Pho Xe Lua

I have been to this restaurant more than just a couple of time.  Its a typical average Vietnamese restaurant. The food is exceptional. I usually either order the Pho, Pork chop with rice or the egg noodles with broth on the side. The coffee is really strong, as other Vietnamese restaurants.The pricing and service is good. Basically, if you're craving vietnamese food this place is a pretty good place to go to for good price and decent food.

The pho was nowhere close to comparable to the pho I had in California. The pho was edible, but so are the other pho options in the area so that's not saying much. I thought that they gave me too much broth and not enough meat, which is a little strange considering that I had ordered the dac biet / special (the one with EVERYTHING). But perhaps I made the mistake of coming here after a visit to California, so ok, I thought I'd give them another try before I write my review.

I came back here recently with the boyfriend. After a full day of eating through the city, we weren't very hungry so we had opted to get a salad and soup.

We ordered the papaya salad and my favorite canh chua ca soup. The papaya salad was passable. I was a little upset that it came without the shrimp chips on the side, and the salad was also a little too soggy for me. It had an adequate amount of half shrimps, but not enough pork slices. Or, perhaps I gave most of the pork slices to my boyfriend. Who knows. All I know was I thought that Tank Noodle does a better version of this, shrimp chips/crackers and everything.

The canh chua ca soup was very bland, in my opinion. It wasn't nearly as flavorful as Cafe Hoang's, but I think Cafe Hoang does the Thai version of this soup with added lemongrass. The soup should still taste fine without lemongrass, but it didn't. The tomatoes weren't fresh. I bit into one that tasted awful. I think they also made this soup in a hurry and so it lacked flavor. A lot of it. I certainly felt like an ingredient or two were missing.

We were going to order some food to-go, but after a disappointing meal here, we decided we had better order our to-go food from somewhere else.

Was introduced to this place earlier this year and I have been back here a few times since then. It is on Argyle, but a bit further down as it's almost to Sheridan. It's very nondescript - just like all the other Vietnamese/Pho restaurants in the neighborhood. (They must buy their furniture from the same store - I digress.)

What sets them apart is the Pho. I realize Tank is very popular, but their pho base tastes more and more watered down. The soup base at Pho Xe Lua is flavorful, not oily, and not MSG laden. It's also at a very fair price of just under $6 a bowl! They definitely don't skimp on the noodles, broth, or the amount of meat they include in this bowl of comfort.

I also enjoy their spring rolls as the pork has lots of flavor, the shrimp and veggies all tastes very fresh.

Every time I crave Pho, I only consider this place - not TANK!