Hey Everyone,
So since recently finding out that there was no pho near my place, once I discovered that Pho D'lite would be opening up at Solo, I was thinking wow, someone is definitely taking advantage of the fact they will be the only pho restaurant in the Brentwood area!
The interior looked very modern, and rightfully so as it was a brand new restaurant. They had very unique chairs that didn't look very comfortable, but actually were.
They serve Pandan Tea!
My sister had told me that their vermicelli bowls here are better than the pho, but being a food blogger, I had to check out their pho to see how the staple dish was.
Both Jess and I had their Rare Beef with Beef Balls Pho.
Visually it was ok when the server brought it over. The meat were reasonably spread out and it didn't look too bad. The noodles were clumped in a ball at the bottom as per the usual pho setup. After separating the noodles, I tried some of the bare soup and it was ok, not bad. It had a slight hint of sourness to it, which was weird, but it was quite bland, like they added too much water and diluted the soup too much from the original broth flavour. I ended up having to add sauce to it, as I just wasn't getting enough flavour from the soup. If I have to add sauce to it, that really says something, and the thing is, the soup was still not enjoyable after adding sauce! It was quite disappointing, as I value soup quite high when judging a bowl of pho!
The beef slices were looking a bit rare in the beginning, but they were all stuck together too well. After separating them, they became well done very quickly and it was apparent they were using cheaper/tougher cuts of beef for the pho, as it turned very very pale and tough. It was extremely chewy and was not enjoyable at all. There were even weird little strips of meat, not the bigger slices you see at the top. The beef balls were very hard, not tender at all, which made me think maybe they weren't cooked enough. The flavour of the beef balls were average, nothing special.
Service was ok. We were seated relatively quickly and service was pretty prompt throughout the dining experience as it was a small restaurant. Food arrived in a reasonable amount of time for a pho place.
Overall this was a disappointing experience as I had high hopes for the only pho place near me. I didn't end up finishing the bowl, as it was not worth finishing. The pho was just not enjoyable at all for me. The beef slices were tough and chewy, the beef balls were not tender, and the soup was bad enough that I had to add sauce, which did not fix the problem. For a pho restaurant, this is certainly not what I would order here. I may give this restaurant a second chance and order the vermicelli bowls like my sister suggested, but not anytime soon. There are plenty of better pho restaurants than this place, and I would much rather drive out farther for those than settle for Pho D'lite's pho.
Food:
2/5
Service:
3/5
Price:
$$
Overall:
2.5/5
Thanks for reading everyone, munch on!
- Phil
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