We all know the Food Terminal has been kicking ass and taking names... Mostly because there's always a line to get in there... But a new pho joint quietly opened up just across the parking lot next to Big Wong BBQ which tastes more like dog dong BBQ... They are always trying to sell the leftover scraps at a deep discount on a table placed strategically on your way out of the market. But let's get back to this new pho joint... When I see "Pho & Grill" it reminds me of bars that always have "Pub & Grille" after the name of it, but this pho joint forgot the "e" at the end of grill, so, it might not be as fancy as those dumpy pubs. What's also funny is that they have a sign right underneath it that says, "Vietnamese Noodle & Grill"... Why didn't they just make one sign that says, "Vietnamese Pho & Grill" and saved some money. The greenish round sign also says, "Pho & Grill", too... I guess they really wanted to make sure that people know what they're getting into when they come to eat here. Walked in and was I surprised... It was pretty fancy for a pho joint. You just don't expect decorative tile work all throughout a noodle soup spot. Staring at the amount of tile work almost made me vomit after a while... And I didn't even have any fingers down my throat. Seriously, who needs this much tile work, it was fucking all over the place. But the place was pretty clean and modern looking, something that I don't expect when I'm eating back alley pho. But the cleanliness kinda ended there when I inspected the jars of hot sauces and oil on the table... I lifted up the covers of each sauce pot and they were absolutely filthy. Skip that shit, yo. The menus are fancy looking, laminated and the idea was obviously ripped off from Food Terminal. But who cares about how the menus look... I care only about the grub... So, let's take a sneak peek with a quick little sampler...
Standard garnish... Except that they also included shredded banana blossoms which you don't see that often at many other pho joints. It was a nice touch to see to this.
Custom Pho with meatballs, tendon and tripe. At first glance, I was very pleased by the sizable amount of tendon in there and the meatballs were huge that they had to cut them in half, there was also a decent amount of tripe as well. Looks like a good start to what could be a very decent bowl of pho. Now, the broth taste test... It was a bit light on the flavor, it wasn't rich enough but passable after you doctor it all up with the garnish and condiments. It's not a bad bowl of pho, the protein ingredients were note worthy but overall, it was a little bit above average. If you needed a quick pho fix before or after you go shopping at the market next door, this will do.
Bun Bo Hue. They don't fuck around with piling up this bowl full of goodies. Thick slices of pork patties, big cubes of blood, sizeable ham hock, dollops of pork paste and thin slices of beef. The beef and pork broth was pretty decent but not spicy at all even after I asked them to make it super spicy when I ordered it. They need to put some more noodles in there because I kept fishing for the noodles at the bottom of the bowl and coming up short consistently. But I guess they didn't want to overload it with noodles since they put so much other tasty shit in there. It's not the best bun bo hue around here but like with the pho above, if you needed a quick BBH fix, this will also do in a pinch if you're shopping at the market.
Banh Mi. The pouch can't not order this when it's on the menu... This came out last. The two bowls of noodle soup came out like in 5 minzies but it took them like 15 minz to put this sando together. It better be fucking good after the long wait... Like 15 minutes is such a long wait in real life. The pouch sounds so spoiled and entitled like it had it's own reality show or something... But it really should have it's own show since his ass is twice as large as Kim K's... "Eating Out with the Pouch" has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Ok, let's get back to this crusty sammich... First of all, it came out looking like Sloth from the Goonies made this... It was wrapped all fucked up and they had it upside down and they even sliced it that way. I had to do a little tweaking to make this more photogenic. The bread was dried out and flaking apart, not from toasting it because you don't even see any toast marks on there... It was days old bread. The garnish was ok, not enough do chau (pickled carrot daikon), though. The grilled pork tasted like it was sauteed with a ton of sauce in a pan and not in a good way... It was like something that you would cook for your dog. You bite into it and it starts to fall apart from all the flaking of the bread and then you get to the "pork"... Which was over sauced, salty and sweet and chewy... I felt like John Candy having to finish the gristle and fat on the Old '96er... Bon appetit, sucka! This banh mi sucked ass... Maybe it was a fluke, maybe the banh mi dude was having a bad day, who knows, who fucking cares... There's no fucking way I'm taking another chance on their banh mi in the future. Just go to the other end of the mall and grab a very decent banh mi from Saigon Tofu.
How many pho joints does this area need within a quarter mile radius... If they are trying to fill up empty store front spaces in this strip mall just to make it look happening... Just don't... For the children. But if you need a quick fix for an average bowl of pho or bun bo hue, I won't make fun of y'all too much... Unless you tell me that the banh mi here are to die for... Then I will cut you and then vomit in your bloody gash.
5000 Buford Hwy #A112
Chamblee, GA 30341
http://wowphoandgrill.com/
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