Pho Phu Thinh is a considerably new restaurant in Coquitlam, opening it's doors just a few years back. I've visited here once about a year ago but only tried their Combo Bean drink. And that was terrible. The worst 三色冰 I've ever tried. It is literally a tall glass of over-sweetened syrupped beans. Even with a sweet tooth like mine, it was like pure glucose. Don't ever order it here. I didn't listen to Az's advice and had to learn the hard way.
Thankfully, their other items are much more edible than the bean drink. Let's begin with appetizers!
5 Piece Chicken Wings and 2 Piece Prawn Salad Roll |
A while ago, one of my mom's friends brought some of Pho Phu Thinh's chicken wings to our house for a potluck. The crispy wings come with a dry seasoning to dip in. That seasoning is ah-may-zing. I know it's probably MSG, making it quite addicting. When eaten in the restaurant, the wings are served hot from the fryer and best eaten then. The wings are a reasonably large size and well made. Five wings cost a little less than $4. There is also a 10 piece chicken wing order.
Just because my eyes can be slightly bigger than my stomach, I ordered the prawn salad rolls (number 2 on the menu). Two rolls cost more than $4, which is over priced for what goes into making these, but I appreciate some simple flavours in my meal. The downside is the filling to vermicelli ratio. I understand that it is the noodles that give it structure but more prawn and a larger variety of vegetable would be nice. Each piece of prawn you see in the photo is actually half a prawn split lengthwise. So in one roll there is only two prawn. I mean, how expensive can prawns be? On the 'belly' of each roll is a slice of Vietnamese ham. Such a small addition I thought it was sauce. The best part is the peanut sauce, with the roasted peanut bits. Blame my biasness towards anything with nuts, but it's so delicious! Overall, the chewiness of the roll with the strong sauce makes for a very tasty bite! If it weren't so expensive, I could see myself eating a few of these as a meal.
Pho Bo Hue |
Grilled Lemon Grass Pork with Spring Roll on Vermicelli |
Regarding the service, it varies even through one meal. Pho noodles are served very quickly, same with the chicken wings. But the prawn salad roll and cold vermicelli came much later during the meal. Since the prawn salad roll is an appetizer, shouldn't it come out before the noodles? It doesn't need to be cooked either so I don't know why it took so long. We had to remind them we had an order of the prawn rolls and our waitress replied "It's on its way". Just as an extra note from my visit a year ago, I ordered a Bahn Mi (Vietnamese sandwich) for my meal and I am not kidding you, both my brother and Az were finished eating their noodles and my sandwich had still yet to be served. I reminded them at least thrice and it took over an hour to get to our table. That, is not acceptable. All they had to do is put the cooked pork (same pork on the cold vermicelli in the photo above) into some bread and add a few raw toppings. -shakes head in despair-
The way the waitresses take our order slightly amuses me. When placing our order, the waitress just stands there and listens, nodding her head as we tell her what we want. No pen and paper needed. Now, I know some people have amazing memory and some long-time waitresses can do their job very well without the use of pen and paper. Sometimes mistakes still happen when pen and paper are used. However not writing things down provides more opportunities for miscommunication and mistakes to occur. What if the waitress just happens to have a tiring day and remembers your order incorrectly? You may be missing an order or get the wrong one. This didn't happen to us but I can see it being a potential.
In conclusion, I wouldn't specifically recommend this Vietnamese restaurant to my friends and family but that doesn't mean Pho Phu Thinh is a bad restaurant. It's just there are numerous other Vietnamese restaurants in the vicinity that have a more consistent quality.
Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡
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