2017-09-04. Pho Bistro is an example of the expanding culture in Southern Ontario. As more and more people moved away from Toronto, the Tri-cities were the lucky recipients of a good portion of them, and were able to enjoy the spoils migration brought with it. One such spoil was the cultural diversification, and with that, the expansion in the different types of cuisines offered.
Pho Bistro is located in a strip mall with plenty of free parking just outside it's doors. The place is relatively large for a Pho Shop and can accommodate over 100 guest at full capacity. Booths line the walls and windows and tables and chairs fill the gaps in between. The decor is nice and the tables are spaced out enough to provide a relaxed atmosphere.
The menu is your standard extensive selections of Noodles, Rice, Appetizers, Family-style specialties, and Drinks. Most Pho shops in Toronto have over 200 items on their menu, Pho Bistro is a little more conservative (probably due to lack of demand), and have refined their menu selections to about 150.
With all new places, we went with some staples to see how they compared with established Toronto giants of the industry. My impression was that they would fare pretty well considering almost all these new places are opened by those whom have migrated from the City. Tonight, the bill of fare consisted of Special Pho Bistro, Grilled Chicken & Pork Com, Egg Rolls, a Jackfruit shake, and a Sour Sop shake.
#301 Special Pho Bistro (Pho Bistro Dac Biet). This is typically your kitchen sink Pho. Rice noodles in Pho broth with an assortment of beef, pork, and seafood (shrimp and squid). What anchors this dish is the broth. Do this well, and it will tow the line for the rest of the ingredients; do this poorly, and the ship will sink. The broth had very strong pho flavours (pho cube and star anise), which is the opposite of most places, and in this instance I think it was a tad overboard. I will note; however, that the dish had a good ratio of meat/seafood to noodle to soup. 3,5 stars.
#405. Grilled pork chop and chicken with egg on rice (Com Ga, Suon Nuong, trung op la). A simple dish really, marinated thin filet of chicken and pork, grilled on an open flame and topped with green onion in oil served with of bed of steamed rice topped with a over easy fried egg. From a flavour perspective, the meat marinade was a little on the sweet side; there was also a strong garlic flavour and subtle lemongrass. The cook of it was a little overdone as the meats were slightly on the dry side. The green onion and oil was a little sparse, more of a decoration to provide sheen and a pop of colour, when it really should be applied to complement the flavours of the dish. 2,5 stars.
#101. Egg rolls (Cha Gio). Nice to see that they used the proper wrap here. The cook was fried to a nice golden yellow. The filling makes up this dish, and depending on where in Vietnam you are, the ingredients will differ slightly. Without going into all the different variations based on local ingredients, the filling here was decent. The dish came with fish sauce, shredded lettuce, pickled carrots, and pickled radish. They were missing leaf lettuce, which kind of puzzled me, because a common way of eating this dish is to wrap the cha gio with the pickled veggies in the lettuce and then dip it in the fish sauce. I can only assume that out here in the Tri-cities, most consume it like an appetizer and leave the garnishes on the plate; the restaurant, not providing the leaf lettuce as a cost savings. 3,5 stars less 0,5 star for no leaf lettuce, 3 stars overall.
Fish Sauce. Served with the Egg Rolls and Grilled Pork & Chicken Rice. This was quite good IMO. It had a nice balance of fish and sweetness. 4 stars.
Both shakes are sub-par in my opinion. 2 stars each.
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Overall, Pho Bistro is a solid 3,5 star place. They're a little pricey, but they can be. They're in a more remote location where ingredients may not be readily available so transportation costs are higher; but at the same time, cheaper rents should offset this. Then there's the dynamic of the consumer base and competition, of which both work in their favour. The lack of competition in the area leaves those that are familiar with Pho are at the mercy of any price if they crave it badly enough. Those that are new to it and have never been exposed to the competitive prices are ignorant to marginal profits. And with most dishes coming in at $, it falls into the affordable category. Do I think they could use some minor tweaks, sure, but I'm pretty certain that my preferences do not match those of the locals that keep the place in business. And I don't blame them one bit to keep things the way they are, if it's not broke, don't fix it... would I be back, probably, they're one of a handful in the Tri-cities, and they're decent.
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