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Pho Le is a Vietnamese restaurant on Main Street.
Visited this Pho place in Chinatown over the weekend. It's on the 2nd floor with the entrance in a courtyard just off Main st. Large tables for big groups available which was nice. The decor is quite sparse and typical of pho places where not much effort is put into it. Ordered your standard Pho (rare beef, brisket, tripe and tendon). The soup was not as rich as most pho places, the beef was a bit tough and the quantity on the low side. Noodles were Ok but expect that. Overall, would not return as there are many other places to eat in Chinatown. Prices were pretty average, $6 for a small bowl.
Note - the Restaurant at this location is named Pho Le Inc. and their phone number is (604) 608-2891 (according to their take out menu).
I went here after a stroll through Chinatown and felt like some comforting Pho and some other Vietnamese Food.
The restaurant is located on the 2nd level and provides a nice elevated view of Main Street. It is clean, bright and cheery with kitchy fake flower and fruit hanging from the ceiling. It has a basic, functional feel to it (which I actually like - I mean, this ain't fine dining - it's Pho).
The waitress was pleasant and efficient.
I was surprised at the menu though - I really felt like having lemongrass chicken with vermicelli. Their menu has BBQ Lemongrass chicken on RICE - but did not offer BBQ Lemongrass chicken on vermicelli! Weird.
Anyway - as I usually have trouble explaining what I want when it isn't on the menu - I just went for the #50 (Shredded pork, BBQ pork and spring roll on rice vermicelli) and a small rare beef pho.
The Pho was excellent. Nice and hot with cilantro and green onion in the broth and the standard bean sprouts, basil and lemon wedge on the side. It was tasty without being salty or MSG tasting. MMMMmmmm. It's Pho and we all know that even a small bowl of Pho is big and it was reasonably priced at $6.75.
The BBQ pork dish was okay, but I found the pork pieces too tough. They almost looked like uncured/smoken bacon that had been bbq'ed. They also did not have much flavour. The minced pork was really just that - very, very fine pieces of pink cured pork meat. It also did not pack much flavour. I had to put a generous sprinkling of fish sauce on my vermicelli to give it some flavour.
I did not bother ordering a drink as I was happy with my complimentary tea.
Notwithstanding that I wasn't excited about the vermicelli dish - I thought my meal was very reasonable in that it came to $14.70 including all taxes.
I would return if I was in the area just for the Pho - which was delicious.
I have tried many, many pho restaurants in metro Vancouver. Most of them are average, and only a few warrant coming back. But this out of the way little place on the second floor of a building in a corner of Chinatown has become my favourite cure for pho addiction. (I agree with the previous reviewer: the name on the sign is Pho Le Inc.)
To compare the different Vietnamese restaurants, I always order rare beef pho on my first visit. If it's good enough, I pay more visits. Usually though, the quality of the broth can vary from day to day. But I can say without a doubt Pho Le consistently has the best pho broth. I once took someone who had an MSG allergy here. I asked the server if there was any MSG used, and he said they only used bones in the soup, and that the way to tell if there was MSG was to see if you became very thirsty after eating. True to his word, my friend didn't develop any allergy symptoms, and unlike most other MSG-laced pho places which have you gasping for water half an hour later, we didn't suffer thirst afterwards.
I've seen a few different servers here, and the service is always good. For some reason they are never busy, and I always got prompt and polite service. Ambiance is slightly better than other Vietnamese restaurants since they are on the second floor, and I could always get the window seat. If I happen to drive by, my pho addiction meter always goes crazy, and soon I would be sitting by the window, having the best pho in Vancouver with a smile on my face. It is that good.
| 1. | Ba Le Sandwich Shop (15 m) |  |
| 2. | London Pub (18 m) |  |
| 3. | Brickhouse Bistro & Bar, The (63 m) | |
| 4. | Fat Kee Fast Food (88 m) | |
| 5. | Ming Fong Fast Food (88 m) | |
| 6. | Floata Seafood Restaurant (88 m) | |
| 7. | Fu Wei Mandarin Cuisine (88 m) | |
| 8. | Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie (89 m) | |
| 9. | Streamland Bakery (89 m) |  |
| 10. | Vancouver Chinatown Night Market (90 m) | |
