PDQ Deli at Tahoma Market

6937 W Lake Blvd.
Tahoma, CA 96142
(Lake Tahoe-ish)
(530) 525-7411
Website

When anyone tells you that you can't get a good sandwich outside of the Philadelphia area, you should believe them. Time and time again, I am let down by poor imitations and this is just another example of why you should NOT ever go into a sandwich shop outside of the Northeast corridor with high expectations. Unless you're setting the bar at Subway.

I hadn't realized this before setting out to eat at PDQ, but it's a Wisconsin-based chain with shops mostly in and around Madison and Milwaukee with one outpost in California - right on Lake Tahoe. I guess that's why the locals are none the wiser - it looks and feels like a good old fashioned mom-n-pop deli.

It's deceiving, yes. But when the views are this breathtaking, who really cares what you're eating, right?

Wrong. I always care what I'm eating. I took my two sandwiches up to the top of the peak and by the time I sweat out most of the previous night's booze, I was ravenous and couldn't wait to get down on some mouth-watering pesto bread filled with turkey and cheese.

But the bread was bland and the thick slices of turkey must have been sitting out for who knows how long. If your deli meats aren't sliced fresh to order (and you don't see a deli slicer on premises - hindsight is always 20/20) then there's no reason to ingest it.

They are big sandwiches, so it's a pretty good value, but when you can't even taste the cheese, mayonnaise or the pesto in a pesto themed bread, you're better off chewing on some cardboard for free. The bread was soft, almost like white Italian sandwich bread, which is probably why they're getting a one cheesesteak rating (I was hesitant in giving any).

Everything I mentioned above goes for their jalapeño cheese bread and roast beef. More thick-cut, old and flavorless deli slices surrounded by regular white bread and some old tomatoes and romaine.

I really wanted to like it, but after discovering the PDQ convenience store chain, it's nearly impossible to say anything good about these sandwiches. Yes, I may have made a mistake in choosing this as a blog site...

Obviously it's a long way from Wawa (and even Sheetz), so until the rest of the country can figure out how to combine gas stations and fresh & tasty sandwiches, I'll just stick to what I know.

Cho Cho San

2018 Hamilton St,
Philadelphia, PA 19130
215) 557-1919
Website

In a moment of weakness, while I was hitting Rite Aid for some Claritin, I decided to get some Japanese food because I didn't feel like doing the Whole Foods thing and I had just had a Wawa the night before...

Enter Cho Cho San. I'm going to keep this one short and sweet, even though nothing about the experience was sweet, save for the salad. And that's saying A LOT.

The lunch specials are severely overpriced and I should have walked away when I noticed page after page of the menu changing cuisines. From American-Chinese, to sushi, to Korean, to Japanese and then some, this place just needs to pick an identity.

The salad was by far the highlight of this sad, depressing meal. Your standard ginger-sesame dressing on iceberg with shredded carrots is sometimes just what the doctor ordered. If anyone has a recipe for this stuff, please do share. I try to replicate it at home, but it's never as good as the real thing. I'm pretty sure it's miso paste that gives it the umami, but I've yet to try it - this stuff is like crack.

And then there was beef teriyaki. Listed at $9.95 with tax $10.75. I received 7 bite-sized pieces of mediocre beef, not even thinly sliced. 2 pieces were so chewy I had to spit them out. See those udon noodles under there? I thought it was a pleasant surprise too! Oh, I'm sorry, did I say noodles? I meant one-thousand raw onions.

No thank you. Terrible on so many levels. Forget I ever went here.

Union Taco

712 W Girard Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19123
(267) 455-0445
Website

I read somewhere (FB) that a new spot was opening at 7th and Girard and for their inaugural lunch, they were handing out free tacos. Now, this is a long way from my office in Center City, but when I read that, "Attendees get two tacos on the house," (thank you Michael Klein) AND that "Opening torta and taco options include Pork Carnitas with Pomegranate, Spinach and Barbeque Sauce; Sliced Kobe Beef with Figs and Housemade Tres Queso; Flash Fried Mahi-Mahi with Soy Ginger, Carrot Slaw and Cabbage; Grilled Seasonal Vegetables with Huitlacoche; Pork Cheeks with Pickled Tomatillo Salsa and Pork Jus; and Pulled Chicken with Chile Relish," I COULDN'T RESIST THE TREK.

UGH. So there I was. All the way up in no man's land, expecting to get two mouthwateringly described tacos from a joint whose logo is more like that of a tattoo parlor than an eatery. And so we entered.

There were a bunch of people there and when I got to the counter, they took my name, not my order. If you don't already recognize it, this is Tiffin's old pizza shop. I was a big fan of the Tiffin pizzas, but I guess they closed up shop. Now, if you know something I don't know about Tiffin, Etc. do share...

5 minutes later, my name was called and I got ONE taco. One chicken taco, which I guess had chile relish and some crema. Now, the reason you see two here is because I convinced a coworker to make the destination lunch trip with me - we both had high hopes.

Alas, we were thoroughly let down. Bland and slopped together with old iceberg and a random smattering of other chopped bits, it was not very memorable. Mind you, this was three weeks ago, but my notes remind me of the vividly disappointing memory well enough.

Maybe they've improved, maybe their food is better than it was on opening day, we all know how that goes, but the false advertising is what really let me down the most. The sweet painting was no consolation.

If you make a public claim, you'd better stand by your word. It is this failure to fulfill their announcement and their delivery of one (well two in this case) flavorless taco that leaves Union Tacos at the lowest end of my list of recommendations.

Pho Ha

610 Washington Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19147
(215) 599-0264

So before I go any further, I want to take a moment to remind any loyal readers, and to inform any new readers, that I hate Pho. I have had it at least a dozen times, and I have never been impressed. Everyone rants and raves about how amazing it is, and in my opinion, its just a bowl of under-seasoned broth with some scraps of meat tossed in, served with a side of bean sprouts and basil. The apparent allure is adding in your own ingredients to make the giant bowl of hot water (and cheap cuts of unseasoned meat) palatable. It’s as though no one had ever had a good bowl of ramen, or Tom Yum, or soft tofu, all of which deserve the cult status of Pho, yet are overlooked in favor of their mediocre Vietnamese counterpart.

That all being said, I hadn’t given it another try in almost a year, so I thought that perhaps on this trip, I would find the missing piece to begin to love this dish. Pho Ha came highly recommended, so I made a trip over.

When you walk into Pho Ha, you will stand around awkwardly until you are whisked away to a table.

Upon arrival at your table, you will be expected to know what you are ordering when you sit down. If not, a non-plussed waiter will stand over you rolling his eyes and awaiting your decision. For the love of God, DO NOT ask for a few minutes to look over the menu.

A large bowl of pho is almost comically large, and at the low low price of $6.60 you will wonder how they do it. Until you see the meat.

I ordered a combo (#45) featuring brisket, flank, tendon, fatty & crunchy flank. Lots of meat. All of it looked the same shade of grey, and for the most part it all tasted the same. The tendon got lost in the giant chopstick pinches of noodles. I used about everything I could find on the table to bring some life to this broth boat, but it was still as mediocre as I had remembered. There is just no level of care put into this dish (not hard to believe when it is served in under a minute and a half).

I brought along some spicy beer to match what I was expecting to be an explosion of flavor.

I am a sucker for some summer rolls, so I grabbed an order of them as well. They were fine. Probably my favorite part of the meal - and still hitting pretty low.

I also ordered the "Com Bi, Cha, Suon Nuong" or julienne pork rice plate.

The platter was another reasonably priced value at $6.60 and literally came out as a pile of indiscernible foods.

Although the pork was well seasoned – it was glossed with a sort of sweet and sour glaze – and had a nice charred flavor, it was decidedly not julienned.

There was some sort of eggy-pate-glass noodle thing that tasted earthy - and when I say "earthy," I mean to say it tasted sort of like dirt.

This tomato was buried under the pate. If your tomato looks more white than red, don't serve it at all.

So I admit I am not a huge pho fan. In reality, I would rather eat about anywhere else than at a pho place. If you love it, feel free to disagree. If you have never been, please go and decide for yourself. As for me, I know which soups are the real deal, and I will continue championing their consumption. You can keep the pho.

Pure Tacos

1935 Chestnut St
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 496-9393
Website

Pure Tacos opened this past week, a transplant from the original in Ocean City, New Jersey. Perhaps this cuts it for tacos "down the shore" but it is way off the mark compared to all of its Philly competition.

All of their food is gluten free, which is great if you are a glute, but unfortunately for them, I think all of the flavor must have been stored in the gluten they got rid of. They offer two menus, one "standard" and one "premium." I was happy to see my favorite authentic tacos on the standard menu, such as chicken-bacon-ranch and cheeseburger.

They have a Chipotle-esq assembly line. They are missing the wide selection of fresh ingredients that the chain burrito joints offer. They DO have lettuce though, in case you want yours over a salad. They will put it over lettuce. Just lettuce.

I decided to try a side of their guacamole and "naranja" hot salsa which claimed to contain peaches, habanero peppers, green onions, garlic, cider vinegar. I tasted none of these. In fact, it wasn't even hot. The guac had zero salt in it, and no citrus. It was similar to the kind you can buy pre-made at the grocery store. Not good in the least. I was very disappointed in these two sides.

I tried two gourmet tacos and two standards. On the left is the BBQ pulled pork, which comes with braised pork shoulder, barbecue sauce, sour cream and corn salsa. I was really sad they skimped on the corn. Oh wait, did I say skimped? I meant went way overboard with the corn. On the right was the chipotle beef brisket with spiced braised beef, pickled jalapenos, hand picked cilantro, diced onion, citrus guacamole and choice of salsa. These tacos tasted like nothing. Honestly, I was so disappointed (and mad that I just spent $20 on four tacos, a small guac and salsa and no drink), that I barely wanted to try the standards. Also, the shells were tough to get over. They were a cross between hard corn tortillas, and stale soft corn tortillas. It was incredibly strange.

The 'citrus guacamole' was terribly smooth here, and just b-a-d.

On to the standards. I decided to order two lettuce tacos.

Oh wait, never mind, there is chicken-bacon-ranch hidden under that head of iceberg lettuce. Guess what? It was also really bad.

I would be dumbfounded if it turned out that the ground beef was actually cooked with a single spice. It was among the most bland ground beef I have ever eaten. Maybe glutes hate flavor?

Also, it was greasy as hell. Look at that meat poolie.

All in all, I would never go back to Pure Tacos. To be quite honest, I left Pure Tacos without taking more than a bite of each item and went directly to Shake Shack. I do have good news, however, as the line at Shake Shack is way less than it was for the first couple weeks, and a Shake Stack only took about 10 minutes to be in my stomach from the time I arrived there. So that's something, right?