My two work buddies and I tried this place for lunch today. We're regulars at another Pho restaurant in the area, but decided to branch out a little bit and try another one.
There are a few places in Lowell to get Pho or other great Vietnamese Fare, but our usual place makes it difficult to stray.
Again...we did today...and it was pretty good here.
The place looks like someone's house-turned-restaurant...and the parking is limited to about 4-5 spots in the front.
My buddy drives a Toyota Tundra...and I think had he picked one of the smaller spots, his truck bed would have been in the road.
Despite the tacky neon signs in front, the inside makes you think they're trying to mirror a more tropical setting. Everything is white or neon inside...with plants and a fish tank adorning the middle of the dining room. One of my buds commented on the bar setting looking like something you'd see in Aruba.
The weather outside was beautiful today...and a nice crisp breeze was blowing across the dining room since the windows and doors were open.
Another item that greeted us was some bizarre aromas. I wouldn't say bad aromas, however, bizarre.
Not taken aback, we sat down to enjoy some usual Fresh Spring Rolls, (not the crispy ones), with the side of peanut sauce.
I went for the tofu/shrimp option...and my buddies ordered them as-is with the pork/shrimp. The spring rolls arrived lickety-split fast...and all in all were pretty good. We did notice an unusual smell...almost like they sprinkled some Parmesan cheese on the inside of the roll. It was faint, but noticeable. I also noticed the lettuce did not appear a nice vibrant green...so either it was just an hour or so from actually wilting or they used some of the greens closer to the core of the lettuce head where it's more white than green. Tasted good and fresh tho, so just a visual and slight aroma hurdle.
I shared one of my tofu ones as I actually felt it was better than the pork ones. My buddy agreed. So pretty good...but maybe not quite as good as what we're used to. It had some qualities that were both better and not quite as good as our ol' faithful Pho champion.
We moved on to some beef Pho...one of my buds getting the very traditional bowl with all the slimy goodies...tripe, tendon, rare steak, etc, etc. While my other buddy and I aren't quite as impressed having tried it, so we settle for the rare steak only.
This Pho was subtly different.
Right off the bat, we all noticed it was a sweeter broth...that actually had a little bit of "gaminess" to it. Not necessarily a bad kind of gaminess...but nonetheless a noticeable difference. Made us realize that perhaps this is a more traditional bowl of Pho...we don't have too many different Pho's under our belt, so this was our perspective.
We did notice it was piping hot...and tasted like it had just been prepared...onions and greens were very fresh tasting.
2 out of 3 of us use the Taiwanese Hot Sauce in the Pho that is showcased at every Pho restaurant...called Tuong Ot Sriracha/HOT Chile Sauce. There is a picture of a rooster on it...and an unmistakable green squirt-cap.
A quote about this particular sauce by one of Yelp-Boston's Elite, (or 1337 in hacker/gamer sp33k), Yelp Ambassadors, Leighann has a picture of the bottle on her profile with a caption... "if ya don't know, you betta ask somebody!"
I am serial folks, she's right...check urself b4 u wreck urself...One taste and you'll be yellin' like a redneck'..."Sonbitch...that's good".
Anywho...the sauce eliminates the slight gamy taste...and by the time I got to the bottom of the bowl, I was noddin, cuz I was diggin' it.
My non-sauce buddy just couldn't get into the Pho as much...but take note, he finished it with only a bit of broth left.
All in all...I am pretty sure we won't be substituting our usual seats at our fave place, but this was a nice change of pace. Tho I rated it a 4, had there been a 3.5, it would have been such...but I'd try it again for sure. read more