 That's a big one. Oh, yeah, this one. Damn, yo, that's very alive, guys. Very alive. I'm sorry! Yo, what's going on, everybody? Welcome to another episode of $20 Foods. This is a series where I'm going to be exploring $20 dishes. That's premium enough, but not too expensive. Boom! I'm actually really excited because in this episode, I'm going to be exploring two different bowls of $20 pho. Pho is usually something that you can get for anywhere from $8 to $10 in America. Maybe if it's a nice bowl, it's $13 or $14, but it's never $20. So, guys, is $20 pho worth it? Can it be worth it? I'm going to let you know in this episode. Let's go. Okay, so I'm here at Dip Tan Tan, which is a Vietnamese seafood restaurant in Rosemey, California. And if you guys have ever seen our channel, you know that we actually eat a lot of beef food. This menu is huge. I mean, they have crab, they have prawns, they have fish. They have everything ranging from an $8 from a chili pork bowl to $100 tomahawk steak. So today, I saw this on the menu. I had to get the $21.99 lobster pho and then also the $19.99 Wagyu beef pho. To be honest, that price for lobster is not that bad even though that's a lot for a bowl of pho. So I'm going to taste the lobster, see if it's fresh, see if it's good, see if it's worth $20. All right, so this is kind of crazy because just for $20, you get to pick the lobster fresh. So if you guys don't know, you know, the lobster is fresh here. It's actually flown in from Maine. Maine lobster is the best. So basically, I'm going to go tell Ben right over here which lobster I want. He's going to put it in the bow. So that's a big one. Oh yeah, this one. Man, he... Yeah, you know, they're very alive, guys. Very alive. Ooh, this one's nice. I'm sorry, my man. But I choose you. I'm the only one who set up this restaurant. Let me watch it at the restaurant. Wow, wow, wow, wow. I'm in Rosemead, California. I am not in Vegas. I am in the 626 and this bowl of pho came in only at $21.99. Man, I'm going to be straight up, guys. Already this lobster is pretty big for $20 because if you've ever been to any other seafood restaurant, you would know that they could probably serve this lobster by itself for like $30 to $35. I'm pretty into pho and the first thing you've got to do with pho is taste the broth. Taste this broth real quick. Pretty light broth. It's nice. I do taste some of that lobster. It's not the deepest beef broth that I've had, but it definitely has that lobster flavor. And guys, I'm not going to lie on one thing in no disrespect because I love this sauce, but I just don't use it in my pho. We eat it with the noodles first, so far, the pho broth. It's very tasty. Get at this lobster real quick. Wow. Wow. This fatty piece of tail. That's why main lobsters are actually considered the best because they come from really, really cold waters. And the cold water one allows it to be sweeter because less of the salt water is absorbed into the meat because of the cold water. And also because it's cold, they're going to be extra meaty and chunky to stay warm. I'm not actually usually a big fan of the claw meat, but they say that for main lobsters, the claw meat is the best one. Did you know back in the day, they used to consider lobsters like garbage food? Like in the UK, they would give lobsters to the prisoners because lobsters were such like a weird thing back then. So they didn't even like, nobody even wanted to eat them. And then I think just like 100 years later, man, everybody's paying big money for these. Woo! I got it. Guys, when you get the lobster here, it comes with a green sauce. This is a special sauce. It has jalapeno, lemon, and some sugar. That sounds delicious. Just dip this baby in there. All right, everybody, we just tried the lobster pho. I'm going to give you guys my verdict later after I try this one too. Right here, we got the wagyu beef pho. Now obviously wagyu beef, that's not a traditional beef that you find in Vietnam. Wagyu, that's a Japanese style of beef. This is a certified Australian wagyu beef. Man, we got the raw beef right here. We actually have our separate soup that you're supposed to cook it in because this soup is actually not hot enough to cook the beef. So he keeps it boiling right here. And you got sterno, that purple gel feel right there that you light it up. I mean, I'm not going to lie, there's a lot of gel there. It's going to be burning for a minute. Let me just try this broth real quick. This broth does look a little bit darker than the lobster broth. Let me see if there's a difference. Yo, that is super beefy. And I would say that is a true rich, deep beef flavor. It's got a little bit more fat on the top, as you can tell. I could just sip this broth all day. I feel like if you're sick, you're going to need this. If you're heartbroken, you can need this. If you're hungover, you're going to need this. Let's check out this wagyu. I just like the onions. You just cook the onions real quick. The cilantro in there, the silo, all right. Knowing that I got a pot like this, I'm going to do each piece by itself. And I'm going to eat this without hoisin and sriracha sauce first. It's like shabu shabu right here. You know the word shabu shabu comes from shabu, shabu, I don't want to cook it too much. I'm going to keep it a little bit rare, just so you can see a little bit of red. Yeah. If you dump all the beef in there, some of it's going to be overcooked, so you almost dip it each piece by itself so you can cook each piece perfectly. Because this is wagyu beef. You don't want to mess this up. It's going to be tough to eat. I'm going to see if I can get the spoonful in because I stacked the noodles on top of the meat. Oh, my God. Woo! My wagyu senses are going off. That meat is so buttery. It's so marbly. I mean, if you look at it, look at this beef. I've paid like $15 for a bowl of pho before. That said, it was filet mignon. But I think because I'm used to eating hot pot and shabu shabu, which has wagyu beef in it, I'm really digging this. I'm feeling this a lot. Let me tell you this right now. My man Ben right here, he is actually a wholesaler for a lot of meat and seafood. So that's why he's able to bring the price down because he sells a lot of the seafood and meat to other businesses. He got the plug. So once you have the plug, you are able to sell it for a little bit lower of a price but keeping the same quality. All right, guys. Yo, it's so good. I got to let our intern know. Kim. Kim, I think you've got to try this. Kim is from the Bay Area. Hi. And you eat a lot of pho. I do eat a lot of pho. Okay. Good broth. That's legit. It's really good. That's a legit reaction too. That one. That is a thick cut. That's a thick cut of wagyu though, I will say. Ow. When you can't talk for 10 seconds, something's up. You're just... That's really, really good. I know. You want a sip? Wow. Yeah, I eat it. Wow. I'll give you an optional move. Okay, just as a bonus guys, before I tell you my verdict, they are bringing through some scallops. As you guys know, $20 for a bowl of pho is on the higher end, but it's not too much when you can't afford it. And you probably can't afford it every day. You probably can't afford it every meal. I wouldn't buy it every meal, but just to try it out and to know that it's out there, because you know, as much as we love Asian food, we got to try the higher levels of Asian food. So actually before I tell you whether I think it's worth it or not, I'm going to go hit the streets and ask some people if they would try a $20 pho. Let's go. You guys have had pho before, yes? Yes. Okay, how much does your pho usually cost? But eight, eight, nine bucks? Um, like eight bucks. So I'm not Asian, but I do eat a lot of pho. I am a pho expert. Oh, okay. And how much is the usual bowl of pho that you buy? About eight dollars, I would say. What would you say if I told you that just down the street there's $20 pho? It's a little much. It would have to be something amazing about it. $20? Yes. Is it worth it though? I'm too broke for that. What would your parents say about $20 pho? What would their reaction be? They won't love me though. My mom would get the best, she'd be like, now what would that $20 pho have to have for you to feel comfortable paying for that? Like those giant bone marrow things, I want to say. Yeah, so something you wouldn't really find somewhere else. Honestly, I feel more, I'm more on the seafood aspect, something if you bring in some shrimps and crabs and lobster, the soup got to glow in the dark, you know what I'm saying? Oh! The soup got to glow in the dark. You're off the lights, you're like, I will pay $20 for glow in the dark pho. But what if I just told you you had really good beef in it? Would you still try it? Man, how'd you go to Chick-fil-A? Well, if the first thing comes in my mind is truffle. What about like a lobster pho? Have you heard of that? Nope. Nope. I am a pho expert. All right, what about if I told you it was a big, whole lobster in it for $20? Could you imagine in pain that much? Yeah, I probably kind of really like lobster. Fresh lobster? Not in a little chunks in a little pebbles? Nope. Real lobster cut up in half. Oh, man. I'm going to have to check them out. I might have to see what's up. Next time I'm in the mood for pho. I would not pay $20 for pho. But now that I know that our lobster pho for $20, where I would have to pay $50 elsewhere, I would consider that. I now know there are different levels of pho. Woo! Okay, everybody, thank you so much for watching that video about $20 pho. Here is my final verdict. Lobster pho. It was fresh lobster. I saw him pick it out of the tank. He cooked it fresh. It was actually a decent amount of meat. That claw meat was amazing. That green sauce was crazy. Probably one of the better sauces I've actually had in my life. The full broth was pretty light. And I'm not the biggest fan of lobster. But seeing as that, it would be so hard to find any other freshly cooked lobster for that price. Like, basically, that's worth it. I would just say get it. Obviously, you probably couldn't eat it every meal and you wouldn't eat it for lunch every day. But I mean, you're talking about a big lobster tail and the claw and the sauce. All just for like $21, $22 after tax. And when it comes to the waegu beef pho, I would say, you know, that tasted more like traditional pho because the lobster pho tasted like something completely different. It was like kind of like a seafood pho. But then the waegu beef, it actually just tasted like an elevated version of regular pho. So the broth was really beefy. But then the marbled waegu meat was super tender. It was like, you know, the same meat that you would get at a nice shabu-shabu dinner or a nice hot pot dinner. And I thought that overall, that was worth it because the waegu actually fits better with the regular pho. You're just elevating the beef side up. And a takeaway that I had from talking to people on the street about whether they would try a $20 bowl of pho is that they were shocked to hear that there was such a thing. But when I explained what went into it, they were actually really open to trying it. So I think that goes to show you that a lot of people, when they look at pho, they just don't imagine that there's that much in it. Because to be honest, when you get your average bowl of pho, there's not a whole lot of meat. When you tell them and you talk about the range of what pho can actually have, it makes a lot of sense. It's just like they start to see it like it's ramen. It's just that we're more used to hearing about fancy ramen than we are about hearing fancy pho. And that's actually kind of one of the missions of our channel that I'd like to show is that there's always going to be the cheap option when it comes to Asian food. But you don't only have to stick with that. I'm glad the cheap option will never go away and I hope it doesn't. But I also want to see the $20 pho. I want to see the $50 pho. You know, I probably won't get that very often. But I'd like to see what it's like. So, guys, thank you so much for watching that video. Let me know in the comments below if there's any other foods that are $20 in the area that you want me to try. Because $20, like I said, it'll probably get you a premium version, but it's not too expensive to break the bank. All right, everybody, like, subscribe, follow me on social media. Until next time, I'm Andru from the Funk Bros. Now, peace!