Pho Kim Tuong - Authentic Pho

What is comfort food? To me it is food that embodies and resembles home cooking that I can reliably count upon in whatever mood or in the midst of whichever emotion. Like that comfy cough you've cried many a times upon or that bed you've snuggled in with those you love, it is food that never goes away and is always there. My comfort restaurants function similarly: consistently delicious and always authentic. Pho Kim Tuong fits nicely within that framework serving up authentic Vietnamese to Winnipeg's hungriest.

Pho Kim Tuong lies in the west end of the city on Ellice Avenue. The exteriors are very much so a work in progress with a plain brick building housed underneath the large and simple signage. And while serviceable it does little to distance itself from the multitude of other Vietnamese restaurants in the area. Thankfully the food and interiors are much better featuring a large cavernous dining room housing comfortable booth style seating. The attentive staff quickly set you down and are quick to recommend their favourites and eagerly willing to offer their opinion of the best tasting (and valued) dishes on the menu. And what a menu it is: an odd 100 or so dishes featuring Vietnamese favourites like their pho in a fabulous pork bone broth or a Vermicelli chalk full of ingredients.

My usual order is of course the Rare Beef and Beef Balls Rice Noodle Soup. What distances Pho Kim Tuong from the majority of other Vietnamese restaurants is in the broth. The simple looking soup might seem boring but rather it is an explosion of pork bone flavour with a kick of anise and spice. Bathed in the delicious broth are large fatty and springy beef balls, thin slices of rare beef and a chewy rice noodle. The large beef balls were the star of the dish giving the dish a distinct gelatinous and beefy component which complimented the thin and slightly diminished flavour from the rare beef. Aromatic cilantro finish off this fine dish. Tasty!

My dining companion is welll versed in Vietnamese cuisine and introduced me to this Hue Style Beef Noodle Soup (Hot). The dish, I am told, originates from the city of Hue (known for previously housing the royal court) and uses a beef broth as its basis. Indeed when compared to their pho, this broth was much deeper and richer with a distinct beef aroma augmented by a slight sweet and spicy kick from chilis. To match against the stronger broth, the noodles here are thicker and rounder giving the dish a chewy consistency, which is paired well with the slices of beef and shank. Delicious.

Always wanting to experiment more with new dishes we went with the Minced Shrimp on Sugar Cane, Spring Rolls, Meat Balls and Grilled Pork Wrap & Roll. I love a general trend in Vietnamese cuisine towards a "make your own" approach to food. Indeed the whimsical nature of wrapping up the host of ingredients within a soft rice wrapper is both fun and visually appealing. The massive platter consists simply of the shrimp on sugar cane, meat balls and grilled pork with a host of vegetables and pickles to wrap within it. The star of the dish was the minced shrimp on sugar cane which was a beautifully tender combination of soft and springy shrimp grilled to perfection and wrapped around a sweet sugar cane. The combination of sweet, savoury, salty and bitter was on full display as you could tweak how much of each component to add into the rice rolls.

I was a little disappointed in the number of rice rolls provided by Pho Kim Tuong which resulted in us consuming a significant portion of the ingredients by themselves and not within the rolled form. What we could wrap inside though was delicious and we found the rice rolls perfect to house the behemoth of ingredients. Further flavour is added through the fish sauce and peanut sauce on the side.

Pho Kim Tuong is the ultimate comfort food location in Winnipeg and an instant recommendation for authentic and reasonably priced Vietnamese cuisine. Its owners take a no nonsense, quick in and out type of experience and focus on creating delicious cuisine, one that ranks highly on the list of Winnipeg's best Vietnamese.