Pho 24

In October I ate a lot of phở. Some pho was cheap, some pho was pricier but in general it was all tasty. I don't have anything against chains so I did check out one popular chain, Pho24, a few times. Checking their website they have restaurants popping up everywhere and not just in Vietnam. Apparently they're also in Australia, Cambodia, Singapore, Korea ... so check it out.

Anyway, as suggested by the name the chain focuses on Pho. I generally stuck with well done and less fatty cuts of beef. These never disappointed and the results were reasonably consistent across the different franchises I went to. I'm no phở snob though so refined palettes may disagree about the consistency.

Once when I felt like spending a lot ($5) I got a combo which included spring rolls (nem ran or some variation thereof) and a pop. Unfortunately, the spring rolls weren't spectacular.

Overall, I liked the chain and I'd go again. My only complaint as usual was the price. Street pho or even non-chain restaurant pho can be obtained for significantly less. Sure those places usually don't have AC so when you've just lost your body weight in sweat, paying a little more for hot pho that you can eat in a cool place doesn't seem like a terrible trade-off.

One partial regret is that I never tried chicken pho (phở gà) . I always planned to save it for some time when I felt the need for Vietnam's answer to dieta de pollo. While it's fortunate I didn't need this solution, I might have liked to try it to see how it stacks up.