I'm finally back in Chicago after a month of being home for winter break. I can easily say I missed it in Rochester and I'm a little sad to be back on the grind here but school is a must, so I'll keep trekking along.
Quick stop in Little Saigon before mom drove back home and we had to make a stop for Pho!
LOCATION: 1065 W ARGYLE ST., CHICAGO, IL 60640
Apparently mom and dad came to this restaurant when they moved me to Chicago but I was at orientation so this is my first time in this neighborhood. Mom was also very cryptic about her opinion of the restaurant until after I told her mine.
I'm the only one that was on the band-wagon for Pho while my mom and my cousin were about the pork chop rice platters. I can easily say that I probably should've gotten the rice as well. Mom told me after we started eating that she and my dad didn't really enjoy the Pho here last time but she's always up for letting me make my own mistakes and form my own opinions so there we were.
I ordered a bowl of Pho Dac Biet or basically the Pho beef special with all the variations of beef (tripe, meatballs, eye round, flank steak, brisket, and soft tendon) because I was feeling like beef that day and you might as well go all in if you're gonna do it!
The service wasn't too bad for a weekend and the restaurant had maybe 3 or 4 other tables besides ours with two very quick waitresses that seemed a little bored to be honest. The food came out pretty quickly and I had pretty high hopes for a real authentic bowl of Pho from Little Saigon. The portions were right for a traditional Pho and the noodles and amount of meat were very fair for the order. The only thing I had a problem with was the broth. With Pho, broth is everything, and when it's not right, you might as well order rice because what are you doing. This broth, while full of flavor, was overwhelmingly sweet for what Pho should be. I felt like there was too much cinnamon and/or star anise and that just ruined the whole bowl. I couldn't taste any beef-y flavoring and that was the whole point of the order. Disappointed, I just ate the noodles and left a bowl full of broth at the end.
While some people may be fans of Pho777, I'd like to try another restaurant in Little Saigon for Pho that tastes more like Vietnam to me.