pho express

i've been eating around the mt. sac area more lately, and have discovered some places i never knew were there. like pho express, which was right across the street. i'm not sure how long they've been open for, but i never knew there was a pho restaurant there. i was on my class break, and didn't want to smell like pho, but i decided phok it since i hadn't had it for a long time. i ordered the regular size with steak and brisket for $4.75. the sides were like every other place around here: sprouts, jalapenos, and basil. i love pho broth, so i always like to try a nice spoonful before adding any condiments. it was good. not a whole lot going on in the soup, but it was much richer and oily than pho hana or saigon noodle around diamond bar. my only complaints were that the portion was a bit small, and the meat you get was even smaller than i was used too...maybe 5 good sized pieces total. or is that normal? i don't even remember the last time i had pho before that...

i was still hungry and ordered a sandwich with chicken to go, and was pretty disappointed. first was the bread. i thought it was too thin, and reminded me of those oily slices of bread i once had at this chinese porridge place in sf. second was the vegetables. they put some salad in there no joke. there were cut up salad pieces of iceberg lettuce, carrots...and some kind of weird dressing with the mayo, that made it too rich and gooey for me...the chicken had some kind of chinese style flavoring going on with it too, but it wasn't too strong. it was 3.25.

overall, i thought it was ok. i don't plan to go anytime soon because there are 2 other pho places around db that i want to try, as well as some other restaurants around the area that i want to go to too.

btw sake sushi in that same plaza has a nice beer happy hour on mon-sat, 50% off beer, so i drank a big bottle of asahi for 3 bucks. they also have sushi happy hour too, i think its 30% off for dinner. good deal in my book for the beer. the sushi, well i only tried the ikura, yellowtail, and hirame, and none were very fresh, esp the halibut. but it might be a good place for rolls. the chicken teriyaki bowl i give a C. the sauce was generic, chicken portion was small, so overall an average type of chicken bowl.