Pho Viet - #3 Road - Richmond

This Saturday, I was at my other job and it was a full day so a boxed lunch was included.  Not to sound disloyal or anything, but some of us decided to save our lunches and go out for some hot chow.  Since time was limited, we needed something quick, but not quite fast food.  The funny thing was, we probably spend more time in the car, fighting through traffic in the area than actually in the restaurant.  The traffic around Empire Centre is an absolute nightmare.

Some of the crew wanted pho, and it was suggest we go to Pho Viet.

                   
This particular location is new to me as it used to be another pho place called West Lake?  It was kind of a mix of HK cafe/pho because they had combos that included a drink, starter, pho, and dessert. 

Our bean sprouts came blanched, but I never use this stuff anyway - filler.  Recently though, I discovered using the green stuff and a squirt of lime really enhances the flavour of the soup.

Salad Spring Roll.  I tried this once at the location on Ackroyd and found the noodles inside were really dry...not sure if it's supposed to be like that, but it wasn't my cup of tea.

I like my spring rolls deep fried.  Warning, they are tasty, but when they come, they're usually pretty damn hot and you should let them cool a bit before you bite into one.

Me, I usually get #1...I like rare beef, tripe, brisket.  The rare beef cooks way too quick, so you gotta fish it out right away if you want it rare.  Lately, I noticed the brisket is leaner than it used to be.  That's a huge minus for me.  Brisket is supposed to be fat...lean - no good.  But the shop can't be blamed, people want to eat healthier nowadays and all these tree-hugging hippies out here on the West Coast are ruining everything.

A lot of people use the bottled chili sauce and that other brown stuff in their pho, not me.  I just have it plain nowadays, or maybe with those green leafy things and a squirt of lime, but that's about it.  I used to go to Pho Viet on Ackroyd alot, and I loved the chili sauce they had on the side (not the bottled stuff, the stuff that looked like XO Sauce and came in a jar).  In fact, that was the sole reason I used to go to Pho Viet.  I used to go through an entire container of the stuff and sometimes reach over the next table for another jar, but in the last few years, they changed the recipe, and it just doesn't taste the same anymore.  It's less XO Sauce-like. 

The food at this location is pretty much exactly the way I remembered when there was a location at Ackroyd.  I still like the broth from Pho Cao Van bettter, but that's just me and I really have no idea what good pho is supposed to taste like.  This new Pho Viet location is way cleaner than the place on Ackroyd, and larger as well.  The price is always good, and the service was friendly enough.  That being said, I'm not sure I'd go back often, seeing as how it's in one of the most traffic congested areas in Richmond.

Pho Cao Van - Richmond

As most of my friends know, I'm kind of a ramen kind of guy - a nice, rich bowl of miso ramen with extra fat and extra chashu.  But on occasion, I find myself craving something a bit lighter, and that's usually Pho. 

                            

What do I like about Pho Cao Van?  I'll say it's the broth.  Is it really good, or just have lots of MSG in it, I have no idea, but I usually drink it up.   In comparision to say Pho Viet, I'd say Pho Cao Van has a better tasting broth.  This is item #1 on the menu, house special.  It comes with meatballs, rare beef, beef brisket, some tripe and tendon.  I like all that stuff, so if there's a special on the menu, it usually comes with all those goodies.  Some places don't include the meatballs in their house specials. 

My friend had the grilled chicken.

Anyway, I don't have pho very often, so I can't say I know what really good pho tastes like. My only experiences with pho are with Pho Viet (used to be behind Chapters, near Nando's Chicken in Richmond), this other place across from Richmond City Hall and a couple of other places in Vancouver.  In the end though, I usually find myself coming back to Pho Cao Van.  Pho Cao Van has pretty fast service (like most pho places I've been to), the staff are generally friendly, and the food tastes good.  The places is ALOT cleaner than the old Pho Viet (before they moved - no idea what it's like now), so that's a huge plus for me.

Pho Cao Van has pretty bad ratings on Urban Spoon, so that tells me that either a lot of people don't like this place, or I just have really bad taste....haha, a lot of people would probably say the latter!