Mom eats pho
I don’t have a pho-to (heh-heh, a little foodie humor there!) because I forgot to take my camera with me, but we ate dinner at Tram’s Kitchen tonight, and the pho there is the best I have had in Pittsburgh so far. The key ingredient to good pho is the broth, and theirs is rich and flavorful. Poppy always gets the large beef pho and I get the small one, along with a Vietnamese iced coffee. I love those.
The only drawback to Tram’s is that the secret is out, and what used to be a great lunch destination no longer works for us because it has gotten so crowded that we can’t count on getting there, eating, and getting Bill back to the office in a reasonable amount of time. I was surprised that there were some empty tables at 6:00 PM tonight.
Comments
Oh my goodness! You were so close to my house while at Tram’s.
I have totally fallen in love with Tram’s Kitchen. They only have a handfull of menu items, but I don’t think it matters. I always get the vermicelli noodles with onions and pork. Mmmm…
Gosh, now I’m hungry.
Well, you were close to our house when you ate at Point Brugge! Actually, I did think of you when we drove past the cemetary on our way home, with your running; our daughter just moved into an apartment right across from there last month.
We always get the pho at Tram’s but I’ll have to try the vermicelli. I do love the noodle bowls at Pho Minh; I think they’re better than their pho. They have great iced coffee, too.
Ah, Tram’s is so very good! I, like Kathryn, always get the vermicelli. I order it with coconut milk and shredded pork, and then I dump a sizable helping of chili into it. Wonderful stuff!
I’ve only eaten at Pho Minh once (with Kathryn), and I’m afraid I was a bit disappointed, especially given the great reviews it has on Citysearch. Maybe the noodle bowls will become a more viable option when the weather cools down a bit.
Ah, pho! My favorite Vietnamese meal. I lived in Paris for a summer and one day went on a wild trek into Chinatown in the 13th arrondissement looking for the “best pho in Paris”, recommended to me by a Vietnamese French friend. It took us about an hour to find the tiny dingy restaurant in the bowels of a deserted strip mall, but boy was that pho good!
I love pho and I only wish I had a decent pho place close by. Or any pho place for that matter.
I’m also crazy for Vietnamese iced coffee. A bowl of pho and a glass of that coffee makes a satisfying and cheap meal.
Yeah, I’m with Colin, I prefer Tram’s to Pho Minh. The spring rolls were so loosely rolled at Pho Minh that they completely fell apart upon biting them. And the vermicelli wasn’t nearly as good as Tram’s.
The menu was larger, though. So there is that if you’re one of those people who needs to get something different every time you go.
Kathryn, I’m not sure if you mean spring rolls or summer rolls, but for some wonderful summer rolls, check out The Noodle Hut in Regent Square. They also serve a dish they call “Noodle Hut Special Soup” which is sort of pho-like, with chicken, also great, but their real strength is their Thai dishes with grilled meats, really spicy and good.
A new entry in the Pittsburgh Pho sweepstakes is The Noodle Hut, which in addition to the previously mentioned “Noodle Hut Special Soup,” has added a Beef Noodle Soup, in addition to several other enticing new entries.
The broth is rich and flavorful, though perhaps not quite the equal of Tram’s Kitchen. The soup itself is a little light on fresh basil and bean sprouts, which are not provided on a separate plate as at Tram’s or Pho Minh. However the beef used, which seems to be brisket, is delicious and plentiful.
A dilemma for me with Pho is when—or whether—to add the optional chili sauce, which I love despite the fact that it quickly overwhelms the broth and prevents full appreciation of the broth’s subtleties. I usually compromise by adding it when I am about midway through the soup, which I did today with greatly satisfying results.
I would eat the stuff three times a day if I could.
Poppy
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