Pho Season
427 Dagu Lu
Shanghai, China
PRICE: ????
RATING:

This review was initially made on Smart Shanghai.com and I won a 800? gift certificate for Skin City. So THANK YOU Smart Shanghai!! You are awesome 🙂

So this is a cross-post into here, hence the not-so-usual formatting….

AMBIENCE: The newly-opened Pho Season pays careful attention to detail in their restaurant. Despite being small, it achieves a cosy yet relaxed ambience with soft greens and browns. There is a semi-second-level that serves no real purpose, and the tables are very tiny (we couldn’t fit all our food onto it). Staff are very friendly and swift.

FOOD: The Noodle Soup with Beef (58?) arrives on a little wooden platter, complete with the necessary condiments like bean sprouts, mint leaves, lemon wedge and sauces. Sadly, there is a LOT of bean sprouts in the bowl of noodles (50/50 with the noodles), hidden sneakily underneath so you think you’re getting a big bowl. In actual fact, there is SO LITTLE noodles I finish the bowl with 2 big mouthfuls (!!!). The noodles are a tad undercooked. However, the beef comes as lovely softly-stewed slices which are delicious, and the broth is just-right and not too salty.

We note with relief that the Grilled Pork over Broken Rice (48?) is a litle more substantial. There is a decent amount of grilled pork which is flat out *amazing*. Soft and tender, perfectly marinated in lemongrass, and sprinkled with deep fried onions. Oddly however, the rice is a very small portion and is also dried out. Seems to me they cook a big pot of rice that is left sitting out for too long so the edges dry out.

The Chicken Curry (48?) has the same dried-out rice, but the curry flavour is very pleasant and sweet. It’s more watery than creamy, but has a lovely mild flavour. Sadly, there are only 2 tiny tiny chicken drumsticks in there and a smattering of carrots, capsicum and onion.

We thoroughly enjoy the Vietnamese Pork Sandwich (38?), that comes on a very crispy French baguette. It is completely stuffed with grilled pork though I detect no pate that authentic Vietnamese sandwiches come with.

For dessert, we decide on the cutely named Rainbow Drink (22?). It arrives mistifyingly in a tall angular glass and a plastic tiny spoon, making it virtually impossible to scoop the red beans, jelly, and palm seeds out from from the coconut milk and crushed ice mixture. We wrestle with it until we’re quite tired, but the drink is pleasant and sweet, and is packed with ingredients.

PRICES: Pho Season is not value for money. Whilst the Vietnamese sandwich and Rainbow drink are correctly priced, the other dishes are astonishingly TINY for the price. The mains are actually appetizer sized. It seemed to us the restaurant was carefully trying to give as little food as possible to maximise profits. Disappointing, because by just doubling the amount of rice/noodles and upping the portion of meat slightly, it would be a full 5 stars.

Pho Season

Noodle Soup with Beef

Grilled Pork over Broken Rice

Vietnamese Pork Sandwich

Chicken Curry

Rainbow drink