Pho Thanh Truc

Nice portion and good price in this inflation. Will come back whenever i am craving for vietnamese food

This small but quaint restaurant surprised me. I read the previous reviews, and it has been on my list to try out for some time. I questioned many of the one-star reviews, and some stated that they had been in other Vietnamese restaurants before.

Service: Very good. It is a typical Vietnamese restaurant that ran by elderly folks. You come in, state how many people, you either be seated or get told to sit anywhere you want, the waiter or waitress will bring you the menu and drinks, call the waitress or waiter when you're ready to order, you get your food, and you pay at the counter. They care about the taste of the food and expediency. If you expect the service to be a five-star restaurant, temper your expectations.

Food: I order two items: The BBQ pork roll for an appetizer and the Broken Rice Special.

The BBQ pork: 4.5/5 stars. You MUST try this item. How is it different from other restaurants? When you bite into the roll, you get hit with flavorful sweet pork with bitterness from the char of the grill and balanced flavor with the rice noodle and lettuce. Now dip the roll into the peanut sauce; you get hit with an umami flavor bomb. The smoke and char flavor gives an outstanding balance to the sauce and separates this dish from other places.

The Broken Rice Special: 5/5 stars. You MUST try this dish. There are so many parts to this dish, and if one were off, the flavor profile would not be correct. Every element works for me. You get sweet and salty from the fish sauce, the bitter and smoke flavor from the pork chop's char, the egg meatloaf provides a different flavor texture, the shredded pork skin adds another level of texture without breaking the balance, the pickled carrot and daikon give sour elements to break the fattiness of the pork, the egg provides silky flavor to the mouth, and the vegetable freshness gives you a break from the flavors bomb. Other places would have one or two pieces under-seasoned, but everything works here.

This is my opinion, please come and give them a try. I will update my review each time I come back.