Pho 98 offers traditional Vietnamese fare as well as more mainstream Asian cooking like the seafood with vegetables over crispy egg noodles pictured here.

PHO 98 , Location: 5937 South Blvd. Phone: 704-643-1243 Fax: 704-643-1307 Price range: $3.50-$13.95. Hours: Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Details: Eat-in or takeout, entire restaurant is nonsmoking, Saturday and Sunday buffet, on- and off-premise catering.

With so many of us trying hard to put a healthy spin on our diets after the first of the year, it’s nice to know you can get a flavorful meal in a restaurant and still enjoy the benefits of healthy eating. The cuisine of Vietnam incorporates loads of fresh vegetables and herbs and leans toward steaming and grilling as primary cooking methods in place of stir frying and deep frying.

One of my favorite Queen City Vietnamese restaurants, Pho 98, sits amid a South Boulevard strip center that definitely has seen better days. Yet, Pho 98’s bright, airy interior and fine home-cooked cuisine have welcomed a steady flow of customers since the restaurant opened in 1998.

Fine food, simply done
The restaurant is owned and operated by Thi (pronounced tea) Le. “We cook and serve the same food we eat every day,” said Le. “The secret is that we make our broth from scratch. We start by roasting the bones. We don’t use any kind of bouillon or canned broth.”

Le refers to the broth served in the pho, or traditional Vietnamese noodle soup, for which the restaurant is named.

Pho is served in oversized bowls with lots of noodles topped off with a small portion of beef or chicken, added for flavor and texture rather than bulk. Like several other Vietnamese dishes, the pho is served with a side of fresh herbs, such as mint, cilantro and Vietnamese basil, and greens, sprouts and sliced chilies.

The herbs and veggies are there to be added to taste as you eat the soup. Start with a spoon and then finish off the noodles and meat with chopsticks.

As is the case with many Asian restaurants, Pho 98’s menu gives customers dozens of items from which to choose. Topping the list of highly suggested starters are the Vietnamese spring rolls. These rolls differ from the more commonly known egg rolls in that they are not fried or steamed. The rolls are made from rice papers soaked in warm water until they reach the soft state of a cooked noodle. The soft, wet wrapper is stuffed with fresh lettuce, mint, cilantro, basil, sprouts, steamed rice noodles, raw carrots, cucumber and your choice of sautéed tofu or grilled chicken or beef. The finished rolls are dipped in peanut sauce before they’re consumed. You can order the rolls already assembled, or, if you’re up for some fun, place a couple of orders for the table to share and learn to make your own. You can order them to start, but they easily constitute a meal on their own.

A crispy alternative to the fresh-made spring rolls are deep-fried spring rolls. These small finger-sized rolls are stuffed with a shrimp and vegetable filling, then deep fried to a crispy crunch. They come 8 or 10 to a basket. One order is enough for two to share, but they’re so good you won’t want to. You can eat them as they are, dip them in the accompanying bowl of sweet vinegar sauce, or wrap them in a leaf of green lettuce with some cilantro and fresh mint.

The pan-roasted quail, a tasty start to any Pho 98 meal, is one of my personal favorites. These little birds come two to an order. They are split in half, panroasted to a golden brown crunch and served with a side dish of fresh ground pepper and wedges of lime. To eat the quail, squeeze the lime into the pepper to make a paste and then dip the quail in the mix before you sample. It’s definitely a finger food, so put the chopsticks aside.

House specialties at Pho 98 include traditional Vietnamese pancakes, or banh xeo, stuffed with shrimp, pork and steamed vegetables. Like the deepfried spring rolls, the pancakes are served with sweet vinegar sauce. To eat, cut a portion of the pancake, wrap it in a piece of green leaf lettuce along with a sprig each of fresh cilantro and mint, and dip it in the sauce.

For a bigger entrée, try the seafood with vegetables over crispy egg noodles. Many would think of this plate as mainstream Asian cuisine. Four to five different kinds of seafood are stir fried with a mix of vegetables and served on a bed of crispy egg noodles. It’s a tasty combo; my only objection is the chunks of imitation crabmeat. I’d rather have the real thing or none at all, and I found the sweet cubes of surimi paled in comparison to the other flavorful seafood in the dish. Another fabulous entrée at Pho 98 is the vermicelli with spring rolls, grilled pork and grilled shrimp. Like most Pho 98 entrées, it’s plenty for two to share. This dish comes with the same sweet vinegar sauce and accompanying herb platter that is served with many of Pho 98’s appetizers. To enjoy the dish’s varied flavors to the fullest, add the herbs and sauce to the bowl of grilled meats and vermicelli noodles. Mix it all up and dig in.

Beverages at Pho 98 include a variety of fruit shakes and soft drinks and Vietnamese iced coffee served with condensed milk. I love the fresh-squeezed lemonade and limeade and a Vietnamese specialty called chanh muoi, or salty lemonade. It’s an acquired taste, to be sure, but it grows on you. Le makes the best I’ve ever tasted, so ask if she is there to bartend before you order. If you’d like to sample a little bit of a lot of what’s on the menu at Pho 98, try the authentic Vietnamese buffet on the weekends. The buffet is served all day Saturday and at lunch on Sunday. Service is fast and friendly.

Coming to America
Le fled to this country in 1975, toward the end of the Vietnam war.

“While we were in Vietnam, my aunt worked for the United States government. She left because she had an Amer- Asian child and was afraid the communists would take the child’s life,” Le explained. “I was young and didn’t really understand it all. I left with my aunt, my cousin and my grandparents, leaving my parents and seven siblings behind. Any one of us could have gone because of my aunt’s job, but no one else wanted to go. To me it was an adventure. I thought I would stay for a month or two, see America, and then go back home.”

While living in a refugee camp, Le and her fellow emigrés got word that Vietnam had lost the war. Le realized she was here to stay. Le has lived in Rock Hill for 27 years. She came here speaking no English. Now, she is a partner in a business called Laminated Industries and speaks Vietnamese and English, both with her own special Southern accent. Laminated Industries makes custom furniture for restaurants, like the round sushi bar in Nakato’s on Highway 51 and the booths and tables in many of the area Bojangles franchises.

Le has worked to make her story one of success. She has raised four children and continues to support her parents and her brothers and sisters in Vietnam. In addition, she also serves on the board of many art and cultural organizations in Rock Hill, volunteers at church and community functions and is a proud mother and cheerleader for all of her children’s activities.

All in the family
Seven years ago, this busy single mother of four decided to open a restaurant. She smiles when she explains why.

“I had two children at home and two away at college. I must have been going through some sort of a midlife crisis. I always loved to cook and so I decided to open a restaurant.”

Le still works at Laminated Industries during the day. “The restaurant is my night job,” she laughed. “It keeps me out of trouble.” Pho 98 is most certainly a family-run establishment. Le’s cousins work with her at the restaurant. Her children, now all away at school, help out when they are in town.

Le’s children share her positive attitude and enthusiasm for work. Her oldest daughter, Chau, majored in Asian studies and economics at Harvard and then earned her master’s degree from Oxford in the same area of study. Currently she is in Africa, working for UNICEF and awaiting acceptance to Harvard Law School. She has already been accepted at Columbia Law.

Le’s son, Michael, recently graduated from Notre Dame. Her daughter Ling is a rising senior at Duke University. Le’s youngest daughter, Vyvy, is a high school senior at Milton Academy in Boston, Mass. She just received notification of early admission to Notre Dame next year.

You can go home again
After a 30-year absence, Le decided to visit Vietnam just before the 2004 Christmas holiday. Her mother had passed away in 1988, and Le considered it important to visit her grave. Early in 2004, Le experienced a scare with breast cancer. The tumor was benign, but the threat helped Le to determine priorities in her life.

“I knew it was important to see them again,” she said. “I always kept telling myself that I would go to see them when I could save up enough money to give them each $1,000, but it never seemed to be the right time. After my health issues, I reexamined my priorities and decided that it was time for the trip at last.”

Le was in Vietnam for 10 days. “It was like we had all just seen each other yesterday,” she said, “even though it had been 30 years.” Le did bring each of her siblings a gift of $1,000. Her sisters, who make the equivalent of $30 a month, were in tears. “They said it would have taken them more than a lifetime to have saved up that much money,” Le said. “I never believed how much of a difference I could make, but now I see.”

After depending on a bike for transportation for the past 50 years, Le’s brother splurged on a motorcycle. Much to Le’s delight, her brother acted like a kid in a candy shop with his new acquisition.

Vietnamese spring rolls with peanut sauce are a favorite starter at Pho 98.

Well-known Charlotte restaurant critic, food writer, cooking instructor and connoisseur of food and wine, Heidi Edidin writes "The Charlotte Weekly: Culinary Corner," a restaurant review or food feature that appears weekly. Contact Heidi with questions and restaurant, food or story ideas by email at heidi@thecharlotteweekly.com.

CW photos by Melissa Cherry.

This article first appeared in "The Charlotte Weekly" on January 21, 2005. "The Charlotte Weekly" is a free, locally owned, independent newspaper that's "About the Community, For the Community," available every Thursday in North and South Charlotte and Uptown.

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