Pho Queen

1 Reviews on “Pho Queen”

• Roger K

  My wife had a craving for pho. We were in downtown Schenectady. I recalled hearing about a place with pho in its name. I looked it up on Google and we were off to find it at 5 pm on a Monday.First of all, if a restaurant has pho in its name you probably expect it to be Vietnamese. Contraire mon frre. This is an authentic Thai restaurant run by Thai people. On their web page they explain how the dish is originally a Chinese import whose Thai name is kuai-tiao, a generic name for various rice noodle dishes. Pho Queen offers seven variations of the dish which can include beef, pork, duck, or seafood.But the menu doesnt end there. They offer appetizers, curry dishes, stir-fried dishes, rice dishes, house specialties, and other noodle dishes. The dining room is small, it only seats about 18 at six tables, but those plush high-back seats are very comfortable. Theres an electric fireplace, and the owners have added an additional space heater or two to offset the cold winter drafts that may seep through the windows.While Pho Queen does not serve alcoholic beverages, they will allow you to bring your own with a $3 surcharge. It being one of those cold winter days we each had a cup of tea ($2.50 each). The tag on the bags said they were organic Prince of Peace. If it were warmer weather, I would have opted for a Thai Ice Tea ($2.50) or maybe a Thai Bubble Tea ($3). They also have coffee, soda, lemonade and fruit smoothies. We decide to start with something that we had never tried or even seen before, Sakoo Sai Moo ($7). These are tapioca balls slightly smaller than a golf ball, filled with steamed pork, peanut, cabbage, garlic, and scallion, wrapped in cilantro and iceberg lettuce. There are six to an order and they are delicious. I can understand how they would be excellent as street food. Easy to eat on their little skewers with delicious flavors.For my wifes pho she chose the Kuai Tiao Tom Yum Kung ($16) with fresh jumbo shrimp and rice noodles in a lemongrass and kaffir lime broth garnished with bean sprouts and cilantro. The broth was not as rich or full bodied as what weve experienced with Vietnamese pho, but it was full of flavor and the shrimp were perfectly cooked. I know my wife enjoyed it because I couldnt believe she finished the entire bowl of it.My choice was a favorite that I havent had in some time. Pad See Eww ($14) with my choice of pork for the meat, it also includes egg, Chinese kale, broccoli, soy sauce, carrot, fried garlic, and of course wide rice noodles. The flavors were really nice, although I would have preferred more char flavor from the wok in the noodles. My wife thought it was just great the way it was.Pricing is arranged so that if you choose chicken, pork, beef, tofu, or vegetable to be included in your dish it will cost $14. Shrimp or scallop is $16. Duck is $18. This way you can craft some of the dishes to your liking. We didnt have room for dessert, but the menu showed Mango Sticky Rice, Thai Custard Sticky Rice, or Taro Pearl with Coconut Milk, each $6. They also offered Fried Ice Cream for $7.If youre not too familiar with Downtown Schenectady, when you walk out of Proctors theater, turn right and go east on State Street for about two blocks. Lafayette Park will be directly in front of you. Bear to your right and you will see Pho Queen in the corner of an architecturally old building between St Georges church and the Court House. There is free parking after 6 pm on weekdays alongside the park and free parking after 5 pm on weekdays and all day on Saturday behind St Josephs church. We are already looking forward to returning to try the Green Curry.

  May 21, 2017, 10:25 pm

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