Vietnamese In The Mission

J had been hankering for pho and we finally got a chance to have dinner in san francisco, proper. We went to Sunflower Vietnamese Restaurant the Mission, which is a unique restaurant, in that it has to entrances on two different streets. For whatever reason, we waked the extra 50 yards and went through the Valencia entrance, which was the one further away. It's your standard vietnamese place, with pho, rice plates, noodles, and stir fry dishes.
J got his pho hankering hankered. A nice big bowl. Excellent broth!
While I would have typically gone for a vermicelli bowl or a rice plate, I went buck wild and got a crepe instead. I love these things, but I order them rarely. I'm not sure why. It's a big ass crepe made of rice flour and coconut milk filled with sprouts, shrimp, and chicken. I think it's typically pork instead of chicken, but this one just happened to be chicken. Which I ended up preferring. Of the crepes that I've had in my day, this one was excellent, but the crepe itself was a bit thick and too well cooked. So it ended up being a bit too crunchy. Typically the are crunchy, but they're really thin, which this one wasn't, so the cruchiness doesn't become an issue. But in this case, with a thick and crunchy crepe, it was just a bit different. Still good though, don't get me wrong.
The plate of fixins that come with the crepe. You can make yourself little red leaf lettuce wraps by putting in hunks of crepe and then putting on nuoc mam and hunks of pickled daikon and carrots and cucumber. Delicious! The food took surprisingly long to come out (I mean for a vietnamese restaurant), but it was well worth the wait. The service was just fine and our waiter happened to be fabulously flamboyant! People must like it here, as it was packed on a weekday and there were people waiting.

Suburban Pho

While pho places abound in the city of brotherly love, its sisterly suburbs are mostly devoid. But there are a few spots... emphasis on the few. One of them is Pho Tai Nam, and we headed out there on one of the annoying rainy nights of this week to check it out. It actually turned out to be a perfect day for pho as it was cold and dreary. It's like a pho/vietnamese/thai joint. So definitely a mix of cuisines. It's in a nondescript strip mall. The inside is bright, sizeable, and clean.

Three of us got various bowls of pho, and H/A went crazy and got the pad thai. Which he didn't really like very much.

We also got some dumplings, as C had mentioned they were good here. And they genuinely were.

The pho did not dissappoint. While clearly overpriced for pho, it was still a sizeable bowl and the broth had good flavor. The meat was nice quality, and overall, I enjoyed it.

C got some mango ice cream for dessert and S got some green tea mochi.

I never leave room for dessert. I was too busy stuffing myself with a long awaited bowl of suburban pho. So for those of you afraid of venturing into the city, head up to Blue Bell and get yourself a bowl in all its suburban glory.

Best. Pho. Restaurant. Name. Ever.

While on Fort Lee's Main Street, I passed by this place. Mo' Pho. Hands down, the best damn name for a pho spot, ever. So bravo to you. If I'm ever in Fort Lee again, I'll stop in, just because the name is so good.

International Smokeless BBQ

After snacking at the Bar Ferdinand fest (it was somewhat early), we wanted real food. We took a little drive over to Washington Ave and ended up at International Smokeless BBQ Restaurant. H/A's friends were there, so we just crashed. I've seen this place dozens of times before as it's in the same vietnamese strip mall as pho ha. But it's not exactly very inviting, you know?

So they specialize in all you can eat, cook your own, meats and hot pots. Seafood too. And a salad bar that comes with your unlimited grub. None of us were in the mood to actually do that, so we just got food from the regular menu. The regular menu is a little schizophrenic. There's viet dishes, chinese, thai, japanese. It basically runs the gamut to cover all your east asian favorites.

T got the vegetables in miso soup, which was basically ramen in a miso broth, loaded with veggies.

H/A got the sizzling beef. It looks like korean bbq, but it's not exactly that. I don't think it's supposed to be either. It still tasted pretty good, but the flavor was definitely slightly different. I loved the onions in it though, and I stole them all.

I got a chow fun (wide rice noodle) with seafood dish. The quality of the seafood wasn't the greatest, but it was still a decent dish. It was tons of food though. Most of it went untouched.

One of H/A's friends had a birthday, so there was also some cake. It had mangoes on it. I ate this like I hadn't eaten all day. I'm thinking that one day, when I'm feeling particularly carnivorous and ravenous, I will stop by to try some of the all you an eat.

International Smokeless BBQ
600 Washington Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19147-4836
(215) 599-8844

July 4th Vietnamese Dinner

To celebrate July 4th, we decided to bbq. Ok, no, there were no facilities to do that, so we went for vietnamese instead. There are a good number of vietnamese spots in the mission. Thanh Tam II was just the place we randomly picked. It's a small little joint, dimly lit, with christmas lights on the wall. I dug it. The traditional vietnamese garbed lady on the cover of the menu is a bit menacing / creepy.
J got the chicken and shrimp rice plate. Good and good.
I wanted soup, but not pho or anything with meat, so I went with the seafood noodle soup. It came with scallops, shrimp, squid, and fish cake. All good. It was a really light broth, but spot on with just enough flavor. I can't even really describe what it tasted like, but it was just what I wanted, and it was delicious. I practically drained the bowl.

Service was good, the food came out fast, it tasted good, and it was super cheap. What more can you ask for in vietnamese fare?

Thanh Tam II
577 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 252-1190

I Love You Broken Rice

I pose this question to you, my dear blog readers. Why is broken rice so damn good? Seriously. In concept, it's ridiculous. It's broken bits of rice. It's the stuff that extremely expensive and sophisticated machinery are designed to remove from the rice they are sorting. The whole point of those machines is to take these defective grains and toss them. Yet when I get a bowl of broken rice in front of me, it's just the best damn thing in the world. And I know you agree. When you get vietnamese rice plates, this is what you get. Broken rice, rice bit, whatever it's called, all I know is that it tastes amazing. And I just don't know why. It just does. I always wanted to buy and make my own, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Simply because of the concept itself. I'm paying real money for the rice parts that they typically throw away. But I finally broke down and did it, and gosh darn it, it's awesome.

Pho Only

We met up with C and S for some pho... on an incredibly warm and muggy day. C's a big fan of Pho 75, so we went there. I'd never been there before. Since C is half vietnamese, I trusted his pho tastes.

Pho 75 serves pho only. That's right folks, no rice plates or vermicelli or spring rolls. Just pho, and a few drinks, and some scary looking technicolor desserts. If you don't want just pho, then move along. Despite having a couple of asians along for the party, we all got very safe pho bowls, with safe meats... steaks, briskets, flanks. Not an innard to be had between any of us.

They serve a hearty bowl of pho here. The broth is actually a bit stronger than any of the other places I've been to in philly, and I've been to quite a number of them. So if you're looking for a stronger flavored broth, Pho 75 is your place! Everyone agreed that the meat quality here is superior. For the healthy ones with us, they liked that it was less fatty than other places. And it seemed that you get more meat than at other places. We all stuffed our gourds.

I usually bastardize my pho with a giant heaping of sprouts and a few little squirts of sriracha and hoisin sauce. That's usually it. I don't put in jalapenos, and I normally don't squeeze any lime. But C did the lime. And he doesn't know why he does it but he does it cuz his mom does it and she's vietnamese. So J and I both followed suit and limed our pho this time. We both liked it. Just a little squeeze. I can't explain how it changed the pho, but it made it a little bit better. I'm convinced.

It was a good, filling, and cheap meal. The only down side is that on this hot and muggy night, all the windows were closed and there was no a/c on at all, so it was just uncomfortable. And it was also eerily deserted. There were a few people there when we showed up, but by the time we left, it was just us. Perhaps they just close early? Or perhaps real pho eaters don't eat pho for dinner? I don't know, but it was slightly weird. Oh, and they're cash only. Considering the upcoming weather, I'm not sure how much more pho I'll be eating until it gets cold again!

Pho 75
1122 Washington Ave # F
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 271-5866

Vietnamese Dessert Fail

After gorging on some vietnamese at pho ha, I wanted to pick up some banh mi at ba le to go, just to have some around the house later. When I was there, I saw this banana and sweet rice dessert. Sounded good to me, so I picked it up. Ok, so this thing was kind of gross. The sweet rice wasn't very sweet at all, and the banana in the middle... well... it wasn't really sweet either. And it looked like tuna or another fish. But it was banana. A strange tasting banana. So I'll be passing on this next time.

Going To Vietnam

When you blog about food, everyone expects you to pick the place to eat. I do not like this kind of pressure at all. This stems from my dislike of decision making. This is why I love it when other people do the deciding. O said he wanted to go to Vietnam Restaurant. Done and done. They have crazy drinks here with corny names. Like this Suffering Bastard. Their drinks are not for the weak. This drink tastes awesome, but it is composed primarily of booze, booze, and more booze. Within a few sips, I was done. I do not exaggerate.

An order of the shrimp and pork spring rolls and the grilled pork spring rolls. It's been awhile since I've been anywhere where they serve the grilled pork variety. My favorites were at Pho Ba Le, and they've been closed for years now. The ones at Vietnam do not disappoint. They're a bit pricier than at the less swankier vietnamese joints, but really, it's kind of worth it! One thing that bothered all of us though was that the dipping sauce came with a dollop of spicy chili sauce on top, by default. Instead of letting us choose the spice, they put it on anyway, and it made the sauce quite spicy, probably too spicy for our liking.

O got the chicken satay. He wanted the noodle version of this, but they were out of chow fun noodles. How does a vietnamese restaurant run out of chow fun noodles on a friday night at 8PM? This was an extreme case of poor planning on the kitchen's part. This pissed O off a lot. I love chow fun noodles myself, so if I'd had a hankering for chow fun and I went to dinner on a friday night and they said they were out, I would have been pissed off too. He asked if they could just put it on top of other noodles and they said no... which I found incredibly unaccommodating. But I also think our server didn't speak english too well, so that did not help O's case. So in the end, he just ended up getting the rice version, which did not come on top of anything. But he still liked it. But I agree, it would have been so much better on top of wide, flat, chewy, rice noodles.

J went with the grilled shrimp rice plate. He liked his dish, and I especially enjoyed noshing on some of his broken rice. There's something about broken rice that I cannot get enough of.

As for me, I got a tofu and fried spring roll vermicelli bowl. I don't know what it was, I just didn't feel like having meat at my main topper that night. The tofu is pretty plain, but that's what I wanted. And you know I like tofu so everything about this was good. You can see at the bottom of my dish, the dollop of spice that also came on the vermicelli bowl. This was the stuff in the spring roll sauce too. And damn, it's really spicy. I ended up getting a number of extra spicy mouthfuls.

The service here is ok. The food is good too, slightly smaller portions than the less glamorous spots, and slightly higher price tags. The food comes out much slower than the divier joints. But the ambiance does not compare. There's not a flourescent light or vinyl flooring to be found. It's all mahogany and warmth.

Veggie Hoagie

After a day of visiting a client and then being on call after call after call, I was hankering for a banh mi. And not the regular pork one, but a veggie one. Yes, sometimes, I can go veggie! I'd heard good things of the tofu banh mi at Nhu Y, so I stopped by. I showed up right before they were about to close! I ordered one veggie hoagie.

It's filled with tofu and veggies in a crusty baguette long roll. Although I would have loved more of the pickled daikon and carrots (they're more shredded and a bit mushy and less crunchy than I'd like here), it totally hit the spot. I love me some tofu in all shapes and forms. I know some of you don't care for it, but y'know, I grew up with it so I love it.

I think it's just a husband and wife who own the place. When I was there, the wife made the sandwich. And damn, did she take her good ol time making it. There was no one else there. There were no call-in orders. And she just lolligagged and just went as slow as she possibly could. And while she'd be half-heartedly making my sandwich, she'd be shoving random food bits in her mouth. Not exactly what I wanted to see. But oh well, at least my food tasted good, and it was dirt cheap. Just don't expect fast service!

Nhu Y

802 Christian St

Philadelphia, PA 19147

(215) 925-6544

Pho Ha's Greatest Fans

So when I say I have a pho problem, I mean it. I mean it's not a problem like crack is a problem or meth is a problem, but seriously, I need it all the time. And it's usually a toss-up between Pho Ha or Pho & Cafe Viet Huong. Pho Ha won this time out. The summer rolls, one of our staples. They're usually always fresh here, with the wrappers being nice and sticky and pliable, so you know they just made em.
We've been here a bunch of times before where we've seen people order the pork and shrimp vermicelli bowls. J had to have one this time. It was a bit disappointing when he got a whole 2 shrimp in his bowl. 2. We knew there was something wrong with that, because when we'd seen other people getting it in the past, they always had at least 5 or 6. He was disappointed. And it looked like they'd tried to make it up to him by giving him extra pork instead. The pork is damn good, but he ordered pork and shrimp, not mostly pork and 2 shrimp. Unfortunately, J is pretty non-confrontational, so he didn't say anything. The 2 sad little shrimp he did get, they were very good.
I was in the mood for chicken, but not the broken rice plate, so I went with the grilled chicken vermicelli bowl with an added spring roll. Their chicken was awesome, as always. And I'm a big fan of the spring rolls here. They're super meaty and flavorful and crispity fresh. Perfunctory service as usual. Nothing really to complain about other than the lack of shrimpage.

Vietnamese, Again and Again

It was an extremely cold weekend. And extremely cold weekends call for a little pho action. Sunday night - dinner at Pho Ha. I had me some delicious hot pho, J had some grilled chicken on broken rice. And of course, an order of the summer rolls. The rolls weren't the freshest, but still good. My pho? Great, as usual. And the grilled chicken on broken rice? Well, I happen to think that Pho Ha has the best broken rice dish by far, and the chicken is the best. EVER. If you're gonna order broken rice at Pho Ha, you have to get the chicken. Just trust me. And the chicken portion is just ridiculous.

I had lunch with my colleague on Monday before our visit to Comcast (btw, the Comcast building is PHAT and the marketplace in the basement is as dreamy as they claim). We stopped by Nam Phuong. I'd never been here because I tend to go to the divier vietnamese joints on Washington Ave. The place is really huge, and a bit on the nicer side. They actually have tablecloths and stuff, that's how nice it is.

I got the broken rice with roast pork, M got the vermicelli bowl with chicken, and we also got a vietnamese crepe. Everything was good. Nothing spectacular, but very good standard vietnamese fare. Something I especially did like about this place was that instead of little paltry sticks of the pickled carrot and daikon, there were big slices of it, and plenty of it. I have to give them props for that. I haven't had a crepe in awhile, but I enjoyed it and as it is typical, it was ginormous. Just plain huge. It could feed a couple of people as a meal in itself. Their vermicelli bowls get fairly herb-y, being heavy on the mint and cilantro side, if that's your thing.

The service was a bit noticeably slow here. In some of the more no frills joints, the food comes out super fast. Here, it probably came out normal fast. And since it was a vietnamese place, it was a bit of a departure. As far as vietnamese places go, the speed of the food is definitely slow. The prices aren't higher though. So if you want a bit more atmosphere, it's a nice option. [Sorry for no pics, but sometimes, I just want to eat and not bother with all the camera shenanigans.]

Pho Ha

610 Washington Ave

Philadelphia, PA 19147

(215) 599-0264

Pho Duc

You know I love me some pho. And on a particularly cold evening, I decided to warm myself up by having a giant bowl of pho.
I always like to order the fresh spring rolls just to see what I'm in for. You know if you get a hard spring roll, clearly not made fresh to order, you may be in for some bad news. This was the first time I'd ever had a roll which had open ends. In reality, I guess there's no real reason to have to fold over the ends. It actually makes for quite nice presentation. While the roll was quite nice, and definitely fresh, the sauce was very different. Instead of the typical hoisin based sauce with a little peanut taste, this one was warm and pretty much just peanutty. While not bad, it was just not what I was expecting, and I much prefer the traditional hoisin based sauce. There was just something strange about it, and the fact that it was warm also put me off a little bit. Putting a cold roll into warm sauce just seemed wrong! But like I said, the roll itself was fantastic.
For the pho, I went with my standard, which is flank steak. I stay away from the innards, and usually just stick with the flank. I quite enjoyed this soup a lot. For a small bowl, it was plenty for me. The broth was meaty and strong enough, not bland at all. And the meat was hearty. And everything was just a big ol bargain. The service was good and the staff was very friendly. You can tell it's a family-run joint, and they knew a lot of patrons by name. If you have regulars, that's always a great sign. It's tucked away right next to the convention center, so stop by next time you're over that way.

Pho Duc Restaurant
3815 196th St SW
Lynnwood, WA 98036
(425) 672-2466

Pho On A Frozen Day

This weekend was a particularly frigid one. We wanted to go to NYC for the day for my birthday, but the freezing ass temperatures put the kibosh on it. As much as I like wandering around the streets of new york, I don't like doing it in sub freezing temperatures. So with that plan on hold, we stayed in town and stopped by Pho & Cafe Viet Huong for some steamy vittles. I was in the mood for some spice, so I went with the pho bo kho. It was just what I wanted. I just wish there was more stewed meat in it and less joint/knuckle stuff. I know plenty of people who enjoy eating the knuckley jointy bits of the cow (and by plenty of people I mean my mom, her friends, and my grandmom), but it doesn't really do it for me. It's just kind of gelatenous and flavorless. I'm much more into the fleshy bits.
J got a ho fun with beef and vegetables dish. He was hoping for more veggies beyond just onions and sprouts. It was still good, but when someone reads vegetables, they imagine perhaps some broccoli, maybe a carrot or two. Maybe another time.

Something intrigued us during this visit. While we were eating, we kept hearing this "ding dong" doorbell type sound every so often. Not all the time, not on a regular interval, but just occasionally, randomly, a ding dong. We couldn't see anything directly causing the ding dong, nor could we see anything happen as a direct result of the ding dong. Unless someone can enlighten us, it shall remain a mystery.

Pho & Cafe Viet Huong
1110 Washington Ave # 2A
Philadelphia, PA

Pho On a Dreary Day

Ever since I got back from LA, the weather at home has been particularly dreary, wet, and depressing. It's a good thing I escaped! The day before taking off for warmer and sunnier weather, I headed off to South Philly for a nice warm bucket of pho at Pho Hoa. I actually hadn't been to this one before. The restaurant is fairly big on the inside, you wouldn't necessarily be able to tell from outside. There's booths and tables and flat screen tvs. It's nothing exciting or interesting, decor wise. The summer rolls. These are pretty much a given. I wanted hot food though, so I didn't partake. They were probably ok. I myself, I make a mean summer roll. And my sauce beats any restaurant sauce. I swear. Chicken pho. Kinda seems to defeat the purpose of pho, but it looks good, if not healthy. I still miss my unhealthy chicken pho from the long defunct Le Cyclo. Best. Chicken. Pho. Ever. Never to be tasted by these lips again. How sad. I went with my simple brisket pho. I wanted to see how Pho Hoa stood up against the other pho joints, so I made sure to taste the broth before I adulterated it with sriracha and such. And I do have to say that the broth was quite great. This was a great bucket of pho. I cleaned my bowl. Service was perfunctory, as usual. The food came out super fast, as usual. Even though it's a "chain", this is a good one.

Vietnam Cafe Takeout

Before I headed out to G's monthly Javaflix, I had to get something to eat. Since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped by the newly open Vietnam Restaurant sister place, Vietnam Cafe, for some takeout. It was too hot for pho, and that never works out well as takeout anyway. A vermicelli bowl would have been too messy, so I settled for a broken rice plate with grilled lemon grass pork chops. It came with two really big pork chops. They were good, but a little on the bland side. It probably would have been a bit better if I was actually dining at the restaurant. You get a lot of food, so it makes up for the fact that it's not the most affordable vietnamese. Just like Vietnam, Vietnam Cafe is a bit on the pricier side. While I was waiting, I could see that the small place is doing quite brisk business. It's definitely a welcome addition to West Philly dining.

Hot Day Food

I volunteer at Appel Farm every summer for their music and art fest. Perhaps this year it wasn't the smartest, considering the freak heatwave. I was outside all day. It sucked. In some of the saddest news, once my shift ended, there wasn't any food left for us volunteers. They usually have these amazing pulled pork sandwiches. In fact, I'd been thinking of them for an entire year... only to be denied while completely starving. It was completely sad.
I got over it by stopping for a bahn mi on my way home. Ah, the beauty that is a vietnamese hoagie. I got it at Ba Le on 6th and Washington. I like mine with grilled pork. What else is on this? Pickled daikon and carrot, cilantro, and sliced jalapenos. All on a lovely crusty baguette. Seriously people, there's nothing like a bahn mi when it's 654784 degrees outside. Gawd, it's even more beautiful in a close-up. This is what macro function is made for.

I also couldn't go to Ba Le and not get the grilled pork goi cuon. Even though I have no idea how long these were sitting around, they were still good. Man, they're beautiful, even in pictures.

Slowly Getting Better! Pho Real!

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

West LA Vietnamese

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

Ha Long Bay - suburban vietnamese

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!

I've had other stuff here and it's been fine. Since we were the only people there, the service was good! :-) I remember having the skewered meat appetizers here before, and they were f'in good. So try those! If you're in the burbs and want some decent vietnamese, go ahead and try it. Just stay away from the soupy noodle dishes!

Ha Long Bay

816 West Lancaster Ave

Bryn Mawr, PA

610-525-8881