pho thi comes to oregon city -- hooray!. i was very excited when i saw the "grand opening" sign for pho thi in downtown oregon city. even though i'm concerned that our historic little town is becoming a little bit west linn-ified (places like "the verdict" make me all nervous-like) it's great that we're at least getting some diversity in the mix.
up to now, whenever i had a craving for pho i had to trek out to pho huy out by winco on 82nd. a bit of a drive just for some noodles and broth! but when you need a bowl of pho, you'll drive any distance.
i'm happy to say that pho thi more than measured up to to my expectations. their prices are quite good and they have a very diverse menu including an extensive selection of thai dishes.
on a recent trip, my husband had the mussuman curry, which was really, really good. i kept sneaking bites of it. my daughter had the pho ga, which was reasonably good, though i found the broth a bit weak. it might have perked up with a little soysauceand chili oil, but one spoonful was all i got -- once my daughter gets ahold of a bowl of pho, she dumps plumsauceinto it until there's no way to judge anything other than the flavor of the plum sauce. so i'll have to go back sometime and judge it on more than one sip of broth.
as for me, i had the pho bo with round steak, which was excellent--the broth was strong and delicious, with that kind of anise-y fragrance that i love. delicious.
we also had appetizers -- egg rolls and fried shrimp. they were fine. nothing to write home about. we would have tried the salad rolls, but there were 3 of us and the appetizer only came with 2 salad rolls and we didn't feel like doing the math. egg rolls came 3 to a plate, which made everything much simpler.
the ambiance of the restaurant is clean and tidy. the service was just ok; i could have used more attention to my water glass, but then again, i drink a lot of water.
overall, i'd say this is a good, solid pho restaurant. the food is as good as any, and the prices are better than most. i look forward to returning here often. it's a very welcome addition to downtown oregon city!