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.
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| 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...
