Limited Menu, Questionable Chicken
Sunday, September 25, 2005
I went to this pho place on the recommendation of a friend who said it was better than the rest of the pho restaurants in the Little Saigon area, and I hope that's not the case!
The menu was extremely limited, with no options for vegetarians and only one chicken option (the rest were beef and pork). I ordered the chicken pho, which came in a bowl as usual and consisted of salty broth, noodles, onions, and various chicken cuttings both light and dark meat, and including a few bones and lots of fat - not trimmed at all, no care for what got thrown in. There were only two sizes, and I got the small, which was more than enough in both size and quality.
The only think that made my pho edible was copious amounts of plum sauce, which cut the saltiness. Every other spoonful contained a piece of chicken that I wasn't sure I wanted to eat.
My dining partner had beef pho, and said it was tasty if guilty of my similar complaint of being indiscriminate with the cuttings.
The saving grace of the meal was the very tasty pineapple bubble tea, which was the same price as it was everywhere else on the block but seemed a lot smaller in size. The tapioca pearls were cooked just enough to be chewy but not falling apart.
The entire place is a smoking section, and you will find smokers there. This sort of ruined the atmosphere for me; it was pretty gross.