Pho Bang for your Buck!

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Pho Bang
157 Mott St
New York, NY 10013
(212) 966-3797

I was of two minds whether to write about Pho Bang. It is not that we did not like it, but we were just so ravenous that everybody started picking at the food before I could take pictures. So by no means are the following images representative of what you would get there.

Pho Bang's menu is not too extensive, focusing mostly on pho and rice dishes. Alas, there was not a lot of seafood, which what I was looking forward to. We started off with some goi cuon (fresh spring rolls with rice noodles, mint, shrimp, served with a peanut sauce; no pictures taken). The sauce was a bit starchy; I think it was from a mix.

DJKung ordered the house special pho. Universally, it is the first thing (no. 1) you see on the list of pho (rice noodles in beef broth). I took a picture of the small bowl DJKung used to share the pho with his pops. I got the pho without meat (no pictures taken; looked the same as the regular pho).

DJKung found the broth a bit gamy. I thought that the kitchen was very light on the traditional spices used (star anise, lemongrass, cinnamon *i think*), so the beefy goodness was prominent. They also provided the herbs on the side (bean sprouts, Thai basil, lemon).

Pho # 1. The actual portion is featured on the top right of the image. I think we got the large size.

We also ordered the baked squid. I think it is a typo, because this is the deep fried battered squid that you find in most Vietnamese restaurants. The sauce was pretty good.

"Baked" squid. As you can see, it has been demolished before I was able to take the picture. Needless to say, it was good.

It should be noted that this place is pretty cheap and the dishes we got were pretty solid.