Review: Pho Van
Pho Van
Country Hills Landing Northwest (across the road from T&T)
Calgary, AB.
As most of you know, good pho in the NW is pretty scarce. For those in the NW, you probably crossed by this place on Harvest Hills (across the road from T&T Supermarket) awaiting for this place to finally open. You hope that finally, there is a decent pho place in the area. Sorry to disappoint you, but nope. In short, don't go here if you're expecting decent pho.
Food rating 2.5/5
Spring rolls came out within a minute they were ordered, and were cold and soggy. They were not prepared fresh to order at all, which I don't understand why. The spring rolls also came right away (obviously prepared in advanced and refrigerated), but they tasted alright.
Rice vermicelli with pork, spring rolls, and shredded pork skin was also ordered. The noodles break apart too easily, not enough sauce provided, lack of flavor, and worse of it is: they skimp out HUGE on the meat (contributing to the lack of flavor). Totally not worth $9.50 at all. FYI, there is no meat hiding underneath in the picture below. What you see is what you get. The veggies were fresh, but no bean sprouts?
Next, Rare beef with beef ball pho (large bowl). There is so many things wrong with the pho here. The noodles were already water bloated upon arrival. Soggy noodles. Second, I usually put lime into my broth that that's basically most of what I tasted, the lime juice. The broth had no flavor at all, and it was ~7:00 pm. I'm not sure when was the last time I seen this, but they cut up the beef balls into 1/8ths. Seriously, are you that cheap you can't even provide beef balls in quarters? The rare beef slice portions were also small.
Also had the Sate pho, and it was lacking flavor as well.
Ambiance 3/5
Just opened, so the place was clean. You can see into the kitchen, which might or might not be an eye sore in the future. They might consider adding a curtain or something.
Nothing out of the ordinary of a typical Vietnamese restaurant. They have a flat screen TV, so probably could catch the game if you want to. I was watching Spongebob and iCarly on YTV though when I was there.
Service 3/5
Again, nothing out of the ordinary of your typical Vietnamese restaurant. You order on the sheet, they take the sheet, and you are served your food.
Overall: Mediocre
You come here expecting to have a nice bowl of pho or rice vermicelli, but you will be disappointed. Portions are small, broth is flavorless, and the noodles are soggy (this bugs me the most, because it ruins the pho entirely).
I will not come again unless drastic changes are happening. I was really hoping for this place to be good.
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