Despite multitudes of pho places around the city, Shanghai still lacks a well-rounded Vietnamese restaurant able to successfully express the essence of that magnificent food culture. The newest venue to give the cuisine a go is Pho Co, which touts massive bowls of the iconic noodle soup along with a few other regional specialties.
Set in a pretty lane house, the enormous outdoor courtyard is this spot’s most attractive attribute, graced with bamboo gardens and a sun roof. Set up with fans in the summertime to keep things cool and the mosquitoes at bay, it’s a pretty retreat from the busy road outside. The indoor space is enticing too. Waitresses clad in traditional Vietnamese dresses (called ao dai) bustle around the tasteful interior that’s reminiscent of a classy French bistro, all exposed brick walls and small, intimate tables.
The restaurant’s eponymous dish comes in generous portions, a small bowl of beef pho (RMB50, enough to feed two comfortably) and a large (RMB68, suitable for four). Eager-to-please staff split the soup and slippery noodles into equal portions and a couple of slurps reveal a comforting concoction.
Thin noodles are chewy and abundant. Broth is fragrant with anise and beef stock, but not memorable. The beef on top is acceptably rare, cooking slowly in the scalding broth. A scanty plate of herbs and spices leaves you wanting more. However, the kitchen’s homemade sweet and spicy chili sauce saves the dish, a deep vermillion dip that’s delicious dabbed on everything – beef, noodles and herbs.
Aside from the noodles, there’s also a range of traditional Vietnamese dishes. Prawn crackers with minced beef and shrimp (RMB88) are a sneaky winner. The mountain of puffy, freshly fried shrimp crackers comes in a bamboo cornucopia, a little greasy but with appealing elasticity, fluffiness and crunch. Alone, they are the perfect bar snack. When piled with the accompanying surf-and-turf stir-fry, laced with perky chilies and ribbons of vibrant basil, they become a guilty pleasure to be eagerly wolfed down by the table.
After being open for a month, Pho Co brought in two new Vietnamese chefs in late July to oversee the menu and make sure the flavors were more authentic. We have high hopes that, next time we go, the food will be even better.
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