On Monday, my Cousin Poly was in town. I had originally planned to take him to Zinc Bistro for dinner, but he had a craving for some Vietnamese food, so I took him to Noodles Ranch instead. It has been a few years since I've been there and I remembered that it was pretty decent. I would have taken him to Pho Avina or Da Vang, but Noodles Ranch was much closer.
We ordered a Green Papaya Salad and Banh Xeo to share and a Pho Tai for each of us.
The Green Papaya Salad came first. The taste of the salad was somewhat off, or flat. I think it was because the papaya was too ripe, making it not as crispy as it should have been.
Next up was the Banh Xeo. It looked very different from what I'm used to. The taste was ok but the lettuce leaves that came with the dish were way too small to wrap the pancake.
The Pho Tai was pretty good. I would have like the broth itself to have been much hotter, but the flavor was good. Sorry for the dark picture...
I would say that overall, the food was mediocre. If I were in the neighborhood, then I might come again, but for now, I'll stick with Pho Avina, Little Saigon, and Davang.
For dessert, I took my cousin to Arlecchino Gelateria to try Phoenix's "best" gelato. I had a scoop of nocchiola (hazelnut) and peach and Poly had scoops of coconut, Cortina (almond w/ lingonberry), and chocolate. Everything was fantastic, as usual. For our "second" round, we both tried a scoop of Valentino (pomegranate w/ rose and lavender), a flavor that I've never seen before at the shop. This one tasted quite strange to me. Poly mentioned that it tasted like "marinara sauce". Oh well, it definitely wasn't my favorite flavor of gelato. Maybe it's an acquired taste! =)
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