Bolsa: Pho Purgatory

Location: 9225 Mira Mesa Blvd
Phone: (858) 693-3663
Hours: : Mon-Wed, Fri-Sun 8am-8:30 pm
Website: their Yelp page

Beth:

Katie, Hao, and I were excited about Bolsa because of their early opening time (yay!) and their location right in the middle of prime pho country in Mira Mesa (right across from Pho Cow Cali and kitty-corner from Lucky Supermarket and pho). However, it seemed mediocrity was the order of the day.

There really isn't much to say about the place, frankly. Nothing about the experience was particularly bad... or good. It was so-so... More or less.

The restaurant was not remarkable in its decor or anything else. The service was OK, the decor was standard. It was clean. Meh.

We opted out of spring rolls because we were thinking about getting their banh mi, so we went straight for the pho.


Katie:

First sip of the broth and it hits you a bit weird. Something a bit different, not really in the good way. I was thinking, hmm chicken taste? But then, Hao and Beth hit it on the nail: a peculiar fast food hamburger kind of taste. It was still edible but didn't have that fresh pho feelin'. The meat was average, the noodles were average, the veggie plate was average (missing culantro). If they were close by, I may consider going again but if you're in Mira Mesa anyways, there are at least 3 better pho places within a few blocks of Bolsa: Lucky Pho, Pho Hoa Cali, Pho Ca Dao, each of which have their own charm.


Beth:

Yeah, bring back that fresh pho feelin', whoa-oh that fresh pho feelin', you've lost that fresh pho feelin' now it's gone, gone, gone...



Sorry about that. Anyway, I basically echo Katie's sentiments about the food. Not very memorable. My flank was nice and tender but it seems like it might be hard to screw up crunchy flank. The saute sauce was also unremarkable.

Anyway, I think the most telling thing about this experience is that we left half our pho on the table, so we would have more room for banh mi. And rather than order banh mi from this bastion of mediocrity, we opted to go to Cali Baguette, which just opened a new location in the same mini-mall as Bolsa.

The banh mi from Cali Baguette ($3.25) were good, I thought- Katie said she found them OK but not great (although she acknowledges that her banh mi standards may be impossibly high). But the real standout there was the service- the girl manning the counter was very friendly and answered any questions we had about the foods they offered. She even gave us a delicious baguette covered in butter and sesame seeds for free with our order!

So I guess the bottom line with Bolsa is... meh. 5 spoons out of 10.


(photos courtesy of Hao Ye- except the spoons.)

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!

Lucky Pho Strikes Back

Location: 9326 Mira Mesa Blvd - Inside Lucky Seafood Supermarket)
Phone: (858) 586-7979
Hours: : 8am-9pm, 7 days a week
Website: http://www.luckyseafoodsupermarket.com/ - this website is not super-fancy.

Katie:

After much trepidation, we decided to return to Luck Pho. But, we did have an attack plan. If Lucky Pho had a repeat performance to our first experience (see San Diego Pho Blog Hall of Laaame) we would leave our pho on the table and head to Ca Dao. Thankfully, that wasn't necessary.

Beth:
Lucky Pho is located inside a supermarket, as you may have noticed in the contact/location info above. So it is a restaurant-type setting, separate from the rest of the store, with a few TV's - the decoration is pretty subtle and understated, which is fine. It was not very busy on Saturday morning (I think we made it out there at about 10 AM- later than usual due to my post-grad student Halloween Party hangover)- less busy than nearby Cow Cali usually is at the same time on a Saturday.

The place was quite clean, and the tables have a pretty standard Pho restaurant setup- no sauce dishes, but they seem to bring them out with the food. Service was extremely quick- I think we got our pho spring rolls within 5 minutes.



The vegetable garnishes arrived before the pho. Complete plate and all fresh! With peppers, sprouts, basil, culantro and yes, limes. Limes that were a bit on the yellow side, but definitely limes. Phew! Might not turn out so bad after all.

Our first impression when the pho arrives was that the broth was a tiny bit less hot then usual and the noodles rather Al Dente. We decided to let the noodles cook for a bit and dive into the spring rolls. The spring rolls were yummy. They had mint and plentiful shrimp, so they passed, but the skin seemed oddly thick and they were heavy on the meat, light on the vegetables. The sauce was a bit sweet and not quite peanutty enough.

We returned to our pho and the noodles were perfect by now, and because they started off hard, pleasantly stayed a nice non-mushy texture till the bottom of the bowl.


But the meat! The meat was super flavorful and soft. Compared to Cow Cali, Lucky Pho wins in the meat category. When it comes to the broth though, we still prefer Cow Cali. The broth at Lucky Pho was nice because you could really taste the spices but it wasn't quite beefy enough. Good but not good enough to sip every last drop from the bowl.

Beth:

The prices seem to be pretty standard pho-place prices: $5.25 for a small bowl, which is the standard small pho size. So, we have said before that this is not a blog about spring rolls or banh mi, as wonderful as those things are. But the banh mi that can be purchased at the deli here are worth mentioning. They are buy-2-get-1 free, which is great- even better than the standard buy-5-get-1 free deal. They were $3.25 each, which is the cheapest we have found around here. They were very good- Katie thought the bread was a little soft, but I liked it. The vegetables came on the sandwiches already, which makes them a little difficult to re-heat. But the veggies were fresh and good, and the meat was also well-seasoned and tender. They had a lot of butter in them, but that was okay with me.

So, we over at the dear SDPB revoke our former probationary rating of 2 spoons out of 10 in favor of a 7 out of 10. We'd like to give it a 7.5 but we didn't want to cut a spoon in half, so you'll just have to imagine that extra half spoon.

(note: a special thanks goes out to occasional guest reviewer Adam for the title of this post)