Dining | Bon Pho and Roll - Alphaland
Nestled in the outskirts of Makati CBD (Central Business District), here we can find a truly scrumptious vietnamese style of a restaurant. Called Bon Pho and Roll, they are mainly for those vietnamese style sandwiches and similar items. This writer is not much for those so gladly they had other items in their menu as well which we liked. Their noodles.
As my friends ordered their famous sandwiches, I ordered mine the Beef Sirloin Steak or Pho Bo Tai.
Staff were very cordial and very knowledgeable about their dishes. I'm unfamiliar with vietnamese cuisine so I really needed all the help I get when I was looking over their menu. For this particular day I wasn't adventurous so I stuck with something I am familiar with, Beef Sirloin Steak.
Ambiance was typical of a restaurant in a mall, a bit classy more than usual and place was crowded I might add. We went in late afternoon, yet the place was packed. So lucky of us to even find a table here since we were a group of 8 hungry people. We waited a bit before we were seated but its not something that we had to wait long for. There had to connect a few tables just to accommodate us and yes we were truly lucky.
Order taking was quick as the staff new what they would recommend to us but the order delivery wasn't. Just be patient as all dishes are for order so the kitchen will take time in doing them especially for us, a group of 8, then some other people in the other tables.
While waiting we bidded the time with chit chats and not before long our orders arrived one after the other.
When my order came, I thought this was it.
Then came another plate which held the bean sprouts and kalamansi (local lime) with some leaves. I can't recall the name of these leaves but it smelled like mint but its not. You have to add these to your noodles and configure it according to your taste. I wasn't sure as to how to do it since it was my first time here, and it was a long time since I had Pho, so I just dived them all in my noodles and pray for the best.
Tastewise, it was something else and didn't quite taste the same as the Pho I had back. I'm no Pho expert and I don't know how it should taste since I haven't been to Vietnam to know what's authentic or not. Nevertheless the experience was something new and gladly this writer liked it. The raw texture of the bean sprouts pushed the taste of the noodles and broth to a point that it was "comforting" for me. The beef steak part I was looking for it but I couldn't find it at first. I was thinking it was cooked like a regular steak but I guess they chopped it in pieces and dumped in the broth as well. I can taste the beefy flavour in the broth and maybe I had chewed on it but wasn't sure if that was it already. Can't complain as the broth was truly tasty and beefy.
The bean sprouts, that leafy thing and that kalamansi gave the dish the contrast it needed to make for a truly flavorful experience. A culinary delight similar to the ones I had in Thailand, their neighbor but very much different from our Filipino cuisine.
Bon Pho and Roll we really enjoyed the dishes served to us and it was really a treat that we had to try eat something new. A very good experience for this writer and Bon Pho and Roll didn't disappoint.
