One of my favourite lunch (and sometimes breakfast) meals for dining out in Vancouver is pho, Vietnamese beef noodle soup. In a rich beef broth, with comforting rice noodles, slices of rare roast beef or tender slices brisket, or sometimes beef balls. Accompanied by crunchy bean sprouts, with lemon or lime to squeeze over, and topped off with a sprig of fresh basil. With a spoon in my left hand and chopsticks in my right, I dive in and sometimes don’t come up until I’m stuffed.
Vancouver and its adjoining suburb, Burnaby, are especially blessed with pho joints, mostly simple mom-and-pop operations, serving up brilliant meals in a bowl in the $5 and $6 range, depending on whether you opt for regular, large or extra large size. I will write about some of my favourite local Vietnamese restaurants soon, but this time I want to recommend a place where I recently ate pho in Honolulu.
As I took the bus from my hotel near the airport into Waikiki, I decided to stop off for lunch in Chinatown. There were at least a half-dozen Vietnamese restaurants within the six-block area around which I walked, and I had no foreknowledge, so I picked one that I thought looked promising. I was right.
The Golden River Restaurant on N. King Street announces it serves Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine. I opted for their house special beef noodle soup combination with rare beef, tendon, tripe, well done flank and beef meat balls (Pho Dac Biet).
The large bowl was $6.25, but at $5.50 the regular was more than enough for me. It came sprinkled with sliced white onions, chopped green onions and cilantro. Alongside was an enormous platter of basil, lemon, hot peppers, bean sprouts, and lemon grass. Usually I devour all the basil I can get, but this time I received more than I could handle. Too bad I didn’t have my rabbits along with me, as they would have liked the extra greens. But there was no way I could bring fresh green vegetables back through U.S. Customs in Los Angeles and then through Canada Customs in Vancouver. So I took a picture, but haven’t had the heart to show the rabbits what they missed.
If you’re ever in Honolulu looking for a great, inexpensive and delicious lunch, it would be very difficult to do better than enjoying a bowl of pho at the Golden River.
Bon Appetit!
Golden River Restaurant, Open daily to dine-in or take-out, 198 N. King Street, Honolulu, HI 96817. (808) 531-2285