This Asian restaurant in D’Iberville is off the beaten path, but the pho is worth the drive
You have just got to like a place that describes itself as “Serving authentic Asian cuisine that makes you feel at home.” I am an admitted Vietnamese food junkie and am always delighted when a new Vietnamese restaurant opens and the Pho King Spot is a welcomed addition, and, yes, it does have a comfortable, family feel to it.
The restaurant is small and is a bit off the beaten path, but it is worth the drive, especially if you are a lover of all things pho. Pho is the national dish of Vietnam and it is what most people think of when they think of food from this Southeast Asian country. It originated in the north, near Hanoi, but its reputation for being a top contestant for best comfort food in the world has spread its reputation far and wide.
The menu is concise, unlike so many Asian places whose menus tend to go on for pages, but I like concise, it tells me what the chef is really good at. There are a small handful of appetizers, what they call small eats (I like that!). We started with the pho King Spot wings, and they were good, really good. This is a restaurant that makes everything from scratch, including the fish sauce, one of the most necessary ingredients in Vietnamese cooking. They are proud of it, rightfully so and it is what makes so many of the dishes here pop.
Next, we ordered the Pho King special pho, shaken beef sautéed with onions, and Vietnamese style crunch fried pork. Everything was good, but the pho stole the show. It was loaded with beef, including thin slices of rare beef, beef meatballs, beef shank and beef ribs. I have had a lot of pho, but never one this meaty. The stock was as aromatic as all good pho stock is, but the addition of the bone in beef really made a difference. There was actually a large beef rib, bone-in, in the pho, and it was meat-falling-off-the-bone delicious. Just this one dish makes this place worth the drive from anywhere.
The crunchy pork and beef dishes were good, well-seasoned and served with steaming hot jasmine rice, and, if you are not a pho fan (something I cannot imagine), delicious and filling.
If your interests lie elsewhere, Vietnamese banh mi are always good. Some folks have taken to calling banh mi Vietnamese po-boys, but in fact the French were slicing open baguettes and filling them with interesting things long before the good folks in NOLA figured it out, and there is a lot of French influence in Vietnamese food, as Vietnam was part of a French colony for more than 60 years.
Other good choices on this menu include grilled pork and noodles or rice, chicken pho (think chicken noodle soup) and there are also four fried rice dishes. Yes, I know fried rice is not Vietnamese, but it is still pretty darn good at times.
Take the drive and give this place a shot. I think you will like what you find.
Pho King Spot
Where: 3179 Mallett Road, Suite 23, D’Iberville
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday
Phone: 228-280-8101
This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 5:00 AM.