352508 Mon Dec 18 21:11:01 -0800 2006 8 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 2110591 The cold weather last night had me craving a big bowl of Pho, so 3 of us headed down to Little Saigon. We ended up at Pagolac, which I had never been to before. I had delicious Pho Chay with chicken broth. The soup had an extremely generous serving of fried tofu in it along with celery, carrots, broccoli, baby corn, and shiitakes. It was delicious and so big i couldn't finish it. My friend had the Pho Tai Bo Vien (noodle soup with rare beef slices and beef balls) which he seemed to enjoy quite a bit,. i had a sip of his beef broth which had a really nice spicy star anise flavor. My boyfriend got the Catfish Clay Pot (which was our waiter's mom's recipe - good to know that it's family-owned). I only had a tiny bite but it was quite good. We all split the fresh vegetarian spring rolls appetizer and they were exceptionally good (and well-rolled) except the dipping sauce was not the usual fish sauce based sauce which I love, but a soy ginger sauce. Overall, a solid Vietnamese place with good veggie options (we almost went to Turtle Tower until I realized that everything had beef in it). The service was great and the prices are very reasonable ($27 for 3 entrees plus 1 appetizer) Pagolac 655 Larkin St Btwn Ellis & Willow St San Francisco Mon Dec 18 21:11:01 -0800 2006 28485 mchan02 1 2110706 "Turtle Tower until I realized that everything had beef in it" Don't think that's true. Mon Dec 18 21:34:04 -0800 2006 2110591 10039 Melanie Wong 2 2110778 almost all of the Pho anyway... The friend I was with had tried to go there with a vegetarian once before and they were pretty unbending as far as customizing a dish for him. Maybe next time I'll go back and ask them for Pho Chay. Mon Dec 18 21:53:33 -0800 2006 2110706 28485 mchan02 3 2110826 The pho ga is a thing of beauty at Turtle Tower, but pho chay would probably be a challenge unless you were willing to go with chicken broth as you did at Pagolac. If you like catfish, be sure to order the cha ca va bun. Mon Dec 18 22:05:58 -0800 2006 2110778 10039 Melanie Wong 1 2110970 I was the friend mchan02 mentioned in the post...I was gonna post about it too, but I already had forgotten the name of the place! The beef pho I had was good, like she said, strong star anise flavor, but not noticeably better than many other bowls I've had before. I also agree that the fresh spring rolls were particularly good. Pagolac was a nice place, lots of people ordered the shrimp w/ sugarcane which looked great, and we saw some people enjoying the 7 course beef menu (15 dollars pp). Turtle Tower's menu has basically nothing vegetarian. There are no tofu dishes on the menu (I don't think the word tofu is mentioned anywhere), and like mchan02 said, all of the soups are made w/ beef or chicken broth. Here's a link to the menupage: http://sanfrancisco.menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&restaurantid=8368&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=0 I went there once w/ another friend who couldn't eat chicken or beef broth (but could've eaten fish) and they said there really wasn't anything they could make (except perhaps one of their fish dishes, which he didn't want). It's at least good that they're honest. I definitely want to try Turtle Tower soon though....I am hoping to taste a difference in their beef broth. Is it true that it's better than most? Dave MP Mon Dec 18 22:42:41 -0800 2006 2110591 21930 Dave MP 2 2111393 Sorry, in the original post, none of the dishes at Pagolac were vegetarian, so it was unclear that was the complaint about TT. I wanted to make sure that it was understood that Turtle Tower has plenty of dishes that don't have beef in them unlike the statement above. They may have pork, fish or chicken in them, in the absence of beef. Per the menu you linked, 13 of the 26 dishes do not have beef in them. I don't see anywhere that mchan02 said, "all of the soups are made w/ beef or chicken broth." One of the things that is different about TT is that the owners are Vietnamese from the north. Many of the City's Viet restaurants are owned by ethnic Chinese-Vietnamese from the south and the cooking style is different. TT's beef broth tastes better to me, cleaner and purer with more of the flavor of long-boiled bones, but that may be individual preference. It doesn't rely on an excess of star anise or sugar to compensate for a lack of meatiness. Some say that pho bo (beef pho) is the only true pho. Tue Dec 19 00:52:27 -0800 2006 2110970 10039 Melanie Wong 3 2112177 Oops, you're right, mchan02 never said that. As you said, we probably could've arranged to have a dish like the one she ended up getting (chicken broth w/ tofu and vegetables) at TT, though it didn't seem quite as 'for sure.' Your description of the pho at TT sounds great, I'm even more excited to try their pho bo now. I'll check it out soon! Dave MP Tue Dec 19 07:47:22 -0800 2006 2111393 21930 Dave MP 3 2113261 One additional note, TT pho is indeed Northern style so it doesn't come with the traditional garnishes of herbs and sprout, lime wedges or hot peppers. Tue Dec 19 18:17:38 -0800 2006 2111393 29396 grubber4 4 2113392 At the Larkin street location of TT, they served the garnish of lime wedges and hot peppers, but no herbs and sprouts. Tue Dec 19 18:55:16 -0800 2006 2113261 46995 EastCoastTransplant78