Pho Tay Ho is my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Brooklyn. My boyfriend, his gang of friends, and I go there almost every weekend for lunch or dinner or sometimes a late lunch depending on how hard we partied the night before to gossip and recap about the weekend's tales. They offer dishes that my favorite Viet restaurant in my neighborhood doesn't have.
My all time favorite is Bún riêu which isn't shown on the menu but is a special that's written on the wall. This soup is rich and deep with flavor due to the broth that is made by simmering crab shells and dried shrimp in tomato broth. I love the crab meat cakes, made from the meat of the crab used in making the soup, dried shrimp paste, and egg whites, that float on top of the soup. Also in the soup are chunks of tomato, fried tofu, congealed pig's blood, shrimp and onions. Once it comes to the table I like to add lemon, basil, jalapeños, bean sprouts, and extra shrimp paste. I order this 90% of the time because it is so good. Check out the May 2008 issue of Saveur: crab issue has a great recipe for bún riêu.
The rest of the time I like to order # 50 Bún bò Huế ( Hue's style beef w/ noodle soup on rice vermicelli). The beef pork broth is meaty with flavors of lemongrass, chili, and shrimp paste. The noodles are thicker and rounder than the noodles you find in Pho or Bun Rieu. It has a toothy chewy texture that kind of reminds me of al dente spaghetti. Along with the noodles there are slices of beef shank, pig feet, oxtail, and slices of some kind of sausage. I like to add lemon, shredded lettuce, and jalapeños to my soup.
As an appetizer I love #28 Muc Chien Don (crispy squid in garlic sauce). The squid is battered lightly and fried until crispy and golden brown. It is then sauteed with onions and a sweet, salty, and garlicky sauce. There's a kick ass dipping sauce to go with it too. I don't like my food sweet (e.g. Chinese sweet and sour anything; Yuck!) but the sauce that the squid is cooked in and the dipping sauce are perfectly balanced in sweetness. And of course #27 Cha Gio (Vietnamese spring rolls) are always good and a must!
Pho Tay Ho has an extensive menu. I want to try their other dishes but the damn Bún riêu and Bún bò Huế are so good I can't help but keep going back to these two dishes. Their pho, beef cubes, grilled pork chops and chicken are all really good too. But I grew up eating these dishes at my neighborhood Viet restaurant so I think it is better there.
*click on menus for viewing
Pho Tay Ho
2351 86th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11214
(718) 449-0199
* stay tuned because next I will be taking you to Manhattan to one of my favorite Viet restaurants there!
This is the best Vietnamese restaurant in the northeast.
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