Bianca D.
Yelp
Another day another bowl of delicious bowl of pho! This week's phoventure takes us out to the mystical Asian quarters of Portland! After some extensive research online (reddit post conveying the best pho spots in PDX) we decided to hit up Pho Hung based on their super awesome reviews! Even some from LA locals who swore this place compared to the amaaaaazing broths down South!
Right off the bat Pho Hung gets +1 star for having their own parking lot! Parking is hard in some parts of town so a private lot is greatly appreciated! Wait on a drizzly Friday afternoon was only about 10 minutes (which was another huge plus because I was HUNGRYYY) They bring hot tea and iced water almost immediately and drop off menus. But being the seasoned foodies that we are, we knew what we were ordering 9 days ago. LOL jk. Kind of.
What we got:
Pho Dac Biet - 7/10
The broth here is really good! Honestly, the best pho broth we've tried up here so far. Portions are a tad small for the price but the flavor more than makes up for quantity. I asked for cooked beansprouts on the side but got beansprouts that were lightly dipped in hot water so that a couple pieces were almost warm to the touch but ultimately was just a plate of cold raw beansprouts. Meat to noodles ratio was pretty great, basically a piece of meat with every bite of noodles. Meat quality was okay for the most part. Brisket was a bit weird, there wasn't any fatty brisket (my fav cut of pho meat!) just shredded pieces of brisket which I've never seen before. Tendons were also a bit too soft for my liking. The actual bowls could be better; a good pho bowl will keep the broth hot for the entirety of your meal. This bowl started cooling down within a few minutes. Also, where are the sauce dishes?! Ended up adding sriracha and hoisin to a soup spoon to dip my meat because there were no sauce dishes anywhere.
Bun Cha Gio Thit Nuong - 7/10
I feel like this is a really hard dish to mess up. Vietnamese noodle salads have got to be one of the best things in the world and this one was pretty darn tasty! Pork had really good flavor, fish sauce was on point, crushed peanuts added some reaaaally good texture. The only thing that sucked were the egg rolls. Why were they veggie egg rolls? That was weird. I've never had a restaurant serve vegetarian egg rolls in bun unless I ordered a vegetarian bun. Also, these weren't traditional veggie Viet egg rolls. It was just the Chinese cabbage from Chinese egg rolls rolled into rice paper and fried to look like a Viet egg roll. Where were the noodles, taro, carrots, and wood ear mushrooms?
Cafe Sua Da - 10/10
This was definitely THE BEST Viet coffee I've tried up here! Flavor was spot on and the creaminess was out of this world. Definitely authentic!
Overall, I'd give Pho Hung an 8/10. Pho was good, Bun was good (minus that veggie egg roll), coffee was DELISH! And parking was 100! Definitely a must try if you haven't tried yet!