Pho Xuo Lo - Vietnamese @ 907 Race St.

Location: 907 Race st, close to 8th and Race St intersection in Chinatown.

History of Discovery: My brother goes to temple and has a vietnamese friend. She recommended this place for a cheap authentic vietnamese food. I went there with my wife and brother for dinner on night in mid June. Yelp.com has some nice pictures of the food here at 

Ambience: The place is more like a fast food place than a restaurant. I little cosy and lots of people.

Food I had: Curried Chicken with Poatato, Pho Soup and 

Price: The average food item price is from $7-$9 well within my range.

Portion Size: Generous.

Service: Service is shoddy and the people can hardly understand english. Heavy customer traffic could sometime lead to this but that should be an oppurtunity to improve service and not the other way round. Many ethnic restaurants fail to get this basic act.

Rating: 2/5. 

Vietnam Palace - Vietnamese Restaurant @ 222 N 11st St.

I had mentioned on previous blog dated April 12, 2008 that I had never been to a true Vietnamese restaurant. I wanted to break this and stumbled upon a review of Vietnam Palace in Zagat. I am normally not a big fan of Zagat ratings as I have been severely burnt by taking their review on face value. I also saw them listed on the free print version of Philadelphia Style Mag that can be found in different places in Center City. It's a guide to Center City tourists. So I decided to try them out.

I dragged along with me my brother and a cousin once removed who also lives in Philadelphia. I have been to Chinatown several times mostly for dining at my favorite place but never to this side on the 11st street. We reached there around 8:30PM. That part of the street is kind of dark at this time of the day and there was construction going on, which blocked the east side walkway and a lane of the road. I felt that I should have come during day time. My fear subsided as I crossed Race St where the restaurant is located to the North of Race Street on West side of 11th street.

The facade was a modern two storied building with two huge polished doors as the entrance. It kind of has a big restaurant feel to it and the inside ambiance was brightly lit and well decored. The chairs were made of cane and the walls had pictures of ladies having a stroll during fall time in Vietnam (or so I assumed from the costumes on the ladies). I was impressed. The waiter handed us the menus and asked for drinks. We all had water and dug ourselves perusing the menu. The menu was huge and it took a while for us to decide as it was our first time. The waiter came back the second time and asked if we needed more time. We said yes and he reminded that the kitchen closes at 9:00 PM and won't take orders after that time.

It was already 8:55PM and so we decided to have an appetizer, 2 entrees to share it among us. We ordered a Chicken on the Skewer as an Appetizer, Fish in Clay Pot and Spicy Shrimp Fried Rice. It was bad idea to settle on 2 instead of 3. Normally restaurants in china town have big servings and we did not want to have left overs for brown bagging. This one was not like the other Chinatown restaurants in that aspect.

The chicken skewer had 3 large chicken breast pieces on a skewer. They were well grilled and had a mildly sweet seasoning applied to them. It was simply delicious. The Fish in Clay Pot was a catfish stewed in a mix of mild spices and scallions. The quantity was a about an inch thick single mid section slice of the catfish that was well cooked and tasty. The sauce that the pot had was eclectic. It was tangy, spicy and sweet at the same time and had the color of a barbeque sauce.

The fried rice was tasty as well but oily despite our requests to have less oil. It has been a long time since I had a really tasty fried rice. One can argue as to who can go bad with a fried rice. True but only a good chef can make a really tasty fried rice and this place passed my palate test in all the food we ordered.

The price was not high either. The entrees be it rice/noodle items or Chicken/Seafood/Beef items ranged from $7 to $9. You can find a few that are as expensive as $14 but the menu is huge so to make your selection without compromising on what you want to eat. The Chicken Skewer was $7, the Catfish Clay Pot was $9 and the shrimp fried rice was $7. I paid about $29 including taxes and tips for three. The food portions of an entree are small and will fill the appetite of a single person at best. So $29 for three should read as $29 for 2 or 2.5 that makes it about $12-$14 per person which is not bad for a dinner. For a cheap lunch the menu is huge with entrees for $7.

All in all I was a highly satisfied customer and will definitely go back.

Mantra Philly - Vietnamese @ 122 South 18 Street

I have never been to a Vietnamese restaurant before. I always wanted to try them, but did not do. I was browsing the internet other day and found this fusion Vietnamese restaurant on 18th street couple blocks south of Market close to the Rittenhouse square. I perused their website and found their lunch menu interesting.

At first I wanted to go out with my work team but was never able to gather a group lately due to scheduling issues. So one Wednesday, I decided to go there myself but luckily two other colleagues agreed to join me.

The waitress was courteous and seated us on a table. The ambiance was great and has an instant appeal. She asked if we needed anything to drink and I said water should be fine. She asked bottled or 'Philadelphia's finest' to which I replied bottled but I was served regular water. I did not complain as I did not care as I was busy looking at the menu shocked. Shocked at the prices that were way off of what was on their menu online.

The lunch menu online has several sandwiches and wraps at $6.50 and to my surprise there was nothing on the menu of what I had seen online. I asked the waitress and she replied that they had changed the menu recently and did not update the website. I had to apologize to my colleagues as we were not ready for what we saw in the menu. I was ready to leave but stayed back as my colleagues were willing to stay.

After feeling cheated with the whole fiasco, I began to look at the menu. I ordered shrimp salad that was $12. My one colleague requested a burger and the other a salad that were $10 and $12. The menu was filled with other items that were high 10s and 20s. I said to myself that I am not coming back here for lunch unless it is paid by someone else.

Having made up my mind as such, I waited for the food nonchalantly. The salad was actually good surprisingly. The shrimp was cooked and breaded but was not greasy. The lettuce was crisp with cranberries. The combination was perfect. I was eased into regular conversation after a surprisingly good food. My colleagues were also happy with their food and that helped ease my guilt.

The check came to $14 per head after taxes and tip. This was equal to 2 or more regular lunches that I am normally used to. But that was fine once in a while and even better if it was not for the non-pleasant surprise.

In all this is not a place if you are looking for quick inexpensive food. This is good for a nice dinner or an office party. The food was great and the ambiance splendid. The people were courteous too. I am going back only for dinner with my date or if it paid by someone else. Expensive but good food.