My wife has seemingly been on a tear lately finding restaurants on her own - especially when she's out with friends or on her own when I'm out of town. (Which has been a lot lately.) A couple months ago, she noticed a new restaurant had taken the place of one of our local favorites who suddenly closed their doors in May of last year. In a food funk one evening, she suggested we head over to give Pho Fusion & Bar a try. "I've been there a couple times," she said. "I think you'd like it."
We had grown fond of (the now-closed) Combine over in East Moline, so we were thrilled in 2022 when they put in The Combine Grill in a spot that had housed a couple previous restaurants along Utica Ridge Road on the far northeast side of Davenport. The menu wasn't as upscale as The Combine's main location, but it was still good. But it was also pretty expensive. And they had a brunch on Sunday that they wouldn't waver from when we would try to go in to get a burger and a bloody mary. We went a few times, but we weren't surprised when that location shut down in May of 2023.
Michael Thach was one of the long-time servers at the former Tantra Thai restaurant. When owner Kevin Zhang sold Tantra last year it opened an opportunity for Michael Thach and his father to take over The Combine Grill in the summer of 2023. Thach's father used to own a Vietnamese restaurant about 30 years ago and he brought his recipes on board along with a number of Thai favorites that his son learned when he was at Tantra. When we found out that it was going to be a Vietnamese fusion restaurant - traditional Vietnamese food fused with SE Asian cuisine - we were intrigued.
The restaurant opened in late October of last year, but for some reason we just never tried it. Well, I should say I didn't feel like trying it through the winter last year and into the spring. Finally, my wife tried it with a friend of hers when I was on the road one time this past summer. She said it was very good. My wife had been back one or two times since and thought it was very good. Hungry and not really knowing what I wanted to eat after coming home from a week on the road, I agreed to give Pho Fusion & Bar a try.
Subtle changes were made to what use to be The Combine Grill, but not by much. They had some faux green vine leafs (I really don't know what it was) hanging from the ceiling over the bar and they still had the televisions up on the wall as The Combine Grill was trying to pass itself off as an upscale sports bar.
The dining area was pretty much the same, as well. Comfortable padded booths lined the two walls of the dining room with tables in the middle of the floor. More televisions were on the wall above the booths, but no sports were on. Three or four of the televisions had aerial videos of Vietnam including the Golden Bridge, various temples and beach scenes.
We were led to one of the booths under the televisions and given a couple menus to look through. They were fairly busy in Pho Fusion that evening and the bartender had to step out from behind the bar and help with tables. Her name was Julia and she was friendly and helpful all night long. She got our drink order - a very dirty Tito's martini for my wife and a Kona Big Wave for me. My wife had a pretty tough day at work.
Along with our drink orders my wife immediately ordered some of the pork and shrimp spring rolls. They came with a hoisin dipping sauce with chopped peanuts on top. The rice paper-wrapped rolls were filled with chopped pork, a single shrimp, lettuce and cilantro. They were pretty big, but very tasty.
In addition to appetizers such as the spring rolls, the menu featured salads, soups and - of course - pho. The pho came in two sizes, a regular-sized bowl and a large bowl was available for $4 more. Brisket, meat balls, short rib, and rib-eye round beef were available proteins to add to the pho. Vietnamese specials such as a pork chop with vermicelli noodles; grilled chicken and noodles; and rice flour crepes filled with pork belly, shrimp, bean sprouts and scallions served with a fish sauce. They had a number of wok items on the menu including fried rice dishes; spicy pad eggplant; and noodle dishes with choices of protein items or vegetarian options. They also had curry soups and about a half-dozen seafood dishes.
My wife ended up ordering the panang curry - a rich and creamy curry broth with coconut milk with chopped red bell peppers, mushrooms and sweat peas mixed in. She had a choice of protein to add to the curry and she chose chicken. She had a choice of either white rice or brown rice to mix in with the curry. My wife said that it was a bit spicy, but excellent in flavor.
I got the spicy basil noodles - wide-cut egg noodles mixed with sliced green and red bell peppers, scallions and egg with a lot of crushed red pepper in a basil sauce. The noodles came with a choice of protein and I got beef to go along with it. The first bite - WOW! It was definitely spicy, but after a couple bites my tongue got used to the spiciness and I was able to enjoy a number of flavors between the noodles, basil sauce, scallions and peppers. It was absolutely delicious. It was sort of a mix between Italian and SE Asian cuisine. And I love both styles.
Once we finished up, Julia came over to clean the table. I had eaten all of mine, but my wife still had some of her chicken panang curry with the brown rice left. Julia brought out a small container for her to fill for leftovers. "So what did you guys think," she asked as she handed me the check.
"I've eaten here three times now and I've never had a bad meal," my wife replied. I had to agree - even though this was my first time there, my spicy beef basil noodles were outstanding. I especially liked the fact that they had Kona Big Wave available, but the food stood out. With Tantra under new ownership (and a new name - Lotus Asian Bistro), this will probably be our "go-to" for SE Asian cuisine for the foreseeable future.
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