it's always good going out to new restaurants with a bunch of people, especially when the menu is rather large and it would take you many return visits to try a good selection of the food. this is definitely the case when eating ethnic food (like in chinatown).

last week my college friends decided to meet for dinner at the choo choo restaurant. i've always walked by this place, but have only ever gone in once, a long, long time ago. so to me, this was a new restaurant.

the name of the restaurant is not choo choo restaurant, as you might expect. there is a neon choo choo train in the front window, which is why we (my friends) call it that. the real name of the place is pho xe lua (a viet-thai restaurant).

with nine of us there, we were ready to try everything, and we did.

the salt baked squid was better than the last time i had them at neighboring sang kee, but not as good as the when the dish is spot on there.

the papaya salad with shrimp and pork could, and should have been pre-dressed with the vinegary/not-so-spicy chile garlic sauce, which would have allowed for the green papaya to soak up the vinegar and take on some sort of flavor (raw, as is, this particular papaya was tasteless). [just to mention, i've had the best version of this dish at thai square, in arlington, va: very spicy and highly flavored with shrimp!]

the snails in lemongrass and hot peppers was ok - i'm not a connoisseur of snails, but they taste very similar to mussels, but a bit more firm. i'm guessing they had been cooked a tad bit longer than they should have been, leading to a tougher texture [or maybe i'm wrong, because again, i'm not a snail snob]. we were served a big bowl of them, with a little dish of toothpicks. you are supposed to remove the "foot" part of the snail, which is hard and similar to the shell itself, and then you use the toothpick to pry the snail out of its shell. they were tasty, and i would try the snails with coconut and basil if i were there again with a group willing to give it a try.

we also ordered frog legs in garlic butter, but i just wasn't feeling it. i passed on it, but cavin took a liking to them. i've only every had frog legs once before, many, many years ago, and i remembered them tasting like chicken.

while cavin ordered pho, i just couldn't do it because it was already so hot in the restaurant. so i opted for #305: minced shrimp on sugar cane, grilled pork balls, and bbq pork on vermicelli noodles. it was quite delicious. it was served with a side of the vinegary chile sauce, similar, if not the same, as the sauce used for the papaya salad, and the raw flank steak we ordered. one complaint was that the entire dish was served in one bowl (with lettuce at the bottom of the bowl), so it was difficult to get at the noodles. but that is a tiny negative and i would re-order this dish again any day. (and for $5.50, it's a complete steal!)

i tasted cavin's pho (#114: beef balls rice noodle soup - beef in the shape of balls, not "beef balls"!) and while it was good, i thought the broth was heavy on the star anise and i think i prefer pho 75. but that's just one opinion.

after dinner, we walked a few blocks to zen teahouse to end our meal (not our night, though) with bubble tea. my cold taro bubble tea was pretty good, and since they have hot bubble tea, i might opt for the hot taro the next time i stop by.

when we go to chinatown this friday, we'll probably try another restaurant, but maybe we'll give zen teahouse another whirl!

pho xe lua
907 race St (btwn n 9th st & n 10th st)
philadelphia, pa 19107
(215) 627-8883

zen teahouse
225 n. 11th street
philadelphia, pa 19107
(215) 629-4848

Labels: philly, seafood