Restaurant Review: Pho Hanoi
Story and photos by Gabriel Ward
In early January I went to check out Pho Hanoi, the latest of three Vietnamese restaurants to open up downtown in the last year. The other two are Vietnam Pho Restaurant and Pho Bay.
I’ve enjoyed Vietnamese food from the first time I tried it, and I find Pho to be a wonderful dish all year around. For those of you have never tried it, Pho is a dish comprised of noodles in a hot chicken, beef, or seafood broth, with pieces of the respective meat in the dish as well. Thus in the depths of Gwangju’s winter a bowl of hot, steaming Pho is always comforting.
Upon walking into Pho Hanoi I found the kitchen in plain sight, as the restaurant is open plan. Its new, shiny stainless steel gives it a modern, brand new feel, in contrast to what one might expect in a traditional Korean restaurant. My friend and I were greeted by a waiter standing at the door, and we took the stairs to the right of the entrance up to the second floor. We both ordered Pho of the beef variety – I got the him-cheul-po-bo (9,000 won) and my friend got the po-sa-dae (8,500 won). We also ordered an appetizer of six spring rolls, which are called go-ee-gu-on (4,000 won) to share between us.
We didn’t have to wait long before all of our food was brought to us by the waitress. The spring rolls looked absolutely delicious and our respective bowls of Pho looked both nourishing and flavorsome. I started with a spring roll dipped in some of the peanut satay sauce it came with, and it was absolutely heavenly. The softness of the rice paper wrap provides a delightful contrast to the crunchiness of the vegetables, and if you like peanuts, it’s almost worth getting the spring rolls just for the satay sauce. I then began to devour my Pho which was absolutely amazing. The pieces of beef were of a decent size which I was impressed with. It had two or three pieces of extra fat in the broth and while some might be put off by this, it really does take the whole dish a couple of notches up on the flavor scale. What I really liked about the Pho also was that the broth-to-noodle ratio was good, so that it didn’t feel like I was eating a bowl of plain noodles in a little bit of water. That’s not to say that there aren’t many noodles though, for I found that the portion size was about right and I left the restaurant feeling content rather than like a bloated whale. I went along to the other two aforementioned Vietnamese restaurants within about 10 days of going to Pho Hanoi and tried their Pho as well. I feel confident in saying that Pho Hanoi serves the tastiest version of the three. At the other two you can get bigger portions, so you’ll have to decide if you want to give flavor or quantity of noodles priority. Unlike the two aforementioned restaurants, my friend and I weren’t served bean sprouts at Pho Hanoi with our Pho and it was only after having realized this that I asked for some. Also the other two restaurants serve complimentary Jasmine tea where Pho Hanoi did not – I’m not sure they will serve it if you ask. They do have Asahi on tap for 5,000 won which is always good.
Pho Hanoi is located between Megabox and Moojinjoo downtown – it’s pretty hard to miss. Next time I want Vietnamese I’ll definitely be choosing Pho Hanoi over the other two options.
A version of this article appeared in the February 2012 Gwangju News print edition.