RESTAURANT REVIEW : Never Mind Decor; Eye the Noodles

The capital of Southern California’s Vietnamese community is the city of Westminster in Orange County, but a good number of these new Americans are scattered throughout Los Angeles. The southern half of Chinatown is a Vietnamese enclave, and small concentrations of recent immigrants dot the San Fernando Valley as well. Just look at the once-quiet intersection of Reseda Boulevard and Sherman Way.

Pho So 1 is the restaurant of choice in this bustling neighborhood. I must have asked 12 people outside an adjacent supermarket for a restaurant recommendation, and every single one of them pointed me toward this place. (There are at least two other Vietnamese restaurants in the immediate vicinity.)

Nothing about Pho So 1 grabs the eye, really. It embodies the familiar noodle emporium style--boxy, brash, bright and basic. The one thing you notice is how crowded it is inside, with throngs of local residents stoking up on huge platters piled high with leafy vegetables, pickles and various other delicacies. Despite the modest appointments, this place is doing a land-office business.

The usual Vietnamese indicators are present, of course, so you know you haven’t wandered into a Thai restaurant: loud pop music, pint-sized filter coffee pots atop little porcelain cups, squiggly dessert shapes in a sliding door fridge by the cash register and those forbidding-looking squeeze bottles of hot chili sauce on all the tables. Not to worry. It’s almost impossible to eat badly here.

Even in the dead of winter, I’d start off with one of the summery drinks called sinh to. These icy suspensions, served in tall glasses, are made of fresh tropical fruits such as jackfruit, durian and custard apple. Custard apple ( sau rieng on the menu) is my favorite because it makes a thick, sweet and slurpy drink. Don’t swallow too fast or you’ll get an ice cream headache.

And don’t think this is just a warm-weather restaurant because the food can warm you up fast. The staple here is pho , a noodle soup served in enormous bowls, generally with a topping of sliced beef, beef tendon or organ meats. Almost every family has at least one bowlful on its table. The restaurant also specializes in bo 7 mon , literally “seven courses of beef,” a veritable meat feast of beef soup, salad with beef, meatballs, grilled beef, beef wrapped in tree-fragrant leaves and even beef fondue. Bring a trencherman’s appetite if you plan to order this one.

Perhaps it makes more sense to order a couple of the beef dishes separately. For instance, bo nhang dam , a simple fondue of marinated beef sliced paper-thin and boiled in an onion-infused broth. Bo sate is another good one, a sort of beef roulade with curry spices. I wouldn’t bother with chai , the traditional beef rice soup, though. It is a filling but insipid mass of broken rice and shredded beef in a peppery but otherwise flavorless broth.

Actually, the more common Vietnamese specialties in this restaurant come off with a whole lot more finesse. Even egg rolls make for a special experience here. Cha gio , as the Vietnamese version of this appetizer are called, are peppery, bite-sized cylinders stuffed with minced pork, crab, celery, carrot and clear noodles. You wrap them in little lettuce cocoons with an array of condiments--mint leaves, bean sprouts, ngo gai and aromatic parsley--then dip in nuoc mam , the sweet Vietnamese fish sauce.

I also like lunch dishes here. Their names consist of entire recipes that you cannot understand. Com bi cha suon nuong consists of a slightly sweet, slightly blackened broiled pork chop, a mound of cold, garlicky shredded pork and a kind of egg loaf flanking a mountain of boiled rice and pickled carrot and radish. Dac biet banh cuon nhan thit cha lua (whew!) is a dainty, diaphanous rice flour crepe rolled up with pork and shrimp.

A host of other Vietnamese specialties grace this large menu, mostly at bargain-basement prices. Chao tom is one of the most popular dishes the restaurant serves. It’s like sausage meat made from shrimp, wrapped around sticks of sugar cane and broiled. You eat it with a spicy, aromatic peanut sauce, overcome with ginger and anise.

And then there is the untranslated banh canh , which are thick white noodles that look unfortunately like alien worms. These utterly delicious noodles come in a thick soup with sliced bacon, whole shrimp and crab claws, just waiting to be doused with these squeeze-bottle chili sauces. Maybe the reason the dish isn’t translated is an assumption that the appearance will be unappetizing.

The logic is faulty. If we were that into appearances, we probably wouldn’t be eating here in the first place.

Suggested dishes: cha gio, $3.75; com bi cha suon nuong, $4; chao tom, $6.50; banh canh, $4.

Pho So 1, 7231 Reseda Blvd., Reseda, (818) 996-6515. Breakfast, lunch and dinner 8 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. daily. Beer only. Parking lot in rear. Cash only. Dinner for two, $10 to $25.