Restaurant Review #225: Pho So 1, Simi Valley

Charbroiled beef, eggrolls, vermicelli, and vegetables

If you want Vietnamese food in Ventura County, you don't have a lot of options. There's Pho Saigon in Port Hueneme, Pho Oxnard (guess where), and two branches of local chain Pho So 1, which has been around for 20 years. After those, Yelp! starts suggesting Thai and Chinese restaurants. Or you can drive, for a long time, to get the really good stuff in San Gabriel or Orange County.

Pho So 1, tucked in a corner of Simi Valley near the old Mervyn's where it can be surprisingly hard to find a parking space, looks and tastes like every other Vietnamese restaurant you've ever been to. You already know what's on the menu--pho, bun, charbroiled meats, traditional Vietnamese specialties, and assorted fruity shakes. The restaurant has a large, wide open dining room, plain tile floors, and a flatscreen TV. Like all Vietnamese restaurants, you'll find plenty of chopsticks, spoons, and an assortment of hot sauces on every table. The only thing that sets this restaurant apart is that the servers watch their customers walk up to the restaurant and are standing there, menus in hand, ready to seat you the moment you walk in. And within five minutes of ordering, your food will be on your table, piping hot and tasting freshly made even though it couldn't possibly have been. Now that's service.

Shrimp and beef sauteed with lemongrass and pepper and rice

I don't love Pho So 1--nothing is quite as flavorful as it could be--but it will do in a pinch. The prices are almost as good as Jack in the Box, but the food is more interesting and the portions are larger. If you'd like to try something familiar, consider the shrimp and beef sauteed with lemongrass and pepper (which can also be ordered sans shrimp). If you like Panda Express, you'll like this dish. Really, my only actual complaint about the food is that the "pork" that comes with the bun is a blubbery, pink, fatty pork that I've seen at other Vietnamese restaurants but can't bring myself to eat. I'm not sure if every pork dish on the menu uses this meat, but if you don't have a sense of adventure, ask the waiter first, or stick to beef or chicken. And I would not agree with the restaurant's website that their pho is #1.

Pho So 1 is good for a quick, casual, inexpensive meal any day of the week. When you're ready to pay, just take the menu pad ordering slip from your table up to the register. Unlike many Vietnamese restaurants I've been to, they do accept Visa and Mastercard. Also worth noting: they don't close midday, so if you've missed every other option for lunch, Pho So 1 can accommodate you.

Pho So 1
2837 Cochran St.
Simi Valley, CA 93065
Tel: (805) 306-1868
Hours: 9:00 am - 9:45 pm daily
Pho So 1 website

Restaurant Review #223: Golden Deli Vietnamese Restaurant, San Gabriel

Eggrolls

Golden Deli is supposed to be the best Vietnamese restaurant in LA, so I came with high expectations. I braved an hour's worth of scary freeway driving with lots of large trucks to eat my favorite cuisine (or is sushi my favorite?), which I don't eat nearly often enough.

The restaurant was easy to find, thanks to the exterior shot I'd seen on Yelp! and the good fortune I had to hit a red light at the major intersection where it's located. Just as I was wondering if I was hopelessly lost and hopefully late to meet a client, there it was. Parking and wait times for a table are both supposed to be nightmares, but on a Monday at 1:00, I didn't have trouble with either.


Herbs

The eggroll appetizer was recommended repeatedly by Yelpers, and yes, these are the best eggrolls you will ever eat. Served glistening with frying oil and hot enough to sear your tongue for a week, the eggrolls have a crispy, paper-thin exterior that gives way to an addictive filling of ground meat and spices. Yes, I took home the leftovers and ate one cold in the middle of the night. I just couldn't wait until the next day or the ten minutes it would have taken to re-crisp it in the toaster oven. They're an awfully good bargain, too, at $5.25 for five eggrolls.


Pho tai

Try as I might--okay, I don't try. I always order the pho tai at Vietnamese restaurants. Now, I know you're not going to believe me on this one, but St. Louis still wins my vote for best pho. Yes, it does. St. Louis has a significant population of Vietnamese immigrants and some of the best Vietnamese food I've ever eaten. Aside from San Francisco and Westminister/Garden Grove, of course. No place in LA has managed to satisfy me with its pho--the broth is never meaty enough, the meat is never tender enough, and I like a lot of star anise.

To drink/for dessert, I ordered an avocado milkshake. I know it sounds gross, but trust me--it's delicious. Think vanilla, but with umami. This treat probably has enough calories to get you through three days, but you've already ruined any pretense of a diet with those eggrolls.

The service was good--the food arrived astoundingly quickly, considering it was obviously freshly prepared, and our waters were refilled regularly.

If I went back, I'd definitely order the eggrolls and the avocado milkshake again, but I'd try a different entree. Well, ideally, I'd try about three. If you've been suffering through what passes for Vietnamese food elsewhere in Los Angeles proper, Golden Deli is worth the drive. Take your friends, too, so you can mooch off their plates.

Golden Deli
815 W. Las Tunas Dr.
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 308-0803
Golden Deli website

Restaurant Review #210: Absolutely Phobulous, Encino

Chicken sticks

Absolutely Phobulous is a relatively new Vietnamese restaurant in Encino on Ventura Boulevard (where else?). As you might guess by the absence of lucky numbers in the name and their trademarked slogan, "Vietnamese with a modern sensibility," it's fairly different from the other Vietnamese joints in town. The menu is as much shorter as the clientele is whiter.


Papaya salad

Crunchy-chewy strips of green papaya garnished with crushed peanuts and fresh mint leaves drizzled with a light, fish-sauce based house dressing tasted exactly like this salad should taste with no surprises good or bad. This dish normally comes with shrimp.

The generous chicken stick appetizer (lead photo) is almost enough food for a whole meal. The moist meat is cooked in a coconut- and peanut-based sauce and a dusted with a slightly crispy coating. The chicken comes with a bowl of finger-licking good peanut dipping sauce. This is the most flavorful of the dishes we tried.


Vietnamese crepe

The Vietnamese crepes are moist, gooey, translucent rice cakes filled with spiced ground pork, black mushrooms, and supposedly, onions. Buried beneath slices of dry, Spam-like Vietnamese ham and crispy, deep-fried onions and served with a heaping side of fresh bean sprouts and mint, the crepes almost seem like an afterthought. Their dough is fairly flavorless and the filling is scant. This dish should probably be moved off of the "house specials" section of the menu.


Pho beef combo

The pho, while adequate, does not live up to the restaurant's name. The broth is not as richly flavored or as lovingly spiced as a top-notch bowl of this Vietnamese classic should be. At least the noodles aren't soggy or clumped together. Unlike most Vietnamese restaurants, there is only one pho option here: pho with a combination of rare beef, beef meatballs, and beef brisket. The brisket is the most flavorful of the meats, and the meatballs have that common, slightly tough chewiness.


Banana sensation

The smooth tapioca and savory coconut cream in this dish are perfect, but the bananas are strangely dessicated. While the crushed peanuts complement the other flavors in the dish nicely, after the peanuts on the chicken and the salad, they were excessive.


Three Seasons

Three seasons is a dessert consisting of sweet and salty red beans, yellow bean paste, triangles of green gelatin, rich coconut cream, and shaved ice. The red beans are hard and dry, but as the bottom layer, they are easily avoided. The yellow bean paste is earthy, smooth, and sweet and the gelatin has that distinct bite common to Asian gelatins but crunchier than American Jello.


Dining room

As good as the food is, the service is atrocious. Our appetizers and entrees all arrived at the same time, crowding the table and making it difficult to eat the dishes at their proper temperatures. Also, all the food arrived in an alarmingly short amount of time after ordering (surprisingly, it still tasted fresh). Once we finished eating, it was nearly impossible to flag down a server to bring us dessert, containers for leftovers, or the bill. Absolutely Phobulous is not the only restaurant in LA to commit this sin, of course--it's dreadfully common--but that doesn't make it excusable and it really soured an otherwise tasty meal. I plan to return, given the limited Vietnamese options in a ten-mile radius, but I will definitely get takeout so I can enjoy my food without the incompetent and borderline hostile waitstaff.

Absolutely Phobulous
15928 Ventura Blvd. #101
Encino, CA 91346
818-788-3560
Absolutely Phobulous website/menu
Also located in West Hollywood

Restaurant Review #193: Cafe Orient, Chatsworth

Orange Chicken

When you're in the Northridge/Chatsworth area, there aren't a lot of unique dining options--almost every restaurant is a large, loud chain. Cafe Orient is an oasis in the desert, serving homemade Chinese and Vietnamese food in a hand-decorated, cozy, lavender setting. Despite being small, the restaurant was uncrowded enough that we were able to be seated right away. Fortunately, we made it there before the 9:00 closing time.

(Note: I wrote this last year and just discovered that I had never posted it. Hopefully Cafe Orient has not gone away since then. Drop me a line if you know anything.)


Charbroiled Beef

The orange chicken had a delicate orange flavor and was sweet without tasting candied. Rather, it tasted like it was actually made with the juice of an orange and wasn't laden with cornstarch, unlike most of the Chinese food I've eaten. The charbroiled beef was flavorful and tender, but unnecessarily greasy and didn't quite taste like Vietnamese food. Though the meat could have used more lemongrass flavor, the nuoc cham and rice made the dish addictively good.


Dining room

Overall, everything about the experience was hassle-free, even parking (there is a large lot in front). This restaurant is probably not your best bet if authenticity is what you're after, but for a comfortable dining experience with decent food, low prices, and uncannily fast service, Cafe Orient is a good choice.

Cafe Orient
20527 Devonshire
Chatsworth, CA 91311
818.486.1221
Map
Cafe Orient Hours:
Lunch 11am-2pm
Dinner 5pm-9pm
Closed Sundays