Monday, January 31, 2011

Watered Down

Pho Taurus
#311-500 Country Hills Blvd.
Checked out Pho Taurus this weekend. To be honest, I wanted to try the place next door but they weren't open yet. Rather than drive around town, I decided to give Pho Taurus a shot. The restaurant was mostly empty when we entered and remained that way for the duration of our stay. A couple of tables here and there.
We ordered the spring rolls to start. After a solid 10 - 15 minute wait, four freshly deep fried, store bought spring rolls arrived at our table. The time it took to prepare these was pretty ridiculous. At least they were mouth burning hot and not semi lukewarm. Given the lack of customers, I would have thought it'd take less time. Maybe they had to slowly heat up the deep frier. The store bought spring rolls were decent. I'm still a miffed that I paid 5 dollars for them given that I could have bought a giant bag of them for 5 dollars down the street. I guess that's the price you pay for not owning a deep frier at home. 

The house special beef noodles took even longer. Maybe they wanted to make sure I fully digested the spring rolls before bringing them out to prevent some sort of stomach cramp. Regardless of that, the flavour of the soup was pretty weak. I can't say that I was super impressed. The meat was decent. It was definitely a highlight in an otherwise mediocre meal. The beef was kinda, sorta marinated offering a little bit of flavour. The noodles had zero flavour. That's what you get for crappy soup I guess. It is also interesting to note that it came with a lemon and not a lime. I can't say that it was a good replacement. The lemon was a little sweeter and doesn't quite give you the same flavour. Also, they didn't have any basil leaves because they haven't washed them yet. I didn't throw an angry tantrum over this because I don't usually add any but really...? Are you serious? It's like ordering a burger at McDonalds and having the guy at the till ask you if it'd be ok if they just gave you the patty because they haven't taken the buns out if the bag. Fail.

Some numbers after the rant:
Atmosphere: 5 out of 10. Walls are painted a gloomy looking blue with the blinds rolled down. Not a good look. And blue is my favourite colour! 
Food: 4 out of 10. Pretty mediocre. There are better. For similar prices too.
Presentation: 7 out of 10. Only because they neatly stacked the meat atop the flavourless noodles. 
Price: 7 out of 10. Decently priced. At least they aren't charging an arm and a leg for it...
Service: 5 out of 10. Zzzzz... Took way too long. 
Overall: 5 out of 10. Meh. There are better places in the area. You just have to wait in line. Rather than wait for your food. 

Pho Taurus on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

  1. Few notes on your review = fail...

    1. What fact concluded the spring roll was store-bought and not hand-made?
    FYI - Each spring roll was individually wrapped by hand, I've seen them wrapping it in the restaurant.

    2. The noodles are usually flavourless, is the broth that adds the flavour. Deeper flavour = lots of MSG. Consider that?

    3. Your comparison of the importance of Beef Patty in a Burger to a piece of "lemon vs lime" is ridiculous and subjective to your own opinion, without consideration of the overall quality of the ingridents.

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  2. Thanks for your comments! You are correct, I should not have just assumed the spring rolls were store bought. Maybe they were made to order which could explain the long wait... I am well aware of the fact that the broth adds the flavours but there's a difference between being flavourful and having no flavour. Soup with no flavour = noodles with no flavour. Please reread my post.

    I'm not sure where you're getting this comparison from, perhaps you were distracted by the Pho Taurus employee wrapping spring rolls that you skimmed the remaining part of the post.

    In any case, as this is my blog, about food no less, one would assume that it would be rather opinionated. This is a fact. But I respect your opinion.

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