Pho Tuong Lai (Bustleton and Longshore, NE Philly)

Pho Tuong Lai is a new small Vietnamese joint in NE Philly. It used to be a Chinese restaurant that served dim sum and other items. I am not joking when I say this place is small... it fits at max maybe 30 people. This place opened up about 4 weeks ago and I finally had the opportunity to give the Pho a try. It's quaint, small, the service is good, and the waiters are very nice. I went on a Friday night at 8:15pm. They close at 9pm.

The menu claimed that they used lemon grass and ginger in their broth and if they do it's minimal at best. This is not to say that the broth wasn't good. It definitely was good but it lacked the intensity of flavor that I was hoping for. It was a solid broth, slight hints of spices, very slight lemon grass and ginger. The broth had a nice sheen of oil but definitely was not oily. As you can see the broth is a nice deep dark color which is indication of the various spices and that more than likely it was cooked with beef bones.  As you can see though it looks beautiful. They cut the cilantro up very small which is how I like it! I like to get a bit of cilantro and green onion in every bite. The flavor of the broth did get lost especially next to the noodles.

They give you a ton of Pho noodles, which can be good and a bad thing. It seemed as though they didn't rinse the pho noodles off as well as they could've to allow some of the starchiness to come off it, which unlike spaghetti doesn't allow the thin broth to adhere to the noodle. As I stated earlier this noodle flavor did overtake the flavor of the broth. I like to have the flavor of the broth sticking to the noodles and when I slurp you get all the flavors, but this is just nitpicking at this point! They give you a shit load of noodles and if you're a noodleholic you'll love it.

 

As you can see the vegetables were somewhat fresh, again I came towards the end of the night. The basil was good, lime was fresh, and the jalapeno was cut nicely to provide heat and also a little crunch. The bean sprouts were not as fresh as they could be and by looking at it you could tell. Otherwise the vegetables were basically the same as you would get any other pho place.

I ordered the Pho Dac Biet, and by now you if you read my blog you know that it is the house special pho which should include all the meats. This sadly did not have all the meats. It had steak, flank, brisket, tendon, and tripe. As you can see in the picture the one thing that was missing was the bo vien (meatball) which is definitely one of my favorites to eat with Pho. Other than that the quality of the meat was very good. The steak was cut thinly and cooked easily with the broth. The brisket was not at all fatty and had a nice depth of flavor. The flank was the same, and sliced thinly. The tripe was clean tasting and cut thinly as well. The tendon was cooked perfectly that it also melted in your mouth while you ate it. No meatballs is a no no for my Pho blog!

It is incredibly affordable and definitely tasty. The pho dac biet was about 6.50. They only have one size but trust me it's basically a large that you're getting with all the noodles and slices of meat. If you don't want to come down to Pho 75 or Pho & More 2, than this is a very good place for you to get your Pho fix. They had other items on the menu like Banh Mi, which I'll have to try another time! I would recommend going here if you live closer to this area and don't feel like traveling far.


Ratings:
Broth - 4/5 (intensity of flavor wasn't all there)
Meat: 4/5 (not all the meats! where da meatballs?!)
Vegetables: 4/5 (bean sprouts too dark and old looking)
Presentation: 3/5 (blah looking)
Affordability: 3/5 (kinda expensive for not being able to have a large or more noodles!)
Return: 4/5 (maybe for the pho, but definitely to try their other foods)
Recommend: 4/5 (better pho spots, but worth it if you're lazy! :-) )

Overall Rating: B-