It’s been a few months since Bida Saigon added vegetarian broth to the menu, and I’ve been so wrapped up in chowing down on vegan pho every few weeks that I totally forgot to write a blog post about it.
A whole post? For one dish? Hell, yes! Knoxville has vegan pho now and I’m going to celebraaaaate.
Pho (pronounced “FUH”) is one of my favorite foods. Hot savory broth, slurpy noodles, chewy fried tofu, fresh lime juice, green onions, and tons of fresh herbs and bean sprouts mixed in for flavor and texture. Oh, and that sublime chili oil.
Bida Saigon has always offered tofu as one of the protein options available with their pho, but they only recently added the veggie broth. Still, you don’t need to order “tofu pho with veggie broth”—you can just say “veggie pho,” as one server pointed out to me.
Your bowl of noodles and broth will come with a plate of leafy condiments—the bean sprouts and lime you’ll probably recognize, but the others are Thai basil and culantro (a.k.a. long or Mexican coriander).
If you like it spicy, I highly suggest you skip the sriracha in favor of the chili oil in the little pot on the table. It may be intense, but it’s the perfect complement for the broth. That said, because the oil stays mostly on the surface, an over-eager pho-eater can easily splash it into her eye while slurping noodles and spend 10 minutes with a cold compress while her pho gets cold. Theoretically.
Bida Saigon is located on Ray Mears Boulevard across from the Downtown West theater. For the ol’ GPS, the address is 8078 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919.
