Pho House Cambridge

Pho House in Cambridge is located just a short distance from Porter Square on Mass Ave. It was a good day to visit Cambridge since there are no meters in effect today.

Despite the busy Bagelsaurus being almost next door, there was still plenty of street parking available.

Interior was neat and clean with some nice window tables available.

What to have at a restaurant called Pho House? Pho Noodle Soup of course! "A popular Vietnamese noodle soup with sliced onions, scallions, and cilantro served with fresh bean sprouts, basil leaves and wedge of limes on the side." All the condiments were really fresh but I miss the chili pepper that nobody gives you anymore. That made the soup more interesting towards the end.

Here we have the classic Dac Biet Beef Large ($7.95). "Noodle soup with rare steak, well done frank, tendon and tripe." Aha, the commonly misspelled frank again makes an appearance on a Vietnamese menu. The rare eye was rare, at least, the part that was sticking up above the broth. There was plenty of well-done flank, nice and tender and for once I got a good amount of both tendon and tripe. Unfortunately, the tripe wasn't cooked long enough so it was just chewy and some of the tendons could have been cooked a bit longer as well. The broth itself was OK but lacked depth of flavor. Where was the flavor of star anise, roasted ginger, roasted onion, black cardamom, coriander seed, fennel seed, and clove?

There was a little How To display on the table. Section 3 says "use chopsticks and spoon to mix" and what's in the picture? A fork!