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| - I was really hoping that this place would blow my mind on account of the fact that it's so so close to home. It's located in a very modern building, and the décor and style was modern, tasteful, and comfortable, unlike most Vietnamese restaurants that tend to be a little less clean.
It's a walk up to order style restaurant, with a very small menu - which generally means they make sure each item is done very well. The staff are friendly and service is fast.
To me, the mark of good Vietnamese food is how well they do their pho, and specifically the broth. On my first visit, I opted for the Beef and Beef Balls Pho ($11). It was a much smaller bowl than I'm used to - probably 65% the size of most phos I've had, which is fine if its delicious. I also liked that instead of chopped green onion, they had shredded - that was a great touch. The broth - was actually pretty good. It wasn't too salty, and there wasn't one particularly overpowering spice that I could identify. Both the beef and beef balls had not much to note besides the fact that it seemed reasonably fresh.
Overall, while the broth was pretty good, I found the pho to be generally unremarkable and didn't leave much of an impression, which if you consider the high price and small portion size, makes it a challenge to be enthusiastic about this place.
Don't get me wrong - I don't mind paying a bit of a premium for proximity, a modern feel, and cleanliness, but it's hard to justify paying extra for less food, especially when pho size increases from a material cost perspective is very cheap (as everything is premade).
Additionally, I find the limited pho options to be a bit perplexing as it is extremely easy to have a lot of "topping" options for pho in a pain-free way.
Because of it's proximity, I'm sure I'll come again, and perhaps I'll try something else next time that really will get me excited about this place, but as it stands, it's nothing to call home about.
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