Pho on 7

Date: October 9, 2011

Location: 3621 Highway 7 East #111 (W. of Warden Ave.), Markham

Website: N/A

Meal: lunch

My thoughts:

Came here for a rather late lunch with my family and so I got to try quite a few things.

We also ordered Crispy tofu with chili salt and a Mixed fried seafood platter to start. The tofu was delicious; they were bite-sized, deep-fried (hence crispy), and seasoned with chili salt, which gave it a nice kick. I should say that I personally love tofu, so I may be slightly biased, but I did really think this was tasty. If you haven't really forayed into the wonderful world of tofu, fried tofu is a good place to start. This particular dish was not battered, which as you read on about the other appetizer, turned out to be a good thing. The latter dish was really disappointing and definitely not worth the price of $30. There was a good variety of seafood (namely, squid, mussel, soft-shell crab, fish - not sure what kind, scallop, and shrimp), and an acceptable amount of seafood (approximately 15 pieces). However, the batter was not crispy and seemed rather "spread" thin on the seafood. Also, oddly, both appetizers came towards the end of our meal.

For my meal, I ordered a Transparent noodle in soup with seafood simply because I generally was curious about the "transparent" noodles. While the noodles themselves were really good - thin, fresh, chewy (as opposed to overcooked and limp) and slightly transparent, the soup was a bit of a letdown. It was plain, and although there were a few (~5) pieces of seafood, the soup didn't taste seafood-based; it tasted like beef broth with seafood. On the upside, there weren't pools of grease, which in my experience, is quite common with pho noodles.

My parents shared a Pho with beef tendon and sliced beef. The pho was very thin, and again, chewy, which was very good. I tried a piece of beef tendon, and it was delicious. One sister had a Noodle in Tom Yum soup with seafood, which is a Thai-based soup. I thought the soup tasted funny, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it. My other sister had a Pho in soup with sliced lamb. The pho in her dish was very thick cut (~1.5cm wide). She wanted the thin-cut noodles that my parents got and the waitresses said it was too late to make a change - understandable, but they should state in the menu whether the pho is thin or thick cut, as some people have a preference. Anyway, I tried her noodles and they tasted "gloopy" - perhaps an indication they were overcooked. I did like the thin noodles better.

Now for the service. The waitresses spoke loudly, which was understandable because the fans were very loud, but it didn't make for a very good experience (they should look into quieter fans!) However, it was evident that they really did try to service us well. For example, they patiently made note of all the things that my sister, who is a picky eater, wanted omitted from her noodle soup.

The prices were generally more expensive, maybe around $2-3, than most Pho places. Would I come back? All things considered, no. There were a few good elements, but nothing that I couldn't find someplace quieter and at a cheaper price.