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WESLACO — Wanting to try something new and different, I came to Lê Phở House — a Vietnamese kitchen in Weslaco — with an open mind and I left with a stomach full of delicious noodles, broth, beef and a curiosity into a new cuisine.
Usually for South Texas Flavor, I am tasked to find a unique restaurant and, if I can, visit one in one of the less known Valley cities. Covering a Weslaco ISD school board meeting last week, I decided to try to find something there.
Talking to people that live in the Mid-Valley, everyone had a positive reaction when I asked about Phở House.
With such good reviews, my expectations were lifted a bit and if I’m being phở real, Phở House did not disappoint. (I swear that was my only pho pun.)
Accompanied by my friend Hania, this was my very first and her second time eating Vietnamese food, so in a way we were both stepping out and trying something different.
Hania showed me Nak Won Jung in 2019, which you should totally check out the South Texas Flavor column on them. I was a sophomore at UTRGV and that moment really sparked my change in taste and pushed me to be the open-minded foodie I am today.
I’ve heard of phở being great but one dumb reason has kept me from trying it. I am simply not a soup kind of fella. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll eat and enjoy whatever type of soup is served to me but anything that’s soup is something I don’t actually go out and get. If you know, you know.
Entering the restaurant, you order and pay at the front desk before you are seated.
The menu is small but is very detailed which is great and easy to navigate for someone completely new to the cuisine.
The main dishes at the restaurant are the chicken, beef, vegetarian and seafood Phở. Some of their other dishes are egg and spring rolls, fried rice and Bún bò Huế, a spicy beef and pork rice noodle soup.
I loved the decor, all the natural light that is let into the restaurant and a wall mural that I’m guessing shows the agricultural lifestyle in Vietnam.
We got the beef phở which the menu describes it as a 12+ house bone broth, brisket with rice noodles and onions served with a side of bean sprouts, cilantro, basil, jalapeños and lime.
We also got egg rolls and fried rice to share.
The eggrolls came first and they were crunchy and packed a lot of taste. The chili fish sauce that it came with was also good and something new to me.
Even though we ordered the smallest size bowl of beef phở, the portion was huge. The soup came out steaming hot and at first glance it was a bit overwhelming where to start.
I started out by drinking some of the soup and that’s when I knew, I’ve been missing out.
The soup had a meaty but sweet taste to it with lots of green onion in it.
The beef was phở-nomenal ( I lied, I had to get one more phở pun out). Soft, tender and thinly sliced, almost like bacon, it went really well with the thin rice noodles.
I also put bean sprouts and cilantro in the phở. Packing as much of everything I could into my chopsticks, it gave me a mouthful of flavorsome food and use of ingredients.
The fried rice also had a unique flavor. I love getting the simple fried rice as a side wherever I go. I want to see how well the restaurant does at doing the most simple dish on the menu.
The fried rice is served with Vietnamese sausage which really gives it a different taste and I enjoyed it.
We finished our lunch by trying Vietnamese iced coffee. A little on the stronger side but It was great and capped off the whole experience.
All of that, along with a great service, I walked out with a changed and eager mind to explore the Vietnamese cuisine and the world of different soups and I thank that to Lê Phở House.
I recommend checking out the restaurant whenever you are in Weslaco. If you rarely find yourself in Weslaco, frequently go or live there, Lê Phở House is a place you keep wanting to go back to and I can’t wait to have a chance to try the chicken phở.
The restaurant, located at 1400 N. Westgate Drive, Suite 100, is open 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
