Lovers of Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, rejoice: There’s finally a decent College Park option for you. Pho Thom may still be working out some service kinks, but its delicious food more than compensates for any issues with the wait staff.
While there has been a noticeable surfeit of cheap Chinese restaurants and burger joints on Route 1, few restaurants exist nearby that cater to more exotic and esoteric tastes. Pho Thom, which opened last fall, is the first and (currently) only Vietnamese restaurant within walking distance of the campus.
It’s evident from stepping inside that the owners have realized just how different their cuisine is compared to the rest of downtown College Park’s offerings. Subsequently, Pho Thom is not your standard pho spot. The flat screen TVs, the tasteful color palette, the open kitchen: Pho Thom aspires to be a classier venue than the typical and intimidating hole-in-the-wall, but is still a beginner’s pho restaurant.
Their menu is fairly well organized, offering a bevy of Thai dishes alongside their Vietnamese fare. The Thai food on offer is more or less standard than that of typical Thai restaurants, but the plates are executed and presented with finesse.
Pho Thom’s seafood curry is a lovely balance of spice and cooling coconut milk, while their pad Thai packs an agreeable amount of sweetness to counter the oiliness of the stir-fried noodles. The Thai dishes are presented with color and flair, the bell peppers shining through the fried rice and the pale yellow curry providing a neat contrast to the stark white rice.
Their signature dish — pho, a beef-broth-based noodle soup — is quite good. It lacks the ethereal savoriness of the very best pho, but Pho Thom has made a respectable crack at it. The soup has a good mix of meats, a pleasing ratio of chewy tendon to tender sirloin. The broth, meanwhile, has that lovely, almost French onion-like brown color with enough richness for diners to appreciate.
The expected fixings (lime, bean sprouts, Thai basil, hoisin and hot sauce) are delivered to the table with the dish.
Where Pho Thom falters is its service. Although it opened months ago, the restaurant has not found its groove. Expect to wait substantial periods of time for dishes to arrive during their usually crowded dinner rush.
Waiters, though cordial and polite, appear somewhat overwhelmed during service. On one of my trips to the restaurant, I was told they had run out of a crab-stuffed chicken wing appetizer 15 minutes after I placed my order.
Prices are about average for Thai cuisine and a little more than average for pho. Still, when you just have to satisfy those pho cravings, there aren’t many other options within walking distance. Pho Thom, if not a complete success, is promising and hopefully indicative of a new, more diverse direction for downtown College Park.
chzhang@umdbk.com
