Needed some veggies and really missing Asian food traveling in Spain (there's only so much bread,…read moremeat, & patata bravas I can eat) Also mending an ill stomach, I was excited to find this restaurant close to La Sagrada Familia.
Turns out the owner is Cantonese-Chinese (possibly by way of Vietnam?), he wasn't entirely talkative, but this explains is culinary attention to flavor and quality of ingredients (knowing Cantonese techniques - but this actually explains how the actual food is- more about that below). Most of his extremely nice waitstaff were Nepali. Everyone communicated very well in Spanish & English. They seemed to have a lot of regular customers, some even hugging the who I assumed was the General Manager.
I was craving a refreshing cold noodle salad and crunchy vegetables, the €9.50 Bun Bo Xao sounded great. It had rice noodles, lettuce, cucumber, fresh mint, topped with fried onions & peanut. I ordered the beef version. A small Vegetable triangle Spring Roll was complimentary at the beginning of the meal.
The bowl was generously filled with all the fresh ingredients. What's different than how I've had this dish in NYC and LA (& I assume dishes are tweaked for the Spanish palette and style here), was that the lemongrass beef was stir-fried with a light gravy sauce (and not grilled and dry/nom-sauce), and the noodles were warm and tossed in the sauce also. The noodles were Mei Fun (rice vermicelli) and not the round spaghetti-like noodles that's usually used for the dish. There's usually Nuoc Cham sauce that comes with this dish, which you pour the "Nuoc Cham dressing" over everything & toss. However, since the noodles were already covered in the gravy sauce from the beef (with a pool at the bottom), it wouldn't have made sense anyway.
Overall I was super happy to have noodles and food that tasted good. I saw a lot of tables order the same sauteed Lemongrass beef as a side dish.
So- HOW do I know that this more Chinese than Vietnamese? The gravy-like sauces for the meats (& not primarily grilled meats and seafood), No typical condiments and ingredients like Nuoc Cham, pickled carrots & daikon, Siracha, Hoisin Sauce, & garlic chili set out at the table to customize the Pho. And no typical Vietnamese noodles (sounds like the other reviews about the Pho). I wonder if they have Vietnamese coffee...they can do Flan! A good bridge for cultures.
Overall they have to cater to a predominantly Spanish Clientele to survive - basically ALL of the tables were eating Fried Rice (which looked like fast-food style, and a dish I actually haven't seen much at Vietnamese Restaurants).
The restaurant is decorated very beautifully- BUT all of the ceiling tile work, wooden bar carvings of dragons- are decorations for a Chinese Restaurant (speaking from family experience business!).
Overall, it's 4 stars & a decent experience for me- being what it is. I would come lowering your expectations- it's more like Chinese-light leaning Vietnamese Food. The staff did say that the owner is very secretive about his Pho recipe (I really hope that it's not from a boullion & spice powder mix). Will have to try it the next time I visit I guess - BUT knowing that they don't give you a plate of fresh bean sprouts, Thai basil, lime wedge, possibly some jalepenos - then I probably won't like my Pho (light & safe) experience.. & I get it, How do you train customers to prepare a bowl of Pho at their tables, without high overhead costs? Too much of a learning & communication curve. But good luck to them, good to have options in that neighborhood & Barcelona in general.
Ran into some of the workers on their 3hr break later and they kindly showed me to the Metro.
I want to note the Spanish translation of cucumber is so interesting - "papaya green."
