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| - I've been looking for an east-side pho joint since moving to Madison, so I decided to try out Kim's, having heard it was new to the game. Came alone during dinner on a Tuesday, and the place was fairly quiet with only two or three other tables.
The menu is typical and extensive, with several authentic Vietnamese dishes (e.g. Bun bo hue) that don't usually turn up in the Thai-Viet-Chinese amalgamations that sometimes pop up in other cities. But I was here for the pho.
I ordered the special bowl (dac biet) which comes with everything: flank, brisket, tendon, tripe, and spicy meatballs. (This dish is one of my few concessions to the non-mammalian diet I usually practice -- I blame my mother.)
So the key element is the broth: it shouldn't be too greasy or too salty. Salt is the crutch of the lazy cook, and is too often used to disguise a weak stock. This broth was suitably rich and beefy, and just a touch on the salty side. The flat rice noodles were plentiful and on the right side of toothsome. I much prefer the al dente to the slimy, soggy overcooked variety. Flank and brisket were sliced nice and thin and perfectly cooked, as was the tripe. My issue was with the tendon -- far too much, actually, and large, gristly and fat. "Hold up", I hear you say, "and what exactly were you expecting from tendon?" Well, better balance and proportion, for one. And a little more attention to trimming. Yeah, so I'm a little finicky when it comes to my meat derivatives, but it's not like I'm going to order tendon anywhere else.
I'll rate the overall dish as adequate in execution. As usual, this giant bowl of steaming noodle soup is an excellent deal for the money, guaranteed to fill your belly. (Pho is also the best hangover remedy in the world, by the way.) So until I find someplace better, Kim's will do for my eastside pho fix.
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