BOTHELL — When I think of comfort food my mind usually locks in on one thing: pho.
I love the steamy broth, the vermicelli noodles, the hunks of meat just tempting me to dive in. There are few things better on these misty, gray afternoons perfected by our lovely home, the Pacific Northwest.
So I took a break from being mired in work, grabbed my jacket and beat it to Bamboo House in Bothell. I texted one of my longtime friends who works in B-town and told him to meet me there. We’ve shared a number of lunches over the years so I knew he’d have some good feedback — or at least some witty one-liners.
I wasn’t disappointed. After pulling into the parking lot of a nondescript strip mall off Bothell-Everett Highway, my friend jumped out of his car and took one look at Bamboo House, sandwiched between a dry cleaner and a taco shop.
“This place looks un-pho-gettable,” he said, elbowing me in the ribs.
I could have sworn I heard a rim-shot above the din of traffic.
We made our way into the restaurant and were directed to a small table for two. The place was crowded; an obvious hot lunch spot for local college students and tech workers. There were a number of small tables but also larger ones for group dining in the one-room restaurant. This wasn’t a place that cared much for aesthetics. Just my kind of lunch spot.
The menu was the front-and-back placemat style and was full of confusing names and pictures of bowls of soups and noodles and bubble tea.
“Looks scrumptious,” my friend said, with a chuckle.
I agreed and dug in. The weather outside was frightful as usual so I knew I wanted a hot bowl of soup. But which one. The menu did a nice job of explaining the dishes, which were broken up into pho, entrees — vegetarian and not — and vermicelli noodle dishes, but I was curious what the house specialty was. So I asked our server.
“Oh, it’s all kind of the same,” he said.
OK then.
We started with the classic Banh Mi, or Vietnamese sandwich. If you’ve never had one then you’ve hardly lived. It’s grilled chicken, pork or beef, carrots, cucumbers, cilantro, and more, packed into a French roll. It’s bliss. Bamboo House’s version was good — my only complaint was too much cilantro and not enough meat — but I’ve had better.
For a lunch order, my fallback when it comes to pho is usually something with meatballs. I went for the Pho Chin, Bo Vien, which has slices of brisket and meatballs. For the pho, you can choose between large ($8.65) and small ($7.65), and I went with large. No reason to skimp now.
I’m not a huge bubble tea guy, so I added a hot coffee with condensed milk ($3.50) for the same price. If you’ve had a Thai-iced tea, you know the drill.
My friend got the Bun Tom Thit Nuong Cha Gio, which is a bed of vermicelli noodles topped with grilled shrimp, grilled pork, egg rolls and all the trappings. It was on the high end of the noodle dishes, which range from $8.75 to $9.75.
Before I get to the quality of the dishes, let me explain why I love pho-style restaurants: the lack of complexity. Sure, sometimes I like my palette to go on some kind of tilt-a-whirl flavor adventure and other times I like to know exactly what I’m getting it into. Lunch on a Friday afternoon with an old friend is in the latter category. Bamboo House fit that mold perfectly. The menu is the same for lunch and dinner and it is bereft of complicated choices. Our server was right in that sense.
In another sense, though, he was wrong. There are plenty of choices on the menu that can send you in different directions, enough at least to please the pickiest of diners. Besides the style of dishes we chose, you can get rice and chow mein noodle dishes, all complemented with different styles of meats and vegetables.
As for our dishes, my soup was great. It was full of flavor, the meat was tender and not overdone, and the noodles weren’t rubbery. It was the perfect antidote to the cold November rain — Guns N’ Roses pun not intended. My friend thoroughly enjoyed his dish as well, commenting that the shrimp was cooked well and the egg rolls were especially good.
Sure, like the gray days of winter here in the Northwest, Bamboo House may blend into the bevy of choices when it comes to pho. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be comforting. I sure found it to be.
Bamboo House
22910 Bothell-Everett Hwy, 103A, Bothell; 425-485-6737; www.bamboohousebothell.com
Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., daily
Alcohol: None
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