I have recently moved to Arizona for grad school and have been on the hunt for good Vietnamese food. My dad and I decided to try out Angelina's because it is fairly close to my apartment and to school. The interior is cute and very comfortable. We each decided on our own bowls of pho and started on a raw beef appetizer. I was excited about this appetizer because there's a Vietnamese/Chinese dish where you take raw slices of beef and soak it in lemon juice, onions, chilies, what have you. The acid from the lemon will eventually cook the beef just enough so that it is edible and delicious but still a bit pink. I thought that this appetizer was like that dish. It wasn't.
Instead, a meat ball made of raw ground beef came out with shrimp crackers. Not terrible, but not what I was expecting. This item is either very new or nobody ever orders it because my dad saw the chef/owner/whoever run out to buy something from the store which turned out to be an ingredient for our appetizer. Odd. Also, the pho wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It was lackluster at best. I think there was just a bit too much star anise in the broth that was somewhat overpowering.
Having grown up with homemade pho and being spoiled in Southern California with all the good Vietnamese restaurants, Angelina's really isn't incredibly bad; it just isn't good either. Probably won't be making a return trip unless I'm desperate for pho and am too lazy to drive far. Then again, the $9 price tag attached to a bowl may just convince me otherwise. 2.5 stars for Angelina's!