VN Noodle House

Today I took a little outing during lunch to visit the VN Noodle House in Gambrills.  This place is just off Route 3 past the LA Fitness on the left if you are coming from 175.  I decided to try this place out with Kristi, my co-worker, because everyone online was raving about how great their PHO is.  So, Kristi said that I will be the judge of that.  So off we went to have what is apparently perfect PHO in the area.

The restaurant sits off the road in a shopping center, the area was clean and the parking was ample.  There is a bar on the corner and pizza place right next door if you want something else.  When we arrived there was only one other booth full, however once we left it was pretty busy.  The atmosphere is rather quaint and this is one of the smaller restaurants I have been in, however there was a bar in the back and apparently they are awaiting their liquor license.  The place was clean and comfortable.





However, there are two very pesky looking lobsters hanging on the wall which I thought were very odd and quite creepy.  I know if I were a child or afraid of crawling crustaceans I would be really freaked out, however they did not stop us from trying their PHO!

The usual sauces were available on the table and we were given two glasses of lemon water with our menus.  The waitress was extremely polite and friendly.  The soup spoons and the chopsticks were a little disappointing as they were just plastic and a whole group of them sat on the table.  I don't really care for this as you never know if they are clean and if some crustacean crawled on them...

There were 12 choices of PHO and the Seafood PHO, however that was a little more costly then the others.  The price of these were comparable to the others, however right in the midstream for those other restaurants I had been to.  The menu, however had a ton of other dishes to enjoy, I suppose since this is a noodle house not an exclusive PHO restaurants they should have more on their menu.  The menu was nice and bright and I enjoyed being able to see very vivid photo of the food.  We ordered the summer rolls with that oh so delicious peanut sauce I love.

So, where do I begin.  Well, the rolls were ok, Kristi said the rice wrapper was very hard to chew and all of the filling fell our into her plate.  Also, there was only shrimp in these not the usual mean that accompanies them.  They were ok, a little smaller than I'm used to but tasty enough.  Now we get to the peanut sauce!  It was THE WORST peanut sauce I have ever had.  It was light brown, had not flavor and the toppings could have been peanuts or some other crunch nut because we could not tell, it was flavorless.  We usually devour the little ramekin of sauce but this time even with smaller rolls we left some.  Such a HUGE disappointment for both of us as we looked forward to it.

At this time, my hopes were shattered for good PHO to come out, however it was not as bad I was afraid of.  The toppings plate was minimal, it had everything but just enough I suppose as I did use almost everything.  There was a good piece of lime so that added the my flavor.  

The large PHO bowl was a pretty good size, however I ordered the PHO GA of course and this time the broth was a little different as it had pepper and scallions noticeable on the top.  I began by sampling the broth alone, it was ok.  It was sort of chicken broth and light, but not too bad.  I liked that it had a lot of cilantro in it as I enjoy that flavor.  I continued on to place my toppings in to help with the flavor:  Sriracha and Hoisin until it was a beautiful amalgamation of flavors. 

It may be difficult to see on here however the beautiful green color that was shown in this bowl was pretty amazing.  There was a considerable amount of noodles and chicken.  I finished the whole bowl and was perfectly filled.  There was very friendly service and a quiet atmosphere and I will go back.

 All in all, this was a good spot to have PHO and I will give it 2.5 basil leaf bunches out of 5!

FORTUNE COOKIE SAY....NOT AFTER EATING PHO

On my first blog looking at Pho Kevin I mentioned that I did not get a fortune cookie after my meal.  Clearly, an ignorant comment from me as my friend pointed out that Fortune Cookies only come after an Americanized Chinese meal.  So, I thought I would do some research on these cookies and provide what I found to you my dear readers as this is interesting.







Upon my researching,  I have to post this here that I stumbled upon the website/blog The Fortune Cookie Cronicles.  I figured what a great place to start my research on these cookies.  However, what I found was even more interesting to me.  Apparently there is a movie out right now which enters around a Chinese Food staple, General Tso's Chicken.  I will post the trailer here because I love it and I thought, well if they can make a movie about that, why can't someone make a movie about PHO?

So, back to research on fortune cookies: It seems everywhere I check there are different ideas of how the cookie began and where it came from.  Of course, I have learned that as American's we need some sort of reward after our meal and thus the fortune cookie was used to placate our desires. Upon reading Pints of History the following paragraph on their site answers my actual question here as it refers to PHO and Japanese Restaurants in America:

"Why do we see fortune cookies as Chinese, rather than Japanese? During World War II, America (shamefully) imprisoned much of its Japanese population, particularly in California — and that included Makoto Hagiwara. With Japanese-American businesses closed, Chinese-Americans cornered the fortune cookie market, and the rest of the country came to identify them with Chinese food."

So, if this was lost due to some horrible crazy imprisonment, what do the Japanese Restaurants do to make up for that need by American's to have our reward after finishing our meal?  Although not entirely Japanese and actually Taiwanese, I feel that maybe and this is my opinion the addition of Bubble Tea may just be the answer.  To find more about this drink click here Bubble Tea

I have not had this drink, although I know an avid blogger reader of mine has and I think maybe I should branch out and try it myself.  Maybe add it to my reviews along with the appetizer and main PHO dish.  This is for sure a constant trail of blogging for me.  I hope you are enjoying it so far.

PHO ONE-O

Today I visited PHO ONE-O in Hanover, Md close to Ft. Meade, Route 32 and BW Parkway (295) as shown here on this map and with photos of the front of the restaurant.  The unique thing about this place is it is in a shopping center with another restaurant, which has PHO available.  I will review that place in an upcoming post.  I think it is a cute play on words to have the (410) area code sort of like the name.

This place has been open for a few months and I did go in then when it first opened to check it out, however it was brand new and not too bad from what I can remember.  I wanted to re-visit now and experience it with my new found love of blogging about PHO.

The parking lot is not too large and always pretty busy due to the restaurants, the gym, the grocery store and other businesses there and the parking lot has a lot of pot holes.  I had to park a good 8 spots away and it was cold.  

Upon entering there is a very large area for seating with booths on one side, many tables in the middle and a large bar on the right, with seating up front if you are waiting for take-out.  The bathroom is in the back next to the take-out counter and when I was there this evening, there was DJ equipment set up in the back as well. Here are some photos of the inside.  One thing that was annoying was that the music they had playing was rather loud and maybe it was top 40 or so not too sure as I had to put my headphones in to allow me to take in the food and not be distracted by the loud music.

Take-out area view from my booth seat!

View of whole restaurant and bar straight ahead

Entrance on the right along with view of waiting area to the right

When I arrived, I was seated immediately because I was the only one there.  It was in-between busy meal hours so I will say that was why.  After an hour of eating, there were probably 10 people in there.  The young man provided me with a menu, water and my chopsticks/soup spoon.

As you can see, the chopsticks are just plain black and nothing special, however better than those which are stuck together and can have splinters.  My soup spoon was pretty and matched the decor, however it was plastic, cheaply made and it had a piece chipped off.  The one thing I found extremely weird was that the spoon and chopsticks came in a white envelope seen underneath it in the photo.  I'm not sure if people throw then away afterwards or if this is just an easier way to serve them, but I did not care for it.

As far as the menu, things are relatively the same as most PHO places, however there was no Seafood Pho and this made for a total of 16 PHO dishes provided.

I order the P16 Chicken Pho as before and an order of summer rolls.  They came out rather quickly, almost so fast I was not even done taking my notes.  Both the PHO and Summer Rolls came out at the same time, I find this annoying because one is an appetizer and the other my meal and there should be some time in-between the two.

Dry meat and crunchy wrapper shown here

First, I will talk about the summer rolls....  As you can see they rice-paper wrapper is very opaque and although not much different from the others I have to say that this wrapper was actually crunchy in spots like it was old and dried out.  As for the inside of the roll, the usual shrimp, lettuce, noodles and meat were inside, however the meat tasted extremely dry.  The peanut sauce, which I love, was a little watery and not enough peanuts sprinkled on the top for my liking.  Since they came out the same time as my PHO I could only eat one, before my PHO and then one afterwards, so the PHO would not get cold.

Close up of spotted basil

Next, here you can see the toppings which were given to me.  Not a really appetizing plate if you ask me, there were only 3 small jalapeño pieces, the basil was wilted and had black spots and the bean sprouts were limp.  Such a disappointment.

Finally, I was able to get to my PHO.  Upon first glance there seemed to be a lot of onions and the broth looked extremely light.  Also, I ordered a large bowl, this bowl was much smaller than the bowl from PHO KEVIN and the cost for this was higher.  I began by picking up my soup spoon and tasted the broth.  It was bland, like so bland I thought it tasted just like a regular chicken broth.  I took a few tastes to see if it became more flavorful, however it did not.  I went and placed the toppings in.

                   PHO GA 

I used the hoisin, the siracha added the jalapeños, the basil that was not black, the lime and the bean sprouts.  The above photos show once I placed the toppings and then after I mixed up the noodles and the meat.  I was disappointed in that there were maybe 5 pieces of chicken and a small amount of noodles.  I ate the whole bowl easily and as stated before ate the other summer roll and did not drink the broth at the end because I just was not impressed with it.

I finished, the waiter took my plates and never re-filled my water and I had drank all of it.  He did come by about 6 times to ask if I was ok, since I was one of the only people in there he must of been bored.  It was nice that they provided a 10% military/govt. discount, however most all places around there do that since they are so close to Ft. Meade.  I actually forgot to ask for mine so I paid full-price.

In the end, I liked the decor of the place, the music was a bit much, the PHO and Summer Rolls were mediocre at best and along with the size of my bowl and the cost I find that they need to work on the "delicious" part of their philosophy which per the website is:

"To not become just another PHO restaurant with a catchy name... but to become the most delicious and the most frequently visited PHO restaurant in the area" 

All in all I would NOT recommend this PHO place in Hanover and give it 1 basil leaf bunch out of 5.   

PHO KEVIN

Today I visited PHOKEVIN in Laurel with my co-worker Kristi who loves it as much as I do. This is the first of many blogs for my readers who love PHO!  

The premise of these are to give an in-depth review of the places I visit and let those who are interested know how a place rates.  I enjoy feedback and would love to go with you to your favorite PHO place and blog with you!

At first glance from the outside, you can see that this used to be some sort of Chinese Restaurant, however the outside is clean and the parking is abundant.  Upon entering there is a large area for seating with booths on both sides, a few round tables in the middle and a large bar in the back.  The bathroom is also in the back next to the kitchen.  One annoying thing is the large soda refrigerator, in the back right, is quite noisy at times so if you want quiet I would stay away from that area.

We were seated and attended to rather quickly with lime water and a menu. I prefer lime water, so that was a plus, guess I'm a little weird like that, however they did not give you any chance to ask for plain water or lemon.  The young man who waited on us provided us with menus and some time to review.

The menu was the usual with appetizers, drinks, PHO, fried plates and bubble tea.  Impressed that there were 15 different PHO choices, one being Pho Hai San which is a seafood PHO.  Some restaurants do not offer this.  We both ordered the appetizer summer roll and each a large bowl of PHO.  This restaurant actually had a spot for extra toppings and their costs listed in the menu.

The chopstick and soup spoon provide were very nice.  The spoon was fine china and relatively deep and not cheaply made.  The chopsticks were heavy and very easy to use with a weighted back shown by the inlay of some sort of marble or chipped stone in it.

The summer rolls were thick and very flavorful with shrimp and beef wrapped together.  Then there is the peanut sauce, oh that delicious, brown, thick oh so amazing peanut sauce.  :)
These were some of the better summer rolls I have had and the sauce was just as delicious.  I have had some thin flavorless peanut sauce in my time, however this was not one of them.

I ordered the PHO GA (chicken) and Kristi had the PHO DAC BIET (eye-round, rare steak, brisket, tendon and tripe).  These beautiful dishes came out very hot along wit the usual condiments of basil, bean sprouts, lime and jalapeños.  The usual sauces were present as well, the hoisin, siracha, hot pepper sauce and soy.

Before actually dropping everything in I ordered extra noodles on the side, however the noodles were very plentiful and I found myself not needing them at all.  I decided to actually enjoy the very flavorful broth first before adding the toppings.  It was extremely flavorful and I took a few spoonfuls before adding the toppings.

PHO DAC BIET

                                                  PHO GA

In the end we were both happy with our PHO, the place and the service.  One thing was that Kristi  did not enjoy the tripe, as it had a difficult texture to swallow, plus it just looked wrong.  We both had large containers to take home and I finished off mine for dinner.  Right now there seems to be a young guy and a woman doing most of the service, however as they become more popular and have more customers they will need to hire more staff.  It took a little longer than normal to get our check and their was no fortune cookie at the end.  

All in all I would recommend this PHO place in Laurel and give it 3 basil leave bunches out of 5.