Pho Maxima Restaurant

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I LOVE PHO!!!! So when I found a good pho place close to home, I was ecstatic. I noticed that a good pho broth is hard to find nowadays…most places are either not concentrated enough or it’s much too sweet. Maxima seems to have a good balance of both.

We’ve always driven past it and one chilly night we finally decided to try it out. It has your usual suspects. They’re also a bubble tea and banh mi restaurant. Usually the addition of bubble tea raises red flags for me. But we’re happy to say we’ve been pleasantly surprise (much like the visit to Kim Anh).

I always order the House Special ($7 for small). I just enjoy the variety of meats offered. The soup was fragrant and salted just right. It does look a little on the lighter side but the taste is there. One complaint though, one time instead of thinly sliced beef, they gave me thick strips of meat instead which did not cook well, and were extremely chewy. But that was just one time from the few times we’ve went.

Another thing is…this restaurant is pretty damn chilly…

Hitman always orders the Tendon and Brisket ($7.50 large) combination here. He really doesn’t have much to say but he doesn’t complain when I ask to come here, so I’m assuming he likes it here too.

We’ve also both ordered a banh mi here. Hitman did not like the Cold Cuts ($3.95) banh mi…he says there’s too much pickled veggies and not enough meat. Plus he did not enjoy the mayo they use.

I however, enjoyed my Cold Cuts + Ham banh mi very much, even when I only had it the day after for lunch at work. The pate was very prominent which was the best part, and I find there was enough meat for me to taste it. But I’ll have to admit, looking at it, the banh mi from DD Mau seems to have more meat in it for the Classic/Cold Cuts variation.

Time to time we’ve also gotten some appies…one time it was the Deep-fried Shrimp Paste ($5.25) and it was alright. Nothing to complain about there. Crispy and greasy.