Hello my fellow Ibarakians! Well I can hardly believe it, it has been exactly one year since I started Ibaraki Eats. This year has been very interesting to say the least. I have tried so much delicious food while avoiding Covid in the process. The wife and I have had a great time and I am extremely happy that I can share my experiences with you all of you. Thank you for reading, for your recommendations and encouragement. Don't worry though, Ibaraki Eats isn't done yet. There are still a lot of great places to try and talk about around Ibaraki.
For our one year anniversary, I decided to return to my third post of Ibaraki Eats. A delicious place with amazing smelling food. Doctor Phở in Tsukuba.
This place has changed
It has been a little under a year since I have come back to Doctor Phở. It isn't that I didn't want to come back, I really wanted to return and have more phở. But my schedule and the pandemic made it hard to return.
When the wife and I walked into Doctor Phở recently, we were both taken aback by how the place had changed. The layout of the restaurant looked the same but the menu had expanded, there were a lot of Vietnamese products for sale and there was a food car parked in the parking lot. Doctor Phở has expanded since the last time I was there. They now have a restaurant in Tokyo and the food car goes to Tsukuba station to sell delicious phở. I am glad Doctor Phở has done well this past year.
It was time to check out the menu and decide what we were ordering.
The Menu Before
The Menu Now
The last time I came to Doctor Phở, we got take out. This time however, we would be eating in. The wife and I were really surprised by how much the menu had changed. There were way more options now and everything looked amazing. I was really interested in trying the sets and No. 10 caught my eye. I should say that this was a late lunch for us. We arrived at Doctor Phở at around two and the staff let us know that the sets were not available after two o'clock. We only had four choices for our late lunch. The No. 1-4. I decided on the No. 3 and the wife decided on the No. 1.
Drink Menu
When I came to Doctor Phở last year, I couldn't try the coffee. I vowed that I would try the coffee the next time I visited. A lot of you left comments on Facebook saying that I had to try it and it was an eat in only thing. Well, this was the day I was trying it. The No. 27 Cafe Sữa, I was finally going to be able to try it. The wife also wanted to try the No. 34 which was the dessert of the day.
Time to order
Last year, the staff took our order and we received our take out. This year, we went to a ticket vending machine and selected what we wanted. After giving the staff our tickets, we patiently waited for our phở and coffee. I looked around at all the Vietnamese products in the meantime. I have almost zero knowledge on Vietnamese cuisine except for phở. I made a mental note to research some of these products and maybe buy some to try at home next time I visited. After a few minutes, our phở and coffee arrived.
Cafe Sữa
The coffee I was waiting for had finally come. The coffee was still dripping down into a glass cup when it arrived. I waited a little bit until the coffee completely finished dripping. Then I took off the phin cà phê, which is the metal coffee dripper, grabbed my coffee spoon and started swirling. I believe there was condensed milk at the bottom of the coffee which made the coffee a little lighter in color when I finished mixing it. I took a sip of it and it was everything all of you said it was. It was more than amazing. The thickness and flavor of the coffee mixed with the condensed milk was a perfect match. This coffee was absolutely fantastic and this is coming from a guy that thoroughly believes that Cuban coffee is number one. This coffee has gone into my top five best coffees list.
Phở bò
The wife ordered the No.1, Phở bò which is an all beef phở. The familiar smell of herbs filled our table which is always a treat. The wife slurped her first rice noodles and had a face of pure phở happiness. I would have tried some of her phở but I thought mine was practically the same just with chicken and beef instead of just beef. The wife was really enjoying her phở and she said that it was better to eat it at Doctor Phở than to take it home. After trying my phở, I had to agree.
Phở dâc biêt
My phở, the No. 3, was the special phở that had chicken and beef in it. The fantastic smell of herbs was all around me again which was a really nice feeling. I got my chopsticks and grabbed some rice noodles. Slurping the noodles brought me back to when I first tried this restaurant's phở and how amazing it was. The chicken and the beef were soft and delicious. Everything in this bowl was perfect. I really enjoyed the noodles and the chicken was fantastic. The herbs are what really get me though. The smell, the taste of the broth, it is just perfect. This was a great idea for a late lunch and a healthy choice as well.
Chè thâp cam
After we had finished our phở, we moved onto the dessert my wife ordered. The No. 34, Chè thâp cam. This dessert came with sliced bananas, small tapioca pearls at the bottom and pieces of what I think were cinnamon flakes on top. It was a nice light dessert after a bowl of phở. The flakes were the best part in my opinion. They went really well with the coconut milk and had a nice crunch to them. I highly recommend getting all the ingredients on your spoon to get all those great flavors in one bite.
After all our phở and coffee was consumed, it was time to go. We thanked the staff for the lovely meal and headed back home.
It was quite a treat to visit Doctor Phở again after so long. The delicious phở with that great smell of herbs really brought me back to last year when I first tried this place, which was at the height of the pandemic and I was extremely worried like everyone else. But that fresh herb smell and delicious phở gave me a moment of peace and relaxation during those troubled times. Thank you for that Doctor Phở and I will try to visit more often.
If you have never tried phở and want to give it a go, drop all your lunch or dinner plans and head on over to Doctor Phở. Who knows, you might see me there, enjoying a delicious bowl of phở while on my third cup of Cafe Sữa.
Enjoy!
For more information on Doctor Phở, check out their Facebook page:
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