thơm® Portland — Restaurant in Portland

I really, really WANT to love this restaurant. It's a sweet Vietnamese family, the decor is cute, NoPo has so few Vietnamese options etc.

They have a very small menu and this can be a great thing like at Rose VL Deli. However, unlike Rise VL, Thom does not put so much effort into the details of what they prepare. Every aspect of the daily soup at Rose VL has heart put into it and they labor over the details to make each above average. Here at Thom the Bun Thit Nung was perfunctory: the meat has good lemongrass flavor, was tender but there were almost no vegetables, the peanuts were raw / cheaply done ie no toasting and there was not one herb (no mint or basil - wut?). The sauce was more salty than anything else. There was no lime wedge. We asked for chili oil and they don't serve any. We had to buy a tasty but ultra mild one with no kick from their store for $12 more dollars - sigh.

I tried the beef pho the other day for lunch and the place has lots of older Vietnamese people eating there which was encouraging. The pho was very simple: grandma vibes. They brought only a tiny sprig of herbs with it. Nothing about it felt generous but it did have a simple homey appeal.

It seems as if the son of a Vietnamese restaurant-owning family from Vancouver, WA wanted to do a "second wave" restaurant on Alberta and is a great decorator, gets the simple menu thing but does not have the chops yet to deliver really vibrant food that goes beyond the basics.

We ate there in a beautiful 85 degree Wednesday night at 7 pm but there was no one in the restaurant and the staff seemed kind of down. This place has very high ratings on Google but unless they kick it up a notch in the kitchen & get more visibility (it does not pop visually) from the street I worry it will...

We Love our Pho! (Thom) means "smells good" And that is a fact! When you walk in the door of this family restaurant you can tell it's different. Jimmy Le is a culinary master. He is a second generation business owner/chef. His pho is the best I have ever had and it's because of their secret family recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation. We have been friends since Highschool and me and the basketball players would always go to his Mom and Dads pho shop after a basketball game. It's so healing and just makes you feel good like you're giving your body exactly what it needs to repair itself. Jimmy is also a talented artist, as you sit in his small space each piece of pottery, tea cups, bowls, and urban art are so tastefully place and cultivated from local artists. His mission is to build the business of this new pho shop on Alberta and take care of his mom and dad who are reaching retirement. His family honor is incredibly inspiring and I want to support him reach his goal. Everyone has got to come and experience this family's flavor, they really have something special, it's all about high quality food. There is no question it is top tier. Jimmy is a true outlier and everyone please come with your family to taste the flavor of his family's legacy! We will see...

Today I went to Thom with some friends I was visiting. It was my first and only time there so please take that into consideration with this review. The food wasn’t necessarily bad, but it was… off. My Com Ga tasted like day old leftovers. The chicken was tougher/firmer than what freshly chicken feels like. The rice was DEFINITELY a day old which is actually dangerous as leftover rice can cause food poisoning due the bacteria Bacillus cereus. The food wasn’t necessarily bad for leftovers but I have a problem paying $17 bucks plus a tip for food that isn’t fresh. My friends with me got the Bun thit and they mentioned that their pork tasted like it had been reheated. The egg rolls that we had were delicious and tasted extremely fresh! Hopefully we just caught them at a low point and they don’t do this all the time. I want to give them another shot, but if I go back and feel it’s reheated food, I will ask...