Binh Dan Pho

This place has changes hands so many times… Maybe it’s the feng shui … Anyways, this place is right next to the Hoang Tho barber shop.
I tried the special noodle soup — the hu tieu trieu chau with the quintessential café sua da. The noodle soup was pretty cool. It had two types of noodles inside. The broth was very rich, the seafood was superfresh. THe only thing I didn’t like was how they put in the bean sprouts and herbs in the dish FOR you. I like being in control with my food, so that was a little tyrannical! But all is forgiven, since they put in the perfect amounts! Also, they are forgiven because of the Café Sua Da. Bonus ½ star for the café sua da. Shaken not stirred! I kid you not! I felt like a Vietnamese James Bond.

Had a late lunch here today — around 3:30 pm, I was the only customer in the place at this time.
Ordered the Garden Rolls and the small Phở Ga with white meat and a glass of water with a slice of lime.
The Garden rolls came out promptly accompanied by the traditional side of peanut dipping sauce with a nice thick crust of chopped peanuts. I added a squirt of Sriracha sauce to the peanut sauce and blended it in to spice the sauce up. Normally, if they have pork in the Garden Rolls, I order it without the pork — I forgot to do so today — but they were very good rolls — fresh, crispy greens and herbage — and three nice medium sized shrimp per roll.
Then the Phở came out along with the all the trimmings: All of which were fresh and in excellent condition: Basil, Eryngium foetidum (commonly known by the rustic as «Sawleaf Herb»), bean sprouts, jalapenos, and a juicy lime.
After adding all of these ingredients, I tasted the broth. Meh. Somewhat disappointing. Again — another instance where the broth is lacking the chicken fat essense — chicken fat globules — as the eloquent Jeff W. would say.
The white chicken meat that was added to the soup had bit of cartilage and other crunchy, chewy bits in them — as if they had scraped the bottom of the chicken barrel.
So up front, I dosed the entire bowl of broth with Sriracha — something needed to save the day.
The place is spacious, there is a stage in one corner with sound/​A/​V equipment for what I assume is Karaōke. There were at least five large flat screen HD displays mounted on the walls of the place — playing a Vietnamese show that was focused on food and narrated in Vietnamese — so I have no idea what was being said — I felt like I was watching the Vietnamese equivalent of the Food Network.
As Amanda B. has pointed out in her review — there is a $ 20 minimum if you want to pay with a credit card.
Service was good.
If I had been rating the place solely on the Garden rolls, I would have given them 4 stars — but the quality of the broth is heavily weighted, and drags the overall score down to 2 stars.

Binh Dan Phở is a new establishment tucked away within the Eden center mall. The large, open interior features a high ceiling with brightly-​painted plaster (?) walls and three flatscreen TVs. There is also a little stage and what appears to be a band and karaōke set-​up.
We went around lunchtime on a Sunday afternoon and the place was packed. The food took a little longer to come out than you would expect, but it was absolutely delicious. In fact, I would say it equals or even surpasses the venerable Phở 75, and my companion (a very experienced phở eater) agreed.
In addition to phở, they had a couple of noodle and rice dishes which we did not even countenance.
They appeared to have a full bar, but it looked like they had liquor tucked away under the bar proper.
When we went to pay, the gentleman behind the counter put some of the money in the fully-​functioning cash register and some in a white bucket next to it, also making change out of the bucket. No receipt. Interesting…
Smoking is allowed inside the restaurant. $ 20 minimum for credit cards.