Best Thing I Ate: Bar Susu’s Wagyu Pho Tartare

Sometimes food writers need a reality check. When I find myself saying things like “I think caviar is overrated” or “I don’t really care for foie gras” (both true statements), I like to rewind back to earlier days in my personal food journey, when one of my favourite spots was a place in Richmond my family called “filthy pho.” The restaurant wasn’t expensive or pretty or even particularly clean (hence the nickname), but it was good—balanced, indulgent broth, hefty slices of pink beef, towers of bean sprouts and surprisingly fresh mint for sprinkling. We didn’t care about the sticky menus or the creepy cardboard-carpeted hallway you had to enter through.

Don’t freak out, this story isn’t about that restaurant. It’s about Bar Susu, a modern, friendly (hygienic!) wine bar just off Main Street. When sampling Susu’s creative plates and whimsical wine pairings, that suburban pho spot couldn’t have been further from my mind… until, that is, I tried the tartare. In general, tartare is in the caviar/foie gras space for me—as privileged as I feel to be able to eat it, it’s just not really my thing. But Bar Susu’s wagyu pho tartare, with its crunchy, cloud-like rice cracker and fresh thai basil, somehow embraces all of pho’s layered, comforting flavours, sans soup. I was doing Olympic-level mental gymnastics to connect the stunning dish before me with those nostalgic, cheap-and-cheerful memories. Delicate fried shallots and cilantro add to the multidimensional texture of every bite: it’s rich but fresh, playful but complex. An elevated culinary triumph with a guilty pleasure vibe—memorable for all the right reasons.

209 E 6th Ave. | thisisbarsusu.com