We met up at the Mercury Village stripmall on the corner of Clairemont and Mercury. He suggested Vietnamese...
and I had a few coupons that we could choose from. We ended up using the $5 off $20; it used to be $15...inflation, eh.
Their menu:
Before we left, the place was packed. We got the front corner window (better light!).
The standard condiments, except that the ketchup dispenser is actually filled with soy sauce (and is labeled so).
My iced coffee (it came with the metal drip filter)...very strong the way I liked it!
That was about the only thing I liked about lunch, other than the good company of course. I could be anywhere with Astroboi and he would make it a fun experience.
Our entrees and appetizer below:
We got the fresh spring rolls with peanu sauce. The rolls were loosely wrapped which really sucked. After two bites, mine nearly fell apart. I didn't bother to eat the other half.
Astroboi ironically did not choose anything Vietnamese. Instead, he got the Mandarin Chicken with steamed rice and vegetables.
He thought it was rather bland. It could have used something else on it...maybe more sauce? Something crunchy? Another type of vegetable?
I was boring and got the Bun with grilled sugarcane ground shrimp and fried egg rolls (which were the only thing I liked in that bowl). Unfortunately, the noodles were too "soft" and nearly mushy. The shredded vegetables were quite sparse. There were a few slivered pieces of mint, some green onions, a LOT of bean sprouts (ugh, filler) and the spoiler for me, julienne ICEBERG lettuce. I don't think I've ever had iceberg lettuce in bun before. It's usually romaine. The nuoc cham sauce was also a pale and watery version of what I've had at other restaurants.
Anyhow, I wasn't impressed with this bowl and finished only half of the noodles and shrimp paste. Maybe I should have had lower expectations. The food seemed "gringofied" to me, but then, after seeing the clientele, we figured it was because of that. The guys working here are really relaxed and nice but too bad their food isn't as good as it could be. I also didn't really see anything that screamed "fusion" on their menu. It seemed pretty straight up Vietnamese (albeit watered down) to me.
Despite our lackluster meal, we still enjoyed catching up with each other and making plans for our next outing.
Previous visit to Pho Fusion:
October 2011 - when I went with TC. This post also links other bloggers' visits to this place.
Our next destination would be down the street for Astroboi's first visit to Zion and where we would have our dessert...
6 comments:
We refer to this mall as 'the sucky one with good parking'. Seriously, every food place that is or has been there is mediocre at best. It's odd...
hi cathy, ha ha, that's funny. yeah, parking was pretty easy to find but the food offerings are not so great. the new thai place (which kirk blogged already) used to be Aria Kabob, which I liked.
Iceberg lettuce in that bowl seems really, really weird. Not to mention that iceberg lettuce blows. :D
hi mary - i think they are cheapasses, trying to cut corners with crappy lettuce. i bet there are customers who think that this is "authentic". omg. never again.
It's funny though, it's not like lettuce is THAT expensive. How much cheaper could iceberg be? haha
maybe i'm assuming they're cutting corners, but seriously, that is just wrong and lazy. well, that'll learn me, hyuk hyuk.
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