Category: Vietnamese Restaurants

Well, I've done it again…..I gave in to the power of suggestion. In my PCD ECB revisit post, both Elle and Sandy mentioned PCD MM, in my PT Eatery post Lynn mentioned that Pho Ca Dao in Mira Mesa had gone downhill since the remodel. Waaaay back when I did my Pho Duoi Bo from the now closed Royal Garden, I mentioned that the Mira Mesa location of PCD had Oxtail pho….at least at one time to Jan Frederick. And so here I was…..seated at Pho Ca Dao in Mira Mesa.

It sure looks a lot more modern than the last time I did a post on this location of Pho Ca Dao. Would you believe that was 11 1/2 years ago! Sheesh. I did return a couple of years ago with coworkers….had a not-so-good bowl of pho and didn't take any photos. But my memory did not fail me (this time). There was indeed Pho Duoi Bo (Oxtail Pho) on the menu.

That's what I was here for.

I was a bit surprised when my bowl arrived as it seemed kind of small…….and just having the clump of noodles on the bottom and two pieces of oxtail with little else made it seem somewhat sparse. There wasn't much bean sprouts provided, though the sprig of basil was quite large.

Cutting straight to the oxtails….well, they were pretty good, nice beefy flavor, tender, but not falling to pieces, not bad at all.

The broth however was a fail.

Lacking in color, light on the richness, this tasted like salt water and like the Missus says "like someone had waved a beef bone over boiled water"…… A bit on the salty side; in need of….well, just about everything….except more salt and MSG.

The noodles were nicely prepared.

And for an even bigger surprise…….well, I didn't expect Culantro (Ngo Gai) and didn't get it…but I really didn't expect Cilantro along with my basil and sprouts. Since when is that a thing?

I'm not much of a big eater these days; but for the first time in I don't know how long; I was still hungry when I left the restaurant.

Another thing I noticed; looking at the signs for the other Pho Ca Dao locations; only RB, Poway, and Mira Mesa are represented. Is the original and other locations owned by someone else? Elle had mentioned the menu had become more westernized….sorry to say I really didn't take time to look at it in detail.

Service was nice, the Pho Duoi Bo fairly pricey for the portion size ($9.85). It'll probably be another decade before I return.

Pho Ca Dao
8373 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126
Hours:
Open Daily 900am – 900pm

Welcome to another "Noodling Around Post" as I make my way down both El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue from 54th Street. Well, right in the same parking lot as the often overlooked Tan Ky Mi Gia is Pho Ca Dao. I believe this is the original location, way before restaurants in Santee, Mira Mesa, Chula Vista, and Rancho Bernardo came into existence.

PCD was the perfect choice for this morning; first off, I hadn't been here for almost 4 years! And they open at 7am…….I arrived at around 730 and there were more than a few tables slurping about. Say what you will; even I thought it was pretty chilly this past morning at 44 degrees in Bay Park…..but a look out the window where and you'd never know it.

Much has changed on the "pho-rizon" over the years; two things fairly quickly became apparent….the young lady serving me had a nice bright smile on…..quite different from the "dealing out the menu and standing silently over you" for an order. Also, the #4, which what I usually order here (today was no different), was a mere $4.95 in 2006. These days I thought the $7.95 price was a steal for pho in San Diego.

Also these days; I feel like I hit the lottery when I actually get some Ngo Gai along with the standard issue sprouts and basil. What was quite interesting was that the young lady also brought me chili oil and sliced onions even though I hadn't requested it…..perhaps this is SOP these days?

I've always noticed that there a certain pattern to the bowl of pho at PCD.

A rather generous clump of noodles is placed in the bottom of the bowl. The protein is then placed in a layer; tripe under everything, with the flank, brisket, well done steak, and tendon each occupying a quarter of the surface area.

On previous visits, the broth had been on the salty-MSG heavy side; today it was on the typical "San Diego sweeter" side, but also had beefy tones. Which would not been too bad, except the soup was barely past lukewarm; thus the bean sprouts and such didn't soften, and the broth had a weird, greasy tongue feel to it.

I had always enjoyed the tendon at this location of PCD and today it was still tender and buttery, but there wasn't much of it in the bowl. The nice portion of tripe was crunchy, with no off flavors. Because of the broth temperature, the tastelessness of the flank and brisket were quite apparent and it was also on the cold side.

The noodles were good with a nice chew, except it seemed that I had gotten all of the broken short pieces off banh pho….lots of shorter pieces that really cut down on one's eating enjoyment.

So, not quite what I expected here. And as a nice parting gift, the young lady working the register did a nice job of reminding me what classic pho shop service used to be like……oh, yes….the good old days!

Pho Ca Dao
5223 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115
Hours:
Open Daily 7am – 9pm 

**** You can find an updated post here

Back at the end of October, I noticed that Pho T Cali's sign had been covered over. Soon after "DerekR" mentioned that "PT Eatery" was replacing Pho T Cali and that the place was related to Phuong Trang. I went over that Saturday and yes indeed there was a PT Eatery sign up. A little over a week later Eater confirmed that this place was indeed going to sort of be Phuong Trang "light". Even though I think Phuong Trang is pretty much middle of the road Vietnamese…..or perhaps gateway Vietnamese? I decided to give the place a couple of tries…..

This restaurant seems to have kept most of the same décor from Pho T Cali throwing in a larger divider of faux (not pho) plants and such.

The young man who waited on me was really friendly and asked if I'd been here previously……..I told him "no….how long have you been open?" He laughed and said "a week". As he handed me my menu; he asked me if he could recommend a couple of items on the menu……he was so very nice. He recommended the Beef Short Rib Pho…….shades of Pho Duyen Mai! So I went ahead and ordered it ($11.95).

While some of the basil was starting to brown; this was a decent sized portion of basil and sprouts….at least for these days. And of course; I expected no Ngo Gai and got none.

Soon enough my bowl arrived.

Let's first talk about what I liked about this bowl of pho….well, the broth was hot. It ended there. The soup was soooo salty, had so much MSG in it that all the other flavors were masked……there's not enough lime in world to fix this much MSG. I even added some water to see if it would help….of course it didn't.

The two ribs were super tough and rubbery. In the photo below you see how much of the rib I managed to chew off the bone.

The noodles……in a clump, overcooked, and mushy.

I just couldn't bear to eat much of this.

Luckily; so I thought, I'd hedged my bets by ordering one of what I consider to be the better menu items at Phuong Trang; the Butter Wings ($7.95).

I was rather taken aback when the wings arrived looking so pale. It was however, fairly crisp, though it softened quite quickly, and the wings were moist and well cooked. Much like the pho however; these also had way too much MSG, making it strangely metallic-sweet-bitter-salty. It was however, the lesser of two evils.

The really nice young man asked me why I had barely done any damage to the pho and if I wanted it to go……. I gently told him I wouldn't be needing it to go; that the soup had so much MSG it was bitter-salty. I think he understood since he had kindly refilled my glass of water four times during the meal.

Man, that was a kind of rough meal……though on one hand the place was still in its soft-opening phase…..on the other; Phuong Trang has been making this stuff for over thirty years!

A few days later I had a meeting in the area and decided to give it another go. I was pretty hungry so I ordered the Combination Broken Rice (Com Tam – $11.50). The plate that arrived looked pretty good.

A quick look at the nuoc mam cham and I knew it was watered down…which it was…."sauce not to offend", it was much more sweet than savory.

The broken rice was interesting….super moist, but not as fragrant as what I've usually had.

The "Bi" – shredded pork skin was decently prepared, a bit on the dry side and short on rice powder, but not bad.

The "cha", steamed egg and pork loaf was kind of odd. It was moist, though fairly thin and pretty short in terms of pork skin and cloud ear fungus. It had a decent porkiness, but, what's with all that yellow color that came off on the rice. Check the photo below, under the tan hu ky….the shrimp paste in bean curd skin.

Speaking of the Tan Hu Ky; it lacked crispness, the bean curd was mushy, and this was very bland.

The pork patty was perhaps the best item on the plate. While somewhat toothsome, it had a mild savory-sweetness to it.

Overall, fairly mediocre and this really didn't give me a reason to return…..but for some reason I did a week later.

Except, when I got to the table, I really didn't know what to order. I saw that another table had ordered the Nem Nuong Cuon ($5.95) – again shades of Pho Ban Mai and Pho Duyen Mai….though this was not even close.

They did the Brodard thing; fried egg roll wrapper in the center….but it was what was missing that mattered to me the most. Yes, the nem nuong was large, but it hadn't been seared, was rubbery, and was really bland. The filling was mainly lettuce and bun….I could make out no herbs to speak of. For some reason the wrapper was really hard and chewy. I took one back for Calvin….who hated it.

As for what to have with the spring rolls…..well, I was at a loss…..then; thinking about my previous meals; the menu….the sort of "Westernized – Vietnamese light"…..the super salty broth….I ordered the "Pho French Dip" ($8.95), a pseudo Banh Mi…..

Standard issue banh mi; decently heated, light and yeasty, with "pho cut" beef brisket, tender, still dripping with broth, with bland, but blanched bean sprouts, adding a decent textural contrast, onions, cilantro…….I spooned on that super salty pho broth; which did well in small doses, under this framework. A leaf of basil, a small spoon of broth, a bite of the sandwich. While I'm not going to be craving this again soon, it is probably the best thing I had at PT.

So, is PT ready for P(rime) T(ime)…….I think you can figure out what I think.

Nice service; slightly higher prices, and perhaps, even with all that experience in the kitchen….the nice young man told me the cooks in the kitchen have over 40 years of experience making Vietnamese Food, in need of some time to get into the cooking groove…… I'm definitely going to give this place "some time" before returning.

You can read about Faye's visit here.

PT Eatery
7351 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Daily 11am – 9pm