Lemongrass

I recently went to Lemongrass Vietnamese restaurant on 12th ave full of excitement for a bowl of vegetarian pho.

In addition to having a vegan broth, my current qualifications for what is a "good" bowl of pho include:

1. Soft (NOT DEEP FRIED!) tofu
2. Interesting selection of veggies
3. Broth that gets its goodness from more than just MSG

What arrived at the table looked exquisite... nice soft, white tofu, and a selection of veggies that included broccoli, baby bok choy, green beans, carrots and more. But I took one slurp of the broth and had a, wait, WHAT? moment on my tongue.

This ol' gal has gotten quite adept at tasting the foul or flesh (or fish) when it sneaks into my food. A check with the waitress confirmed that, in spite of the fact that vegan broth is standarly used in some OTHER soups, the "veggie" pho will be made with meat broth unless otherwise specified. Ah.

I'm glad to know this, and I would consider visiting again in spite of the broth confusion because of the surprisingly hard to find soft tofu and nice veggies.