Pho Tan - Vancouver, BC

Finally had a chance to try this establishment this past weekend. It was a beautiful day and not too cold. We walked in and the place was half full. We were seated right away at a two person table by the window.

I was torn in between their house specialty of dry noodle with spicy peanut sauce or chicken pho. I love chicken pho but so far the journey to find good chicken pho has been painful and not fruitful. Even in San Jose California where the Vietnamese community was like second largest in the US finding a good chicken pho was not easy. I guess because there isn't high demand for it. And chicken meat has to be served cooked so messing it up was very high chance.

In the end my curiosity got the better of me and I chose chicken pho. Hubby ordered pho satay with chicken and we ordered an appetizer of spring roll with grilled chicken.



The orders came out in a decent time. My chicken pho broth didn't taste much of chicken broth. In fact I couldn't quite figure out what broth it was other than probably MSG to favor it. I noticed some meat balls which I assumed was chicken meat balls though I didn't remember seeing it on the menu. The chicken meat was dry. I wasn't impressed at all.

Hubby's satay pho got this orange color broth which he said tasted okay. He thought it was passable as a satay pho. But then the chicken meat I think came from the same source as mine so they were dry as well.

The only thing that saved the day was the spring roll. The grilled chicken in it was flavorful and had a hint of grilled smokey flavor. For that spring roll alone I gave it a four star. At that point I would consider going back just for that and maybe try the house special that I didn't get to try that day.

Then one of the waitress came over to take our bowls. She was going to take everything though we still had a piece of the spring roll on the plate and I was still working on my bowl of noodle. I was quite surprise actually since I don't see the point of doing it. There were at least two empty tables. There was nobody waiting.

I was looking at my phone and my half eaten spring roll was still on the plate when the guy (owner ?) came over and was trying to take my bowl and plate. I had to tell him that I wasn't done yet. And by then I was completely not happy. Again, I don't see anybody waiting for any table. And there were still empty tables.

I am not a person to fuss over service at any restaurant. Normally I would feel flustered if the waiter/waitress came over to check on us. I don't need to be checked on though some other people considered that a good service. Just don't try to take my food away twice while I'm still on it !

This was actually the first time I ever felt so rushed eating at a noodle place. And we were not there like for hours. Needless to say, we will not go back.