Vietnamese spot delights
Pho Yan
38 Salem St., Medford
781-391-1100
Open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Wheelchair accessible
Major credit cards
Phoyan.com
When Pat Phung of Medford was laid off from his job as an electrical engineer in 2000, he decided to shelve his 15-year career in pursuit of a different path. An avid cook who learned his way around the kitchen from his mother-in-law, he opened Pho 99 in Malden the following year.
In 2006, he fulfilled another dream: opening the doors to his second Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Yan in Medford, "because I wanted to bring something different to this town."
It didn't take our four-person party long to conclude that every town could use a place like Pho Yan, with its large portions of fresh, well-prepared meals at reasonable prices in a pleasantly decorated environment.
During our visit on a recent Thursday evening, the spacious restaurant was half full with a steady stream of takeout business.
We chose a corner booth and tackled the extensive menu of salads, specialty and noodle soups, vermicelli, rice plates, lo mein, create-your-own stir fry options, vegetarian entrees, 31 chef specialties, and an entire page of sushi selections.
For appetizers, we started with the sugar cane shrimp ($8), four good-size pieces of lightly seasoned ground shrimp molded around sugar cane. While they were not sweet as expected, they had been grilled perfectly. The presentation was also impressive, with each shrimp separated by a piece of sugar cane and artistically arranged atop a bed of shredded lettuce with ground peanuts sprinkled on top.
The two fresh spring rolls with grilled chicken ($5) were wrapped in softened rice paper with shredded lettuce, rice vermicelli, basil, and mint, which provided a pleasant scent as well as flavor. The accompanying dipping sauce was surprisingly spicy, but a good contrast to the cool spring rolls that were large enough to cut in half and share.
The specialty soups were also larger and more substantial than we expected.
The seafood vegetable soup ($4) was chock full of fish, shrimp, carrots, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and assorted green vegetables. The fish ball soup ($3.75) tasted salty and smelled strongly, with small, dark fish balls resembling meatballs in both appearance and consistency.
Appetizers were delivered to our table as each one became available and - after an uncharacteristic delay - the fish ball soup arrived along with the diner's entree. However, our waitress was so friendly and earnest that we attributed this minor confusion - in addition to a lack of silverware quickly followed by an overcompensation of cutlery - as part of the restaurant's charm.
The entree that arrived with the fish ball soup was the grilled salmon with black bean sauce ($12.50), a thick piece of tender fish with a slightly crispy exterior and dark sauce that was sweet and salty while tasting like beef. It was served with a bowl of white rice accompanied by a large portion of visibly fresh broccoli, green beans, pea pods, mushrooms, and carrots.
The seafood steamed rice ($8) was a large serving of white rice with shrimp, broccoli, zucchini, pea pods, and carrots in a typical but satisfying white wine sauce.
The chicken with curry sauce ($9) had medallions of chicken so tender they could easily be cut with a fork. As with the other dishes, the vegetables - in this case, green beans, pea pods, mushrooms, baby corn, carrots, celery, and onions - were cooked until they were soft, but not limp. Though the light colored curry sauce had a distinct flavor, it was not quite strong enough for that diner's taste.
The most interesting dish turned out to be one of the restaurant's most popular: steamed seafood vermicelli patties ($11.50).
The idea is to lay individual pieces of grilled shrimp and sugar cane shrimp on top of separate pieces of transparent rice paper, layered with thin vermicelli patties, cucumber, shredded lettuce, mint, and ground peanuts.
The rice paper adheres nicely when rolled, allowing the resulting creation to be drenched in a sweet dipping sauce without falling apart.
Although we didn't need anything else, we were intrigued by the seemingly atypical desserts offered in this predominantly Vietnamese restaurant.
While generous scoops of ice cream ($5.50) filled a large bowl, only one flavor was available: vanilla. The cheesecake ($3.50) was creamy, though still cold in the middle. We didn't bother trying the tiramisu ($3.50), preferring to remember the Vietnamese specialties that will bring us back.
CINDY CANTRELL 