The restaurateur Duyen Le began with one tiny shop called Pho Pasteur and has spent the last several years expanding his enterprise, bringing the cuisine out of the pho ghettoes of Chinatown and Dot Ave into New Boston hot spots like Allston, Harvard Square, and Newbury Street. The newest Pho Pasteur, in the Theater District space once occupied by David's, is a whole different kettle of rice chowder.
Vietnamese food is pretty distinguished as it is.
Our tastes were actually pretty wintry. The old pho-shop standards sit a little strangely with crusty bread, but that just means you might want to skip the bread. This was a fillet served on a long, rectangular white plate, the whole thing laid out in artful asymmetry, with vegetables on one end and a sweet tomato-based sauce spreading over the rest of the plate. Our waiter said it was loofa. The rich, saucy tradition of upscale European cooking is not an obvious fit with the streamlined freshness of Vietnamese food, so instead of getting muddled in the middle, most dishes here come down more clearly on one side of the line than the other.