Pho #1 Vietnamese & Thai Restaurant

Reviews

• ★★★★½ Pad Thai Beef Pho Visited Oct 30, 2019

  Pad Thai Was Decent, Pho Soup Appetizer

  I decided to try this restaurant while passing through Harlingen after looking at the menu and photos online and seeing several items that looked appealing. The restaurant was clean and pleasant inside, and I was seated and waited on promptly. The menu has a good variety, with roughly half of the offerings being Thai and the other half Vietnamese. Some of the menu descriptions were a little vague, so I asked about a few of the dishes before ordering.
  
  One of the more unusual items was the medium-rare beef noodle soup appetizer. I'd never seen a soup described that way before, so I tried it. I ordered a bowl and was surprised to find that the beef really was served medium-rare. The soup itself reminded me of a small bowl of pho, and it was an interesting appetizer.
  
  I also ordered the beef Pad Thai, which had good flavor and a reasonable amount of seasoning. I ordered it at a medium spice level, but I'd put the heat somewhere between mild and medium. It wasn't particularly spicy, but it had enough heat to add some flavor without overpowering the dish.
  
  One thing I found unusual was that the Pad Thai was served with a side of steamed rice. Since Pad Thai is already a noodle-based dish, serving it with another starch seemed a little odd to me. It's certainly not a bad thing if you enjoy rice, just not something I typically expect to get with Pad Thai.
  
  Overall, everything I tried was good, the prices were fair, and the restaurant had a steady number of customers during my visit. The combination of Thai and Vietnamese dishes gives the menu plenty of variety, and there were several other things I'd like to try.
  
  If I'm passing through Harlingen again, I'd definitely consider stopping back in and trying some of the other items on the menu.

  — Paul