Tank Noodle

We went to dinner at a Vietnamese place called Tank Noodle in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago (4953 N Broadway). We had heard about this restaurant a long time ago on Check Please. We had eaten up in this neighborhood twice before at BaLe (we loved their Bahn Mi sandwiches) and Thai Pastry.  There are also lots of other Asian restaurants and groceries very close by.

What we ordered:

 Spring rolls with shrimp

As an appetizer we ordered the spring rolls with shrimp,  They were very fresh tasting; like a salad in roll shape.  The "wrap" part of them was so thin you could see through it and see the pink and white shrimp, but at the same time it was sturdy enough to hold all of the ingredients inside. The spring rolls came with a nice dipping sauce that had just enough heat.  We wished we could have had more of the sauce for the rest of the meal.

Watermelon smoothie

As a drink before our meal we had a watermelon smoothie with tapioca pearls,  It was surprising to have such good tasting watermelon this time of year.  The taste felt like it was beckoning the warm spring weather.

 Beef Pho

For one of our entrees we ordered Pho, a traditional Vietnamese beef noodle soup with sliced beef, and fresh vegetables.  Peppers, bean sprouts, and mint leaves were brought out to accompany the soup and we could add them as we desired.  It was a huge bowl that probably could have served 4 people if we were making soup ourselves.  Besides the bahn mi's we ate last summer, this was our first foray into traditional Vietnamese food.  We enjoyed this hearty noodle soup.  Nick especially liked having the bean sprouts to give it a snappy taste.  The seasonings were good, but you could add hot peppers if you wanted more spiciness.  The mint leaves really added something to the dish as well. Natalie felt it was a a little hard to eat as a soup because all of the large pieces of vegetables and meat and thick, long noodles.  But overall we liked the dish and would order it again.

 Peppers, bean sprouts, and mint leaves

As our other entree we ordered stir fried egg noodles with shrimp, beef, pork, chicken and vegetables.  This dish had a more general Asian food feel to it than just Vietnamese.  It was a little bland tasting on its own, but they brought out some sauces that helped a lot.  We had read some reviews where it said stick to the pho at this restaurant - we just didn't want to order 2 pho's in case we didn't like it.

Stir fried egg noodles

Final thoughts on Tank Noodle:
Food - good food, all of the pho is a really good price for the large portion size, it is pretty far to go from where we live but this is definitely the right neighborhood to find this type of food.
Service - the menu is huge so we had to take our time looking at it before we were ready to order.  We were there on a Monday night and it was very busy so it sometimes took a little while to get water refilled. It seems to be a family run establishment.  There are 2 entrances because the restaurant is on a corner so seating people in general felt a little awkward.
Atmosphere - judging by how busy it was it definitely is a popular spot.  The tables kind of remind you of being in a diner because they have laminate counters.  You may get seated at long table with other people and all of the utensils and napkins are in caddy on the table with other condiments.  As non-Asians, we didn't feel out of place because there were a variety of ethnicities represented.