Let me start by saying that I am a big Vietnamese food critic just because I cook so much of it that I am very judgmental when I eat at restaurants.
One of my best dishes that I make is the traditional Pho soup. Being so far from home while visiting Barcelona for 10 days, I was craving Vietnamese food so we found this place that was recommended in the Barcelona metropolitan magazine as well as on yelp. I have to say, it was more impressive than I expected. It is a small self service restaurant.
As you walk into the restaurant you pick up a card and mark what you want on it and hand it to the staff behind the bar. We didn't know this as we just headed straight to the bar to order and the staff was very helpful and showed us how to order properly. My husband and I each had a vietnamese iced coffee and each had a bowl of Pho.
Vietnamese Iced Coffee- I have to say that I was not expecting them to bring out a traditional coffee filter with condensed milk in a cup as the coffee drips down in front of you as I did see packages of instant vietnamese coffee. Pretty legit, that's the way coffee is supposed to be made. However, they did not tighten the coffee filter enough so there was a lot of coffee beans that ended up in the coffee. They also added the ice before the coffee dripped down causing the ice to melt before it was done. Typically, you would add the ice AFTER but oh well, it was ok.
Pho- The soup broth was pretty good. It was not AMAZING but decent. They definitely simmered the beef bones for a very long time because I could taste the broth had a nice sweet, flavorful smell. They didn't have basil in the Pho and used ALOT of chopped onions, cilantro, bean sprouts and scallions. They also didn't have the hoisin sauce or sriracha and only a sweetened fish sauce (Nuoc Mam) that was just a tad bit watered down for my taste. The beef was a bit chewy, but if they used a better cut it would have made a difference. After about 5 bites I can taste the MSG they use on the tip of my tongue because I do not use any MSG in my cooking so I know when and how much MSG is used in the asian dishes. pretty decent amount but is expected for a restaurant.
Overall pretty ok experience. They also have free wifi for the customers, you do have to ask and they will give you the code.
2 coffees, 2 bowls of Pho came out to be about 20 Euros. read more