8613 Olive Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63132
(314) 997-1218
Good for: casual dates

Pho Long, a little Vietnamese restaurant on Olive Boulevard near I-170, boasts a 60-year-old recipe for pho—pronounced “fuh”—that originated in Vietnam at a restaurant still owned by the same family.

If you are familiar with Vietnamese food, you’ve probably heard of pho, a flavorful soup with meat or tofu, clear noodles and various vegetables with herbs and spices. The pho at Pho Long is heavenly, as one might expect.

Pho Long itself is a modest-looking place. You walk right into the one-room restaurant, which has green and orange walls and about nine tables. Regulars come from all around the Olivette area. The service is perfect, and the food is brought out rather quickly.

A warning, however: Don’t come to Pho Long if you’re not in the mood for soup and noodles. The menu offers various appetizers like egg rolls, spring rolls and fried tofu with veggies, but the entrees are generally of the pho variety or the very similar “noodle bowls.”

The spring rolls at Pho Long are encased in the familiar papery rice-flour wrap, which is springy and stretchy. Inside of the casing is a very thin strip of chewy pork. The accompanying hoisin sauce adds a pleasant tanginess.

The entree itself was a steaming bowl of pho, cloudy with juices of meat and vegetables that had been slowly simmered overnight. I tried the beef noodle soup with oxtail—“Pho Duoi Bo.” The soup is full of beef strips, and the oxtail in the dish is, quite literally, a cut of the tail of a male ox.

Oxtail is often used in soups because it requires a long slow braising, which helps the meat become very tender. By the time it reaches the table, the meat is practically falling off the bone. It slips right off and melts in your mouth. Besides the meat, the dish is also full of glassy noodles and green onions. You also get a bowl of extras to add to the entrée: Basil, cilantro and parsley bring a light herby flavor to the soup, and bean sprouts add textural variety with their resilient crunchiness.

The soup, full of noodles, meat and a dense, flavored broth, would actually be more than enough to satisfy a hungry diner for only $8.

I made the (happy) mistake of ordering too much with an avocado shake. When a restaurant offers durian, jackfruit and avocado shakes—along with the more-accessible mango and strawberry—it seems a bit foolish to pass up the experience. The avocado shake was excellent—sweet, creamy and rich all at once.

I recommend that Pho Long not remain just an idea pho too long in your minds. Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy a quality Vietnamese dish with 60-years of experience in pleasing customers worldwide.