pho thanh

so we were in the mood for some asian food, whether it was thai, chinese, vietnamese, whatever; we just knew we wanted asian food. and we didn't want to try our usual haunts. i thought vietnamese sounded good. so we tried this little joint down the street from us by the name of pho thanh.

from the outside, pho thanh sits in a mini-strip mall with another asian restaurant, nail salon and an asian food market. from the outside, you would never want to try this place. but it is definitely a gem in the rough. the seating inside has some family tables, so you could sit right next somebody from somewhere else. although it's not identical, it definitely reminded me of my experience eating in chinatown in boston. so i knew right there it would be a good experience. the decor was pretty plain, but again, not something to judge a place's quality of food by (cause Lord knows i have eaten in some very nicely decorated restaurants whose food was horrible).

anyways, when i opened up the menu (which is a small novel in and of itself), i was happy to see a vast array of choices for dinner. i'm not a huge noodle fan, so i opted for a broken rice dish. my wife, she loves soups and so she went for pho tofu. service was a bit slow, but we did get around to ordering. i was pleasantly surprised by the waiter's recommendation after i had told him my order. i ended up with a broken rice dish that included shrimp warpped in beancurd skin, bbq pork, crab and egg cake, ground pork wrapped in grape leaves and some rice. i figure if a waiter is gonna recommend something it's gotta be worth trying. i also ordered a vietnamese egg soda. i'm not gonna lie, it was different, sort of an odd flavor of egg whipped with soda water. it was tasty, but i don't that it would be my drink of choice.

when food came, i realized just how exposed i was to americanized vietnamese food in my past. this stuff looked authentic. not that i know what authentic looked like...but this stuff had to be. my wife's pho tofu was HUGE! it was a bowl that was easily 12" across and 4-6" deep. she really enjoyed it...but i didn't try it because i have to be a very particular mood for soup. my food was equally great. if i could (which i think i can) i would eat the ground pork wrapped in grape leaves for dinner by themself. they're sort of like dolmas, but i like these better.

overall, the meal was pretty good. out of 5 sporks i'd give this place 3.5. i think i was expecting something different, so that may have thrown off my tastebuds. the food was good, but the service left a lot to be desired. plus, i don't know how i feel about servers walking around eating food in between serving food...just doesn't seem cleanly to me. i would go back for sure; at least now i know what to expect.

pho thanh
1702 west camelback road
phoenix arizona 85015