Bewsenick Pho and Crepes

For my first Vietnamese restaurant review, I wanted to choose a restaurant outside of San Jose, my hometown and a city known for having a Vietnamese restaurant on almost every corner.  Bewsenick Pho and Crepes in San Carlos is a quaint little Vietnamese restaurant with a nice cafe-like atmosphere.  It doesn't look anything like your typical pho restaurant.  In fact, if it weren't for the hoisin sauce and Sriracha hot sauce bottles on the tables and the photos of various dishes on the walls, you wouldn't be able to tell that this is a pho restaurant.  It's a very clean establishment with painted walls, granite tiles, and decorative objects on display; unlike some of the grimy hole-in-the-wall joints that I've been to.  The menus are entirely in English with photos, which makes it easy for anyone to order.

I ordered the egg rolls as an appetizer, which at $5.95 for six small pieces seemed a tad overpriced.  The plating was very nice; the egg rolls are served on a bed of lettuce with sliced cucumber and tomato for garnishes and sweet nouc mam (fish sauce with pickled carrots and daikon) for dipping.  The egg rolls were crispy on the outside, but slightly mushy on the inside, which is unusual for an egg roll.  The filling consisted of pork, mushrooms, carrots, and clear vermicelli noodles, which had good flavor.  The egg rolls were served warm instead of hot, which was disappointing to me.  I would not recommend this appetizer because even though it had good flavor, the mushy texture was off-putting, it's served warm instead of hot, and it's overpriced for what you're getting.

For my main course, I ordered the large pho combination, which cost $8.75, slightly more than what other places are charging.  The garnishes that came with the bowl of pho consisted of the usual: Thai basil, sliced jalapenos, and bean sprouts.  They also provided lemon wedges, which I thought was strange because pho is suppose to be eaten with lime (yes, there is a difference).  Before I tossed the garnishes in my bowl with some hoisin sauce and Sriracha, I gave the broth a taste test to see if it was good enough to stand on its own.  It passed.  The broth had that authentic taste and aroma with hints of beef and Asian spices.  It didn't have the dreaded MSG taste or after-effects (like headaches) either.  The meatballs, tripe, tendon, and tender flank slices tasted like they were from quality cuts.  The rice noodles were cooked perfectly too; they had a slight chewiness to them instead of being overcooked to the point where they can easily break apart.

Although I was disappointed with the egg roll appetizer, I highly recommend this place for its authentic tasting MSG-free pho and aesthetically pleasing atmosphere.  One minor annoyance I had was that the waitstaff would sometimes watch you eat, which was awkward.  I also had to ask for napkins because they didn't provide any at my table.  But overall, the service was really good; they were friendly and on top of things like clearing tables of finished plates.  I would rate my experience at Bewsenick Pho and Crepes an 8/10.

Food Pho Thought

In discussions regarding the best international cuisines around the world, I rarely hear Vietnamese cuisine mentioned.  I believe that this is due to lack of exposure; Vietnamese cuisine is relatively new to the American food landscape compared to many other ethnic cuisines.  Vietnamese restaurants didn't start popping up in the US until the 80's and 90's because the Vietnamese American population was almost non-existent before the end of the war (most arrived as refugees).  In this blog, I want to get more people interested in Vietnamese food by reviewing restaurants in the Bay Area, explaining the cultural significance of certain dishes, and documenting my attempts (whether successful or unsuccessful) at cooking various Vietnamese dishes by myself.