Don't let the sunshine fool you. It's April in Pittsburgh, meaning the temperature isn't getting anywhere near anyone's definition of spring.

In other words, it was a day for soup, and Adventurous Eater Friend of Munch had just the solution.

Vietnam's Pho is at 1627 Penn Ave. Call 412-281-8881.

A few days before, AEFM excitedly mentioned that she'd spotted a new Vietnamese restaurant in the Strip District. And so on an unfortunately cold April day, Munch grabbed Perpetually Starving Co-worker of Munch for a trip to the Strip.

Vietnam's Pho was right on Penn Avenue where AEFM described it, and while it looks fairly pedestrian on the outside, it's remarkably nice inside. A stately wooden bar lines one edge of the restaurant, with bright and clean tiles decorating other walls and a giant fish tank in the center of the room.

One look at the menu, which starts out with seven varieties of the traditional Vietnamese pho soup (noodles in a long-simmering beef broth) and AEFM already was salivating. To Munch's untrained eye, the dishes looked rather authentic, in the sense that they were authentically using parts of animals that Munch would prefer not to eat.

Not only is tripe a frequent visitor to the menu, but there are also dishes including "pork's liver," "pork's heart" and a quail's egg.

AEFM wasted no time in ordering Pho Dat Biet ($8.95), an enormous bowl of beef soup packed with beef eye round, flank, tendon, brisket and tripe.

The soup had sort of an everlasting Gobstopper quality, in that even though AEFM appeared to be aggressively slurping it down, the bowl seemed like it would last forever. After half an hour of prodigiously eating the sweet, homemade-tasting broth and tender beef, AEFM gave up and declared herself stuffed.

"Definitely enough for two people to split," she said.

PSCM was eager to try one of the menu's non-pho offerings but was having trouble deciding among the seven choices of bun (vermicelli noodles). Unable to commit to either shrimp or meatballs, PSCM decided on both, ordering Bun Tom Nuong ($7.95, grilled shrimp with bean sprouts, lettuce, cucumber and peanuts on vermicelli) with an extra additional topping of grilled pork meatballs ($1.50).

And despite an equally large portion, PSCM finished every morsel of the light but flavorful noodles.

Munch decided to try a nod to Vietnam's French influences by ordering Cari Ga ($7.50), a chicken curry with potato and onion served with a small baguette.

The curry was sweet and delicious, similar to a Thai yellow curry but slightly chunkier. But the real revelation was the bread, which sopped up the extra curry sauce so well that Munch's plate was sparkling clean when the friendly waitresses cleared the table.

Party of Munch was thoroughly satisfied ... and the best was yet to come. At the waitresses' recommendation, all three Munchers had ordered the Cafe Sua Nong ($3.25, hot Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk).

In the hubbub of the crowded restaurant, the coffee didn't quite make it to the table until after everyone had pretty much finished their entrees. No matter. The coffee was sweet and rich, and worked better as a dessert anyway.