There's a new Vietnamese place in the South Bay - Pho Anh opened three weeks ago and is located in the decrepit Southland Plaza shopping center, right off the I-5 and Palm Avenue exit. This whole area used to be a tomato farm back in the late 70's. The strip mall's anchor, Mervyn's went out of business as did many other stores like Miller's Outpost, Clothestime (this was way back when), and the Wherehouse (remember when they used to sell records?). Well, Pho Anh is on the same side as Vons and is next to a Mexican food place, Tacos de la Playa. We saw this place a couple of weeks ago but weren't hungry at the time. This time, we decided to finally check it out.
Everything in their menu is under $6.95, with most items being $2.95 for appetizers, $5.75 for the soups and various rice/meat dishes. Not bad...But how was the food?
I don't know what store Pho Anh replaced, but man, was it green in there! The tiles were with with dark green diamonds. There were A LOT of fake spider plans in hanging baskets. The side paneling was also dark green. The interior is also quite deep. The mirrors on one of the walls make the place look more spacious. The bathroom is also way in the back. Note - there is only one bathroom. I give it a 6 and 1/2 on a scale of 1 -10 (1 being a total shithole and 10 being you could eat off the toilet seat) in cleanliness.
The condiment/utensils/napkins tray. You have your Sriracha sauce, fish sauce, hoisin, and soy sauce. That's also one of my new splurges, my Tokidoki Celebrazione Graziosa messenger bag. Tokidoki is the brand, Celebrazione is the limited edition print which was released in Winter of 2008 and Graziosa is the style of the bag. I got it on mega sale at Karmaloop online when they slashed everything half off! The Tokidoki characters are all dancing like it's 2009 (ha ha, like 1999!) One character has a John Travolta'ish white suit, there's happy disco balls, the character Donutella, Ciao Ciao (Adios' girlfriend) holding a glass of bubbly and more! I love it! It's such a happy print.
So, the entire seating area is against the right wall. Towards the front of the restaurant is the cash register with the kitchen on the left. Above us is a lit up photo display of their dishes (numbered), and yes, more fake spider plants.
Our waters had a thin slice of lime! Very nice! Plus the glasses were a normal size, 8 oz, not those big fkn 1 liter tumblers that I can never finish.
Our appetizer - the Goi Cuon Tom ($2.95) - Fresh spring roll with shrimp, served with peanut sauce. The garnish plate was for the soup to come. These were okay - kind of thin, but made to order. They weren't just sitting there waiting to be served, like at some places where you can tell. Their peanut sauce also had a squirt of hot sauce in it. Most places we've been to don't do that. The garnish plate had bean sprouts, lime halves, jalapeno slices and several sprigs of basil. No saw leaf herb though. I thought the amount of basil was quite generous. Pho Hiep Grill near our place is stingy with the basil - They give only 1 or 2 sprigs.
Here's my order - the Bun Bo Nuong ($6.95) - Bun with BBQ Beef. It came with the nuoc cham and a small bowl of soup (that was a first for me). Actually, my dad would like this because he likes ordering broth to pour on his bun. I don't think that is the right way to eat bun, but hell, I'm not going to change his eating habits, eh. I liked my food - the bbq'd beef strips had good flavor to them and were also soft, not chewy and gross. The bun wasn't clumped together either. The noodles had good separation.
Bert's Cafe Sua ($2.75) - Iced espresso with condensed milk.
Bert had the Pho with the rare steak and well done flank (sorry, don't have the Vietnamese name) -($5.75). We noticed they didn't have two price points for the pho. Sometimes there are two different prices to denote the small and large servings. Bert thought the soup was not as clear as it could have been. It looked kind of cloudy, but it still tasted all right. He said the noodles weren't the best in his opinion because they were clumpy.
TC had the Pho Tom ($5.75) - the Shrimp Soup. She ended up eating only 1 or 2 shrimp. I took one and Bert had the rest. The noodles, for her, were the main attraction. That's my hand by the way with my gothic dark purple polish.
The service here was very friendly and prompt. It seemed to be family run - there was a young girl who greeted us and two older girls (maybe late teens or early 20's) who were cleaning the tables in the back. The lady who took our order was perhaps the owner (I'll find out next time). Everytime our food came out, it was served either by her or the chef in the back. He seemed happy to see us and made sure that we had what we needed. We'll be going here again next week. Another post to come!
Everything in their menu is under $6.95, with most items being $2.95 for appetizers, $5.75 for the soups and various rice/meat dishes. Not bad...But how was the food?
I don't know what store Pho Anh replaced, but man, was it green in there! The tiles were with with dark green diamonds. There were A LOT of fake spider plans in hanging baskets. The side paneling was also dark green. The interior is also quite deep. The mirrors on one of the walls make the place look more spacious. The bathroom is also way in the back. Note - there is only one bathroom. I give it a 6 and 1/2 on a scale of 1 -10 (1 being a total shithole and 10 being you could eat off the toilet seat) in cleanliness.
The condiment/utensils/napkins tray. You have your Sriracha sauce, fish sauce, hoisin, and soy sauce. That's also one of my new splurges, my Tokidoki Celebrazione Graziosa messenger bag. Tokidoki is the brand, Celebrazione is the limited edition print which was released in Winter of 2008 and Graziosa is the style of the bag. I got it on mega sale at Karmaloop online when they slashed everything half off! The Tokidoki characters are all dancing like it's 2009 (ha ha, like 1999!) One character has a John Travolta'ish white suit, there's happy disco balls, the character Donutella, Ciao Ciao (Adios' girlfriend) holding a glass of bubbly and more! I love it! It's such a happy print.
So, the entire seating area is against the right wall. Towards the front of the restaurant is the cash register with the kitchen on the left. Above us is a lit up photo display of their dishes (numbered), and yes, more fake spider plants.
Our waters had a thin slice of lime! Very nice! Plus the glasses were a normal size, 8 oz, not those big fkn 1 liter tumblers that I can never finish.
Our appetizer - the Goi Cuon Tom ($2.95) - Fresh spring roll with shrimp, served with peanut sauce. The garnish plate was for the soup to come. These were okay - kind of thin, but made to order. They weren't just sitting there waiting to be served, like at some places where you can tell. Their peanut sauce also had a squirt of hot sauce in it. Most places we've been to don't do that. The garnish plate had bean sprouts, lime halves, jalapeno slices and several sprigs of basil. No saw leaf herb though. I thought the amount of basil was quite generous. Pho Hiep Grill near our place is stingy with the basil - They give only 1 or 2 sprigs.
Here's my order - the Bun Bo Nuong ($6.95) - Bun with BBQ Beef. It came with the nuoc cham and a small bowl of soup (that was a first for me). Actually, my dad would like this because he likes ordering broth to pour on his bun. I don't think that is the right way to eat bun, but hell, I'm not going to change his eating habits, eh. I liked my food - the bbq'd beef strips had good flavor to them and were also soft, not chewy and gross. The bun wasn't clumped together either. The noodles had good separation.
Bert's Cafe Sua ($2.75) - Iced espresso with condensed milk.
Bert had the Pho with the rare steak and well done flank (sorry, don't have the Vietnamese name) -($5.75). We noticed they didn't have two price points for the pho. Sometimes there are two different prices to denote the small and large servings. Bert thought the soup was not as clear as it could have been. It looked kind of cloudy, but it still tasted all right. He said the noodles weren't the best in his opinion because they were clumpy.
TC had the Pho Tom ($5.75) - the Shrimp Soup. She ended up eating only 1 or 2 shrimp. I took one and Bert had the rest. The noodles, for her, were the main attraction. That's my hand by the way with my gothic dark purple polish.
The service here was very friendly and prompt. It seemed to be family run - there was a young girl who greeted us and two older girls (maybe late teens or early 20's) who were cleaning the tables in the back. The lady who took our order was perhaps the owner (I'll find out next time). Everytime our food came out, it was served either by her or the chef in the back. He seemed happy to see us and made sure that we had what we needed. We'll be going here again next week. Another post to come!
5 comments:
OMG love the bag to bits. I've been toying with getting a bag like that to fit my new diary (I am an idiot for getting a diary that doesnt fit in my bag!) and I cant decide whether I can pull that look off or not.
hi jennywenny! i love tokidoki!!! those bags are my splurges. i'm not into coach, dooney & burke and such. i like whimsical stuff like that. tokidoki is for everyone. the new 2009 print so far is "leon", but the 2008 prints are cool too: "ecomonde", "concerto punk", "carnavale" and "celebrazione".
LOVE that tokidoki bag!!! BTW, that ChocoCat compact you sent me has been a conversation piece too! :)
LOVE that you've got a ticker on your sidebar for New Moon! So, tell me...What did you think of the last book?? :)
BTW, just replied to the comment you just left on my blog :) How funny is it that we're commenting back and forth on Twilight? I can't get over how funny Jasper looked in the movie :) The "look" he did with his eyes was kind of freaky.
Hi C-
Yeah, even though I'm almost 40, I love Sanrio, San-X and all that cute stuff! Glad you like your Chococat compact too. I wish they had one for Pandapple (Sanrio panda character). : )
OMFG - Jasper with the baseball bat!!! More Jasper in the next movie please!
I didn't really like BD - didn't hate it, but just hated how everything turned out too perfectly. there should have been more blood shed, heartbreak, and death. i was expecting a bigger showdown with the Volturi.
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