Pho Colonial calls itself an "authentic Vietnamese diner," but it more closely resembles a coffee shop. Tucked into an unassuming strip mall like many Dallas-area restaurants, the North Dallas location of Pho Colonial features a walk-up counter with a huge facsimile of a menu on display for takeout and in-house orders. Place your order, and it will be brought to your table or put into "to go" packaging.
I've dined at this restaurant several times, and the food is great.
The service is friendly and offers varying degrees of hospitality, depending upon whom you encounter. One night, the chef came out to answer questions about sauces and flavorings and could not have been nicer. That same night, the waiter was a darling.
On a previous visit, the service was friendly but lopsided. Pho Colonial certainly doesn't have the airs of a fine dining establishment - but at these prices, who cares?
Translated, "these prices" means it is entirely possible to dine fantastically well here for less than $30 a person.
I guess it's possible that pretty much everything here is marinated in varying amounts of lemon grass, which suits me just fine. I especially like the chef's handcrafted little dumplings, steamed bits of something akin to wonton wrappers filled with a mixture of pork, shrimp, carrots, daikon and both yellow and green onions.
The dumplings are so good, that I can easily eat two orders of them while waiting for my entrée. Tiny egg rolls are also flavorful; they're filled with the same pork and shrimp mixture, then fried and served with lettuce leaves with which to wrap them.
Order both, and mix and match the sauces, one of simple soy and seasonings, the other a lovely fish sauce made with squid stock, chili flakes, lemon juice, garlic, soy sauce and some sort of chili paste. The sauces may not come with your entrée, but they go well with everything on the menu, so ask your server not to take them away.
Pho Colonial's cuisine is a delicate fusion of Vietnamese and European flavors and techniques. While the menu offers the requisite pho, bun and bánh mi, the chef's art is on finer display here in the specialty wok dishes. Try the twice-cooked sea salt shrimp or sesame chicken breast.
I applaud Pho Colonial for its use of excellent, extremely fresh ingredients in most of what is cooked here, although the use of imitation crab in the menu's three pork broth-based hu tieu offerings is disappointing.
Also disappointing is the lack of desserts.
After a meal as good as what Pho Colonial is capable of turning out, it would be nice to have something sweet to wind down with while enjoying a Vietnamese coffee.
It's a small point, but a distinct part of the paucity of charm that keeps Pho Colonial from being one of the best restaurants on the local dining scene.
The restaurant evidently does a huge business, including lots of take out in the neighborhood. On one of my visits, the manager's response to my request that the extremely loud music be turned down - in what had become an empty restaurant because it was very close to closing time - was, "we just served 150 dinners and nobody's ever complained before."
Oh well, nobody's perfect. And this is a restaurant that beckons one back again and again, despite its flaws. The dumplings alone are worth the trip.
Pho Colonial
4727 Frankford Road
Suite 409
Dallas, TX 75287
(972) 267-7466
www.phocolonial.com
Mon-Sun 11 am - 10 pm
