We’ve been working our way through the Eater 38 for Chicago and finally made it to Pho Xe Tang/Tank Noodle.
No, we go up to the Broadway & Argyle area quite often to eat, shop for Asian groceries, and stop in to Gamestop, but we haven’t eaten at Tank before now. Not to say we haven’t tried. Which brings me to my first complaint: service can be pretty bad. So bad that our first visit ended with us leaving after 10 minutes of being completely ignored. This time we persevered as our goal was to eat there.
We eventually got water, and a bit later a waiter arrived to take our order. Their menu is quite extensive. Too extensive. I prefer a tight, focused menu. It gives me the confidence that there’s some attention to detail and that they aren’t trying to do everything.
Suzanne as spent some time in SE Asia and commented that it was like being in Vietnam: busy, absolutely no ambiance, bad pop music playing too loudly, and hot.
Suzanne ordered Beef & Shrimp Vermicelli and I got Shrimp cake, Pork patty Vermicelli. I’ll point out here that the inconsistent capitalization on the menu does not inspire confidence. So much for any delusions of attention to detail. And yes, I will give a restaurant a black mark for something like that. If they are sloppy with the menu, I don’t see why they won’t be sloppy in the kitchen.
The food eventually arrived.
Suzanne liked her dish, but I’m not a big fan of beef in Asian cooking. I find it often tough/chewy. I found that to be the case here. I sampled a shrimp as well and it was nicely done.
I was underwhelmed with my dish. The shrimp paste was done nicely enough, but the pork patties were a bit disappointing. The rest of the dish as just “ok”. One thing I did find lacking was a knife to cut up said patty and shrimp ball.
So, Tank was ok. Just ok. Barely OK, in my opinion. We can check it off our list and not bother going back. I’ll be happy to go back ti eating at our goto Pho/noodle spot: Pho 888, just a few doors down Argyle. As far as I’m concerned, 888 has better food, service and comes in at about 2/3 the price.
