California Pho, a relatively new Vietnamese restaurant located in Davenport, combines an open and welcome atmosphere with authentic Vietnamese food.

As implied by their name, California Pho specializes in pho, which is a Vietnamese soup comprised of broth, rice noodles, some herbs, and meat.  The restaurant has 15 varities of pho available on their menu.  However, they also have other Vietnamese favorites, such as Vietnamese Style Fried Rice and a variety of shareable dishes.

My meal consisted of the egg rolls as an appetizer and the Pho with Vietnamese Beef Meatballs.

The egg rolls came to our table with almost no wait time and we’re delicious. The filling consiseted of pork, shrimp, taro, carrots, cabbages, and glass noodles, with an amazing Vietnamese dipping sauce.  They were fairly standard, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with standard when it is done so well.

As soon as the egg rolls were finished, the pho had arrived.  It came in a large bowl with bean sprouts and cilantro on the side. There were also certain pho spoons and chopsticks available to use. After quiclkly Googling the best way to eat pho, it was time to dig in.

According to the website I was looking at, the best place to start was with the broth.  The broth had strong, very savory flavors.  A bowl of the broth honestly would have been a satisfying meal in itself.  Add in the noodles and meatballs as extra flavor, and it was almost as if there were multiple courses in the bowl, all which were as tantalyzing as the one before.  Even the leftovers the next day retained the flavors.

The restaurant is also owned by a family who were making the rounds checking on customers.  I actually ended up buying a coupon book from their young daughter as a fundraiser for her school.  It was a very friendly and welcoming environment.

If you are looking for authentic Vietnamese food in the Quad Cities, look no further than California Pho in Davenport.