Pho 78

Doing a search online for a specific book on Chapters.ca showed there were only 2 copies available. And at only one location. Coquitlam? No. Surrey? Nope. Burnaby? Not a chance. It had to be in Richmond. For the love of... Is there someone purposefully messing with me? Sure seems like it. Therefore, I had to drag my sorry ass down #3 Rd to Chapters. After watching a Mercedes block the entire aisle in the parking lot because they felt like it, I parked in the first spot I saw. Grabbed the books and was outta there. And by virtue of being in Richmond, I had to stop for eats right? At least there was something to make the drive worthwhile.

Since I was not wanting to delay my escape from Richmond, I stopped at Pho 78 for some quick grub. I started with the Shrimp Salad Roll. It was a fairly standard offering which was not tightly wrapped. That was okay though because it stayed intact while I was eating it. The shrimp had a nice bite and the lettuce was crunchy. I would've liked some basil in it though. Next, I had the Pho Dac Biet (which is the everything Pho). The broth was fairly standard with decent balance. It was neither outstanding nor was it bad either. I wouldn't have a problem eating it again. The noodles were properly prepared being slightly chewy. As for the meats, they were also decent and tender. The portion size could've been a touch larger, yet it wasn't too little either. Standard Pho. Not a bad thing really. As for the Grilled and Shredded Pork on rice, it was far from standard. In fact, I found the pork chop to be too thin, which led to it being dry and chewy. It did have good flavour though. The egg was over-fried, which made the yolk completely cooked and the whites chewy. I wasn't a huge fan of this dish.

There wasn't anything inherently bad about the food that I tried at Pho 78 (pork chop withstanding), yet there wasn't anything that was memorable as well. I can't definitely say I wouldn't return, however, Pho 78 fits smack dab in the middle of all of the other Vietnamese restaurants in town.

The Good:
- Decent portions
- Okay Pho
- It's pretty clean

The Bad:
- Pretty average eats