Pho 24 - NEVER AGAIN

"Pho 24" is a chain Vietnamese restaurant with multiple franchise with stores in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hong Kong. The first time I tried it was about a year ago in the TST branch. It wasn't very impressive back then. It's not very authentic, especially considering it's originally from Vietnam. It tasted more like Chinese beef noodle soup. Last week I was a bit hungry and had about an hour to kill before meeting up with someone. So I thought I would give "Pho 24" another chance. Ordered the "afternoon tea special": rice paper rolls, rare beef Pho, with Vietnamese drip coffee.

1. Rice Paper Rolls: they were pre-made A LONG TIME ago - the rice paper has gone hard and crackling. The center was filled with thinly sliced carrots and vermicelli, no meat. It's OK to have veggie rice paper rolls, but at least make them presentable.

2. Pho Tai: last year, the soup wasn't authentic; this time, the soup base was just plain cold. The whole point of pho tai (rare beef noodle) is the heat of the soup cooks the beef. Obviously the bean sprouts weren't getting cooked neither. The soup base was pretty much tasteless. I had to add plenty of herbs, chili, and nuoc mam (fish sauce) MYSELF to make it tasted of something.

3. Drip Coffee: actually pretty decent :)

Rice paper rolls and drip coffee

Pho Tai