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| - On a beautiful (if you're from the Desert Southwest, as I am) mid-Saturday afternoon on the way home from Fashion Show, I noticed a large billboard near the Spring Mountain Rd/I-15 interchange for Pho 87. Being (ravenously) hungry, and knowing the wife and daughter can't ever turn down some good Pho, I cut off some tourists and got out of the on-ramp lane and headed over to Spring Mountain Rd and Jones to Pho 87. Quick tip: It's not like a lot of places in Vegas or LA, with a big sign, it's actually a separate building in a very small strip center about 100 yards south of Spring Mountain Rd on Jones (on the E side of Jones. I actually overshot the place and had to turn back around.
To the details...
Atmosphere: This is complicated... So we were the only customers at around 2:30 PM on a Saturday. I guess not a lot of folks want hot, steaming, star-anise scented beef broth when it's 108 degrees outside, but I did. We were greeted by the owner and she's quite the character, but not in a bad way. It helps to understand that some of the directness and word choices are part of having English as a second language and not some personal attack.Anyway, there are a lot of knickknacks around but we were led to a nice table - which doesn't always happen when you're the only guests - and given three menus in English. The chairs were fine, table was clean, there were bottles of Hoisin and Sriracha sauce as well as spoons, chopsticks, and napkins at the table.
Service: I loved it. There was give-and-take banter with the owner about my expectations as a "foreigner" (she didn't use the word...didn't have to), and it was obvious she was extremely proud of the fact that her Pho broth had been featured on both the Food Network and the Travel Channel. On top of that, service was prompt and not overbearing. In fact, one of the kitchen staff (I saw 3 people while there, a cook, a guy of indeterminate position, but looking like kitchen staff, and the owner who was acting as hostess/wait staff) noticed my drink was low and asked if I needed a refill and got it quickly and professionally. When I ordered the Ox Tail Pho, the owner quipped, "Have you been here before or been to Vietnam?" When I said no, she said, "Oh, that's strange, we don't get many white guys ordering that on their own without asking about it." I told her I had lived 10 years in Korea where Ox Tail Soup is a delicacy and she nodded and responded with, "It had to be something, I knew it, it's not a white person dish." I thought that was hilarious.
Food: I ordered, as I said, the Ox Tail Pho. I've not ever seen Ox Tail Pho on a menu, and, for the Pho connoisseur, the menu might be a disappointment. They don't have 20 kinds of meat combinations, just the standard beef, beef tripe, meatball, chicken, and ox tail. (There may have been 1 more, but I don't remember it.) However, the owner, in describing her Pho broth bragged about having a 24-hour broth reduction going and she went on about how much care she put into both the smell and the taste of the Pho stock. She was right.The taste...well...I've had Pho all over the world (but never in Vietnam, unfortunately) and this was the best I've ever had. You could really taste 24 hours of bones, cartilage, and whatever else goodness they had in the stock pots in the back. It was, hands down, the best damn soup broth I've had. Period. I added some of the veggies (basil, bean sprouts, quick hit of fresh lime) but didn't have to add any of the sauces. The Pho came with noodles, thinly sliced onions, and ox tail. Tons and tons of ox tail. I was shocked with the amount of meat in the bowl. Normally, that's where you get the skimping at. Not here. There were 5-6 sections in my soup, even though I ordered a small. The amount of meat explains the price...the prices are EXTREMELY reasonable given the amount of beef you get (at least with ox tail).
Facilities: Here's the rub, I didn't have an issue with anything, but my wife had to use the restroom and noted that they didn't smell clean, didn't look clean, and there were way too many objets d'art all over the place which led her to question if anything ever got cleaned or thrown out. She was so disappointed by this she said she personally would not eat there in the future because it made her wonder what the kitchen was like. And she's Korean. So I've knocked it down a star because any future visit will either involve an argument with the wife or going solo.
Overall: When I want Pho, this is the place I will go to...or wait to come back to. You can't get broth like this anywhere except maybe L.A. where the owner's father's original restaurant is/was (unclear from discussion).
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