Au Cheval is nice but damn do they make you wait! I'll be adding Rubi's and Monster to my list.
I finally tried Phodega on Ashland. I got the Beef Pho, my partner got the chicken Bahn Mi, and we shared an order of fried pork dumplings. To close out the meal we got some of their house-made Ube cookies and those were tasty and a lot of fun, ube seems to be having a moment.
Everything was pretty good but the dumplings stole the show, almost wish I had just gotten 2 orders of those. I got the beef Pho because it's their signature dish but I'm not sure id get it again, it was a little boring and flat and those meat balls were FIRM. It wasn't bad, just not exciting, there were definitely better things on the menu.
Next visit I'll be trying their chicken fried rice.