Dee introduced me to the only Northern-style Vietnamese pho restaurant in Vancouver, and that’s Lam Hoa Quan. He finally took me there and really was different.
The interior was nothing fancy obviously, but it was orderly and actually quite spacious to me. The server was a young, made-up lady that spoke perfect English. So there is no problems talking to her.
We had an order of spring rolls and it looks quite different. It was more yellow and Dee said that they use curry powder here. In terms of taste though it didn’t taste much different, but it was the dipping sauce that sets this aside.
Whereas we’re used to having slivers of carrots in the anchovy sauce, Northern-style adds chopped scallions and chili pepper.
I had the House Special Pho (as always). The meat looked very tender but it looks like they might’ve made little scores to the meat. The soup was very clear and the thing I found different was the sliced scallions and the big piece of ginger. However, Dee added too much lime juice to the soup and made it quite sour. I would’ve rather tasted the soup by itself first but I guess that gives me a reason to come back! Overall I still enjoyed it though as the ingredients were very tender and the noodles chewy and just right. Loved the basil leaves. I also noticed that they don’t use much cilantro here and Dee confirmed that. He said that Northern-style prefers sliced scallions over cilantro….guess I’ll have to get use to that here!
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Lam Hoa Quan is known for their chicken noodle soup. It’s very clear and tasty.
Apparently this is the original style pho which originated in the north.