Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Review: Bowl of Pho in Woodmere


I'm all for adventurous eating so when I discovered that a pho restaurant had opened minutes away from my house, I decided I had to try it.  There are plenty of other pho restaurants around town but very few of them feature online menus (it's a drag to show up somewhere and not be able to eat) and and most are in neighborhoods where I wouldn't want to be alone after dark.  Not familiar with pho?  Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup, typically with a meat based stock that features some type of meat (or tofu in my case) bean sprouts, peppers, and spices.  The closest thing I can compare it to is miso soup with a kick.  And bigger pieces of tofu. 


Bowl of Pho, located near Whole Foods in Woodmere is the first Vietnamese restaurant I've found in Cleveland that serves vegetarian pho.  Vietnamese food is known for using a lot of meaty ingredients, which is why it's taken me 30 years to actually get to try any.  In fact, there is an entire section on Bowl of Pho's menu devoted to vegetarian items - everything from spring rolls to pho to other Vietnamese noodle dishes.  Any restaurant that has a vegetarian section makes me happy, so I was excited to try out Bowl of Pho.  Even more excited was my boyfriend, though.  His uncle is married to a woman from Vietnam, and we both felt a little dumb when we saw him this summer and told him we'd never had Vietnamese food.  I think he eats pho almost daily, and he was a little flabberghasted when we said we'd never had any.


Vegetarian pho - hard to pronounce, easy to like

I try to not judge a book by its cover, so the strip mall location of Bowl of Pho didn't bother me.  It's actually really nice on the inside with a granite topped bar (it doesn't seem like they serve liquor yet) and modern looking furniture.  Service was a little iffy.  The restaurant has been open for just under a month and it seems like most of the staff doesn't have restaurant experience.  There was some confusion over who had which table and it took awhile for our server to acknowledge us.  When she did, she was nice but had limited knowledge of the menu.  My boyfriend likes to ask a lot of questions about...well...everything, and he was a little disappointed that she couldn't provide any recommendations because she hadn't tried much of the menu.  (if I ever own a restaurant, I will make everyone on my staff try everything unless they have dietary restrictions)  We settled on vegetarian spring rolls to share, vegetarian pho for me, and some sort of beef and shrimp noodle dish for him.


The spring rolls were amazing  - fresh but not too greasy.  I didn't know what to expect with my pho, but it was great.  I was given a plate of things to add to the broth (which was chock full of tofu and noodles) - like bean sprouts, Sriracha, and jalapeno peppers - to add to the flavor.  I tend to be a bit heavy handed on the spices, so I made my pho too hot for my liking. (darn you Siracha!)  And it was a little difficult to eat.  My options were to starve by earing with chopsticks or use my fork and look goofy.  The fork won.  I might still be sitting there attempting to slurp up some noodles if I hadn't ditched the chopsticks.  My boyfriend really enjoyed his meal.  To me it looked like pho minus broth.  I'd definitely try those kind of noodles next time.

If you like Vietnamese food or are up for adventurous eating you should definitely give this restaurant a try.  Just be patient with the servers.  I'm sure they'll improve over time.   

9 comments:

  1. Thank you for reminding me about this place! I forgot all about it. I love pho and it's super close to me so I'll be checking it out SOON!

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  2. I love your restaurant reviews. We have family in that area. Did the restaurant seem vegan friendly? Thanks!

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  3. Hi Tammi! It did seem vegan friendly. I can't think of anything in the pho that would have been vegetarian and not vegan. But you know as well as I do, it's always best to ask the restaurant!

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  4. Thanks for giving me hope! :) We'll have to check it out. If they don't seem vegan-friendly, we have some other options in the area, so we can't lose. :)

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  5. Roxanne, vegan victory! We had lunch there today and they even made the garden rolls with rice paper instead of eggroll wrappers. So good ! Thanks for the heads up on this place.

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  6. Glad to hear that! I really liked Bowl of Pho and it's nice to hear that they can accomodate different dietary needs.

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  7. I tried Bowl of Pho today and it was really good. I had the garden rolls and a bowl of traditional beef eye of round pho. It's nice looking place inside and every staff member we encountered was friendly and our food was served rather quickly. It is still not quite as good as Superior Pho but, it is better than No. 1 Pho for sure.

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  8. Great for those who can't eat gluten-the whole menu is gluten free-the food was delicioua!!The server was warmer, attentive and knowledgeable.Loved it!!!!

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  9. Meant to say=delicious...and the server was warm as in friendly...

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