So, what to eat near Sports Arena at 10am on a Sunday morning? I had to do a bit of shopping and it was a bit too early for lunch at most places. Then I remembered the Pho Shop. I thought it would be good to check them out again since it had been a while. But man, I hadn't realized it had been over five years already! How time flies.
I arrived just as the "open" sign went on. There were fans running in the place. I was obviously the first customer of the day and the only customer during my entire visit.
I just went with the Pho Dac Biet. The herbs and sprouts soon arrived..... as expected the amount of basil was miniscule and just starting to brown.
My bowl of pho quickly arrived thereafter.
The broth was a lot lighter than on my previous visit. It was also, like most of the pho in San Diego these days on the "sweeter" side, though it still had some nice onion tones. Not much beefiness and also highly defatted.
The tai; rare steak was very lean and once past rare quite tough; like on my previous visit, the flank and brisket were nicely done and beefy, the brisket being very tender. There was nary a piece of tendon in my bowl; though there was a lot of tripe; which was crunchy, and had no off flavors.
The noodles were cooked decently this time around.
While obviously not among my favorite pho shops in San Diego and navigating the course of "pho not to offend" this was not terrible. I can't think of any better pho in the area; though I haven't made the rounds in a while.
The Pho Shop
3760 Sports Arena Blvd
San Diego, CA 92110
Hours:
Mon - Sat 10am - 10pm
Sunday 10am - 9pm
I don't know if you hate lists like that, but I think you need to release a list of current pho favorites. Pho is hit and miss in this town at best (as you well know) so getting a list like that would be a great reference.
Posted by: Alan in Clairemont | Sunday, 30 September 2018 at 08:48 PM
amazing how time flies!
Posted by: kat | Monday, 01 October 2018 at 02:35 AM
I had thought about that Alan. I think I've done round-ups before, but not totally in line with my favorites. I'll give it a shot as the weather gets cooler....it does mean hitting up a lot of pho shops....like this:
http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/2013/01/pho-raging-around-kearny-mesa-pho-t-cali-pho-mignon-and-grill-pho-cali-pho-fusion-phuong-trang-pho-c.html
Time sure does fly Kat!
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 01 October 2018 at 06:59 AM
Pho Point Loma's down the street's alright.
Posted by: Junichi | Monday, 01 October 2018 at 10:48 AM
I did a compare earlier Junichi:
http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/2013/05/pho-weather-the-pho-shop-and-pho-point-loma.html
I thought The Pho Shop was better...but heck; that was like 5 years ago!
Posted by: Kirk | Monday, 01 October 2018 at 11:02 AM