Phuong Thao - Sunnyvale

Last minute lunch decision brought us to this establishment on one Saturday afternoon. Upon looking up the location, it is exactly in Downtown Sunnyvale on Murphy. When we got there, the vendors of the Saturday farmers market were just finishing their packing. Too bad, otherwise we could have our lunch at the farmers market.

The menu was pretty extensive. I chose the stiry fry lemon grass chicken with vermicelli and hubby went with classic pho noodle soup with rare beef. While we were waiting for our orders I looked around the premise. The furniture were dark cherry color and the tables were covered with glass on top of white table cloth. The white table clothes made you feel like it's more classy yet it's easier for them to clean with the glass top on it.

Our appetizer came out first. It's grilled pork meat ball spring rolls. I had no clue what it supposed to look or taste like. We were used to order regular spring roll or egg roll and Phuong Thao offered more on their menu. The pork meat ball looked more like salami to us wrapped with the rice paper complete with rice noodle, bean sprout and lettuce. The dipping sauce provided were both sweet peanut sauce and fish sauce mix (that is typically used for eggroll). I couldn't quite decide which one went better with the roll. Both were equally good. Yum.

My chicken vermicelli was huge. It reminded me of the Korean bibimbap. A huge bowl of vermicelli on the bottom, topped with sliced cucumber, crushed peanuts,thinly sliced pickled daikon, minced mint leaves and then the stir fry chicken with bunch of red/green bell peppers. Mix them well and start digging in. It was refreshing with all the greens. Taste more like a salad than a fried noodle. Well, that's because the vermicelli was not exactly fried. The fragrant of the lemon grass was subtle and added much flavor to the dish.

Hubby's bowl of pho had a distinct smell of star anise. The broth was darker with chunks of green onion floating. The beef was a bit dry for his taste. He didn't like his order as much as mine.

I don't think we'll be back in the future. For sure not for the pho noodle soup. There are other places better for pho in the area. It's out of the way for us to go all the way there for the vermicelli bowl. I'll try to look around for vermicelli bowl at another noodle joints. Maybe I'll find my luck somewhere else.

Phuong Thao
155 S Murphy Ave  Sunnyvale, CA 94086    (408) 737-7640