I’ll begin my first review by letting you all know that I am by no means a pho expert. I don’t eat it properly (yes, there’s a proper way of eating pho) and I’m pretty sure I put way too much siracha in it. All I know is that I really, really like it. So, now that we’ve established how unqualified I am to be writing a pho review blog, let us begin!
Last night I went to Nongla Vietnamese Cafe, which is located on 2055 Sawtelle Blvd, with my dad and his girlfriend. The entire area (where Mississippi Ave and Sawtelle Blvd cross) is full of delicious Asian food of all different backgrounds. If you’ve never been I would highly suggest it!
View from the sidewalk. I don’t think the girl with glasses was too pleased that I was taking 1000 pictures.
We chose to sit outside and I strategically sat facing the sidewalk to maximize my people watching viewpoint. The crowd is usually pretty entertaining. The menu is pretty simple but it includes all of the Vietnamese classics, the most important of which is obviously pho. I usually just get pho tai which is the thinly sliced rare steak that gets cooked in the broth. However, since I knew it would be my first blog review I decided to get adventurous and order tai bo vien which includes the meatballs. Bad call, I didn’t like the meatballs.
All the goods.
I’m sad to say the pho itself was pretty average. I found that the meat had a very distinct taste of beef, which I know sounds stupid given that it was, in fact, beef, but let me explain! You know when you get a piece of steak from the market and open the packaging and get hit with the smell of raw beef? Well, it tasted how that smells… if that makes any sense. The broth was also lacking in flavor, I had to really overdo it on the siracha to compensate. Needless to say I still finished every last drop of it (minus the meatballs) because it pains me to see a bowl of half-eaten pho. I probably won’t be going back but hey, if you like the taste of very beefy smelling meat I say go for it!
To top it off we went to MJ Cafe right around the corner and got some dessert. They have the cutest little ice cream sandwiches between macaroon shells. I got the one with green tea ice cream because the pink and green contrast was just so pretty!
Alright, first review done! If you’re still reading, you’re great.
Goodbye Pho Now,
Nahal
the phonatic 