Pho Grand

A while ago one of our regular FB readers, Mee, recommended the com chien bo luc lac (fried rice with "shaking" beef cubes) at Pho Grand. Just on the other side of the park at Chrystie, Pho Grand should have been like all the other Viet restos in Chinatown, that is to say Chinese run restaurants serving Vietnamese food. But we were totally delighted with the comforting, basic nature of the fried rice with bo luc lac. The beef cubes definitively tasted more Chinese than Vietnamese, but the sweetness was just right, applied with a deft touch and not overly cloying. It's a good thing the mysterious abundance of foreign tourists and local hipsters did not deter us from lunch. Next time we're going to try what all the other locals were eating, pho suon nuong (a bowl of pho with a grilled pork chop on the side). (I know, right? I've never heard of this either).
Pho Grand, 277 Grand St, NY, NY 10002 (btwn Forsythe & Eldridge)