Pho Shizzle — Restaurant in Seattle

Excellent traditional pho. I have been looking for authentic pho place in Seattle and I finally found it. Pho Shizzle.

First of all, two spring rolls with shrimp and pork is five dollars. WHAT?! Most places price the rolls at seven or eight dollars and they are not even executed well. Not this place. The vermicelli and the rice paper was soft and chewy in a nice way and the shrimp and pork were tasty. Most importantly, the peanut sauce was just the right amount of sweet and nutty. To the point that I wanted to actually dip my pho meat into the sauce which I did a few times.

I got the large #22 steak, flank, and fatty flank pho. I was pleasantly surprised by the large portions. I added my veggies and lime juice and dove into the pho. Great broth (a deep flavor without being too sweet like some places). And there was just so much meat. I am almost finished with my noodles and there is still a portion of meat left over.

I may not be a mukbang YouTuber, but I do say that I have a large appetite. OMG, I was struggling to finish this pho. Towards the end, my stomach was so full but there was still like 1/4 of noodles and meat left. I made it to the end somehow but my belly was stretched to the maximum and I was full up to my chin. Btw, I was so full that I even skipped breakfast today.

All that for 22 dollars with tax and tip included. Money well spent.

Note to future self: we came in the evening at around 9 pm and the restaurant was actually more than half full. Not a place for leisure meal with conversations, it is more of a eat your food and get out place. But you can pay separately for what you ate which is very convenient for a large group of students who don’t have to figure out how to pay that one person at the end. Also the multi-color lighting was kind of too much for me, but it did make the place cool, kind of night club vibes lol. Interesting interior choice.

I will...

I got a teriyaki chicken "bowl" to-go. First, it was not even a bowl (why say "bowl" on the menu if it isn't?). Second, when I opened it, they had a container of teriyaki sauce sitting in the middle of the rice (seems like it should be separate since the outside of containers isn't always clean). Third, they only gave me one napkin which was already moist by the time I got back to my office, since the to-go container is not at all insulated. And most importantly, the meat was not good; the edges were so hard that I couldn't even eat at least a quarter of the meat, and what I did eat was unpleasant and stuck in my teeth from being so hard to chew. Needless to say, I don't recommend this dish despite the good price. Hopefully their pho is better since that's their specialty, but this one should probably just be taken off their menu, in my opinion, to save their reputation. The teriyaki sauce tasted like it was poured straight from the bottle from the store; I could have just as easily bought my own microwaveable chicken and poured some sauce into it, and my experience would not have been much different. If they do keep serving this, I definitely think they should put toothpicks in the to-go bag.

On the plus side, the restaurant is clean and has a...

Tonight I got the most unbelievably disgusting Pho and Banh Mi I've ever had. I've been enjoying Vietnamese cuisine my entire life and never has the bar been so low.

All of the meat was overcooked. My banh mi was entirely hard charred pork pieces, and the Pho meat was tough to chew. The vermicelli noodles were stale and straight up inedible. Ever take a bite of something and just know you can't eat it? Yeah, that's what my Pho was like. The Pho broth tasted funky in a way that I've never tasted, almost like sweet and reminiscent of ramen broth. Sus.

To add insult to injury, they either forgot my 2nd spring roll or the (2) on the menu means 2... halves? Who orders halves of spring rolls? And for $4.50?? It costs less than a dollar to make a spring roll and they're easy enough to make at home. There is nothing special about their spring rolls. Not extra large, not particularly tasty, just.. meets expectations.

Altogether for the same price, I could've gone out of my way to cap hill for the best vietnamese I've had in Washington. I should have. Never coming...