After the second snowpocalypse, the roads in philly, especially west philly, were fairly horrendous. Vietnam Cafe is lucky that it has a huge parking lot. Except that the road and the entrance to the parking lot was covered with 5 inches of ice with grooves in it, so that it was impossible for you to get into the parking lot without getting stuck in a groove. Somehow, I extricated myself before becoming another victim, and found a spot on the street. Boy, was this place packed. I’d been here once before, to get take-out, when it was still teeny. It has since taken over where their neighbor used to be, so now the place is positively ginormous.

I was just trying to shovel some food into my belly before heading over to javaflix, so I just scarfed down some pho bo kho at the bar. The bowls of pho here are smaller than at pho only joints. Remember, this is a fancy vietnamese restaurant. But it tastes pretty good. The meat here is pretty fat-free, which I like. This pho bo kho is not really spicy at all, so it’s very easy to eat. It’s an easy breezy small bowl of pho. You’re paying a lot for ambiance here, so pound for pound, it’s more expensive here. But that’s ok. The portion sizes at regular pho places are probably too big anyway.

As the weather stayed freakishly cold, it further fueled our love of pho so that we had to go eat it two days in a row. We ventured to our favorite place – Pho Ha. I’m not exactly sure why I love this place so much, I just do. It’s just a gut feeling. J got the steak and brisket pho, as usual. I wanted a bit of spice, so I got the pho bo kho. It looks firey hot, but it’s really not that spicy at all. It’s just the right amount of spice. The meat in pho bo kho is not the fancy meat that’s in regular pho, it’s much cheaper cuts of meat with plenty of fat and other less illustrious bits, but I like it just fine. I just get rid of the fat and avoid eating the knuckley parts. After trying my pho bo kho, J realized just how good it was and he was jealous.

It seems like Pho Ha has changed ownership since I was there last. The big paintings with horses and goldfish were gone and replaced with normal sized conservative pieces. The once red chopsticks are now green. The squeeze containers for all the condiments are different. The servers were all new and different, and none of them had super spiked hair. The menu didn’t change though, and neither did the food. And as hard to believe as this may be, the food came out even faster this time than before! And it came out pretty damn fast in the past! Pho Ha, you’re still my fave!

We were kickin it suburban style on new year’s day, but were desperately craving pho, so we trekked it on up to pho tai nam. But not before calling and making sure they were open. Maybe my memory had gone, but I remembered stuff always being open on new year’s, but for whatever reason this year, it seemed many businesses were closed, including tons of restaurants. Which did end up putting some cramps into our plans. I didn’t want any fresh spring rolls, but it worked out well because they have a lunch special, where you can include one spring roll to your pho.

J got the steak and brisket pho as part of his lunch special. Maybe I just didn’t remember from the first time I was here, but man, their pho is great. The broth is just excellent, not salty, and full of flavor. Really, their pho is tops! And both the steak and brisket, especially the brisket, were free of fat.

This is a thai and vietnamese place, so instead of us both getting pho, I got drunken noodles with chicken. Drunken noodles is my go-to dish when I eat thai food. I love the thick rice noodles and the spice. This dish was great here, and since we shared, we both got to eat pho and drunken noodles. We were both totally enamored by this place and agreed that this was one of the best meals we’ve had together in awhile. Pho tai nam – the best of both worlds! For those of you in montgo, get your pho here!