jerseyhoya wrote:My life hasn't been the same since I learned how to pronounce meme correctly

jamiethekiller wrote:

lethal wrote:

jamiethekiller wrote:guy i work with just opened up a Bahn Mi place with his family. he's vietnamese. i asked him about his pho and he was liek "yo, ours suck. don't even bother trying it." said it just takes too long for them to make for it to be worth while. there's a place near work though that supposedly is good pho though.

his Bahn Mi's were pretty #$!&@ killer though

A good pho place should specialize in it, as in 2/3s or more of the patrons are eating it when you walk in. The key is the broth. The noodles and meat, you or I can buy from the store. If they overcook the noodles or serve low quality meat, that's one thing, but possibly correctable. If the broth is bad, that's a recipe flaw that can't ever be overcome.

Turnover should be fast, you don't want broth that has been simmering for too long. Water will have evaporated off and the proportion of spices won't be right.

Lastly, any decent place should be able to get you a bowl in front of you within 5 minutes of walking in. Any longer and they're just too slow to be very good.

coworker said that a good broth takes hours of simmering to get it right. what do you qauntify as 'too long?'

EndlessSummer wrote:The best place I've been in Philly is some place we call the Choo Choo train, because it has an illustration of a train on the window. Apparently, it's called Pho Xe Lua Veit Thai, and a Vietnamese friend gave me the initial rec. It's fits all of Lethal's criteria, too.

I also saw a place in Seattle called Pho King, which is pretty funny, especially cause pho is technically pronounced "fuh."

mickbayne wrote:

SK790 wrote:

mickbayne wrote:My favorite pho ever was at a place called Jenny Pho in Issaquah, WA. I did try What the Pho in Bellevue but it wasn't as good.

Have yet to try any in Philly, but Pho Thai Nam in Norristown is pretty decent.

Suddenly, this guy swoops in with another clutch Seattle tip.

I probably mentioned Jenny Pho before in another post. Fucking love that place. It's also in the same shopping center as one of my favorite Thai restaurants (O'Char) in Issaquah. And there's a decent sushi place called iSushi right next to O'Char. They have a conveyor belt with plates of sushi, teriyaki, desserts, etc that snakes around the restaurant. Just take plates from the conveyor belt at your convenience, then when you're done the waitress comes by and writes up your total based on the colors of the plates you selected.

edit: It's probably worth noting that Jenny Pho seemed to be pretty heavy with the MSG. Didn't bother me personally (in fact, my guess is that's why I liked it so much), but I had co-workers who wouldn't eat there because they were allergic or sensitive or whatever.

The B1G Piece wrote:Le Saigon in Paoli is the tits.

SK790 wrote:

mickbayne wrote:

SK790 wrote:

mickbayne wrote:My favorite pho ever was at a place called Jenny Pho in Issaquah, WA. I did try What the Pho in Bellevue but it wasn't as good.

Have yet to try any in Philly, but Pho Thai Nam in Norristown is pretty decent.

Suddenly, this guy swoops in with another clutch Seattle tip.

I probably mentioned Jenny Pho before in another post. Fucking love that place. It's also in the same shopping center as one of my favorite Thai restaurants (O'Char) in Issaquah. And there's a decent sushi place called iSushi right next to O'Char. They have a conveyor belt with plates of sushi, teriyaki, desserts, etc that snakes around the restaurant. Just take plates from the conveyor belt at your convenience, then when you're done the waitress comes by and writes up your total based on the colors of the plates you selected.

edit: It's probably worth noting that Jenny Pho seemed to be pretty heavy with the MSG. Didn't bother me personally (in fact, my guess is that's why I liked it so much), but I had co-workers who wouldn't eat there because they were allergic or sensitive or whatever.

I'm about to go try Jenny Pho. Hopefully it's as good as you say it is. You haven't let me down yet when it comes to Seattle stuff.

mickbayne wrote:

The B1G Piece wrote:Le Saigon in Paoli is the tits.

Went there once only because me and a friend didn't realize Pho Thai Nam in Norristown was closed on Mondays and Le Saigon seemed to be the next closest Vietnamese place. I ended up getting the banh mi and really liked it, but my friend was not all that impressed with the pho. She always gets chicken pho, which doesn't really do anything for me anyway, so there's that.

EndlessSummer wrote:Cafe Diem is awesome, but I was only there once. Those Washington Ave joints are great, but I'm walking distance at work to the Choo Choo so I've been there way more frequently. But it's in Chinatown, so Dim Sum Garden and that Nan Zhou hand drawn noodle place also frequently draw me in on the way.