East Idaho Eats: New shack with authentic Vietnamese food brings a little bit of Asia to Rexburg
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REXBURG — A little bit of Asia has arrived in Rexburg — it got here in a bowl of delicious broth, noodles, meat, and veggies — and it will leave you wanting to come back for more.
Kingdom of Pho, a new Vietnamese food shack, opened on March 1 and sold out on its opening day. Wayne Vitali owns the restaurant with his wife Sarah Vitali.
Pho is a popular Vietnamese soup that can be found throughout Vietnam. Pronounced as “fuh”, the soup dish is a mixture of delicious broth, noodles, and various toppings.
Vitali said he grew up in California where he was surrounded by different cultures that brought authentic Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese food.
“I grew up eating pho. It was one of my favorite dishes. I just loved it,” said Vitali.
Vitali decided he wanted to bring quality Vietnamese Pho to Rexburg after he couldn’t find anything quite like it in the area.
“This one specifically (that I make) has beef bone broth made from scratch. We have a lot of spices and herbs such as cardamom and cloves… just to give it that boost of flavor,” he said. “Bone broth essentially by itself is very bland so you have to mix it up. Then you have rice noodles, which are gluten-free. Then it’s topped with a lot of toppings. You can put white onions, green onions, cilantro, Thai basil, bean sprouts or jalapeños.”
You can choose to have beef in the pho or you don’t have to. Vitali said his meat is sourced locally in Sugar City. He gets his spices and herbs from an Asian market in Utah once a month to stock up.
He said there are different sauces that you can put with pho such as soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and sriracha, which can be used to dip the meat in.
The broth traditionally takes hours to make to get it just right.
“I’m up from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. doing one batch of broth. I wake up at 5 a.m. to come here again and do the second (batch),” Vitali explained.
Right now, Vitali says he has three different types of bowls he sells. He sells the Yummy which is a smaller bowl, the Scrumpshi which is a bigger bowl, and the Lonely which is meatless.
Kingdom of Pho is located at 250 West Main Street in Rexburg in the Wolfe Lighting & Accents parking lot.
It’s open Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Click here to visit the website or click here to “like” Kingdom of Pho’s Facebook page.
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