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| - This place is a dive, a dump, in a shady strip mall off an industrial part of West Grand Avenue, on the west side of the Valley of the Sun. But it has excellent Pho!
It is only fitting that my 900th review on Yelp! is a review of a Vietnamese Pho Restaurant. This is the 77th DIFFERENT Pho restaurant I have eaten Pho noodles in over the past 2.5 years on Yelp. That's about 31 new Pho restaurants a year I have been averaging. More than one new Pho Restaurant every other week!
Troi Oi!
Also, over 20%, or 1 out of every 5 of my reviews are for places that have never been reviewed on Yelp before. FTRs as seasoned Yelpers would call it. So suffice it to say, I don't mind venturing out and trying new places. And once in awhile, I find a little gem.
Pho Old Saigon, like I said, is a classic Viet dive. Grungy strip mall, simple tables and chairs, no fancy decor, and gruff service.
But when I ordered my current favorite beef noodle combination, Pho Tai Nam (rare and brisket of beef), a large bowl for only $5.95 (small is only $5.50), I was pleasantly surprised!
The bowl was placed in front of me, and I could smell the deep, rich aroma of Star Anise in the broth! This is the essential smell (and flavor) of Pho! And the broth wasn't too muddy, so I knew that the broth was cooked with the flavor coaxed out of the beef bones and ox tails to create the rich aroma with plenty of Star Anise adde. It was heavenly to inhale!
The beef was decent cuts of meat, and the Nam was tasty. They gave me a full plate of condiments, and something I rarely see outside of only a few places in the Little Saigons in Westminster and San Jose:
Ngo Gai!
Ngo Gai is the long, green, saw-toothed basil like veggie to add with the 2 stems of basil leaves they gave me to veggie up my noodle soup. Plenty of bean sprouts, green chilis slices, and a large wedge of lime were available, too!
Perfect!
I took a small condiment dish, filled it half with Sriracha and half with Hoi Sin sauce, and was ready to go!
I tasted the broth first, all by itself, nothing floating in the soup, no added condiments yet, no sauces. Just beef broth! This is how I taste the the quality of the broth before I eat.
Mmmmm. It was the best broth I have tasted in a Pho soup in many months! It equaled in flavor to the best places out of the 77 places I have eaten Pho.
I sat down and watched the SBTN (Saigon Broadcast Television Network) that was playing on the TV, and started slurping! Dipped my meat into my half/half sauce, ate it, then chased it with a good slurp of noodles and broth. It was good stuff!
That bowl of Pho filled my tummy from lunch time to well into the late evening, too!
I had a Vietnamese Coffee with condensed milk to go with it.
The place was nearly empty, only a gathering group of Vietnamese local men converging into the early afternoon to talk and eat.
This is the best Pho broth I have tasted in the Valley, and in many other areas up and down the coast.
The place isn't for everyone. It is hard to understand the staff, the place is dumpy, and it isn't in the greatest neighborhood. But if you don't mind a good Dive Diner atmosphere with excellent Pho broth and bargain prices, come here, breath in the broth, sip it, then start slurping!
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