I'm Only Here for the Food!

Chau Kitchen & Bar
1500 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

There are some dishes we perceive as simple and humble. Take pho, for example, a simple bowl of rice noodles and some meat in a broth flavoured with different spices. OK, that might be have been over-simplifying it but I can’t help myself doing that. So what happens when you serve such simple, humble dish in a more modern (*) environment? Though that is not necessarily the intent of Chau Kitchen & Bar, the fact it is not your regular Vietnamese joint and pho is served, I knew I had to come here and have some pho.

(* – Editor’s note: originally I used the word “upscale”. Upon further thought, I think that was a bad word selection. Instead, modern seems to be more appropriate).

Located in an almost cursed location (Pho Saigon used to be there and has changed ownership at least 3 times), Chau opened late 2008. I wanted to go ever since; however, they are only open for lunch on Fridays and weekends.

While this is my first time in the restaurant itself, I have browsed their menu a couple of times. Unlike other Vietnamese restaurants, it is short and simple – no combination of different meat cuts and bowl sizes. In fact, I don’t think their emphasis is on pho at all. They only had two pho dishes; instead they had dishes like white basa fish with caramel sauce and fire grilled Asian eggplant with light sweet chili sauce. But, of course, it stays true to its origin with dishes like lemongrass chicken and rice paper rolls. As for me, I came here for one single reason – pho and that’s what I ordered. (I ought to mention I overheard they were in the process of changing the menu).

When was the last time you had a glass of water with a slice of cucumber?

While most Vietnamese places will server their pho with bean sprouts on a side, Chau serves them in the bowl itself. And this is along with herbs, a slice of hot chili and a wedge of lemon, well, wedged on a side of the bowl.

In this case, the bowl was pho bo, which was mostly meat. While there was no rare meat, the slices along with some meat balls were quite tasty. The broth… Ah, the broth… Not sure how to describe it. Although it is not the best broth I ever had, it found it quite good. I am sure I tasted some individual flavours like star anise and cloves; however, it was not overwhelming. If I had to compare it to other pho restaurants… Well, I can’t. It is not that it is better than others, rather it was different.

Here is an order of chicken lemongrass rice paper rolls with peanut sauce and apple vinaigrette (?), which I ordered along with the pho. It is almost needless to say, there is some western influence: While other Vietnamese restaurants will serve them in a plate arranged for quick, easy consumption, Chau has taken the liberty to make it more “interesting” visually.

Even the garnish!

And it was not only visuals that is different; also it had some “surprises” inside. If you look carefully in the centre of the roll, you might notice something interesting. No, can’t see anything? Well, it had a waffer/roll inside that gave it an interesting crunch. The roll on its own was not that flavourful but the peanut sauce complimented it really well. Can’t say too much about the apple vinaigrette, as I could taste much of it.

Overall, I found it quite an interesting meal, though it had some flaws on its own – the main one being cost. If you are coming all the way here just for the pho, I must warn in advance it is not the $7 bowl you might get in other places. My bowl was $11 and the roll was $9. Feel free to draw any conclusions based on the $$$ factor – in my case, it just mean I might not frequent them as often as I would like to. As for the rolls, I think it would have been better to sell the rolls as a pair rather than a trio at $6 – For a single diner, three pieces might be too much, if you were planning to have something else. But, that’s me!

How much do I like it? It would be difficult to quantify so let’s put it in this perspective: the fact I really want them to open on weekdays for lunch (other than Friday, that is) and made me curious enough to want to try other dishes should serve as an indicator.

As a side note, I can’t shake this question out of my head: Almost all, if not all, Vietnamese restaurants serve pho; however, I don’t know to what extent this dish is representative of that cuisine or it can be used as a yardstick to measure one Vietnamese restaurant with others. So, should I use pho for this purpose? What do you think?