3 Mien Vietnamese Phở Beef Flavor Review | Noodle Journey

Put this on the list of things I never expected to find at my local Dollar Tree store: 3 Mien Vietnamese Phở Beef Flavor Noodle Soup. I’m not sure I have high hopes for an instant phở from a dollar store, but 3 Mien is a legitimate Vietnamese brand I’ve heard of before, thanks to The Ramen Rater, so I figured I’d give it a try.

The Verdict:

This product is manufactured in Vietnam, which is a good sign, but it has “Made with Korea technology” emblazoned at the top of the lid. I don’t have the slightest clue what that means with regard to an instant phở bowl. The one website I could find that appears to belong to this brand didn’t provide any additional insight. Maybe something Korean will pop out at me when I taste it?

At the time of this review, I can’t seem to find a way to buy this online. If you want to try it for yourself, check your local Dollar Tree like I did, or see if your local Asian market stocks 3 Mien products. There also appears to be a chicken flavored phở bowl out there, so I’ll definitely pick that up if I spot it!

For such a light bowl, this packs a massive punch of sodium, clocking in at 2280mg. Do not drink all of this broth if you’re watching your salt intake.

Inside the bowl, we’ve got some flat rice noodles, a powdered broth packet, an oil packet, a chili pepper packet, and a dried vegetable packet. The broth and oil contain salt, palm oil, sugar, MSG, onion, pepper, garlic, phở spices, beef seasoning, and artificial beef flavor. I have to assume the “beef seasoning” is artificial since this is an export product from Asia, but I have no way to verify that one way or the other, so vegetarians & vegans proceed with caution. The dried flakes are soy protein and green onion.

While I was putting everything together, the oil aroma was kind of hard to pin down. A very mild hint of garlic with phở spices infused into it is my best guess.

Noodles:

Not great. These can be either microwaved or steeped, and I opted to steep for the sake of convenience (my office microwave is very popular at lunch time). Even with what I assumed would be the more al dente cooking method, the noodles came out very soft with very little in the way of chewiness. As I struggled to get them into my mouth (they’re very slippery), they were literally falling apart as I picked them up with my chopsticks. Not at all the kind of texture I’ve been spoiled with from Mama and Pholicious.

• 3.5/10

Spiciness:

You can omit the chili packet and have a completely mild phở if you so choose. The chili powder is clearly meant to take the place of sriracha sauce if you don’t have it handy. With the entire packet added, this feels like a pretty mild spice level, the equivalent of a couple squirts of hot sauce.

• 2.5/10

Overall:

I feel like a lot of the flaws in this bowl’s flavors are masked by the generous amount of salt in it. If you like a salty phở, this is for you. The right main spices all appear to be there, like fennel, anise, and cinnamon, and there is a hint of something faintly citrus-like that I feel is closer to lemongrass than lime. The artificial beef flavor is convincing enough, and there’s some onion and garlic flavor there too. But really, when all is said and done, that hefty sodium content is really front-and-center. I do like a salty broth, but this feels like overkill to me. The pho spices and other flavorings don’t really come out the way they should because of the salt. Salt is supposed to enhance flavors, not mask them. As far as consistency, the oily finish on the broth is pleasant enough, and the green onions and soy protein pieces provide a little bit of needed texture, although the soy protein pieces are so smooth and round that they’re impossible to pick up with chopsticks or the included fork. Weak noodles, salty broth… I can’t find much to get excited about here other than the price. I acknowledge that phở is a difficult recipe to cram into instant form, but this barely scratches the phở itch for me.

• 4/10