Bear Bites: Le Pho Brings Fresh Vietnamese Flavors to Macon

Macon has its fair share of Southern eateries and burger joints, and it also has a few spots to try food from completely different cultures. Le Pho, located on Zebulon Road, offers food entirely unlike typical American fair.

Le Pho offers a variety of Vietnamese dishes, including the satisfying soup that gives the restaurant its name: pho. Every dish plays heavily on the combination of savory meats and freshness provided by greens.

The Good:

The Food

The quintessential Vietnamese food is pho, so I tried the combination noodle soup with a variety of different cuts of beef included with the noodles and broth. The hot soup and noodles left me feeling completely satisfied and surprisingly refreshed.

Junior Gabe Weber tried another Vietnamese dish, crispy pork and egg rolls over vermicelli, which are noodles made from rice. “I ate this flavorful pork that was nicely charred, marinated and super tender. The egg rolls provided a crunch and were also really satisfying,” Weber said.


Customizing Your Food

Each table at Le Pho has a combination of accouterments to make each dish exactly how the restaurant-goer wants it. They have fish sauce to make a dish a little sweeter, sriracha and chili to make it a little spicier and limes to add fresh acidity.

Something Different

“For someone that has never had pho, it gave me a warm introduction to a dish. Now I’m curious about what else Vietnamese cuisine has to offer,” said sophomore Dwayne Brown, who had never tried Vietnamese food before.

The Questionable:

The Price

After tax and tip, one bowl of pho is going to cost at least $10. “Anywhere that I pay $15 or less for a nice sit-down meal, and I leave full, is not super great, but not too bad,” Weber said. Everyone who ate with us said that they left feeling full.

The Bad:

The Service

Although our party of five arrived on a Sunday afternoon when the restaurant was not particularly crowded, it took quite some time before our food arrived. This is understandable for fresh food made to order, but it was nonetheless frustrating.

It should also be noted that I ordered water and a Vietnamese iced coffee, and although everyone else in our group got their drinks, I did not get water until after I got my coffee and reminded the waitress.

There is something to be said about a restaurant being able to bring another culture’s cuisine to people by offering something a little familiar, but still out of the ordinary. Le Pho does a great job of representing Vietnamese cuisine and sharing culture.

The weakness of Le Pho lies in a combination of details that make an otherwise great food experience a little less exciting, namely, okay service, an uninteresting environment and it being a little pricey. That said, they may be serving the best Vietnamese food in Macon.

Rating:

Will 3.5/5

Peter 4/5