Sophia N
Google
05/16/21: It’s been a few years since we visited Pho Loan. From what I remembered, the last time it was pretty good. This time was a different story.
I’m giving this place 3/5 stars because of the benefit of the doubt and I would need to go again to reassess my review. Also, it’s COVID-19 times and most restaurants are struggling.
The menu is extensive and covers a lot of Vietnamese foods from noodles, Banh mi, noodle soups, family style dishes, rice, stir fries, vegetarian, salads, seafood, different regional foods, etc. We went with some basics of fried VN egg rolls (Cha gio), pho with rare meat and beef meatballs (pho tai bo vien), and spicy beef noodle soup (bun bo Hue). The egg rolls came with a side of sweet chili sauce. The egg rolls were crispy, but very bland in my opinion. Fiancé liked them though. The tablespoon of pho broth I tried was good. Fiancé liked the pho, but said the meatballs were not good. My bun bo was a complete disappointment. There was way too much fermented shrimp paste (mam ruoc) and not enough lemongrass. The broth was cloudy and not flavorful. The beef was decent, but was skimpy. The cha (Vietnamese sausage/ham) was soft and squishy. The Vietnamese coriander (rau ram) was plentiful, which I like, but there wasn’t much cabbage or any shredded banana blossoms.
Let’s just say later that afternoon I got sick and that bun bo did not last very long in my stomach.