Pho & Chill

Here we are with our out-of-town food adventures, this time in Seattle.  First stop is Pho & Chill out in Lynnwood that boasts authentic Vietnamese cuisine.  Honestly, most Vietnamese restaurants I've been to in multiple locations have been authentic, rather than something fusion.  However, one look at the menu at Pho & Chill reveals many dishes that are not offered at the run-of-the-mill Vietnamese spots.  Furthermore, they boast a variety of drinks and desserts not seen at most places.

To start things off, we had the Bánh Khọt served with all the fixin's including nước chấm, lettuce, herbs and pickled veggies.  These little pancakes, cooked in their own special mould, were crispy on the bottom and edges, while being a bit custardy in the middle.  There was the unmistakable coconut milk flavour as well as a certain sweetness to go with the usual savouriness.  Shrimp in the middle was cooked just right having a buttery snap texture.  Wrapped these little things in lettuce and dipped into the fish sauce, so delicious!

Next, we tried their Fish Sauce Chicken Wings.  These gigantic wings were coated in a fairly thick batter that was universally crunchy with surprisingly rendered skin.  I guess this was achieved by an aggressive deep-fry where the meat was not dry per se, but wasn't juicy either.  On the outside, each wing was generously coated with a fish sauce caramel that was sweet, garlicky and slightly spicy.  Due it being quite sweet, I think if there was a wedge of lime for us to squeeze onto the wings, this would be perfect.

We had a cold appie in the Gỏi Bỏ or Beef Mixed Herb Salad featuring beef with lettuce, onions, carrots, fried shallots, banana blossoms, basil and peanuts.  This was a light and almost refreshing dish, especially with the warm weather.  The slices of slightly rare beef were sufficiently tender, but had a chew to them.  The rest of the ingredients were crunchy while the shallots and basil offered up aromatics.  The light fish sauce dressing added some tangy saltiness.

Onto another appie, we had the Shrimp Paste on Sugar Cane.  This is a classic dish, that for some reason or another, I never really order at any Vietnamese restaurant.  Glad we tried these here as they were rather large with a good amount of tender, but not too airy shrimp paste on each piece of sugar cane.  The shrimp paste still had a touch of fluffiness and rebound. The shrimp paste flavor was on the sweeter side, but was further amped by the natural taste of the sugar cane. 

With the bigger plates, I was so glad they had the Bánh Mì Chảo, specifically Bò Né in this case.  Served on a cast iron plate, we found a 6oz filet mignon with sunny side eggs, mini-sausages, tomato, fries and bread.  The steak was already sliced into strips and was cooked to about medium.  It was quite tender with a bit of a chew due to the doneness of the meat.  That sauce was pretty darn tasty with a rich meatiness accentuated by an appealing amount of fat (where all the flavour is baby!) and he silkiness of the eggs.  Yes, we dipped the bread into the sauce!

Continuing on with beef, we had the Bò Lúc Lắc served with rice and salad.  For this dish, the cubed beef was cooked to rare where the beef was juicy and moist but a touch on the chewier side.  I think it would've been more tender if it was cooked to medium.  As for the taste, it was flavourful with the usual meatiness accented by saltiness and some sweetness.  Naturally, the beef took on some of the flavours from the wok-fried peppers and onions.  To kick it up a notch, there was some lime salt & pepper served on the side.  Wished they had tomato rice with this though!

One of the more unique dishes we had was the half Cornish Game Hen with fried egg rice and some veggies.  Although looking pretty cooked on the outside, the hen actually featured moist and tender meat on the inside.  Naturally, the dark meat was more so than the white meat.  The fish sauce caramel was a bit similar to the one found on the wings being on the sweeter side with some fermented saltiness.  It was accented by some garlic butter which went well with the caramelized fried rice.

We some different in the noodle soup department with the Pho & Chill Special or Phở Tái Lăn featuring lightly wok-seared beef with fried garlic, rare eye-round steak and sunny side egg.  This Hanoi-specialty tasted quite different than a regular Southern Phở where it was much more fragrant, sweet and fatty.  Due to the wok-fry, the beef sitting in the broth shed some of the oil and hence made the soup more robust.  Lots more impactful flavours due to this and definitely not as clean as a regular broth.

 

We also decided to go with a selection of Bánh Mì including đặc biệt and grilled pork.   These were some pretty large sandwiches with plenty of meat.  In the cold cut, the meats were unusually thick.  In fact, there was plenty of meat in all of the subs.  Therefore, these ate well with lots of texture and flavor.  Grilled pork had a smoky char while being tender and well marinated.  The bread was fairly light with a crunchy exterior.

As mentioned earlier, they also feature a selection of drinks and desserts.  We tried Milk Tea with everything, Che Khuc Bach and Milk Tea with flan and pannacotta cubes.  These were really good!  That flan was silky and creamy.  Pannacotta cubes were stiffer with more gelatin, but I'm sure it is because it needed to not fall apart in the drink.  They were semi-sweet.  I would come here just for these!  But the food is good too, so I would consider this a hidden gem due to being located in Lynnwood.  If you are ever in the area, go check them out.  Very non-descript, yet really good!

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- The desserts/drink are excellent

- Large portions

- Impactful flavors

The Bad:

- The beef in general could've been more tender