Mekong Delta is Pho Real!

Mekong Delta is the type of place you take your friend from out of town to show them how well you know your city.  Located on the relatively quiet corner of W. Saratoga St. and Liberty St., Mekong Delta is sandwiched in between the downtown neighborhoods of Westside, City Center and Mt. Vernon.  To enter, you have to walk up a steep set of stairs leading to a rowhouse, open the french doors and immediately open another door to your left.  You then walk into what appears to be an old studio apartment, but this apartment is filled with customers and smells of delicious food. The very friendly host then immediately welcomes you to their restaurant.  A Vietnamese family is in the open kitchen preparing meals and the walls feature drawings from their children and announcements to their loyal customers.

The outside of Mekong Delta reads, “Adventures of Vietnamese Cusine” and “Eat Healthy for Less Money.”  If you’ve ever eaten Vietnamese food, you know the star attraction is Pho.  Whether for budgetary concerns or an addiction or love for the the tasty snack, ramen noodles are a staple in some people’s diets.  If you’ve, like me, always had a strange love for these noodles, then you are really going to love Pho.

If ramen are the Delmarva Shorebirds then Pho is definitely the Baltimore Orioles.  Pho’s noodles are made of rice, much healthier than the fried wheat noodles featured in ramen.  The large bowls feature naturally flavored broths and meats of your choice. At that point you can flavor your bowl with as much hot sauce, jalapeños, bean sprouts, lime, green onions, white onions and thai basil of your choice.  My recommendation, throw it all in there, but pace yourself with the hot sauce until the spice hits your desire.

After first trying pho, it immediately became a favorite food of mine and I have since tried many different places in the Baltimore area.  While they have all been delicious, Mekong Delta’s pho is my favorite.   After the first sip of their broth my first thought is alway, “how did they get so many flavors in here?”  (Spicy, but sweet, and packed with flavor while not overdone!)  A big difference between Mekong Delta and many other places is the quality cuts of meat they use.  Their chicken noodle features boneless all-white meat chicken and their steak and meatball is packed with flavor and missing the attached slices of fat that can be found at other locations.

Unfortunately, I haven’t tried anything on their menu outside of their pho because it’s one of those dishes I just can’t get enough of, but their menu also features appetizers, vegetarian dishes, Vietnamese dishes and more.  I’m sure with the quality and execution of their pho, the rest of the menu is just as good.

This past week I was feeling a little bit under the weather and made several trips to Mekong Delta to help myself stay on track.  If you like soup when you catch a cold, flu or the occasional hangover, you’ll really like pho – a filling bowl of soup with all the right herbs and spices to get you feeling better!

Pho fans and pho newbies: Definitely check out Mekong Delta!  Unfortunately, Mekong Delta will be closed this week as they tend to family matters, but this family will be back soon making delicious food in Downtown Baltimore.

About the Author: Kevin Lynch

Founder and Publisher of SouthBmore.com, longtime resident of South Baltimore, and a graduate of Towson University. Diehard Ravens and O's fan, father of three, amateur pizza chef, skateboarder, and "bar food" foodie. Email me at Kevin@InceptMM.com and follow me on Twitter at @SoBoKevin.