Kobe Beef Pho at Noodle Guy

When Susan Feniger’s Street first opened with its $16 bowl of pho, I was one of the many who balked at that inflated price. When I heard about the $12 bowl of kobe beef pho at Noodle Guy, I didn’t balk as much since it was kobe beef after all. I was also surprised to see an over $10 bowl of pho in the San Gabriel Valley, which is home of the $5 bowl of pho. I didn’t think that Asian immigrants would actually stand for such an expensive bowl of pho.

I usually judge pho using three categories: broth, noodles, and meat. If any of those three categories fail, you get a bad bowl of pho. No matter how good the broth is, the entire meal is ruined if you have soggy noodles, or poor quality meat.

My first time at Noodle Guy, a newish restaurant sitting in a strip mall on Valley Blvd., I splurged and ordered their house special pho (which comes with slices of beef flank, brisket, tendon, and tripe) with a kobe beef substitution. The menu doesn’t mention anything about subbing kobe beef in for the regular beef, but there was a huge banner by the parking lot. The kobe beef brings the usual $6 bowl of pho up to the $12 price point.

The extra charge is worth it if you’ve never had kobe beef pho. The meat is barely cooked and therefore very melt-in-your-mouth tender. It also has a very strong, almost grassy, beef flavor. It’s definitely a meaty flavor, but not in an off way. The difference in taste is subtler than I expected, but it was noticeable if you pay attention. It tastes almost like the way you’d imagine an open field with fresh damp dirt and long blades of grass would smell like.

The broth at Noodle Guy also did not disappoint. It was slightly sweet, and very aromatic with star anise. It also had a velvety richness, probably from the bits of fat and cartilage melted off from the bones it was made with. It was certainly a full-bodied enough to support the flavor of the kobe beef.

The rice noodles at Noodle Guy are wider than the usual ones served in pho, but not as wide as say, the rice noodles in pad see ew. The thicker noodles make sense because the broth is so rich and has such a creamy mouth feel, that a thinner noodle would do a poor job of delivering the soup to your mouth. Sure, you can always use a spoon, but one of the best things about pho is slurping up the bits of soup that cling to the noodles.

Would I order the pho with kobe beef again? Unless I were really hankering for it, probably not. That’s not to say the beef wasn’t good. It was very, very good. But so was everything else. The broth was wonderfully spiced and had a great texture. The noodles were perfectly cooked and still had a nice chew for rice noodles. The tendon was buttery and melted in my mouth. The tripe was easily chewable and not overcooked. The bowl was perfect without the need for kobe beef.

Read more by Louise at Naked Sushi
Photo by Louise Yang