pho show (culver city)

pho show
4349 sepulveda boulevard
culver city, ca 90230
(310) 398-5200
(310) 398-5205 (delivery)
12pm-12 am
7-11am for breakfast (starting in february)

(sorry for all the blurry shots on this post. all photos taken with my iphone)
my friend picked me up after work to check out the culver city aaron brother’s “buy one get second for one cent” promotion event, where i got pretty good deals for canvases, and scored a few nice 75% off photo frames. :) he had passed by pho show once recently and suggested we should check it out. throughout all these years living in marina del rey, i was surprised that there hasn’t been any pho place in the area (the closest one i’ve had was at national/sawtelle alley, which i should blog about it some time later), so this is quite exciting (though i just found out that they have been here since last summer!) :)

it wasn’t hard to spot them on sepulveda with the huge neon “pho show” sign hanging vertically at the ‘store front’. at 6:50pm, we easily found a street parking spot couple store units away from them. they have an outdoor seating area, but since it’s so close to the street, we preferred to enjoy our dinner indoor. there were only two other tables of customers when we arrived (not a good sign, but it was still early, so i was hopeful ;) ), and we were seated with our menus almost immediately with water served shortly after.

looking through the menu, they have quite a good variety of dishes compared to the usual pho places. nice selection of cha gio (egg rolls), cha cuon (spring rolls), salads, pho (rice noodle soup) dishes, bun (vermicelli) dishes, com (steamed rice) dishes, com chien (fried rice) dishes, “indochine” dishes, and pan fried noodles dishes. we went for #1 “cha gio” (pork egg rolls with fish sauce), priced at $4.50, and #101 “pho show dac biet” (rice noodles with rare steak, brisket, tendon, tripe, beef balls), priced at $7.95. the bean sprouts came without the usual sliced jalapeno chili pepper, so i asked for it (it’s a must have for me for pho! :p) which the friendly server fetched some from the ktichen right away. :)

when the egg rolls arrived, we were surprised by the portion of the order. the three pieces of egg rolls were alot smaller than what we are used to. these look more like the egg rolls you get from dim sum restaurants. i was told that authentic vietnamese egg rolls would use rice paper, but pho show uses regular chinese style egg rolls wrappers. the fish sauce is abit blended. it was alright for me, but my friend wasn’t impressed at all.

it didn’t take too long for the pho to be served. the soup was a tad bit more salty, peppery, and ‘licorice-y’, but after a few slips, i got used to it and thought it was still okay. there were about four pieces of the meat, couple ‘strand’ of tripe, a small piece of tendon, and half of a meat ball (we couldn’t believe they wouldn’t even include one whole piece of meat ball…it was a fairly small one, too! :p) in the noodle soup.

we are probably spoiled by those authentic pho places in the south bay and in the east side, that this bowl of pho felt abit ‘ripped off’. i still enjoy it though (i always have mine with all the sliced jalapeno chili peppers and chili sauce in the soup) and am happy that there’s finally a pho place nearby! :) and it sure doesn’t hurt that all the staff there are very friendly and attentive, which is always a plus if you’re in the food&service industry regardless of how big or small a business you are. the interior decor is simple and clean, but we hope they won’t keep playing techno music though. :p

when the check came, i asked for their to-go menu, and asked about delivery. they do charge an additional $1.50 for delivery around culver city and neighborhood areas that only take about 5 min drive to get there, or $3.50 for delivery to santa monica or the like area. that’s pretty good actually, considering they’re practically the only pho in the vicinity, if you’re having one of those days when you don’t feel like going out and really have an urge for some pho or other vietnamese dishes. :) starting in february, they’ll also be opened earlier and serve breakfast from 7-11am! and despite the food quality, they actually get pretty good customer traffic. throughout the time we were there, there were new customers coming in consistently. i will definitely go back to try their other dishes as well. :)

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