Pho Hoa (Burnaby)

Pho Hoa
Several locations in the US and Canada
5505 Kingsway (location visited)
Burnaby, BC

Last week, on my Thursday post, I made reference to a post I had to reshuffle because it would have made that week too focused in one area of Metro Vancouver. One of the posts I had to do so is that of Pho Hoa, a restaurant in… Well, several places over Vancouver! While they do have several locations, I went to the one in Burnaby. That, of course, brings the question: why go to Pho Hoa? Well, the reason is similar to why I have been going to several restaurants in Kingsway in the Burnaby side: because of several errands and what not, I have been spending a lot of time in the area which translates into eating in places nearby. Hmmmm… Why suddenly I start to sound like Sherman???

One seemingly unique feature of this restaurant is the fact they are open 24 hours… Or that is their claim. In its own interesting ways, it is a good and bad thing: If you are going for pho it means their broth is being prepared round clock; however, at certain times of the day, I wonder about the “quality” of the food. The day I went, it was around 9:00 p.m. so, in a way, it shouldn’t be that bad.

Interestingly, the restaurant was half packed which, again, in its own ways, is a good thing. More people, more turn around. However, as soon as I sat down, the restaurant started to empty. OK… Feel free to blame me!

Now, to the food. One “good” feature in their menu is how it is laid out for pho first timers. It breaks it down into how “adventurous” you are in their offerings. It has a combination of good and bad, though. Some options look way too similar – which is not helped because they do not keep a consistency in the order of how the meats are listed. Anyway, a regular bowl won’t do so, instead, I went for their “adventurous” options, which ended up being…

#44, noodle soup with brisket, flank, tendon, tripe, and fatty flank. Well, it is pretty much almost everything but the kitchen sink! An oddity was that, rather than a wedge of lime, it was a wedge of lemon – something that was experienced as well by shokutsu when he/she visited a Pho Hoa location in Seattle.

If I had to describe this bowl of pho in one word, that word would be average. There wasn’t anything wrong but there wasn’t anything that stood out. The tendon was just a slab of tendon, while the tripe was, well, the same you would get in places like dim sum or something on those lines. The beef was rare and that was about it. And the broth… Well, I expected some more given what I mentioned above about the operation running 24 hours.

Normally, along with the pho, I would have gone with a spring roll; however, this time, I wanted meat. So I ordered a side of chicken wings. In what seems to be something I have repeated myself a lot of times already in this post, there wasn’t anything spectacular about these. OK, it was nicely fried and still had some juiciness in it but, that aside, there wasn’t much. Not even that marinara-like dipping sauce. However, a squeeze of the lemon wedge gave it a good different twist so, from that perspective, it was good.

Hmmmm…. Should I repeat myself? OK, let’s try again. There is nothing wrong with Pho Hoa in the grand scheme of thing; however, because there wasn’t anything outstanding, it makes you wonder if, out of all places, this is the one you should go to. Well, if the 24 hours claim is true, if you are looking for something at 3:00 a.m., I guess that should do it. As for me, I am seldom awake at that time of the day and I am aware of other options…

Tagged under: Burnaby • Pho • Vietnamese