D.wight L.
Yelp
Solid SJ pho joint. Personally, I don't think you can get a bad bowl of pho from this town. Anywhere you go, people will be speaking in Vietnamese, both employees and customers. That will not happen the further you try pho from Man Jose. #trust
So, my server spoke very little English. I had to point on the menu to place my order. Not a big deal, as I often have to do that in this town. But this time around there was a slight error. I pointed to the Rare Steak and Tendon ($14ish/4*) combo, which is my go-to. I also pointed to the Kobe Beef add-on ($6) as I just wanted to 'beef' up my bowl and take advantage of an option that is generally not around.
What arrived was just a sliced beef soup, so no tendons. Womp womp. No biggie, as they did give me the 'kobe' version and there was a good amount of beef, so the extra add price was justified. Let's break this bowl down.
The Broth: Solid 4.5 stars. Very beefy and a bit darker than most pho broths out there. Very nicely seasoned and I didn't get that dry mouth sensation that happens when there is a good dose of msg, so props. When the broth is just average, I may only sip half of it. I slurped the entirety of the bowl.
The Beef: I wanted to order the beef completely on the side, as I love to dip my beef piece by piece. But since I felt communication was a bit strained, I didn't even bother. All beef was in the hot broth. But to their credit they do use a legit fatty beef, that is sliced much thicker than usual. Seemed like hand cut versus with a meat slicer. So even though fully cooked in the broth, the bites still were quite tender and juicy. Now I hate when places uses the "Kobe" moniker as it perpetuates misinformation, as true Kobe beef is extremely hard to find in this country. It did seem like a decent Wagyu, which is the breed of cattle, but Kobe from Japan, it was not.
The Noodles: I got basic thin rice noodles. They do ask what type, but since I didn't know the protocols here, I just said regular rice. I later found out you can get a thicker ho fun type of noodle here, which I will try next time. The one in bowl was just fine, perfectly al dente once you got it to untangle.
Also loved how there were fish sauce available at the tables, as I only seem to find that in San Jose pho joints. Elsewhere, I usually have to ask for a small side of it from the kitchen. But I love to dip my beef slices in a mix of fish sauce and something spicy.
With a legit Vietnamese Iced Coffee, this was a solid pho outing, even though I didn't get exactly what I wanted. Still would come back if ever in this corner of SJ (northeast by the 680 corridor).