PHO STOP #9 (but really number 2...)

Pho Dac Biet $8.75

09. Nong Lá Café
2055 Sawtelle Blvd. 90025
If it weren’t for the fact that I’ve been to/ know some of the better (higher ranked) pho places on this list, I would not continue down this list at all. Nong La Cafe was worse than #10! So let’s just jump into it:

[temp] Hot enough.
Hmm.. how do I put this. It wasn’t cold, but I was able to start slurping soup right away, so I guess it was just barely hot enough?

[flavor] What is this?!
I should have taken the hint when the review on the top 10 list said “It's a clean broth that can be readily dressed up with the thick sauces lined up on the table like squeeze bottles of paint.” But again, I was blinded by my excitement to try new pho places. The soup was exactly that.. a clean/ clear broth with little flavor. For the purpose of these reviews, I refrained from adding sauces to dress it up a bit, but on second thought I feel like the soup at Nong La was meant to be drenched in sauce and by NOT adding obscene amounts of sriracha and hoisin sauce I wasn’t putting it on a “fair” playing field. Bottom line, the broth was weak (you can tell just by looking at the color here compared with Pho Hoa’s).

[noodles] right place wrong time kinda thing.
They used the wider noodles which were cooked perfectly. BUT I find that with thicker rice noodles, the flavors of the soup and/or sauce it’s served in becomes more mild and thanks to the already rather flavorless soup, the wider noodles made for a bland experience.

[meat] meh.
I got the Dac Biet (special) which included steak, brisket, tripe and beef ball.

Steak - served just the way I like it, still pink. However, that’s the extent of what I liked about it. It was cut considerably thicker and had a weird mushy texture.

Brisket - I think there were 2 slices in my bowl.. I can’t remember them.

Tripe - As with everything else in the restaurant, they were dainty. I’m usually not a huge fan of tripe in pho. I think they have a strong/ unique flavor that overpowers everything else, but surprisingly I barely noticed them. They were also cut into fine thin strips which is probably why. So I guess for tripe lovers that might not be such a good thing, but I actually prefer it this way.

Meat balls - Another one of those things I picked up from my dad to be picky about. They were OK. Had a good ‘bouncy’ texture, but again like everything else lacked flavor.

Overall Nong La Cafe was forgettable and trying way too hard to be “hip” with their dainty bowls and a pho bar (yes thats right, they had bar stools you could sit at and face the “chefs” just like a ramen restaurant!) At $8.50+ a bowl, forget the decor.. give me an unforgettable bowl of pho!! I would not visit them again. I doubt I’d even remember them if I’m ever in the neighborhood looking for food again.

Prima Taste Mee Siam

A few months ago, the BF was at Ranch 99 and found this: Prima Taste Ready-to-Cook Sauce Kit for Mee Siam. Both he and I had been craving some Singaporian flavors ever since returning from our trip from Singapore in February, so he bought this along with a couple other Prima Taste items so that we can give it a try. 


The instructions are easy to follow. Inside the box, there are four sauce packages labeled A, B, C, D used in each respective step of the cooking process.  I was amazed that the kit even came with a little packet of lime juice. I didn't have to buy limes!  All I needed was vermicelli, eggs, shrimp (or other protein) which we had at home already.

A box of pre-packaged sauce make enough mee siam to serve between 2-3. I want to say this can be enough for 3 Asian sized servings. But being the big eaters that we are, this was just enough for the two us. I even after adding extra vermicelli! (I used 200g of vermicelli instead of 175g called out in the instructions. The dry vermicelli packs that I had were 100g each and I didn't want to break the noodles apart just to get an exact 175g.)

The sauce was packed with familiar flavors and definitely satisfied our cravings. However, at $7 a box, the price is just a bit too steep for me to want to buy again. I know the craving for mee siam will come back soon enough though. I guess I will have to resort to making this from scratch on a weekend when I'm not feeling tired or lazy!

READY, SET, PHO!

If you know me then you know that i’m a pho-addict, but chances are you probably don’t, this being my first post and all. So allow me to introduce myself. My name is Cindy and I am a Pho-addict. Anyway, you can imagine how excited I was, as a self proclaimed addict, when I stumbled upon LA Weekly’s 10 Best Pho Restaurants in Los Angeles list this past week. I knew right away i needed to make it a life goal to try all ten places on the list, so I grabbed my wallet boyfriend (for some reason pho places only like cash and I never have cash...) and was ready to go!


10. Phở Hoa 818 N Spring St 90012 [chinatown]
Off the top of my head I can already think of two better pho places in chinatown that I’d prefer over this one and I’ve only been to two other pho places in the area. I don’t know if I just had too high of an expectation because it was on a top ten list or if it was just not that great. Probably a mix of both. I think with any good bowl of pho the 4 things I look at are: the temp of the soup, flavor of the broth, the type and consistency of the noodle, and the quality of the cuts of meat.

Pho Tai Nam $5.50

[temp] HOT
As my dad always tells me, the secret to a good bowl of pho is hot broth and they definitely had it...but it could have been the 90+ degree weather, they only had fans. :(

[flavor] Salty, but bland?
Props to them for being able to combine those two flavors right? Basically it was a lot of saltiness and msg aftertaste and not so much herbs, spices, and beef.

[noodles] A-OK
The rice noodles were pretty typical, but they did manage to minimize the clumping (thanks to the hot broth!) So that’s a plus. However, my chopsticks still had a soapy smell to it so that was NOT pleasant at all. You will find that this is one of my biggest pet peeves, bleachy, soapy tasting/smelling utensils. Yuck!

[meat] 50-50
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I ordered the Pho Tai Nam which is sliced rare steak and flank.

Sliced rare steak - pretty good! Sliced just thinly enough, although it was already well done when it arrived. :( Another odd thing was that the boyfriend’s were cut a lot thicker than mine, so he wasn’t really having a fun time with it. Luck of the draw I guess.

Flank - A bit dry? thick? not fatty enough? for my taste. But still always a good balance with the rare steak slices.

So the verdict? I’ve had better. I’m not usually a pho snob, I even ate ktown pho for 5 years! (didn’t have a car) but I was SUPER excited with this list and #10 was definitely a disappointment. Not Korean pho disappointment, but I can’t believe this is what #10 status pho is out of the hundreds of pho places in LA - disappointment. Here’s to hoping #1-9 will get sufficiently better. Until next time then...

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