John Ngo, the owner of Pho Kim 88 in Castle Shannon, has a lot of experience with Hibachi dinners. He spent 12 years as a head chef at Benihana, the famous Japanese restaurant chain that pioneered the theatrical dining style now common at hibachi tables everywhere.
Though I imagine that Ngo can perform some show-stopping tricks with a knife and vegetables, at Pho Kim 88, the focus is on the food, not on the performance. The restaurant, which opened two years ago, serves both Japanese and Vietnamese cuisine, the latter half of the kitchen overseen by Ngo's wife, Kim.
Two-cuisine restaurants generally send up immediate warning signs; too often, the separate menus suffer from an identity crisis. But Pho Kim 88, while still more of a neighborhood favorite than a destination restaurant, proved itself on both sides of the culinary aisle, despite some missteps.
- Hours: Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun., 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
- Basics: An eclectic mix of Vietnamese and Japanese food with some Chinese-American and bar food staples thrown in. Already a neighborhood standby, Pho Kim 88 is another indication that the first ring of the South Hills suburbs is amassing an impressive culinary scene of its own.
- Recommended dishes: Spring Rolls, Fried Bean Curd, Bo Tai Chanh, Goi Tom, Hu Tieu Ga (chicken broth pho with shredded chicken), Pho Dac Biet (beef broth pho with beef, beef meatballs, beef tripe), Banh Xeo (Saigon Pancake), Spider Roll, Pittsburgh Roll.
- Prices: Appetizers, $3.95-12.95; Vietnamese entrees, $6.95-$12.95; Japanese entrees, $14.50-$32.25; Nigiri (one piece), $1.50-$2; Sashimi (4 pieces), $3.25-$7.50; rolls, $4-$9.
- Summary: Wheelchair accessible; nonsmoking; parking in lot; credit cards accepted; reservations encouraged on weekends; BYOB, no corkage.
- Noise level: Low.
With its pale yellow walls, abundance of artificial flowers and tchotchkes, Pho Kim 88 comes off as shabby chic with a slight emphasis on shabby. Similarly, service relies more on charm than confidence. The primary server during my visits was clearly still learning about the food, but she was willing to ask questions and her friendliness and real desire to be of service overcame any difficulties.
Some of the Vietnamese dishes fall just a bit short of excellence. But others capture the best qualities of this cuisine: Freshness, lots of vegetables, herbs and chiles, and an appealing simplicity. Goi Cuon, or fresh spring rolls, ($3.95) are solidly constructed -- rolled not too tightly or too loosely. Whole shrimp were large and sweet, and small batons of pressed pork add a unique texture and flavor. Typically, these types of rolls contain Thai basil and mint, but at Pho Kim 88, Italian basil was substituted and mint was nowhere to be found. Consequently, these rolls rely more on the sweet sauce garnished with crushed peanuts than on the fresh, herbaceous quality of the very best fresh rolls.
The less typically Vietnamese fried bean curd ($4.95) was beautifully executed, with a golden brown crust and a soft and creamy interior. It was served on a bed of shredded cabbage and came topped with a sweet ginger and garlic sauce. This pattern continued. Some dishes were just so-so, others were outstanding.
Cha Gio, deep-fried spring rolls, were some of the best I've ever tasted. The pork filling was moist and flavorful, the wrappings were crisp without being greasy, and were fried to order -- a rare treat.
Mussels with salsa ($6.95) were unpleasantly fishy. Though they were covered in a thin, sweet sauce and garnished with plenty of basil, they still tasted past their prime,
Best of all was the Bo Tai Chanh ($12.95), a salad of thinly sliced medallions of rare beef covered with sliced cucumber, bean sprouts, basil, sliced chiles and peanuts, and dressed with lime juice. The beef had been cooked just enough that it wasn't too chewy but still had the wonderful sweet flavor of raw beef; bean sprouts and cucumber provided relief from the heat of the chile as well as a pleasant crunchy texture.
The vermicelli noodle dishes seem to be an amalgamation of a number of common Vietnamese dishes. Long, thin rice noodles are topped with a choice of grilled meats and shrimp, beautifully cut cucumber and carrots, bean sprouts, lettuce, basil and peanuts, all topped with a fried spring roll. I tried the Goi Thit Tom ($6.95) with grilled pork and shrimp. The grilled pork was a little dry, but the shrimp were delicious. Too often, small shrimp are mealy and overcooked. Here, they were sweet with pleasantly firm flesh.
A particularly unusual and delicious offering was the Banh Xeo, or Saigon pancake ($6.95). A thin, lightly browned omelet made with coconut milk is folded around the ubiquitous grilled pork, shrimp, bean sprouts and onion, and served with a pile of shredded cabbage, basil, sliced chiles and the other usual accoutrements.
The rice dishes, or Com, proved to be the weakest choices. Both the Com Bo Tom Nuong ($10.95), a version with beef and shrimp, and the Ca Huong ($12.95), a version with red snapper in a garlic butter sauce, were unnecessarily greasy, without the fresh, vibrant flavors characteristic of Vietnamese cuisine.
Of course, the measure of every Vietnamese restaurant, at least every one in Pittsburgh, is the quality of its Pho. This noodle soup is primarily distinguished by the flavor of the broth. Both the chicken broth and the beef broth were delicious -- intensely flavorful and assertively seasoned. I loved the Pho Dac Biet ($8.50), beef broth finished with slices of beef, beef meatballs, and tripe. Pile it high with chiles and bean sprouts, squeeze in some lime and top with basil for the full effect.
The Japanese menu is a little more generic. The sushi is credible, and very reasonably priced. The rice doesn't have a dominant sweet-sour taste, but it was the right texture, and the nigiri and rolls had been packed lightly, collapsing pleasantly in the mouth.
For people who like new-style sushi, the Pittsburgh roll and spider roll are excellent choices. Both have lots of flavor without being overwhelmed by sticky-sweet sauces. The spider roll's combination of tempura-battered soft shell crab, lump crab and avocado was especially decadent.
The hibachi dinners offered the standard combination of salad, soup, shrimp appetizer and the usual range of meats and seafood. If you like that sort of thing, you'll like it here, though I suspect that for some people the theatricality is as important as the food, and Ngo didn't choose to continue that portion of the experience.
The menu's few catastrophic missteps involved dishes that were far outside the chosen themes. The Salt and Pepper Shrimp were terrible. Usually salt and pepper shrimp are deep-fried shell-on shrimp, which are wonderfully crunchy but succulent inside. These were overcooked shrimp with thick, lumpy breading that tasted as if they had been fried well before we ordered them.
The meal also stumbled at the end, more so even than most restaurants serving these ethnic specialties. The dessert menu lists some authentic choices, such as Fried Banana with ice cream ($5.25) alongside some less authentic choices such as Fried Cheesecake with ice cream ($5.25). Unfortunately, they were out of all of these options. In fact, the only dessert they had was one that is more commonly seen in Italian restaurants: A frozen peach filled with peach sorbet, that had sadly been a little over-softened, so that the peach sorbet was more of a peach slushy.
And yet, just as the restaurant's bright yellow sign makes it easy to spot despite it's unassuming strip mall location, I suspect that most diners will find it easy to follow their instincts to the best of what Pho Kim 88 has to offer. Ngo's desire to serve authentic, well-prepared, reasonably priced food is palpable, and successes significantly outnumbered missteps.
First Published: July 10, 2008, 8:00 a.m.
