Restaurant Pho bac #1

Restaurant Pho Bac #1
4707 rue Wellington
Verdun (Montreal), Quebec
●●●●●●☺○○○○
6 1/2 out of 10

I was first introduced to Vietnamese noodle soup (pho - pronounced somewhere between "phuh" and "phah") in Toronto. It was cheap, delicious, and filling, and it was soup so it had to be healthy, right? Well, I kept having digestive problems and started wondering what could possibly be in pho that was bothering me so much. I always got the chicken kind, pho' ga, and all it was was broth, noodles, chicken, bean sprouts, basil and cilantro. I didn't even add the hoisin and hot sauce that came on the side.

MSG. Like all cheap Chinese food, the secret to making delicious pho without the work of making a good broth is in adding MSG. The bad cook's cheat. That's why I kept getting sick. I don't get headaches and cramps like some people who have more severe reactions, but my reactions were enough to turn me off noodle soup, no matter how convenient and affordable.

Until Montreal. I've been sneaking pho. Once I was having a really awful day and I was completely exhausted, but I needed a good, comforting dinner. That would be chicken noodle soup in any form, in many countries, Canada and Vietnam included. I was around Pho Lien, the Montreal establishment generally accepted as having the best pho, on Cote-des-Neiges. So I went and I ordered some. Beef! I ordered the beef! I hadn't eaten beef in...well, a long time. I reserve it for very special occasions and ensure the highest quality. So I figured this was breaking my rules, but the chicken pho apparently was cooked in beef broth anyway, so I might as well just get the regular beef option. Well, it turns out there are about 8 beef options involving different cuts of beef (raw, well-cooked, tendon, tripe, etc.) and the server told me to go with the one that was a combination of raw and well-cooked. The quality can't be bad if they're daring to serve raw beef. It's basically cut very thin like Chinese fondue and cooks only once it's added to the noodle broth just before serving. The broth, brought to a boil, barely needs to soften it, and as long as the quality is high there shouldn't be a risk of contamination. It's like beef carpaccio at a fancy restaurant, but about $30 cheaper.

Long story short, it was perfect. The broth...it was rich but not greasy, a little sweet, flavoured with cloves, cinnamon and star anise. This was a real pho' broth, the likes of which is hard to find in a city masquerading in "traditional" Vietnamese restaurant outfits. The raw beef was incredible. For the well-cooked, I couldn't have cared less. Nothing special. So I realized I'd been missing this all along, and decided to do a pho comparison. My next stop was Phobac #1 in Verdun, pictured here (not to be confused with the Pho - not number 1 - on boulevard St-Laurent. I do not eat Vietnamese in Chinatown...).
It's a simple menu, printed on a sheet of paper kept under the glass-topped tables. Very convenient, since you can't spill anything on it and the server doesn't even need to bring it to you.
This post is not about the spring rolls.
The accompanying peanut sauce was a million times better at Pho Lien than at Phobac, but that's not why you go to these restaurants. Well, it's not why you go to Pho Lien. I wouldn't go to Phobac for the Pho anyway, I've decided.
There was nothing special about either the beef broth or the chicken broth at Phobac #1 (here the chicken is actually served in a chicken broth). The reason? The chicken in the soup wasn't even cooked whole in the pot to make the broth in the first place. There was probably something added to the broth. It may even have been not a home-made broth. Maybe. I just know it wasn't traditionally made since the chicken in it was grilled. I actually loved that it was grilled, but more traditionally a whole chicken is used to make the broth for the soup and then the meat is shredded and put back into the sieved and simmered broth. There really wasn't a complexity to the broth anyway, but chicken broth is supposed to be simpler than beef, being a lighter flavour, and often not made with the same strong spices.

The beef was a disappointment. I tried a few bites and then reverted to my anti-beef stance. It's not that it was bad, just that it didn't make me want to stop not-eating beef, like Pho Lien had. The beef broth was...not very beefy. I'm afraid there's no way to describe what it was, just what it wasn't. There was no cinnamon, no cloves. The noodles were hand-made, which was a highlight, since my dining companion pointed out the fact that they were cut unevenly.

So I would very much like to try their other noodle dishes with chicken, since they grill a good chicken, after all. So in a dish where the chicken is actually supposed to be grilled this could be amazing. Maybe some Vietnamese bun here (vermicelli noodles with lettuce and herbs, often meat and a spring roll, served with a little bowl of sweetened fish sauce to pour on top) or another cooked dish would be another Vietnamese epiphany. I doubt it...but it would probably be very good for the price, and the bike ride there is a lot more level than the long, arduous climb uphill to Cote-des-Neiges and Pho Lien.

Pho Bac #1 really doesn't pride itself on its food. When I asked to take mine to go they put the noodles in one container with the broth. You're not really supposed to do that because the noodles get soggy. Basically it ruins the soup. They'd probably keep them separate if I'd gotten it to go in the first place, but after having eaten half, it's a bit of trouble to do, and so a restaurant won't do this unless it's important to them to ensure the quality of the leftover soup. Of course, I am not Vietnamese, so it's very possible they assumed I know nothing about pho and don't really care if my noodles get soggy. I'll eat happily like the next culturally unaware pho newbie.

Unfortunately, THAT I am not. Disappointed, I am. Next stop, back to Pho Lien to make sure I wasn't hallucinating the first time around and should just never eat beef again...

Expect To Pay: $8-$12 for lunch or dinner of soup and a spring roll
514-362-1022