Our 2nd choice of pho to go to the night we find out the other pho place is closed for a while. We have been here a couple of times and enjoyed our meals, but this time...everything was off. The Vietnamese eggrolls had a dark brown tinge on one side, looking burnt. With closer inspection, I think the filler meat, usually pork, is really the boiled shredded beef from the pho stock doused in some sauce. Really?! Wth is that all about? Cutting corners?! The taste was not even close to other Vietnamese eggrolls I've eaten in the past. The cabbage was soggy and just added a different crunchy consistency to the eggrolls. They were accompanied with a bed of sad iceburg lettuce, the end of an unripe tomato, and a slice of cucumber-the highlight of the dish.
The pho broth was decent except there was an unusual spicy heat to it. At first sip, the broth made me hack. Either the broth already had the essence of jalapenos cooked in it or the two slices I put in were extremely potent. We quickly took out slices and found it was too late to avoid the heat. It made the meal experience unpleasant and rushed with each of us needing to down two glasses of water and constantly blowing our noses.
It will be a while before we come back.