Revisits - No Pho at Pho Hiep and Grill (Linda Vista) and Pho SaiGon Bliss

A couple of revisits for you...….

Pho Hiep and Grill:

My dry cleaning lady who lives in City Heights always mentions the Bun Man Vit at Pho Hiep. While she does agree that the best in the San Diego area is Tu Thanh, in spite of not serving much shredded banana blossom with the BMV these days...…..though she tells me that the version at Pho Hiep is in a strong second place in her opinion. And while I really didn't care for the Bun Mang Vit the last time I tried it. I was kind of hungry after picking up my dry cleaning and decided to head on over and have it again.

In some ways this was much better than the BMV I had the last time. The broth was full of the earthy-woodsy bamboo shoot flavor; like the dried shoots had been steeped in the broth. The bun was cooked perfectly. I enjoy the peppery-citrusy rau ram (Vietnamese Coriander) that crowns the bowl. The veggies were sparkling fresh; though no banana blossom here either. I'm not a big fan of the overly sweet dipping sauce. And there were only two-three pieces of bony duck and the rest was chicken livers which kind of ruined things for me.

Enjoyed the broth, noodles, herbs, and veggies. Hated the dipping sauce and chicken livers.

Pho Hiep & Grill
6947 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111

Pho SaiGon Bliss:

**** Pho SaiGon Bliss has closed

Right before all this hot weather arrived, I had to take the Missus's car in for a smog check on a Sunday. One of the few places open within a reasonable distance was on Murphy Canyon Road. Man, those guys were super fast and efficient. Once things were done; I wanted to grab a bite to eat. I decided to return to Pho SaiGon Bliss. Man, the place was quite busy when I arrived.

I decided to order what I thought was the best item I had during my previous visits; the Banh Mi Bo Kho.

I'm not if it was because the place was so busy, I didn't mind waiting thirty minutes for my Bo Kho....I understand. But man, this isn't what I'd call anything close to a stew. Beef maybe since there was a ton of fairly tender beef in the bowl; tendon was MIA. On this visit; the broth was super thin, it lacked enough tanginess, spice, or black pepper flavor. It was....basically......pho broth with beef stew seasoning and not enough of it at that. I had remembered when the nice young man told me this was his "grandmother's recipe". But I guess that was then......

The banh mi was nicely toasted and hot....not sure about the typical sprouts and basil that's served with pho.

This is totally "Bo Kho not to offend".

The service; in spite of being super busy was very nice. Too bad about the beef stew.

Pho SaiGon Bliss
3755 Murphy Canyon Rd
San Diego, CA 92123

Comments

[Junichi]

So hard to find even decent Bo Kho in SD. Glad you got a good bowl of BMV.

[Kirk]

It's hard to find good versions of both in San Diego....and even the OC Junichi.

[kat]

:(

[Kirk]

Plus/minus...more minus Kat.