Pho Duc

 

  

 

Address: 3815 196th St SW # 102 Lynnwood, WA 98036-5749

Phone: (425) 672-2466

Prices:

Medium - 5.49
Large - 6.49

Rating: 1

While out in Lynnwood recently, I decided to use Google Maps on my Blackberry to find an early lunch spot. Pho Duc was the first place that popped up. Pho Duc is located in Lynnwood about a mile from the Alderwood Mall, tucked away just off a main road. As you drive up you notice the almost standard pho restaurant sign. They offer a large dinning room and have quick service.

I ordered my regular bowl filled with beefy goodness. The standard condiments came out wilted and looking that they had been sitting out for a few hours. The soup came quickly but from the first smell I realized that I was in for dried pho noodles. The noodles were so bad that the whole broth was tainted with the taste of cheapness. The broth also did not help in this manner - it was thin and lacking any real sustenance. To top it off,  the meat also tasted cheap and was sliced far too thick for a good bowl of pho.

Even though I finished my meal, I will avoid this place in the future.  Any place that uses low quality noodles is not worthy of my time and I would say they are not worth yours, either. The low quality noodles along with the thin broth just shows me that this store is more concerned with cost instead of quality.  Why spend your money at a place like that when there are many pho restaurants in the area that truly care about providing you with a great meal?

Than Brothers - Ballard

Adress: 2021 NW Market Street Seattle, WA 98107

Phone: 206-782-5715

Website: http://www.thanbrothers.com

Prices:
Small - 4.35
Medium - 4.75
Large - 5.25
Extra Large - 6.25


Rating: 2

If you ever look at other review websites such as Yelp, people either love or hate Than Brothers. Being the largest chain pho restaurant you can pretty much expect this. Personally, I like somewhere in between.  I have eaten at a few of them and they have decent pho but nothing to rave about. On this trip, though, I did not have the most pleasant experience.  I walked in and the woman behind the counter glanced at me in such a manner that made her look like she was annoyed that I was there and the waiter that came to my table looked very bored.

The food that I ordered did come very fast, but it did not look too good. The condiments plate looked like it was at least two days old and a bit wilted. It only came with one slice of jalapeno which was so thick that it must have been a third of the the pepper. I ordered a medium but when they brought it to my table it looked like I had ordered a small and they decided to add a little broth. In the photo above you may notice that there is a huge slice of tripe half way out of the bowl. Now i realize that most Americans probably don't order the tripe but is it necessary to display it? With all that being said, the soup was actually pretty decent. The meat is tasty but nothing special, the broth is very tasty and the most enjoyable part of the meal.  All orders of pho come with a cream puff and they are delicious.

There are 13 Than Brothers throughout the Seattle area and I do plan on visting them all over time and giving them reviews, but I certainly hope that my experiences will be better than this one. The soup is good enough that I'm not dreading going to another location but since I know there are other great pho places close by, I will probably avoid this one in the future.

Pho Tic Tac

Address: 208 N 85th St Seattle, WA 98103

Phone: (206) 783-4381

Price:
Small - 4.5
Large - 5.25
Extra Large - 6.25

Rating: 3.5


Pho Tic Tac is located in the Greenwood neighborhood on 85th St. It’s easy to find due to the large clock painted on the front window. The restaurant is a little run down and could use a remodel, but it is obvious that they are doing every little thing with out spending a lot of money to make you feel welcome. The staff is friendly and attentive. Under the glass of every table are little notes and jokes such as how to call into work when you’re not sick, or a note from a previous customer talking up the virtues of Pho Tic Tac, which I found to be both entertaining and cheesy at the same time.

I ordered a large bowl with all the beef products that they offer. The food came very quickly and looked great but as I took my first bite I realized that the noodles were over cooked and a little mushy. Otherwise it was a great bowl of pho. One of the best parts is how thin they sliced their meat and jalapeño. I am sure that they must have a cook in the back with missing finger tips from mastering the slice so well. Even though they slice the meat so thin they do not try to skimp on the meat. The Tic Tac Pho broth is also excellent – it is light in color and cloudy, and it has a great beefy flavor.

I would recommend Tic Tac Pho overall. The prices are real cheap and the food was decent. If it wasn't for the over cooked noodles I would have given at least a 4. I have eaten here previously and the noodles were cooked better but it took a long time to receive my food. So obviously consistency is a big issue here, but for the price a little inconsistency is worth the risk.

Green Leaf Vietnamese

Address: 418 8th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104

Phone: (206) 340-1388

Price: 6.95

Rating: 4.0

One of many Vietnamese restaurants in the International District, Green Leaf Vietnamese is the first I have personally tried. As you walk up to the store front you notice a large green leaf sign. From the front door the restaurant looks like a dingy worn down hole-in-the-wall, but to my pleasant surprise the inside was stylish and eloquent. As we walked in I noticed that the place was packed with people and started to worry that we would have to wait to be seated, but we were escorted to the second story that was small but not cramped. The tables and chairs are made of thick stained wood and many framed newspaper articles decorate the walls.

The menu was a full Vietnamese menu, not just pho. All of the food looked very reasonable in price - I didn't notice anything above $10 except a few seafood specials. All of the pho was priced the same amount and had all of the normal fairs with different varieties of beef, veggies, and chicken. I ordered the option that offered the full gambit of beef from meatballs to tripe. Even thought the place was packed the food came quickly.

The condiments looked fresh. The pho was good but was not the best I have ever had. The meat was the highlight - it tasted very good and was definitely quality meat. The meatballs had a good flavor and I doubt they were frozen. The tripe came in a large chunk which I am usually a little weary of but it taste very fresh and not over powering. The broth was what kept this soup from being a truly fantastic bowl of pho. It was thick and dark and it was a little too strong and tasted too much like cinnamon. I enjoy a little bit of a cinnamon taste but it was just a little too much this time. That's not to say that I would not recommend the pho it is probably the freshest I have rated yet, and the broth was only a minor downfall.

My girlfriend, who ate with me, ordered the spicy lemon grass chicken. It was a little too spicy for her taste but I tasted it and would have been happy if I had ordered it myself.

As we walked out I kept looking at other people's dishes and thought to myself, "Man that looks really good. I wonder what it is." I will be going back in the future to find out.

Tony's Teriyaki

Address:
6315 15th Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107

Phone:
(206) 706-4711

Price:
Small - 5.15
Large - 5.75

Rating: .5

This will sound dramatic but today when I went to lunch I had the worst bowl of pho in my entire life. Tony's is located on 15th Ave in Ballard, a block from Ballard High School. I drive by the restaurant a couple times a week on my way to and from work. The only reason that you would believe that they serve pho is in the front window where they have a large sign saying PHO. I have learned that it is usually best to avoid pho places that are not dedicated Vietnamese restaurants, and Tony's certainly help me cement this opinion.

When I pulled up to Tony's I was a little skeptical. The place was a total hole in the wall and there weren’t very many people in the store. Tony's only offers 5 different styles of the soup: pho with sliced beef, pho with sliced beef and meat balls, chicken pho, shrimp pho, and vegetarian. I stayed on the safe side and ordered the pho with sliced beef. On the plus side it did arrived fast and it did come with a large plate of the traditional sprouts, basil, jalapeño, lime, and the bowl of soup actually looked good. I started to feel like maybe this wasn't such a bad idea but I was quickly proven wrong as I took my first bite. The broth was completely tasteless, even though it appeared to be beef broth. The sliced beef somehow tasted like a McDonald's .99 cent hamburger. The noodles were not the traditional pho styled noodles - they tasted to me like the cheap rice noodles that you can buy at any grocery store. I rarely do not finish a meal at a restaurant, but I didn’t come close to finishing this one today. I have tried to cook pho before for myself, and it was a horrible disaster, but what I cooked tasted better then this place. DO NOT EAT HERE!

Viet Niam Pho

Address:
7640 15th Ave Seattle Wa 98103

Phone:
206-783-4310

Price:
Small - 4.35
Large - 5.15
X-Large - 6.35

Rating: 4.75

I figured that I would start with a review of my favorite Pho eatery. Viat Naim Pho is in Ballard. As far as I am concerned, this place sets the bar for Pho. The menu only consists of Pho, cream puffs, spring rolls, and drinks. I ordered a large Tai Chin Nam Gau Gan Sach, which is eye-round steak, well done flank, marble brisket, soft tendon, and tripe. This is what I normally order when I am enjoying a bowl of Pho. I know it is not very common for a "westerner" to enjoy tripe and tendon, but if you can make the tripe and tendon taste good then that is a true measure of a great bowl of Pho.

This bowl of pho was a great bowl of soup. It had the perfect balance of meat and noodles. The meat was sliced thin and was full of flavor. The tripe and tendon were also thinly sliced and the flavor did not overwhelm the rest of the meal. The condiment plate that traditionally comes with a bowl of pho was the perfect size. There was enough jalapeño, which was also sliced thin. There is nothing worse then getting big chunks of jalapeño because the flavor just over bears the soup. The broth at Viat Naim Pho is probably the best broth I have ever tasted. I always end up drinking all of it and i always get a feeling of disappointment when it is gone. At Viet Naim you are served a cream puff with every bowl of pho. Their cream puffs are great and I almost always think about buying some for later as I walk out the door. Overall, as I said at the beginning, I love this place and can't recommend it enough. If you love pho, I bet you will love this place.