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FeedBuckeye Pho Asian Kitchen
Notable Vietnamese fare on the northwest side.
Buckeye Pho Asian Kitchen offers good Vietnamese food at reasonable prices. Located in a strip mall on the south side of Bethel Road, the place is bright and modern, with the décor featuring hundreds of buckeyes attached to one wall. Talk about blending cultures!
There’s a whole lot to like at Buckeye Pho; indeed, I liked everything I tried. Ingredients were fresh, the broths flavorful and dishes cooked right. It was hard to pick just a few items to recommend; really, all of it was darn good.
For appetizers, the minced chicken lettuce wrap (note the exotic flavors) and shredded chicken salad (with a garnish of herbs, jalapeños and a lime slice) were excellent. I also liked the crab wonton with cheese—don’t burn your mouth!—and the “salted & pepper calamaries,” which were crisply fried and served with a nice orange sauce.
Good spring rolls were available in your choice of minced pork or vegetables. I still preferred the Vietnamese-style rolls—a pale wrapper pulled around the ingredients so tightly the colors showed through. The fillings were lettuce, cucumber, basil, bean sprouts, white vermicelli and a wide assortment of meats or shrimp. All versions were elegant and tasty.
Thanks to its colonial brush with France, Vietnamese cooking includes really good French bread. Buckeye Pho’s menu had a variety of Vietnamese subs. I regret that I tried only the grilled beef version, which was excellent, with vivid flavors and textures. Besides the flavorful and slightly chewy beef, fillings included house mayo, pâté, cucumber, jalapeños, cilantro and pickled carrots. It’s easily among my favorite sandwiches in town. Hmm, they sell a bread-only version for just $1.99; I should have taken home a loaf.
The pho (beef noodle soup) was outstanding and the portion generous. The broth was savory, probably thanks to what the menu identified as “secret ingredients.” But there was a lot more: rice noodles, onion slices, chopped scallions and cilantro. And the soup was accompanied by a plate of basil, coriander leaves, bean sprouts, lime and a jalapeño pepper. You add them to your bowl, along with hoisin and sriracha chili sauce. Oh, and you get a choice of meats as well: meatballs, tripe and rare or well done steak. There also was a signature version with all of the meats. Guess which I ordered? The steak was tasty and chewy and the meatball dense, and I even enjoyed the tripe.
I also sampled what the menu called crepes with minced pork. They turned out to be wide rice stick noodles, hiding under thin slices of pork sausage and salad with mixed vegetables and herbs. It was refreshing.
Another choice was vermicelli plus crushed peanuts and lime fish vinaigrette—and your choice of meat. I went for the version with cut-up spring rolls and grilled beef. It was great: gorgeous to look at and just as nice to eat.
Yet another choice was the rice dishes. I found them, as a class, less interesting, but still highly edible. Again, I went for the version with all the toppings: grilled pork, steamed meat cake and shredded pork, along with a cup of sauce to pour on top and a side of broth. Nothing not to like.
The drink menu included hot French coffee, which they knew how to make. I also sampled a few exotic beverages. One was salty lemonade (quite a vivid flavor). I also asked the waitress what went into che ba mau and she confessed a lack of knowledge because she’s Korean. I still ordered it: lots of ice and a concoction of sweet beans and what might have been chocolate sludge on the bottom. It tasted creamy and unusual. Another night I tried sam bo luong, but aside from lots of ice and sugar, I couldn’t quite figure out what was in it. Not my new favorite, I fear.
By the way, there’s a whole lot of fuss about how to pronounce “pho.” Some say “phe.” Others prefer “fuh.” There are tones to worry about, and the Vietnamese folks from the north pronounce it differently than their brethren in the south. Google it, if you care.
Buckeye Pho Asian Kitchen
761 Bethel Rd.
451-2828
buckeyepho.com
Atmosphere: Bright and cheerful.
Recommended dishes: Everything.
Price range: Appetizers $3.49-$5.99; rolls $2.99-$3.99; Vietnamese subs $1.99-$5.79; entrees $4.49-$13.99.
Hours: Monday through Thursday 11 am to 10 pm, Friday and Saturday till 10:30 pm and Sunday till 9 pm.
Service: Good and cheerful.
Reservations: Accepted.
Rating: *** 1⁄2
