I will be honest, going into this blog post, I knew nothing about Vietnamese food. My hometown is in Miami, Florida U.S.A. and while I was living there, there was no Vietnamese cuisine insight. We have a lot of latin cuisine but no Vietnamese. So one day, I was scrolling through Facebook and saw an ad for a Vietnamese restaurant called Doctor Pho. I somewhat knew about pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) but I hadn't really tried it. I checked out their Facebook page and saw that they were in Tsukuba, the city next to where I live, Tsuchiura. After checking out their Facebook page, I thought that it was time to end my curiosity of Vietnamese cuisine. Let's get some Vietnamese takeout.
500 yen!?
I arrived at Doctor Pho and went inside. I automatically felt really relaxed thanks to the low lighting and nice atmosphere. It is a small place so not too many tables inside but they do have outside seating. The staff were very friendly and gave me time to figure out the menu. I really wanted to eat in, but with the current situation I decided to get take out. I hope after this pandemic is over I can enjoy the food in the restaurant.
For those of you who do not speak Japanese, you have nothing to worry about. The staff at Doctor Pho speak English. (Actually, I think their English is better than their Japanese.) The menu is in Vietnamese, Japanese and English. So you should not have any trouble ordering.
Speaking of the menu, the first thing that jumped at me was the price. "Everything is 500 yen!" (Except the desserts and drinks.) I said excitedly. I thought , for that price I am going to try a little bit of everything. So that night, I ordered the Vietnamese sandwich, spring rolls, beef pho, chicken pho, Saigon beer and the Vietnamese dessert.
My take out bounty!
After waiting a few minutes, I received my take out. If you decide to get take out, the staff will put the soup in a different bag and the other ingredients, the noodles, herbs and meat in another container. The staff at Doctor Pho told me that I should heat up the soup first, and then add it to the noddles and other ingredients. That way everything will not get to soggy. One thing I started liking about pho was the smell, I don't know if you like the smell of fresh herbs but the smell was wonderful. I wanted that sweet smelling odor to stay in my car for a while but sadly now it's gone.
I got home and unpacked everything. I followed the instructions that the staff gave me and began to feast. You might be thinking, "man, this guy ate all that by himself!" I didn't. I do have a wife and we shared it all. I am not one of those big eating competitive champions like Gal Sone.
Beef Pho
Chicken Pho
The first thing we tried was the pho of course. I was so excited to try both the beef and chicken pho, the smell got me pumped up. I tried the beef pho first and I loved it. The mix of the herbs and beef was so good, it was like a delightful party in my mouth. And who else decided to come to the party? The noodles. The noodles were very tasty and soaked up the soup very well. Next, was the chicken pho and it was great too. Both soups pretty much have the same ingredients except for the meat. They are both similar but there was a slight difference in taste. I couldn't really put my finger on it but I think the beef pho has a stronger taste than the chicken pho. I will have to eat both of them again to give you a better report, which I don't mind doing at all. For 500 yen, the portion was very generous.
Vietnamese Sandwich
Next came the Vietnamese sandwich. The sandwich comes with different vegetables, herbs and pork. The bread is a crunchy baguette that goes very well with all the other ingredients. I thought the sandwich was very good, especially the sauce. I'll be honest, I wish there would have been a bit more vegetables and meat in it but I was very satisfied. I believe that this is a very good sandwich to have on the go or during a quick lunch break. A lot of sandwiches and burgers can get messy while you are eating them, but not this sandwich. The ingredients stayed between the bread and didn't fall onto the plate. That means that if you are worried about staining your work suit or dress on your lunch break with this sandwich, don't be. I would advise being a little cautious of the sauce though, I got some on my fingers.
Vietnamese Spring rolls
Spring rolls are awesome and I am sure you have had them in Chinese restaurants before. They are usually filled with vegetables and minced pork. Spring rolls are also accompanied with sauce for dipping. It can be a Worcestershire sauce, peanut sauce, sweet and sour sauce or any other sauce that the restaurant chooses to serve it with. Doctor Pho's spring rolls were accompanied by a sweet and sour sauce if memory serves me correctly. They were pretty much the standard spring rolls but I believe inside they had some of those great herbs I was telling you about before. They were delicious but they are not my favorite menu item at Doctor Pho. I do think they make a good appetizer before having your bowl of pho.
Dessert time!
We finished all our pho, sandwich and spring rolls, now time for dessert. According to the menu, the dessert is seasonal. It seems like Doctor Pho does not have a set dessert menu. At the time of this blog post, it is currently spring, going into summer. That being said, the dessert we got was some kind of yogurt bubble tea with coconut flakes. It was OK in my opinion. It was sweet and the tapioca was good. The flakes did get soggy which kind of killed the magic of the coconut flakes. I do want to try their other seasonal desserts. Once we get into summer, I can pop back into Doctor Pho and report back what the summer dessert is.
Oh! I forgot to mention the beer. Saigon beer is pretty tasty and I hope to try their other beer, 333 beer. I would write more on the beer but I am not a beer or hops expert. I can tell you that I am not a big IPA guy, and Saigon beer is not really an IPA. So I enjoyed it.
I am very happy that I finally got to try Vietnamese cuisine. It was delicious and cheap, two great combinations for any restaurant patron. I do highly recommend Doctor Pho and I am planning to return their myself. There was one menu item that I wanted to try, but the staff told me ordering it for take out would be difficult because it was hot and it could get messy. This is the Vietnamese egg cream coffee. Wow, every time I say that makes me think of a heavy cream coffee and I cannot wait to try it. Next time I go, I hope I can sit down in their lovely little restaurant, order that coffee and a bowl of beef pho and enjoy both surrounded by the smell of delicious herbs.
Enjoy!
For more information on Doctor Pho, here is the link to their Facebook page:
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