There was rumor and myth running through the dense underbelly of the city about a vestige of pho not yet discovered by the Cong Khi and crew. We had the general whereabouts but the specifics were fuzzy. One thing we did know, wherever it was, whatever it was, we had to find out all about it.
There, through the sprawl of the urban jungle, amidst the traffic lights and homeless, behind the trash blown by the wind and right across from the high school, on 42 and El Cajon blvd. we saw our objective.
It was advised that there may be hostiles in the area so we kept the escape route covered as we cautiously entered in a 2 x 2 formation. We quickly set up a cross fire to cover the windows and began to review the documents. They were packed full of pages and pages of dishes--even an entire page full of vegetarian dishes - to entice any one from all walks of life.
They offered what seemed like really nice chicken salad appetizers. However, there were no chicken spring rolls on the menu and who wants to kick out 7-8 bux for a salad if you're gunna have pho...
Of course you know, the Cong Khi is sticking with the pho Ga. When I first had the bowl set in front of me, I was cautiously optimistic. I've seen these foreign phos before and while some may imitate none can duplicate the heaven produced by the clan at Lucky.
I started by noticing this was quite a bit oilier than the regular pho. They had added mostly dark meat with the skin on with only a few chunks of white meat. I also have had much better chili sauce. The chili and oil also left a bit to be desired as it was not as fresh as I've grown to know and love. They seemed to miss that bold roasted flavor. The price as a bit high too. Not really sure why it had to come to over 8 bux but it did. The Cong is suspicious if a GA and a cafe sou da is more than 7 at the very most.
It is a pretty nice restaurant though and I suppose some of that
extra cost goes for the overhead on that, but it definitely wasn't
going for the heating bill. Pretty cold in there on the rainy day I
went. Overall I'd recommend going down the street a lil bit to one of
the places near 47th street instead. Saigon is not going to make the
must-return list. If I had to go there again
I wouldn't hate it, just wouldn't like it as much as others.
Located at: 4455 El Cajon Blvd across from the high school.