Pho Style
Go for the tasty bargains, but don't expect to be seduced by the ambience at this Silver Lake Vietna
The divey Vietnamese noodle joint Pho Café doesn't exactly jump out at you from the street. If you don't pinpoint the three-month-old restaurant's Silver Lake location - in a strip mall on a stretch of Sunset Boulevard near an auto-body paint shop and a liquor store - you might drive past it three times before finally figuring out where it is. (And, hey, if you were the one yelling profanities at me while playing Road Warrior up my ass during the second drive-by, screw you!) Despite the lack of signage and odd location, however, Pho Café was surprisingly packed during a recent visit. The crowd was typically Silver Lake, an eclectic mix of artsy, grungy, and punk rockers. Sister proprietors Cindy and Hue Dam have an eclectic background, too, with experience in both food and fashion. Cindy was one of the original co-owners of Mandalay on La Brea Avenue, and both have been fashion designers, stylists, and store owners.
Which makes it even stranger that Pho Café looks so much like a laundromat. It's stark white, with rows of plastic orange chairs, and glaringly bright lights. Suspended above each table is a thousand-watt bulb with a fishbowl over it. So this wouldn't be a good place to bring a date, because the lighting illuminates every bleeping pore on your dining companion's face. On the other hand, it might be the perfect spot to finally have an in-person encounter with that potential freak you met online. The harsh lighting will help you remember every detail of his/her face if a police sketch becomes necessary later, and the speedy service will head off awkward silences if the chatter runs out. And, hey, if the date goes well, you can always head next door to the liquor mart, grab a bottle of Wild Turkey, and have fun. But I digress.
After your pupils adjust and you convince yourself that, no, you are not under interrogation (no one knows about that little ... incident), you're ready to check out the menu. It's fairly small and divided into three sections: appetizers, rice noodle soups, and cold vermicelli rice noodles. However, don't expect to linger over your appetizers or partake in a three-hour meal. The food is served in the traditional Vietnamese style - which means you get each dish when it's ready. Entrées may come out separately, or appetizers and entrées might come out in one big barrage. Overall, everything is delivered at warp speed.
The ground chicken egg rolls ($4) are great and come with a delicious peanut dipping sauce. The Vietnamese crêpe with tofu, veggies, and rice paper ($5.25) was a bit bland, and the spring rolls ($4.25) needed a lot of sauce to kick up the flavor. There's a variety of Asian condiments on the tables, and each dish comes with its own side of fresh herbs and dipping sauce. The rice noodle soups ($6.25-$6.75) come in enormous terrines, and once you get the hang of slurping up the slippery rice noodles with your chopsticks and spoon (another reason to go without a date), you can enjoy the subtle chicken or beef flavors in the broth. The same rice noodles serve as the base for the cold entrées ($5.95-$6.50), which come in varieties of chicken, steak, or tofu with ground peanuts and sliced-up egg rolls on top.
Pho Café's food was fresh, albeit a bit bland, but a great value - the most expensive dish costs $6.75. If you have a hankering for bargain-priced noodles or damn good egg rolls, check it out. Just be prepared to eat and run, because the ambience isn't conducive to lingering. Oh, and don't give your car keys to the slightly unsavory-looking characters hanging around the parking lot. They are not valets.Published: 06/26/2003
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT
