RESTAURANT REVIEW:

Ever since I had explained to my girlfriend the joys of the pho restaurants, she has wanted to go, and Saturday night seemed like a perfect opportunity.

It was cold and the warm broth and thick noodles would be perfect to warm our bones. My inclination was to get in the car and drive up to Little Saigon since they host the best Pho shops around, but we had seen Pho Noodle House on Brookhurst Street near Talbert Avenue earlier that day and decided to return later that evening.

I had heard about Pholicious nearby and would have gone there, but we thought we would give Pho Noodle House a try.

Unfortunately, I was regretting my decision the minute we arrived. The first indicator was a sign that said no Thai food on Tuesdays.

Combination restaurants, such as Chinese/Thai or Japanese/Chinese never seem to be able to do either cuisine justice and that seems to be the case at Pho Noodle House.

To be fair, the majority of the dishes are Vietnamese, with only a one-page Thai menu inserted into the regular menu. There is no Thai food on Tuesdays because that is the one day the chef takes off and his stand-in isn’t well-versed in that cuisine.

The origins of Pho are traced back to the 1950s in Vietnam and the rich broth has both French and Chinese influences.

The broth is based with either beef or chicken bones and simmered for hours. The ingredients used in the stock can be the chef’s choice, but usually consist of ginger, cloves, cardamom and basil.

The noodles are a big part of the dish as well. Either thick egg noodles or the thinner vermicelli noodles can be used. Rice is also utilized, but purists will turn their nose up at that substitution.

What goes in the soup can be a varied and interesting mix of seafood, poultry and/or beef.

Pho Noodle House has several choices. The dac biet is probably the most popular. It has five cuts of beef: rare steak, brisket, flank steak, tendon and tripe.

My girlfriend ordered the tal, which has just the rare steak. She wanted egg noodles but got vermicelli instead.

The pho was good, though. The broth was good, especially with the basil provided. It was very light, but the beef was not good quality. I found myself skipping the fatty meat and stealing spoonfuls of the broth.

I was considering the beef meatballs, but instead went with the vermicelli dish, bun tom thit huong cha gio.

This is a lettuce and vermicelli dish with shrimp and grilled pork, topped with cut pieces of egg roll. I had the same problem with the pork that I had with the beef. The quality was not good and I got more gristle than I did meat.

The three pieces of smaller shrimp were marginal as well. The egg roll seemed out of place with the dish and I picked it out and enjoyed it as a mini-appetizer.

The lemon-grass sauce that came with the dish did little to moisten it, so again I was stealing my girlfriend’s broth and adding it to the dish. Surprisingly that made it much more appealing.

Before our pho we ordered a couple of appetizers. The first was the spring rolls. They were a bit bland with the same pork I was about to get with my soup was in the roll. The dipping sauce, which was a peanut sauce, was good to dip the rolls in and give them some much-needed flavor.

The other appetizer was a much better choice.

We ordered pork sausage rolls that were very similar to the spring rolls, but the charbroiled pork sausage gave it a nice taste. There also seemed to be less vermicelli rolled into the rice paper.

Another point of contention was the service. The waitresses seemed uninterested in us and only came over when we asked them to. I would like to have a regular Pho place in the area to go to, but I don’t think this will be it.

PHO NOODLE HOUSE

Address: 18122 Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley

Phone: (714) 593-6300

Cuisine: Vietnamese and Thai

Specialty dish: Beef Pho

Alcohol served: none

Entrée price range: $3.99 to $9.99

Family friendly: Yes, five-item children’s menu

Credit cards accepted: MasterCard and Visa

Rating: ** 1/2

JOHN REGER reviews local restaurants and may be contacted at Nolimepublishing@aol.com or P.O. Box 2984, Seal Beach, CA 90740.