Pho Time: Pho fit for a date

Location: 1820 Garnet Ave, Pacific Beach

Phone: 858-273-1664
Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-10pm; Sun 10am-9pm
Website: the website listed on their card (www.itsphotime.com) does not seem to exist, so here is their Yelp page- but remember kids, take Yelp with a big grain of salt...

Beth:

We saw this place on our way down to Surfside Sushi for 70% off night (seriously- it's exactly as amazing as it sounds). We didn't realize it at the time, but it's in the spot where The Green Papaya- a pho place we never went to- used to be. Everything I hear tells me we didn't miss much there.

A little research later showed that the place is generally well-reviewed on Yelp (which doesn't always mean anything- I'm sorry, but a lot of the ratings on Yelp are ridiculously inflated). Also, Kirk over at mmm-yoso!!! reviewed it back when it was the Green Papaya, although I hear it was different and pricier at the time.

We were a little skeptical, since this place is in PB- and let's face it people, some of the Asian places in PB are not very authentic- I'm looking at you, Pho Sao Bien.

The fact that Pho Time does not open until 10 AM also made us skeptical, but when they seemed to be running late on opening, then we felt a little better about the authenticity thing.

Not a traditional Pho place, for sure- there is some effort put into the atmosphere here. The decorations are kind of gimmicky, and there is some ridiculous tiki bar/pho bar up in front. They played classical piano music while we were there (we happened to be the only people there), and that added a silly kind of classiness to it. But the vaulted ceiling lets in a lot of light, which is nice, and we were very impressed by the fish tank along the top of the booths, even though the fish spent most of their time as far away from us as they could get.



Katie:

The menu was also not traditional, but kind of in a good way. Their menu is pho-novice friendly. They describe all the dishes and have a huge variety of pho choices for your diverse American audience: chicken pho for anti-red meat health nuts, seafood pho for the pescatarians and vegetable pho for the vegetarians. Yes, that last one especially seems a bit sacreligious to me but to each their own...I guess.

They also finally did the sensible thing with their beef pho menu and included an option to just choose whatever meats you want in it (see pic below) instead of reading through the standard 45 near-identical combinations, which they also included. Not quite as elegant as Hao's proposed binary pho menu (don't ask) but definitely more comprehensible and more efficient than the standard.



Flipping through to the spring roll page: They had almost as many spring roll options as some places have pho options including the standard (pork & shrimp) as well as bbq, chicken, shrimp only and yes, vegetarian. Insert some comment about West Coast Hippies here.

Oh, and one other very non-traditional pho thing: The service was AMAZING! Well aside form their surprise that someone had showed up as early as 10. The head waiter even apologized and corrected the other waiter when he switched our pho's around. (As opposed to just sliding them on the table and having us sort it out ourselves. Well, maybe thats a bit of an exaggeration).

So the question of the day: Can a pho place cater to the typical PB audience (vegetarians included) and still make a good bowl of pho? To our great surprise, emphatically YES!!!

The broth was the high point of the PhoTime pho experience. It was light but in a good way. You could taste all the spices and a bit of beefiness at the top of the bowl that transitioned into a richer beefiness at the bottom. Not sure how else to describe it but it was delicious.


The noodles were good, not too squishy. The meat was very tender. Personally, I thought the meat at Lucky Pho was more flavorful but Beth disagreed. She was blown away by her PhoTime beef experience. This may be because she ordered the mysterious crunchy flank and I did not. What is crunchy flank you ask? We have no idea. Its definitely not crunchy but definitely tasty, according to Beth. It will be definitely be in my bowl next time we go to PhoTime.

Beth:

Yeah, um, I have no idea where the "crunchy" part of the crunchy flank thing comes in. But it doesn't matter, because all the meat in my pho was extra tender and delicious. I ordered the #11 combo with lean and fatty brisket and crunchy flank. Although there was some fat on some of the meat, the fat was tender and flavorful rather than just chewy and rubbery.

Katie:

Only food related complaint: No culantro :(

For the who are also following our spring roll saga, these ones definitely passed. Peanut sauce more on the peanutty side which we at least think makes for a tastier peanut sauce.

Beth:

We also got some Banh Mi, which were pretty good- I really liked the meat (Katie not so much), and they had lots of butter in them, which I enjoyed. The guy who waited on us also gave us helpful tips about warming the sandwiches.

To summarize: PhoTime is THE place to take to new pho-ers. They make the atmosphere and the menu friendler for those more accustomed to Western restaurants without sacrificing an ounce of integrity in the authenticity and tastiness of their pho. Pho Time has proven the impossible: you CAN get an awesome bowl of pho between Mira Mesa and El Cajon. 9 spoons out of 10!