It is slowly going to be an impossible mission to try each and every new place, to eat everywhere, write about everything. But what is worse - or better - is to get to really cool places because there are so many openings nowadays.
For instance regarding Aboszolút Pho I was flirting with the idea of going to the place and later a made my mind. I usually arrived before or after opening hours, but finally last week I could taste their soup, hurray. The place is so small if you don't watch yourself after stepping in, you almost stepped out of it. In this picture you can see the 70% of the restaurant.
The other 30% is that little counter where you can find shelter. There is absolutely no problem with it although it is a bit more difficult to eat Vietnamese food than a Hungarian sandwich. So if guests get used to going there like to the Bors on the other side of the street, there will be serious fights, stabbings and tribal strifes for the seats.
This why:
This is the pho. You have to pronounce it as 'fʌ'. It is a Vietnamese soup (1000 HUF) full of things that are really good for my throat which is became quite dried today morning because of the heating. It wouldn't even be a silly thing to start the day with this, because in Vietnam soup is served in the morning. But here there is no chance for that because the restaurant opens at 5 pm.
This is good anyway.
Pho is a real superb dish though it isn't so overcomplicated: there are nice and huge pieces of thinly sliced beef, some vegetables, Cantonese rice vermicelli and some kind of spice. That's all. I also put quite a lot of sriracha sauce in it which is made of chili so to be really hot. This soup makes sense this way.
Pho is basically eaten by chop sticks and it could also happen in Vietnam that some liquid remains in the bowl. Here in Hungary you no one would risk it so ideally with a complicated method you eat it with a spoon and with sticks at the same time. And after a while you realize that you don't need any witchcraft, you can simply eat it with a spoon. Let chopsticks be for those who grown up with that.
Otherwise the soup is really great, fresh and it has a real undeniable Asian taste, what you cannot say to most of the Asian restaurants in Budapest. It is more or less filling, though I am sure there will be others who will also try the caramelized pork ribs with jasmine rice and pickled green mustard, which takes 1100 HUF. It is said to be really good.
As for me I wasn't hungry anymore so I'll try it next time.
But the soup is strongly recommended and the Kazinczy utca became definitely much better with it.
Abszolút Pho
Budapest, Kazinczy u. 52.
Tu-Fr: 17:00-23:00
Sa: 18:00-23:00
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