It is no secret that Storm Lake is not a big town. Since moving here from a much bigger city, I have been craving some oriental food. However, in my months of being here I had never noticed Lakeshore Pho. It is kind of a hole in the wall restaurant, hiding off the main strip and somewhat close to BozWellz.  

As I approached the building I expected it to be somewhat like La Juanita’s, in the sense of having to wait in line and order your food. Instead I found out it was a quaint sit down restaurant, with waiters and what looked to be a buffet. I found they only have buffet on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.    

I was given a menu and time to look it over. They have three different food sections for meals, the Thai Entree, the Chinese Entree, and Pho. They also have a section for appetizers and another for beverages. The Thai Entree offers meals such as multiple types of curry, different types of noodles like Pad Woon Sen, mixed rice, meat and seafood. The Chinese Entree offers multiple chicken options such as Kung Pao Chicken and Mongolian Chicken. There are also beef options, featuring dishes like Beef Broccoli and Mongolian Beef. Lo Mein, which are noodles, are also offered.

The Pho section, which is the most popular, offers a variety of styles of Pho. A few that are on the menu include Meatball, Rare Steak and Brisket, and Seafood. All Entree sections come with the options of white sticky rice or fried rice. The Appetizer section offers Egg Rolls, Chicken Wings, Satays, Crab Rangoon, and Fried Meatballs, all of which are served with the house sauce.

The last item on the Appetizer section is Spring Rolls, which are served with peanut sauce. The most intriguing section on the menu is the section of beverages. I say that because not only do they have fountain drinks, but they have Boba Tea. The tea comes in all different flavors such as Pina Colada, Mango, and Honey Dew, to name just a few. Also offered in the beverages section is iced coffee, Thai tea, hot coffee, and bottled water.

To start off my experience, I ordered an appetizer of Egg Rolls while my friend who joined me for dinner ordered an appetizer of shrimp Spring Rolls that were served with peanut sauce. We received our appetizers in no time and they were delicious!

Both appetizers were of large portions and were both under five dollars. When it came time to order our meals, we asked for the Beef Broccoli platter and the Rare Steak Pho, which both were served with white rice. We chose what to order based on what the waitress recommended as most popular.

The meals were filling and delicious and worth a great deal more than what we ended up paying for. Both bills were under fifteen dollars! Everything was brought out with little to no wait time and our waitress was as kind as ever. The only thing that surprised us was the fact we had to walk to the counter to pay. Considering the type of service and quality of food we received, that was a small feat.

Lakeshore Pho is delicious and I will be going back very soon. I would recommend it to anyone who needs an oriental food fix.