I have been looking for THIS type of pho for the last 5 years of living in Tokyo! No offense to any Vietnamese restaurants here at all, but Pho Oishii basically just recreated the bowl of pho I have yearned for who knows how long! I do have to say that the quality of the meats are probably by far a lot better than anything anything I could get elsewhere outside of Japan unless I wanted to probably pay for over $20 or more for a similar bowl back home. The price of 1,500 Yen would probably make some poor souls cry bloody murder, but I assure you that the price is very reasonable. A lot of the beef pho here are pretty watered down ,and doesn’t have much sauces to accompany it other than maybe a jar of some spicy lemongrass paste sitting at the table, but to my pleasant surprise there were actually bottles of hoison and sriracha there on my table along with the spicy lemongrass paste as well for a lot of the local customers here used to using it as a condiment.
The meat as you can see is half cooked with an accompaniment of garnishes that many people are familiar with outside of Japan. The rice noodles itself are wide, and have the right amount of chewiness that many noodle-lovers in Japan prefer. And the slightly darker soup definitely packs a wallop of more flavor than any place I’ve been to here for sure.
Tokyo really does a very good job for a lot of cuisines for all over the world, but I honestly thought authentic pho would elude me for many years to come.It’s just funny to me that all it took was for Japanese actor, Dean Fujioka, who spent time stateside to tell the people at Pho Oishii his personal preference for pho on some tv show back in January. It was from that visit alone that the “Dean Fujioka Special” was born for anyone in Japan wanting to try what real pho tasted like. Let’s just say that the day after that episode filmed a lot of locals waited in crazy huge lines to try it. The lines have long since died down, but it’s a must-try for anyone missing Viet food from the US or from Ho Chi Minh City.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Address:東京都 江戸川区 西小岩 4-14-20
Station: 小岩駅 (Koiwa Station)
Business Hours: Tuesdays- Sundays: 11:00-15:00; 17:00-23:00
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