After an hour and a half of rain and wind, we headed to Pho Hung for supper with the primary objective of getting warm. I had been wanting to try this place for some time and had heard plenty of good things, so there was a little more anticipation than there probably should have been.
The Shrimp Salad Rolls (Goi Cuon) arrived looking the way you want salad rolls to look. Fresh, tidy and colourful. Unfortunately, they tasted about as exciting as they looked after being left on a counter for ten minutes. They were bland and seemed to be missing some seasoning.
The Deep Fried Cheese Crab Wontons (Hoanh Thanh Chien) were considerably better. Good presentation, a crispy exterior and decent flavour. Nothing revolutionary, but they were enjoyable and actually made me optimistic about what was coming next.
Then came the pho.
I had the Brisket Pho Chin Nam, and my dining companion had the Rare Beef and Brisket Pho Tai Chin Nam.
This was the part I was really looking forward to. There is something almost unfairly comforting about a steaming bowl of pho when you're cold enough to consider moving to Arizona.
Unfortunately, the broth just didn't do it for me.
It wasn't bad. It simply wasn't very flavourful. The broth tasted remarkably close to No Name beef broth with a dash of MSG, and I found myself wishing there was more depth to it.
So I added Sriracha.
Then a little more.
Then enough that I estimate I put about ⅛ cup into the bowl.
It helped. A lot.
Which is great for Sriracha, but perhaps not the strongest endorsement of the broth.
Service didn't exactly rescue the evening either. Our server seemed uncertain about the drink menu and most of the food menu, stating that he didn't know anything about either, and a couple of his interactions came across as rude. That said, I genuinely don't think it was intentional. It felt more like an attempt at humour that occasionally crash-landed directly into “sir, what the fuck” territory.
I decided to skip the booze because, between the uncertainty around the drink menu and the service, I wasn't particularly interested in adding another variable to the experiment.
Then came the bill.
We asked for split bills.
Our server came back with one bill and loudly asked:
“Which one of you is paying?”
We looked at him.
He looked at us.
My brother in Christ, all of us. That's why we asked for separate bills.
It was a small moment, but it pretty much summed up the experience. Nothing was catastrophically wrong. There was just a steady accumulation of little things that left me thinking, “Is this really what I was waiting for?”
And that's the frustrating part.
I wanted to like Pho Hung. I had been trying to get here for a while. I had heard good things. After getting absolutely soaked on a golf course, I was practically begging for a bowl of pho to make me forget the previous 90 minutes.
I've seen the Google reviews for this business, and the high star rating honestly made me excited to finally give Pho Hung a try. Maybe I caught them on an off night. Maybe I did. But an off night is still a night someone paid for.
Part of a restaurant's rating should come down to consistency. If the experience I had isn't representative of what Pho Hung normally delivers, that's great. I'd actually love to come back and find out that I caught the one bad night.
But based on the experience I had, I can't pretend it was better than it was.
The wontons delivered.
The salad rolls didn't.
The pho was hot, but the broth left me wanting considerably more.
By the time we walked out, I had travelled from hopeful excitement to pessimistic nihilism.
Not because the meal was terrible.
Because it should have been better.