Pho-get the Weather at Asian Pho House

Ah, springtime. Days become longer, temperatures begin to rise. It’s a season of new life, with daffodils blooming and lambs frolicking in the pastures.

Of course, if you’re a resident of the Puget Sound area this year, your spring is about eternally gray skies and gale-force winds. The lambs are all inside the barn where it’s warm, “warm” meaning a temperature above 50 degrees.

Given the still-wintery state of weather affairs, I gravitated towards a hot, comforting dinner for this week’s restaurant review. The meal I chose was the classic Vietnamese soup pho, from Asian Pho House on Highway 99 at 238th Street in Edmonds. As if I needed additional reassurance, while en route to the restaurant the skies began dumping a substance that looked disturbingly like snow. If April showers bring May flowers, this April better bring whole meadows full of blossoms like nothing this region has ever seen.

After wielding both umbrella and camera in a configuration lacking in grace but not will, I snapped an exterior pic of Asian Pho House and headed inside to dry and dine. There had been some degree of confusion on my part in getting to this point as I’d been under the impression that I was looking for Red Pho House. As it turns out, Red Pho House is no more and Asian Pho House is the new incarnation. Once inside, I was soon given a much-welcomed mug of hot tea, my host/server nodding towards outdoors, “It’s nasty out there.” The restaurant was tidy and peaceful. Excellent.

Asian Pho House offers the usual Vietnamese appetizers of egg rolls and spring rolls, but gets a little wild with chicken wings and entirely inexplicable fried mozzarella sticks. All are priced under $5.00. I settled on an order of two spring rolls ($1.70 each).

Spring rolls…because it’s “spring”…right?

I’ve had many a Vietnamese spring roll, and these were outstanding. Plump but not overstuffed, the rolls were easy to handle and didn’t lose their shape when chomped. The shrimp, vermicelli noodles, carrots and greens were all bright and fresh, perfectly complemented by the smooth, sultry peanut dipping sauce. In all honesty I could have ordered extra spring rolls and called it good for dinner, but I had a job to do.

For my main course, I ordered Asian Pho House’s #2 Pho featuring beef steak and brisket. All of the pho bowls are priced at $5.75 small/$6.50 large, with $1 extra for the seafood combo offering shrimp, squid and mussels. As well as several beef-centric varieties, there are chicken and tofu options.

I am the first to admit that steak and brisket is not a very adventuresome pho order. The host/server did inform me, however, that #2 is the joint’s best-selling dish. My bowl arrived properly steaming, joined by a plate of garnishes including basil, bean sprouts, sliced peppers and a lime wedge.

At first sip, I found the pho broth to not be as richly flavored as I’d hoped. However, with small squeezes of the standard hoisin and sriracha sauces and a dash of lime juice, the soup hit its mark. And this is the thing about pho…the diner tailors the bowl to his or her liking. Don’t care for bean sprouts? Then don’t add them. Like things hot? Put in those pepper slices. And do use the sauces provided on the table to add the kick you want. You can’t control the weather, but you can control your bowl of pho.

I used my chopsticks to extract slices of thin tender beef, savoring them between spoonfuls of broth and tangles of rice noodles. In a matter of minutes, I was thoroughly warmed and satisfied, the deluge I’d experienced outside all but forgotten.

For dessert I opted for the strawberry version of Asian Pho House’s “bubble tea” ($3.65), a pink milky slush with a flavor almost more floral than berry. For those inexperienced with the bubble tea genre: DO NOT FEAR THE TAPIOCA PEARLS. They are chewy and relatively tasteless, an interesting novelty adding texture to the drink. My bubble tea arrived along with a complimentary mini cream puff, the airy shell concealing rich, dense filling. It was a perfect finish to a simple, satisfying meal.

It’s hard to beat pho as a means to warm up on a blustery winter—I mean, spring—day. With the forecasts we’ve been getting, Asian Pho House may well have lines out the door by the time summer finally arrives in late August. Get in queue for your bowl full of sunnier skies.