lime, rip the basil, and eat. This is what Casino Road is supposed to be: a family-run kitchen doing one thing at a level that would get it written up in any bigger city. The only reason it’s not more famous is that everyone who knows is trying to keep it quiet.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Pho To Liem located?

209 E Casino Rd, Everett, WA 98201 — in the strip center just off Evergreen Way.

What are Pho To Liem’s hours?

Pho To Liem opens at 9 a.m. — an early hour for a Vietnamese noodle shop. Call (425) 355-0245 to confirm closing time on the day you plan to go.

What should I order on my first visit?

Pho Tai Chin ($16.50) is the core order. Add a Banh Mi Xa Xiu ($10.50) if you’re hungry or want to split a second dish.

Is Pho To Liem a good spot for breakfast?

Yes. The 9 a.m. opening makes it one of the few places in Everett where you can get legitimate beef-bone pho for breakfast.

How does Pho To Liem compare to other Everett pho spots?

Pho To Liem has the deepest broth of the Casino Road pho shops. Downtown Everett has other solid pho options, but on Casino Road specifically, Pho To Liem is the pick.