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Rod
Visited early evening on a weekday, Nov. 2011. The area of this place is ghetto, and there is an adjacent park full of drunk transients that are milling about and it is very creepy. To make things worse, there is a liquor store and a 7-11 that are next door to Pho N Thai, so the drunks were constantly walking past the restaurant to and from the park they drink in.
When we arrived to try the place out, there was an ambulance at the park hauling someone off. Not trying to scare anyone off, but I would avoid the area after dark at least. I kept a close eye on my vehicle in the parking lot, as there were seedy people drifting about everywhere.
So the restaurant is pretty small.....maybe a dozen tables. One table was occupied when we got there, and one to go order came and went while we were there. That was it. It looks like it is a mom & pop operation, and they had kids in and out of the kitchen, which was tacky. The place is clean enough on the inside. The emergency exit was locked and blocked by a table, which is a major fire code violation, but you decide how important that is to you.
The menu is really weird. They have all kinds of stuff. I mean your usual Thai and Chinese dishes, but oddball stuff like corn dogs, gyros, schnitzel (wtf?). A place called Pho N Thai that serves such a crazy variety of food is a sure sign they cater to too large of a crowd to have good pho. They probably have to have a wide variety of dishes to cater to the ghetto crowd.
They only had one pho item on the menu, which bascaily was a pho dac biet, with everything in it. A restaurant with "Pho" in the name only having one pho dish on the menu is odd.
The waitress was Laotian, and was very nice.
I first ordered cha gio, which was $4.25. Good price. Several decent sized egg rolls showed up, but with nothing else at all. No lettuce, veggies, or anything. I asked where the lettuce was, and she told me most people don't eat it with lettuce. I told her you are supposed to eat cha gio with lettuce, and she kind of acted like it was a hassle, but she did bring me a plate of American lettuce. The egg rolls were very mediocre, and were very dark in color. I suspected they were dark because they cook them in the same oil they cook the corn dogs and a bunch of other junk in. The texture of the rolls was more like Chinese egg rolls. Kind of hard. The fish sauce was mediocre at best.
I ordered a large pho dac biet with no tendon or tripe ($6.99). The broth was very bland and missing something (not sure what, but clearly missing some seasonings), and the noodles were overcooked a bit. The meat was good, but the meatballs were repulsive. They tasted sour and like they were old or expired. Worst I have ever tasted. The veggies were not very fresh, but acceptable.
My friend had the pork rice plate ($6.99), and his pork was not marinated like most VM places, but rather more of an American steak marinade, and he really didn't like it.
I later found out she charged me an extra dollar for the lettuce. Never seen such a thing before.
The soup pretty much sucked, but with the proper seasonings, it was bearable. The service was good.
I would recommend you not come here at night due to the seedy nature of the area, and I would not return at all unless I was in desperate need of a pho fix with no other options. Skip the meatballs if you choose the pho there.
This is the 3rd pho spot I've tried in Colo Springs, and so far, Pho 54 is the only one I would return to. I will keep trying when in town.
