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| - Cold day, 1400 hrs, needed hot lunch. Bowl of pho made sense. Walked in, was struck by the cleanliness of the place. Got a seat at the counter along the window without any trouble- place was only half full. Menu and teapot arrived quickly.
Compared to other places I've been to, Pho Cali's pho options are heavily weighted toward tripe. It took me a good five minutes to figure out that they didn't offer a plain old beef flank bowl of pho; closest was the #8, with flank and eye of round-- and no tripe. Went with that, size small.
Service was quick. Bowl was uninterestingly presented. Broth was not too salty, and was spiced interestingly. Lots of meat in the bowl. Noodles were fine, but not memorable. Ate all the bits of it, felt moderately happy. It was tasty.
Restroom was one of the cleanest I've seen on St-Laurent. Paper towel dispenser was inoperative, however.
Overall, a very clean joint, serving a perfectly good bowl, at a reasonable but not remarkably cheap price. I'd gladly give them a fourth star if they'd done or cooked anything out of the ordinary, aside from keeping a clean floor and loo. Alas, my impression of them remains that they're merely competent.
But they *are* competent. Maybe the character will come with time.
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