Zen Yai Pho Noodle Bar

Summary

Pho vietnamese restaurants are generally pretty scarce in the city compared to Los Angeles. If you do find one, they usually don’t give you all the fixins and are timid about their offerings. In Los Angeles, I used to go to a restaurant called Phorage pretty frequently where their broth was very rich, and their meats were rare but tender. So how would this compare?

We started off with thai tea and matcha thai. The primary difference other than the higher cost is that the matcha thai tea has a bunch of matcha powder that kind of counters the sweetness of the thai tea by making it more dull but in a good way. It was actually pretty interesting comparing the 2.

The Vietnamese spring rolls were pretty tasty. Arguably, I felt they were better than Di and Di in Greenpoint. I wish the leaves were bigger though, so that I could wrap the rolls entirely with it, but it was good enough. The price was pretty cheap compared to other Vietnamese restaurants I’ve been to in the city.

The pad siew (pad see ew) is a staple dish for Thai cuisine. I felt this one tasted like how you would expect, but one thing I noted was that this dish was not greasy at all. Some Thai places go overboard with the oil, but this one felt just right. Also the noodles weren’t super wet.

The super pho came with beef shank, brisket, ox tail, beef ball, rare eye round, tendon, and tripe. The noodles were cooked pretty good. They give you bean sprouts, lime, and jalapenos. If they don’t make sure you ask. The broth was light and had flavors, but it did feel just a tad watered down. It was nice that they weren’t shy about offering some more abnormal meats. The beef ball and briskets were pretty good. I also enjoyed eating the tripe as well. I did feel that some of the meats were not braised enough as they were chewy, crunchy, and not that edible. I actually had to spit some out. Also, some of the tendons weren’t cooked long enough, so they were straight up bone texture. I think because of this, the pho as a whole was a misfire. However, I think if they are willing to braise the meats and offmeats a little longer to make them edible, this could have been a really stand out bowl of noodles.

The restaurant was fairly empty, but the service was fast and great. Also the ambiance does have a hipster Williamsburg vibe to it too.

Final Verdict

I felt the restaurant had some misses and some hits, but I would say the flavor profile is pretty good. I actually think I enjoyed this more than Di and Di. So if you’re in the North Williamsburg area and are craving for some pho near Grand St, this might be a great option.

Yelp Jabs

Their “signature” pho had very thick cuts of noodles which I wasn’t a huge fan of because it was very hard to eat. I would prefer them to make it with the regular pho noodles.

I went a few months later, and I didn’t see the same “thick cuts of noodles” that this Elitist saw.

Dined in during the week after work with a large group of friends.

You know… some people like to dine with a large group at restaurants because they can try everything. The one thing I noticed is that generally most people are more disappointed dining in a larger group than say in 2-4. This elitist was complaining about the wait time, and this is one of the reasons why. Most restaurants want to serve everyone at the same time, so larger groups make it harder to do that.

Here’s a pro tip if you want to have a better dining experience: keep your party to at most 4 people unless it’s a restaurant made for mass parties like a buffet.