Pho To Go
I always enjoy sitting down for a good meal rather than having to deal with the logistics and ethics of a take out meal.
I had never actually had take out pho before. But one fateful night, my cousin was hellbent on getting pho to go. “I guess there is a first time for everything,” I thought to myself. We decided on Than Brothers in Edmonds.
Compared to all the other Than Brothers franchise restaurants, the Edmonds branch is quite spacious and clean. The environment is much more relaxing and open than the Than Brothers in the city. The tables are not cramped all together like in most pho restaraunts. Rather, they are spread out along the walls, and around the fish tank. Interestingly, they have the same horse mural that the Capital Hill branch has.
We got 2 orders of pho to go. There weren’t many people in the restaurant at the time, so our food came out within minutes. The soup broth comes inside a styrofoam container, the noodles in a ubiquitous Chinese to go box; the garnishes come in a styrofoam teriyaki to go box, the plastic spoon and bamboo chopsticks along with everything else is conveniently wrapped up in a plastic bag.
The garnishes included inside of the styrofoam box included bean sprouts, 2 giant sprigs of Thai basil, a few slices of green pepper, sliced white onions, coriander, a small plastic container with Sriracha hot sauce and hoisin sauce, and of course you can’t forget the tasty cream puff pastry on the side. The thinly sliced raw beef came saran wrapped on top of the noodles, so I just dumped the whole thing inside of the steaming hot soup. The broth itself was well prepared and delicious -maybe even the most delicious of all the Than Bros.
The food itself was fantastic. No complaints there. The biggest drawback with getting take out would have to be the abundance of all the non-recyclable refuse that is produced. I suppose an alternative would have been to bring in my own containers, however I don’t plan on getting an order to go anytime soon. Half the fun of eating pho is the going out and experiencing the restaurant itself with all its unique perks and nuances.
In summary, do yourself a favor next time you are thinking of getting pho to go: Just sit the pho down and enjoy your meal.
