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| - 2.75 with potential. Another lunch and another craving, so it's off to this relatively new restaurant to determine if it makes it onto the 'hey this is pretty good lets go here for lunch' list, or the 'holy moly this place is horrible and let's never return' list.
I would say that this is a pretty small restaurant, so if you're in a rush, it might not be the most swift. Luckily for us, a table had just left as we were walking in, so we were seated quickly. Someone in our group had heard that the Banh Mi here was good, so we decided to order two 5 spice pork belly banh mi to split between four of us.I also ordered a bowl of Bun Bo Hue (Spicy Beef and Ham Noodle Soup) with fresh noodles (you can also choose dry).
When the 5 Spice Pork Belly Banh Mi arrived, I was excited. The pork belly looked to be a fairly thick cut and the bun felt warm and soft, yet ever so slightly crusted (i.e. it was toasted). Then... my excitement evaporated when I bit into it. What I was expecting was a savoury flavour explosion, with my taste buds taken on a wild ride as I chewed through the fatty pork, pickled vegetables, and warm bun. Instead, what I got was an under seasoned piece of pork belly, which very much needed a gentle treatment of salt, in what otherwise would have been a quite tasty sandwich. This is a huge shame since everything else about the banh mi was right on.
So what about the Bun Bo Hue? In my opinion, this was a mixed bag. Even though this only came in one size, I thought that the size would have been perfect, had I not had the banh mi. There was a generous portion of beef, along with a respectably sized circle of ham. My main gripe with this dish as a whole, however, is that I couldn't get enough soup with each bite of noodles. Now yes, I understand that this sounds weird, considering that I had a giant bowl of soup in front of me, but let me try to explain. Typically when eating pho, it seems that the noodles "pick up" a lot of the flavour from the broth, so with each bite, you would receive noodles and broth (or at least the flavour of the broth). In this case, I'm not sure if it was the fresh noodles or the oil on the top of the soup, but when I took a bite of the noodles, I didn't get the soup... just noodles. I ended up having to supplement by manually spooning soup into my mouth. Yes, I know, it seems stupid, but truly this bothered me, especially considering that I found the soup itself quite flavourful and tasty. The noodles also have a nice texture/bite to them.
Prior to placing this place on a list, I think I'm going to wait a few months and try it again. Both things that I had were just so close to being really good, but both fell just short of convincing me.
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