When you have a bit of a cold, there’s nothing like drowning yourself in a giant bucket of pho. So that’s exactly what we did. Before catching a film festival flick and getting a parking ticket a 9 PM on a Sunday (up yours PPA), Washington Ave was to be the street of choice. And Pho & Cafe Viet Huong was the pho place of choice.
H/A got some strange rainbow ice drink. I wouldn’t exactly call it a drink. There’s very little drink, and much more chunky stuff. There’s sweet red beans, shreds of green jello, yellow mung bean, and coconut milk. I don’t think this is a drink for me.

Got some rolls (Goi Cuon), as tradition always calls for it. They were pretty good, but there were tons of mint in. I like a tiny bit sometimes, but this may have been a bit too much for me. Don’t get me wrong, still good.

H/A went with the pork chops on broken rice (Com Tam Suon Nuong). Holy crap, this was good. I’m totally ordering this the next time. Screw the pho, now I’m all about vietnamese pork chops!

But no complaints about the pho here. I got beef eye round and well done flank. After throwing in the entire pile of sprouts and the requisite sriracha, it was just what the doctor ordered. Although it was pretty ginormous and I did not finish it. Damn you sickness and my diminished appetite!

The service? It’s not so great here. The place is huge and run like a cold machine. You get your food real fast, but they don’t really follow up or check on you. Then you go up front and pay. Attentiveness is not their strong suit. But that’s ok, because they’re food is good.

Pho & Cafe Viet Huong
1110 Washington Ave # 2A
Philadelphia, PA
215-336-5030

I told K that I wanted him to take me out to eat 7 course of beef the next time I was in LA. Since the office is in West LA, there weren’t any vietnamese places around that actually offered this. Dammit! So we had to settle for just going to eat plain ol vietnamese food, sans the 7 fantastical course of beef. So off we went to Le Saigon in West LA. There were only 3 options for vietnamese on the west side, and K had been to this one and liked it, so it was a safe choice.

I ordered some limeade, which is a fave of mine whenever I eat vietnamese. K got the grass jelly drink, that mysterious brown goop you see above you. My limeade was ok, nothing exciting. The grass jelly drink? Didn’t like it. It just tasted odd.

We got the thit nuong cuon (fresh rolls) with charbroiiled pork. Totally dug this. It was simple, and insteade of having vermicelli on the inside, it was mostly cucumbers and some other veggies.

As entrees, we went for the bun saigon dac biet (vermicelli with pork, shrimp, and a fried roll) amd the bun bo xao (rice with sauteed beef, caramelized onions, and peanuts). The pork and the shrimp in the vermicelli were very plain. There was essentially no flavoring, it was kind of sad. We doused it with nuoc cham and sweet chili sauce and sriracha, but it was still seriously lacking in flavor. The sauteed beef dish wasn’t anything to write home about either. It was ok, but the flavor was kind of boring… it definitely lacked something. It’s a shame because typically, vietnamese food is so full of fresh and wonderful flavor, but here, they just kinda forgot. Luckily, at least the service and the rolls were good. The place is cash only, which is a bit annoying! It’s small, but cute, and everything comes out fairly fast. If you need a vietnamese fix in West LA, you might want to try Phoreign or Pho99, which are the other choices.

Le Saigon
11611 Santa Monica Blvd
310-312-2929

I had some days off as the calendar changed, and lazed about a lot. Seriously, I did nothing. But I did eat. When you live in the burbs, you don’t have many options when it comes to Vietnamese food. There are a few spots (Frazer/Paoli, Exton) but those are far. There is a spot near 69th street, but I never know if that place is open. It’s hit or miss. A few summers ago, a vietnamese spot, Ha Long Bay, opened up in Bryn Mawr. Before it opened, there was a sign in the window saying “Vietnamese Restaurant – Coming Soon” for at least a year, if not more. Every time I was in Bryn Mawr, I looked for it to open. And months went by with the sign still up. It killed me! Then one day, it opened! Hooray!

We showed up way after lunch and way before dinner. Basically during a time where noone else is going to be eating at a restaurant. Needless to say, we were the only diners there. I got a strawberry shake, because I’ve had it before there and it was awesome. Well, this time, it had milk/ice cream or something in it other than just strawberries, so it wasn’t as awesome. Still ok, but not the awesome-y just strawberry shake that I had before. We also got summer rolls. They were freshly made and tasted just fine.

The grilled pork bun. Looks good to me. It’s hard to screw this up I’d say.

It was cold, so I wanted soup, so I ordered bun bo hue, the spicy beef hue style. Bad idea. I’ve had the pho here before. It’s a completely different experience than going to an of the mostly pho places in the city. You know what you’ll get. But here, when you order pho, no matter what kind, you will get funky stuff in it. You can order flank pho, and it’ll have flank, some other meat, and some tripe. You order beef ball pho, and it’ll have beef balls, some other meat, and some tripe. Tripe will inevitably show up in your pho here. So be warned! It also tastes a little funky. Not funky bad, but just not like the other places.

So anyway, my food… well, I’ve ordered this in other restaurants before (vietnam, vietnam palace, etc) and it was nothing like those places. This is supposed to be some type of stewed dish. The beef wasn’t stew beef. It was thin slices that had been somehow pan fried. And the broth was bizarre, and had big chunks of spices that was supposed to make it spicy. It was just all wrong. And the noodles… well, it was like spaghetti noodles. Seriously. It was definitely not rice noodles. And there were big slices of raw red onion. Overall, just weird, not what I wanted, but I ate it. I was cold and starving. But heed my warning, do not order this here. Order something else! Anything else!

Ha Long Bay