Saturday, January 22, 2011

Pho Hoa Restaurant, Noodle Soup @ Tropicana City Mall


Pho Hoa Vietnamese Restaurant is probably the largest Vietnamese restaurant chain around the globe with outlets in 13 states in the USA, available in 4 states in Canada and 7 countries across Asia. Their very first outlet was back in San Jose back in 1983. Since then they have not looked back and have been surging forward to become where they are today. Read more about them via www.phohoa.com

Welcome to Pho Hoa Restaurant
Simple yet elegant decor
It was an experience walking into this outlet at Tropican City Mall. This place looks simple yet elegant with so many different types and designs of colourful lanterns lifted way up to create an amazing 'Vietnamese' feel to the whole entire restaurant. It was simply breathtaking.

Frankly, I have not come across a Vietnamese restaurant in Malaysia that serves good Vietnamese food. The last I had a fantastic one was in Papatoetoe, Auckland NZ. Until now I still crave for it and was hoping to make a trip back to NZ to revitalised the experienced I had years ago.

I noticed from the very first time I looked at the menu was the type of noodles and food available here is very different from those I had in NZ. Choices here are pretty limited while in NZ was heaven and earth. Oh well I should just focus on what is available locally and get on with the order.

Cha Gio @ RM3.90++
A must is the fried spring rolls with minced pork and vegetable or simply called 'Cha Gio'. It tasted pretty good indeed but still lack the 'oomph' feeling. Of course the ones I had back in NZ was much greater than this but it was OK-lah.


Pho Tai, Bo Vien @ RM15.50++ (Regular)
Since Vietnam is famous for it's beef noodles, it would be a sin not having one here. I was told that this place serves one of the best noodles in town. We had a couple of 'Pho Tai, Bo Vien' beef noodles. This bowl of noodle consists of some beef balls and some beef steaks which came with some noodles. The aroma was making us all drool. Came with it was some mint leaves and bean sprout which was supposed to be mixed into the bowl of noodles.

I was expecting it to be really good but somehow I wasn't feeling disappointed at all. The broth was really amazing and delicious. Both the beef balls and beef steaks tasted really good too which makes this a winner. The only thing about that made me disappointed was the portion which was rather too little for the price we were paying.

Bun Ga Nuong @ RM13.90++
This set is more for the health conscious diners. Bun Ga Nuong is a bowl of vermicelli comes with veggie and grilled chicken meat. Dosed some fish oil into the bowl and mixed it all up for some really good healthy meal. Not bad indeed.

Conclusion : Bolehlah... Just OK-lah.... but it could really be better. The only reason for me making this statement is because I had better ones in Auckland where the food is so much superior compared to Pho Hoa. Nevertheless, it was truly an amazing venture and I really don't mind stepping into this outlet again. A 3/5.

Cheers.

Pho Hoa Restaurant
Lot L52, First Floor
Tropicana City Mall
3, Jalan SS20/27
47400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor.
Tel : 03 7728 1714

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