Pho Capital, Pickett Shopping Center in Fairfax

[Sundae in the Park]

Pho Capital is a new place in the Trader Joe's plaza in Fairfax at the corner of Little River Turnpike and Pickett. It's clean and new and nicely decorated for a pho shop and has some offerings, including bun, rice, and some typical Vietnamese hot cooked dishes (caramel pork, etc.), above and beyond pho. The broth is...fine, a lot of star anise but light, without much depth, and very much thirst-inducing after the fact. I much prefer the broth over at Pho Thang Long in the Nutley Street plaza (which is in turn still trumped by the broth over at Pho 75), which is too bad, since this is closer to my house. Their spring rolls are better, however, with crisp and crackling skin and a pork and shrimp filling. The amusing thing is that they have a pho eating challenge - if you can finish "every drop" of the super bowl (regularly $14.95) in 15 minutes, they will give it to you gratis and put your picture on the wall. It looks from the pictures to be a not-that-much larger bowl than the large, so I guess that main challenge is guzzling the boiling-hot soup.