Viet Cali: ...Seriously? Just drive the extra 3.1 miles to Cow Cali

Pho Viet Cali
Location: 6755 Mira Mesa Blvd #113(near the Bev Mo...)

Hours: 10:30am to who cares

Photos: Courtesy of Hao and his fancy camera

Beth:

Sometimes we weary in our great quest to review every pho place in "America's Finest City"- like this last month, in which all our attempts to try new and exciting pho establishments have turned out pretty lame. Not quite Hall of Laaame-worthy, but somehow, that makes it even sadder.

Well, it was about half an hour after they were supposed to open. The door was open, but no one seemed to be in there. And certainly there were no other diners. But we're used to that by now... If you don't go to one of the really good, popular places where a lot of Vietnamese people go to eat (like Pho Cow Cali, Pho Hoa, and Pho Ca Dao- which we will be reviewing soon), then you might not see other people in there for breakfast. Frankly, this should just be a hint to us that we may not be in for much of a treat.

So we walked in... The door was just open... And someone from the kitchen came out and graciously sat us, acknowledging that they were, in fact, open.

The menu had one of those great pages where you can choose you own combination of meats. We all ordered and received our pho quickly.

Katie:

Well, I decided take advantage of this make your own pho option, particularly because their combo included meatballs, not so much my favorite. I also took this opportunity to intentionally order the "crunchy" flank as opposed to "fatty flank" and "some other flank." Well, the waitress assured me that what I ordered was the same as the combo...I figured she would just punch that into her fancy computer with a few replacements, etc.

Now...when the pho came out, it was obvious my pho had meatballs in it. Not a big deal, last time I tried them was 8 years ago so I figured it was time. Not as off-putting as my first experience but certainly wouldn't order them again.

Beth:

Yes, even though we had "created our own" combinations, the guy just brought the bowls out and said numbers, like the numbered combinations on the menu. So we had no idea whose pho was whose. Awk-waaaard....

Katie:

I did manage to order my steak on the side and the sate sauce was good, but thats about it. Oh that and, we got 20% or 25% off cause it was happy hour all day saturday. But considering Beth and I only ate 50% of our pho, not a great deal.

Most common comment was "Interesting." Meatballs were "interesting," said Hao. Broth is "interesting" says Katie.

Anyways, Beth says it best:

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR--

MORE MEDIOCRE PHO! WAH HA HA HA!!

the pho crew: "Nooooooooo!!! Haven't we suffered enough??"

Viet Cali: "NO, NOW YOU MUST EAT MORE PHO THAT IS NOT PARTICULARLY GOOD!!!"

the pho crew: "May god have mercy on our souls!!"

Back to Katie:

Verdict: 5 spoons and an imaginary half. At any rate, not good enough for Beth and I to eat more than half a bowl of pho, espechially with the knowledge that some amazing buy-2-get-1-free banh mi from Lucky awaited us (See pic below)

Anh Hong Pho Pasteur

Location: 7612 Linda Vista Rd, Suite 117- Clairemont (near K Sandwiches)
Phone: (858)-569-7515
Hours: do you really care that much? If you still want to go there after reading this review, you could call.
Website: their Yelp page

Beth:

This is going to be a quick one, because there isn't much worth talking about here. We went back in December, and the details are a little fuzzy. But trust me, you won't be missing much.

We were initially hopeful when we entered Anh Hong Pho Pasteur... We were in a new, uncharted pho neighborhood, and we were so close to K Sandwiches. People who like Banh Mi don't put up with sub-par pho, right?

So we went in... The decor was pretty wild. One wall had neon beer signs on it, there was some ridiculous plastic gate with golden dragons dividing the dining area, one wall had murals of life in rural Vietnam... Also, a very dirty tank of crustaceans. A little tacky, but nothing particularly alarming to people who have been all over the pho scene in this town.

The menu made us (myself, Katie, Matus) very hopeful- they had a 7-color drink in addition to the usual 3-color! Maybe something fun and unique was going on here. Maybe we were about to have a great pho experience!

...


Not so much.

So, not as bad as Bolsa, but not really worth the time. Nothing was particularly bad, or gross. But it just didn't leave us with a very good impression. The broth was particularly mediocre- a bit bland.

Katie finished her bowl, but I didn't... After all, we were about to go get some sweet, sweet Banh Mi.

Bottom line... We didn't find it remarkable enough to post about it right away, and the fact that we don't remember much about it now should tell you that you may not want to waste your time. Just go get some Banh Mi. Or drive to Mira Mesa or PB.

6 spoons out of 10.

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)

San Diego Pho Blog Hall of Laaame

Here is a short list of places we've been to once in the past two years and were so turned off by their pho that we don't plan on going there to review them again any time soon. That's not to say that some of them don't have other non-pho related redeeming qualities (see Pho Sao Bien, below).

Hi Thai on UCSD La Jolla campus: Some of their food is mediocre. Lots of it is bad. The pho is nearly inedible. We give this place 1 spoon out of 10 and that's being generous.

Lucky Pho: (9326 Mira Mesa Blvd) Went here with my friend, Hao, after reading rave reviews from Kirk's blog, Mmm-yoso!, which is normally spot on about all things regarding Asian food. However, this is the one time we were disappointed by one of his recommendations. The broth had no beef flavor whatsoever (was described by Hao as water with pepper in it). The vegetables were limp, and if I remember correctly, the pho came with lemons rather than limes. We were shocked at how disapointing and non-pho-like the whole experience was. However, we may give this place one more try because it receives such good reviews from a reputable source. Maybe that was just a bad day. We give this place a probationary 2 spoons out of 10.

Pho Sao Bien: (1958 Garnet in PB- conveniently located next door to the Pretty Kitty- nothing like a bikini wax and a spring roll)

The Pho here is probably good if you're a beginner but if you've every had authentic pho, you're bound to find Pho Sao Bien rather disheartening. However, their Bun (vermicelli noodles) are pretty decent, their Banh Mi tasty, very big and only $3.50, and their Spring Rolls are the best we've found yet in San Diego. However, this is a Pho Blog, not a Spring Roll Blog, so we give them 3 spoons out of 10.

Sadly, there are probably more of these to come. Stay tuned so you can steer clear.

Pho La Jolla (AKA Banh Mi Tease)

Location: 3211 Holiday Ct. La Jolla (in the Mini Mall with Cal Copy and Yummy Maki Yummy Box)
Phone: (858) 587-4688.
Hours: 10am-10pm, 7 days a week
Website: http://www.pholajolla.com/index.php - this website is super-fancy.

Beth:

First off, let me address one of the biggest complaints people seem to have about this place on Yelp. You are paying extra (6.25 for a small, and 7.50 for a large bowl- the sizes are pretty standard) for the convenience of its location. They have a monopoly on pho in the UCSD area, so they can get away with it. Let's face it, you're spending more than $.75 on gas just to get to Mira Mesa or Clairemont or Convoy from UCSD, so it evens out. They also have a discount for UCSD students (10 percent off with ID, last time I checked), so the price turns out to be relatively reasonable.

You may say to me, "But Beth, what about Hi Thai in the old Student Center on campus?" And I would say, "Go get a root canal instead, you will surely enjoy that more than eating pho from Hi Thai." (More on Hi Thai in the SDPB Hall of Laaame)

Katie and I are not really fans of the fact that they don't open until 10 AM, but we respect that not everyone thinks of pho as a breakfast food.

Pho La Jolla is very clean, and kind of has hoity-toity decor, but that's to be expected. After all, folks, we are in La Jolla here. They have extra-classy black-and-red plastic spoons, to complete the effect. The table set-up is a little awkward- there are some small tables outdoors, and a few small ones inside, but most of the seating is at long tables, so things can get a little weird when it's crowded.

Service is generally good, but a little slower than what you may be used to if you go to pho places a lot. They also have disposable wooden chopsticks, if you care about that kind of thing.

The vegetable plate was satisfactory- the basil, jalapenos, bean sprouts, and limes were very fresh, and there were plenty of them. No culantro, though. Which made me kind of sad.

Available sauces are the usual suspects, plus fish sauce. Saute sauce is available on request, however, Katie and I did not find it as good as the saute sauce at Pho Cow Cali Express.

The meat was good, in general. The steak was just fine, but I thought the flank was too fatty. They also put tripe into my rare steak/flank combo, which I did not really appreciate. There also seemed to be some unidentified stuff, maybe cartilage, in both mine and Katie's (Katie ordered the Special Combination). This has never happened to me there before.

The broth was good- solid, not amazing. It is pretty variable here.

The noodles were slightly soft, and the quantity tends to vary. I've gotten both not enough and way too much here before.

As for their non-pho options, they have pretty decent spring rolls. Their Banh Mi, which are no longer available, are a whole other story.

When they first opened, and offered Banh Mi, Katie and I went to go grab a bag of 6 a couple of times. I know, 6 Banh Mi seems like a lot for 2 girls. Apparently, that's what the staff there thought, too, because they looked at us like we were crazy and asked if we were having a party. Hey, it's nice to have a few stashed in the fridge for quick lunches. Anyway, I don't like feeling judged when I patronize your business. FYI, Pho La Jolla.

Anyway, they stopped offering Banh Mi not long after this. First story was that they couldn't get bread (really?) then a parade of other excuses followed. Katie, Hao, or I would often stop and ask when they would be offering them again, and again, we were treated like we were a little crazy. Maybe we are. I think everyone should be crazy about Banh Mi, personally. There was a brief period after this where they had Banh Mi again, but then they stopped selling them for good, saying it was interfering with their pho business. What a shame- these were the best Banh Mi in San Diego, as far as Katie and I were concerned.

So, dear Pho Enthusiast, if you desire Banh Mi, you are better off making the drive to PB and going to Pho Sao Bien. Just don't get their pho. Trust me (again, see the Hall of Laaame).

The bottom line: Variable, but decent. And close, if you're at UCSD. 6 spoons out of 10.