Recently, before the warm up I was in Lemon Grove and decided to get some pho. I saw the sign for this shop and decided to stop by. Pho Real…….
Okay….very “punny”, eh? It was just after 9am; so Negro Durazo next door, which Cathy has posted on several times wasn’t open yet.
The interior is spacious, fairly modern. The menu board was filled with boba type drinks. I was the only customer in the place.
I decided to order “Special” Combo Pho, medium size…..of course there’s no “small”, only medium and large bowls ($15.50) . And since I was hungry I also got the Garlic Butter Wings ($11.75).
I quickly started noticing some of my pet peeves when the basil and sprouts arrived.
You see why, right?
At least it wasn’t overly discolored…….
And it got even more “interesting” when my bowl arrived.
You can quickly see how defatted and thin, the rather cloudy broth is.
It also had that “San Diego sweetish” and very salty flavor I’m not fond of, that is present in many versions of pho here. Very little beefiness….basically what I call the “wave broth”…you know, it’s like they waved a beef bone over the soup to impart flavor.
And when I “dug up” the noodles…..with all the stereotypes in play……you know what I’d find, right?
Yes, the banh pho was in a huge clump at the bottom of the bowl. Well, at least the noodles weren’t mushy, nor were they cold.
So perhaps things were slightly looking up?
The flank and brisket were really chewy and strangely, also lacked beefiness. The tripe though, was nice and crunchy and the one small piece of tendon quite soft and buttery.
You know, I’ve done over 150 posts on pho over the years and this is probably the most cliched, stereotypical bowl of San Diego Pho I’ve had! Or perhaps I’m just getting too picky?
I was nearly done with my pho when the wings arrived.
Look at that giant drumette. Like the pho, I thought this was rather mediocre. The batter was mushy and lacked crispness or crunchy texture. The sauce was a bit too sweet for my taste.
Worse of all….ready for this one? Most of the meat had that blackness that I find annoying.
Usually, I prefer the “flats” to the drumettes, but in this case the meat of the wings were really chewy, like jerky. Take a look at the flat below…..
And what was that round piece of chicken? Anatomically, what part of the chicken wing is that?
This meal had me wondering if I’d been pranked, as it seemed that all those things that I find annoying about pho were present here? Was this pho real for real? Perhaps this might be the one time that I find a “punny” name of a pho restaurant to be totally appropriate! Of course, I’d add a question mark at the end of the name.
I’m glad I took all those photos to show that I’m not exaggerating things.
Perhaps this was just an off day? If you’ve visited, let me know what you think?
Pho Real
6966 Federal Blvd.
Lemon Grove, CA 91945
Current Hours:
Daily 9am – 9pm
Of course, the first thing I went for were the noodles; which somewhat reminded me of kway chap at first glance. Sadly, the noodles were cut into short pieces and were mushy in texture.
Where "Leo" seems to excel is with the proteins. While the rare steak was not as bright red as I prefer, it was quite tender; a definite outlier these days. The tendon, while crosscut slices were used was quite tender as well. The tripe was crunchy, and the flank, toothsome as is the norm had a pleasant beefiness to it. The beefiness extended to the brisket as well, though it was on the tougher side.
The nuoc mam was overly sweet for my taste, but the accompanying broth, which I assume is the pho broth, was much better than what I'd had during my previous visit. Yes, it was lighter…but it wasn't as sweet, with nice savory tones….I'm thinking that this was more like Pho Ga…chicken rather than beef. Doesn't it look like Pho Ga? Frankly, I should have asked.
The nice young man also kindly provided a portion of chili sauce for me as well.
The bread was much better than I recalled, crusty, though still a bit under toasted and on the chewy side. It used to be a lot worse before. 
My dishes arrived and it was interesting noting the changes since my last visit and the things that have stayed the same. First off, the Hu Tieu Nam Vang Kho is still served in a shallow, almost pasta bowl, which is fairly unique for the places that serve the dish round these parts…..tho' perhaps things have changed at other places. Also, the bean sprouts served here aren't blanched so are quite crunchy.
There were two pieces of rather tough shrimp, which at least had been deveined, the squid was well "squid pro quo", a large piece of "krab", and as usual a slice of Hainan Chicken….which is the reason I don't get the Hainan Chicken here as it is pretty flavorless. The ground pork does have some good flavor though. The dish is not protein deficient….
I must have hit the lottery on this day, because the bread was still slightly warm. It was yeasty and somewhat "crackly". Maybe the best bread I've had here.