Kim Son

Sometimes, eating is stripped down to its main purpose - a means of subsistence.  Instead of going for the "best" or at the very least "popular" eats, I find myself going for something convenient.  That was the case when I found myself down at International Village and in need of nutrition.  Looking around the uninspired array of options, I settled on the ol' standby being Vietnamese.  Hey, it is usually the right combination of ample food and low prices.  In actuality, I've tried Kim Son before, but I really had no recollection.  Was that a bad sign?  Only one way to find out...

I decided to try their Special House Pho which didn't look like much served in a takeout plastic bowl. Ah, but looks can be deceiving...  In reality, the darn thing was stuffed full of noodles and tender slices of meat.  However, the whole thing fell flat because the broth tasted like they used a whole tub of star anise.  It was far too liquorice-tasting and the fact they didn't skim the grease made it even worse.  Naturally, I ordered a second item in the Lemongrass Chicken with rice.  Okay, this one was quite evidently large with a massive pile of chicken atop fluffy chewy rice.  With a nice char and equally good flavours, the chicken was unfortunately very dry and chewy.

While we were nearby at Taishoken Ramen, JuJu and I decided to pay Kim Son a visit for some takeout (good for me since 2 dishes is not a good representation). Regrettably, I went for the Salad Roll which was not very good.  The rice paper wrapper was a bit too chewy and the shrimp were not properly de-veined. Furthermore, there was only rice noodles and iceberg lettuce to go with the shrimp.  As for the dipping sauce, it was as if they forgot to add anything but hoisin.  I also got the Grilled Pork and Spring Rolls with rice noodles.  The processed patty was sweet and a bit rubbery, but better than the chicken at least.  I wasn't a fan of the spring rolls as they were dense and hard.  There was more wrapper than filling.  As you can clearly understand, the food at Kim Son serves a purpose - to fill one's belly.  In terms of actual good food, well, not so much.

The Good:
- Large portions
- Cheap

The Bad:
- Food isn't very good