Pho Maxima

Pho Maxima Restaurant
822 20th Street
New Westminster, BC

OK, it has been almost two weeks since I came back from Seattle and I am not finally starting to catch up with my post on Vancouver restaurants. I think that, for comparison purposes, Seattle can give a run to Vancouver’s Canadian dollars in terms of food but, in the end, I am biased towards Vancouver, hehehehe.

Anyway, after I was back, the eternal question popped out the following morning: Hungry… Food… Where? The truth is that I need something “soft” to the stomach. After all, I ate way too much fatty/fried food while in Seattle! So, in a way, I short listed myself to soup, congee and noodles. But, since I was doing errands in the Edmonds area, I decided to drop by a pho place that might easily fly over almost everybody’s radar simply because it is in an odd place: a strip mall in 20th Street – a street that usually carries heavy traffic (because it directs you to the Queensborough bridge) but not much else.

After I walked in, I was given the option to sit anywhere. However, some of the tables still haven’t been cleaned up yet so it wasn’t a “sit anywhere” situation. It is a funny note I should mention this as it wasn’t that busy, despite it was a 2 person operation (from what I could see during my visit; I am sure there will be more in dinner time). I chose a table in the middle with some access to natural light and was set to go.

Yes, the picture above sort of tells the whole story: I was up for pho once again. Sure, that was the intent from the very beginning; however, I think I should start trying other Vietnamese dishes, like rice/vermicelli dishes or banh cuon! (OK, I have already had my share of banh mi). However, rather than the usual beef pho or my recent adventures with pho ga, I went for something pho but not the usual pho either.

Behold, their “HUE’ Spicy, beef brisket, ham with thick noodle soup”. Yeah, so much for going something “soft” to the stomach. The truth is that I wanted to go originally for a beef pho but somehow I thought it might be a good chance to try this. The spicy part was really enticing but, in the end, it wasn’t as spicy as it could have been, despite all the (chili?) oil you could see on top. One thing I found out later was that, had I squeezed the lime from the very beginning, it would have provided an interesting contrast between the light spiciness and some acidity. The beef was OK though I did not have high expectations out of it, since it wasn’t rare but (well done) brisket. Still, it had some beef taste to it so no complains in the end. The one part that really disappointed me was the noodles. If you look in the picture above, it was more on the lines spaghetti than thick noodles, specially considering that the rice noodles I am used to are almost the same thickness as the ones shown above (which begs the question, what would be “thick” in this case). Furthermore, they were really fragile, as in a couple of instances, they broke apart while I was grabbing them with the chopsticks. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

Once again, so much for going “soft” with my stomach… Yes, I had to order their vegetarian spring rolls. And, let me tell ya, this were quite good spring rolls. They were pipping hot, though also slightly oily on the outside. In my first bite, it started to ooze out some juices (oil?) which, in a way, shows they were made to order. Also, it was pack somewhat tightly, a characteristic which some consider bad, but, in this case, it worked fine. And the fact the filling was evenly distributed made every morsel enjoyable.

Given I did not have that much high expectations of the place, I must mention I quite enjoyed my meal. That is despite the thick noodle incident. (Though, I must mention, looking at the other dinner’s bowl of pho, their regular noodles are the same ones you would commonly associate with pho). Furthermore, when customers kept walking in, the waitress treated them as family, as if they have been customers for a long time. So, in a way, it is a hole-in-the-wall but a family one.

Tagged under: New Westminster • Pho • Vietnamese