Pho-Qs

A few (many, many) weeks ago, I went to have pho with Jake (@threevolts) and a few of his friends. I asked him to write a guest review for Pho-Qs since he is such a frequent patron of Pho 79 in St Paul. He gives Pho 79 a 4 out of 5 stars, which I fully support.
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Pho79 Saint Paul Review — Or: How I learned to stop worrying and doctor up my pho…

Nicky recently joined a few of us for a trip to my favorite Pho spot and was kind enough to invite me to blog about said purveyor of the revered meal-in-a-bowl. Here goes…

I am a Pho fiend. Or Phiend, as it were. Whatever the case, I adore Pho. Admittedly moreso in the winter months —especially if a cold runs me down. I should also admit that I eat Pho differently than most —that is, I doctor the hell out of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the stuff au natural, but if given an arsenal of add-ons, I’ll fill my bowl with color and flavor. By the end of my handiwork, my broth was dark orange, bordering on brown. Everyone else at the table had “normal” looking Pho. Some might call this method bad phorm. I call it delicious.

Anyway, on to the place…

Pho79, like many of the best Pho spots, is located in a nondescript strip mall. In this case, just off 280 and Energy Park Drive in Saint Paul. It is related to the Pho79 in Uptown but only through marriage. They are separate operations run by extended family members or in-laws or something. Lynn (one of the owners) will be happy to explain the whole story if you stop by and chat her up.

Now to the Pho itself…

Many swear by the beef balls here. I do not. In fact, I don’t like them anywhere. When it comes to pho, give me the leanest beef you’ve got. That said, if you’re into options, Pho79 has you covered —including a the special, which is served in a bowl that is noticeably larger and packs the protein equivalent of a small steer.

My order is always the same at Pho79 —Number 8: rare lean beef. The broth is delightfully simple and gets even better when I add the following:

- As much basil as Lynn will give me
- As many lime wedges as Lynn will give me
- Entire plate of sprouts
- Even more basil
- A boatload of siracha (less if you’re not into the mouth on fire thing)
- A quick squirt of hoisin
- A sprinkle of sugar

and then the kicker:

Ask them for the chili oil. It’s a small glass tumbler filled with red, oily paste and a spoon. I’m not even sure if that’s what they call it, but you’ll know what I mean. This stuff is the magic ingredient. It’s not spicy at all. Rather, it packs a sort of subtle, lemongrassy flavor that just makes the whole bowl (and all that you’ve put into it) come together so nicely.

There you have it. Directions for how to turn a nice, simple bowl of pho into an orange/brownish mess you’ll slurp down until you hurt. And the best part about Pho79? If you run out of room they’ll bring you a heavy duty plastic container to take your meal home. No charge.

Finally, if you dig eggrolls, these are the best I’ve found, aside from the now-defunct Siagon Star which used to operate across from Rosedale.

Happy pho-q-ing, everyone!

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Contact:

2233 Energy Park Drive
St Paul, MN 55108-1547
651.644.2327

Emily agreed to have pho with me and write a guest review.  I chose the location and met Emily there.  As soon as I walked in, I wondered if she might be wanting to kill me for choosing this place, but we went with it… Emily and I agreed to give Pho Quan a 2.5 out of 5 star rating, you’ll see why below…..
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Oh hi, it’s Emily, your friendly guest poster who was lucky enough to enjoy some pho with Nicky at Pho Quan this week.

I’ll start by saying that Pho Quan is hands down the sketchiest place that I have eaten a meal. In any country. I don’t think my standards are really that high, but I did feel a little bit like I might be murdered and no one would find out, so be ready for that.

I’m also not quite sure they have an actual street address, but you’ll find them by keeping a sharp eye out for a hand drawn sign on the door of a tiny storefront with all the shades drawn.

Once you find it (I circled the block twice), you’ll enter by squeezing past cases of soda stacked to the ceiling and seat yourself at one of the eight or so tables in a small room decorated with outdated Asian pinup calendars and an instructional first aid poster that looked like it had been there for about 25 years.

The night we visited, Pho Quan was staffed by one lady who cooking, waiting tables, and ringing up orders. The menu, which is handwritten on taped-together pieces of cardboard hung on the wall, consists of varieties of pho (beef, shrimp, vegetable, or mock duck) in three sizes (regular, large, and a third size that was something like “ultra” or “jumbo”) as well as spring rolls and a few other items.

Nicky and I both decided to go with beef pho. Nicky ordered a regular, and I ordered a large, which turned out to be just shockingly large. It filled me up that night, and the leftovers made two lunches. I have no idea how big the Super Ultra Jumbo Pho is, but I’m scared of it.

Anyway, on to the taste. We both agreed that it had a nice, flavorful broth and the beef was tasty, but that there was something a little different about it than any pho we’d had before. Not necessarily bad or good, but it was just . . . different, making it hard to rate.

However, at $11 for both of our meals, I’d say this place is worth a visit if you’re not afraid of a little sketchiness.

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The Pho

The Menu

Contact:

E 18th and Nicollet Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55467

I can’t find the number but I also don’t think I’d attempt calling….

Saigon: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Lunch at Saigon

Saigon was dece. Up there with Pho Tau Bay. But no Pho 79 or Ngon. There were few floaty bits and some green onions in the broth. The spring rolls were the standard “good” and the sauce for them was unique – less peanutty than usual. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, but I prefer my peanuttier sauce. The beef was a little better than Pho Tau Bay and they also had 3 sizes: small, large, and x-large. The small was still large enough for me not to be able to finish. But maybe slightly smaller than most “smalls.”

Panoramic of Saigon

We were enjoying our pho, though I mistakenly added too much Hoisin and ruined the shit out of my broth, when we noticed something at the table next to us. A huge bowl of pho. I mean huge! We asked the waiter about this and he explained the “Pho Challenge” which is eating this entire bowl of pho in 45 minutes. If you win, your pho is free, you get a T-Shirt that says “I am the pho king” on the back, and apparently at some point they’ll put pictures of the winners on the wall. Their Facebook page says this is 10 lbs of pho. Of course we asked the dude taking the challenge if we could photograph him, because we wouldn’t want to disappoint our readers. Here he is:

Taking the Pho Challenge

The point here, guys and gals, is that Saigon isn’t bad. It’s just too close to Ngon not to go there unless you want to save the few dollars extra that Ngon would cost. The other point is: someone needs to take this challenge and let me watch. Think you can do it? Let me know!

Contact:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saint-Paul-MN/SAIGON-RESTAURANT-SAINT-PAUL/129743374913

704 University Ave. W
Saint Paul, MN, 55103
651.225.8751
Hours
Tues-Sat 10:00a-8.00p :: Closed Monday
Sun 10:00a-7:00p

Pho Tau Bay: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Pho Tau Bay was my favorite. I’d recommend it to everyone as “the best pho place” without question. Suddenly a lot of people knew about it. Hooray! But no. No hooray. The prices went up. The quality went down. I recently was there for lunch and figured I’d do a formal review. Here’s my review: I wish we’d gone to Pho 79. I should note that I do love the people there and they know my order by heart. “Number 9, small?” “Yes, please.” Also, Frank likes their homemade hot sauce. But really, if I want to sauce my pho up like there’s no tomorrow, then I might as well make chicken broth, put in all the pho items, and sauce that shit up. It’s all in the broth. The quality of the broth at Pho Tau Bay has gone down. I feel the need to sauce it up much more than I used to. I want a broth that stands on its own, with maybe a little bit a Sriracha and a sprinkle of black pepper. Oh, and of course 2 or 3 lime wedges squeezed in there. The springs rolls are still good and no worse than the other places.

Pho Tau Bay is not bad. But it’s also not the best in the neighborhood anymore.

Spring rolls at Pho Tau Bay

Contact:
2837 Nicollet Ave,
Minneapolis, MN
612.874.6030‎
Hours
Mon-Sat 9.30a-8.30p :: Closed Wednesday
Sun 9.30a-8:00p

Pho 79 (Nicollet): 4 out of 5 stars

I had been to Pho 79 on Nicollet but not for the pho.  We went to review it one evening after I spent a cold night at leash training class with Ninja at Lake Harriet.  We did not have the spring rolls but a friend of mine tried them both yesterday and today and told me they are “dece.” I decided today that the spring rolls are usually hard to differentiate between unless the meat is bad or the wrapper is crunchy or something else really terrible.  I will make note of an exceptional spring roll or a bad one (and I’ll let you know why it is bad) but otherwise if they’re good, they’re good, and we’ll focus on the pho.  We both had pho with beef.  The broth had a lot of floaty bits and also floating green onions and it wasn’t very greasy.  It was quite flavorful and I didn’t even sauce it up.  I added some extra lime as I always do, but that broth stood well on it’s own.  Very tasty.  The beef was also superior to most other places, maybe my favorite so far – it was more tender than usual.  I also hear that if you have leftovers, they might even pour them into a to-go container for you!  I don’t deal with pho leftovers because I fear the squishy noodles.

This is probably going to be my default pho place from now on (replacing Pho Tau Bay – which will be reviewed next) because it is definitely the best I’ve tried in the neighborhood.

Contact:

2529 Nicollet Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55404
612.871.4602

Pho Hoa: 2 out of 5 stars

A friend had told me that Pho Hoa was “pretty good” so Peter, Alex, and I headed there for dinner one night.  We had the usual pho and Gỏi Cuốn (they call them “summer rolls” here).  The rolls were disappointing.  The pork looked like it was processed into a bolognaesque substance instead of the usual red-tinged, freshly BBQ’d kosher pork.  The pho was bland and greasy.  I had to add a lot of sauce and lime to this broth and there were no floaty bits.  It was fair, but didn’t compare to the other Vietnamese restaurants on Nicollet.  I will add that they had some interesting choices like pho with seafood and pineapple and craziness in it, but we’re trying to compare apples with apples and beef with beef, so I didn’t try it.  Maybe it’s better, but I’ll let you try it at your own risk.  This is not a place I will return to with all the other choices nearby.

Summer Roll

Pho with beef

Contact:

http://www.phohoa.com
2450 Nicollet Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55404
612.870.8000

Ngon Vietnamese Bistro: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Peter and I headed to Ngon Vietnamese Bistro in St Paul for lunch on a Sunday.  Ngon Bistro is not a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese restaurant. It’s a little bit upscale, serving some non-traditional dishes, local beers, and 100% grass-fed beef.

We struggled to decide on an appetizer, they all looked amazing.  We selected the Sweet Potato Shrimp Croquettes. We both had the Phở Tái Ribeye with a couple of beers – I tried a porter that I’d never had. The beer selection was great. If you’re here in the summer, note that you can’t order soup out on the patio!

The pho was delicious. The flavor of the broth was nice and it had what we refer to as “floaty bits” – the little bits in the pho that give it all the flavor. If the broth is just too clear that is not a good sign. We requested a little extra lime and doctored up our pho like normal. However, I didn’t feel the need to add a lot of sauces to this broth, it stood on it’s own quite well. The beef was good and much better quality than the usual, but for me, it was a little too fatty around the edges. I don’t like to be able to pull strings of fat off of my meat. That was my only complaint about Ngon though, and some people might like the beef that way.

The croquettes were also delicious so in terms of appetizers (though we didn’t try our usual spring rolls) this place gets 5 stars in my book. We gave it overall a 4.5 out of 5, which is quite high, but not quite perfection. Great appetizers and beer selection, very nice atmosphere, clean restrooms, and a very nice broth and high-quality beef.

The pho was around $10 a bowl so be prepared to spend a little more than usual, but it’s worth the extra couple bucks – don’t miss this place!

Contact:
http://www.ngonbistro.com
799 University Ave, St. Paul
651.222.3301
Hours:
Sunday to Thurday: 11AM to 9PM
Friday to Saturday: 11AM to 10PM