Pho King Restaurant Part 1

Alright....laugh away! I noted in a post a few months back, that Thien Thanh had closed and was to be replaced by Pho King Restaurant, a play on words that is almost too tempting to resist. For the last couple of weeks the Missus and I have mentioned Pho King Restaurant, when going over places to eat. The sentence usually started with, "why don't we try out that(fill in the blanks) restaurant?" Egads! I wonder what pho-king will think........

We finally got our act together and headed off to that (fill in the blanks) restaurant, and arrived on a recent weekend, to find the already too small parking lot, over-run with double parked cars. Luckily, I found a spot on the street:

As the nice Young Man guided us to our table, we noticed a few things, first the place was busier than we had ever seen Thien Thanh, second, there were many families, and older Vietnamese Men and Ladies eating, always a good sign. The restaurant had also gone through a nice face lift, with a paint job, and tasteful decorating job.

You could tell that Pho King was going for a cleaner, more classy and upscale look. Even the little dishes for the various sauces had a nice clean look.

Check out the various hot sauces....

The Missus is particularly fond of the chili oil in the upper left hand corner....

The Missus, though not a big fan of Pho, decided to just go ahead and order the the Pho Dac Biet(special - large - $5.75):

The garnishes, though not very large in quantity was sufficient, very fresh, and included Ngo Gai(saw leaf herb).

Per the Missus, the broth was very plain in flavor, nothing really stood out, and the broth was almost a milky white! All of the meat (rare beef, brisket, flank, and tripe) were tough and on the "dry" side. The exception being the tendon, which was nice and soft. The noodles were too soft and mushy.

I could only smile while I thought, "I trained Her well!"

I ordered the Hu Tieu Mi Kho(Clear Rice and Egg Noodles, with shrimp, fish balls, squid, imitation crab, BBQ Pork - large - $6.75):

Ever since I read Elmo's post on Hu Tieu Mi, I've been dying to try it out. And finally, I had enough time to go through a menu and find it. This version came with a plate plate of garnishes that included bean sprouts, and most surprising of all Chinese Celery.

The melange of various meats topping this mixed noodle dish varied from the good (BBQ Pork), to the okay(the "Krab" thing), to the less than okay(squid). All topped off with fried shallots and cilantro.

As you can see the varying colors were very pleasing to the eye.

All this was served with a bowl of mild broth flavored with fried garlic, shallots, and green onions, and best of all a nice slightly sweet-soy with garlic and a slight "slick" of oil. This reminded me of the sauce used for Cheong Fun.

The noodles were a study in contrast, the crunchy egg noodles(Mi), and the slightly elastic Hieu Tu.

Combined with the leaves and stems of Chinese Celery, the textures could not be beat. The only problem was that the stems of the Chinese Celery were cut too long, and had to be broken into smaller pieces (Chinese Celery is very tough), to make it manageable. Still, after pouring the soy over the everything and mixing, and occasionally refreshing myself with the broth, this was a very nice dish.

"Andy" who was our Server was very nice, and came back to check on us to see how we enjoyed everything. We did find the prices to be a bit higher than the norm, but the ingredients were fresh, and of good quality, so there were no complaints from me. The Missus really enjoyed the Hu Tieu, so we figured we'd be back soon........ Stay tuned for Part 2!

Part 2 can be found here.

Pho King Restaurant
4658 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115

Comments

[ed (from Yuma)]

Looks pretty good. I had almost given up hope for that location considering the bad English pun. I was afraid it would be a place dumbing down the food to cater to non-Vietnamese.

Looking forward to your follow-up.

[Wandering Chopsticks]

There was a Pho King on Valley in Rosemead or San Gabriel too but it closed down before I could get around to trying it out. Just for the bad pun for the blog you know!

[howie]

hehe. It's nice to see that they are rising above their name with the food. The Hu Tieu Mi looks like a nice change of pace. I'll have to check it out soon...

[elmomonster]

HAHA! I know there are a few of Pho King's around, but this one is the first one I've actually seen in pictures. Some other names I'd like some pho entrepreneurs use:

Pho Nemom Enon
Pho Shizzle
Pho Sho!
Pho Enix

[toisan]

yay. another lunch place close to the office. i can't wait to try the pho king specials.

[The Guilty Carnivore]

Too classic.

Though nothing tops a Vietnamese restaurant in my old home town of Tucson, AZ, when I was in college.

"Cock Asian"

I kid you not.

[mizducky]

Hi Kirk--nice writeup! I checked out the Pho-king new place the other week and had much the same reactions as you and the Missus, down to appreciating the decor face-lift but finding the pho broth and meat a little lacking. But I didn't know about that Hu Tieu Mi dish--that really looks yummy! So now of course I'll have to go check it out too. :-)

[Kirk]

Hi Ed - Hope you are doing well! Everything, but the Pho was better than we expected.

Hi WC - Yes, I remember it well...though for some reason I thought it was El Monte.....my memory is starting to go!

Hi Howie - It was pretty good, well worth a try for a change of pace.

Hi Elmo - LOL! How about - Pho-Ni!!!

Hi Toisan - Yes, check them out...very clean, pretty good food.

Hi GC - What in the world would make someone name their restaurant that? Sheesh, that takes the cake!

Hi Mizducky - There are a couple of dishes on the menu that are done pretty well!

[Cathy]

Oh, I am *so* glad you did the Pho King post, because I just couldn't...

[Reynila]

Hello! Cool, another place we can check out - if not for the name alone! The food looks great!

I wonder how they answer the phone there? ha ha

[yummieyummy]

Yay I've been waiting for your post about this place. I think the people there are very nice. I like their Dry/Soup Hu Tieu My Tho a lot. It's so hard to find a good Hu Tieu place. I've been there quite a few times for the Hu Tieu. I haven't try their Pho though. Can't wait for Part 2!

[Kirk]

Hi Cathy - LOL! I just knew you didn't want to do the (insert restaurant name here) post! ;o)

Hi Reynila - That's the #19! More good stuff to come.

Hi YY - No need for the Pho' here, it's all about the Hu Tieu! The Hu Tieu My Tho is coming up......

[yummieyummy]

Yes their Hu Tieu is really good. The Chinese Celery remind me of the Hu Tieu in Sai Gon.

[Chubbypanda]

Dude, they cheaped out on the Hu Tieu Mi. Who uses surumi in Hu Tieu Mi?

[Kirk]

Hi CP - I don't think you'd be paying under 7 bucks for Hu Tieu Mi in San Diego if they gave you this much real crab, and with a similar amount of food. And check out Elmo's post.....it's right there in the back of the bowl!

[SK]

Man, I miss Thien Thanh. We went to Pho King a few weeks ago and were not impressed. I had one of the pork and egg noodle soups and V had a pho. My soup was okay, if not very flavorful, but V said that her pho broth was bland and most of the meats were tough and too fatty.

We'll probably go back in a while to see if they've improved with settling in, but I don't think we'll be seduced away from Pho Hoa or Minh Ky anytime soon.

[Kirk]

Hi SK - The Pho here is not very good......but try the Hu Tieu dishes.

[April]

Haha, this finally opened!
I saw a place in LA the other day called Phobulous.

[Kirk]

Hi April - Sheesh...we need to call the bad pun police! Anywho's hope all is well with you!

[yobo]

There's a Chinese restaurant here in Honolulu named "Fook Yuen". My 65 year old mother in law guffaws every time we drive past it.
The food was pretty good last time I ate there.