Pho BC: A fresh find

Vietnamese restaurant is named for soup, and what a great soup it is

By Howard M. Snyder HSNYDER@HERALD-LEADER.COM

What's in a name? In the case of Pho BC, a new Vietnamese restaurant on Lexington's southside, there is more to it than meets the ear. Pho is the famous beef soup of Vietnam, probably its national dish. But for the longest time, maybe since I first tried it 20 years ago, I've been mispronouncing it. I was told it's pronounced "foe." But a Vietnamese native and colleague told me otherwise. Pho is a two-syllable word and is pronounced "fuh-UH." Who'd have thunk. And another thing I learned: Pho BC isn't faux, it's the real deal.

If you don't know, Vietnamese cuisine utilizes lots and lots of fresh ingredients. If the ingredients aren't already incorporated into a dish, plates of fresh ingredients -- basil, cilantro and other herbs -- are provided so you can add what you want.

Three Herald-Leader employees took part in this review -- the Vietnamese native, another newsroom employee and me -- and we had a feast.

We started with egg rolls ($2.95 for two). These were smaller and more tightly wrapped than the Chinese variety but with similar ingredients -- bits of pork, shredded cabbage and carrot. They do have vegetarian egg rolls if you desire. The dipping sauce was hoisin, a sweet, slightly spicy, soy sauce/bean paste concoction that is used in a lot of Asian cooking. The Vietnamese love it, and so do I.

The shrimp and pork salad rolls, aka summer rolls ($2.95 for two), introduced us to the freshness for which Vietnamese cooking is known. Cooked shrimp, slices of pork, rice vermicelli noodles, cilantro and other herbs were wrapped in opaque rice-flour paper (it's actually a noodle). Hoisin sauce and nuoc mam, an anchovy-based vinegar sauce that the Vietnamese use like Mexicans use salsa, were available for dipping. All fresh, all good.

Our Vietnamese guide (it's always better to take someone who knows better) wanted us to try the salted fried squid ($12.95). If you're thinking calamari, it's different. Calamari is cut from the tentacles and comes in rings. Vietnamese salted fried squid is cut into slivers, then fried. If squid isn't cooked enough, it's rubbery. Cooked too long, its tough. This squid had been lightly battered and fried perfectly. It was as tender as any calamari I've ever had.

One of the chef's specialties is the Vietnamese pancake ($11.95). We were served two crepes made of eggs, rice flour and coconut milk. More eggy than floury, the very thin crepes were served with pork and shrimp, basil, romaine lettuce and cilantro. We doused it with nuoc mam, the vinegar-anchovy sauce. It was heaven.

Before the pho (remember, fuh-UH), we went back to fresh ... the rice vermicelli bowl, with vermicelli noodles and very thinly sliced (almost shaved) grilled pork, cucumber and mung bean sprouts ($7.25). A plate of lettuce leaves, cilantro, Thai basil and other herbs was served on the side. We broke the stem out of the lettuce leaves and wrapped any and all of the ingredients in the leaves, then doused them with nuoc mam. Once again, very fresh flavors were enhanced, but not covered up, by the sauce. They were delicious.

Our final main dish was Vietnam's famous beef soup, pho ($6.50 small, $7.95 large). This was a clear soup served with very thin slices of beef and vermicelli noodles. Served on the side, among other things, were basil, limes, cilantro, sriracha (a fiery hot sauce) and hoisin sauce. It was one of the most well-balanced soups I've ever tasted. This soup isn't whipped up in 15 minutes. Bones, marrow and spices, like star anise and cloves, are all a part of the preparation. But I couldn't taste one of them. It was a perfect blend ... not one spice dominated. Just an extraordinarily noodle-beef soup. I tried it with the hot sauce and hoisin sauce and liked it better plain.

Dessert was a bit strange. Three-colored dessert was parfaitlike in appearance -- different colored layers of this and that. This and that were red beans on the bottom, hard green gelatin (similar to gummy bears) in the middle, and ice soaked in white coconut milk on the top. When it was brought to the table, we stirred it all up and enjoyed.

However, I liked the coffee much better. The Vietnamese brew each cup individually. They have these stainless steel drip apparatuses that slowly release strong coffee into each cup. Each cup already had condensed milk in the bottom. This was my dessert.

It was all good, but the restaurant, a small, tavernlike space, had only one server. If diners storm this bastille, service could be slow.

Dinner for three, including soft drinks, a jackfruit smoothie and a sour sop smoothie, but not tip, was $88.

restaurant review

Pho BC

4 stars out of 5