Vietnamese street food is not Sam’s favourite so Pho, a brand new restaurant at St James Quarter, had an uphill battle to convince her it would be a worthy of a second visit.
A very warm and efficient welcome got us off to a great start. This is a table service restaurant with a really high calibre of very knowledgable staff ready to guide you through the whole experience. We were recommended by the PR who invited us to start with cocktails. We ordered a Phojito and a Pride Punch, both delicious, we’d recommend the pride punch of the two, it was really fruity with lots of apple and very drinkable, even at 12.30pm!
To eat we started with prawn crackers and a very tasty sweet chilli sauce which was accompanied by Chicken Wings with Sriracha and Summer Rolls. The chicken wings were nice, if you don’t use the dip they need a bit of seasoning, but with the dip they are perfect. Sam hates Summer Rolls (too slimy she says) so she was never going to be turned on this, I however enjoyed them, they were quite simple with lettuce, carrot, prawn and rice noodles as the filler. We also tried the pork spring rolls which we were guided to eat traditionally, wrapped in a lettuce leaf with a sprig of mint.
The main event at Pho is of course the Pho, there are a number of choices, we opted for the Classic Beef Brisket Pho. This was served with a side plate of garnishes to flavour and dress your pho, I assume this is the traditional way in Vietnam and it certainly added some theatre to the dish. Our mains were accompanied by another round of those delicious cocktails, this time an Espresso Martini made with condensed milk making it sweet and velvety, and an aniseedy Lemon and Basil Martini. Sam was driving so was on the freshly squeezed juices which she raved about.
We also ordered a Chicken Curry and a Chicken Rice Bowl so that we could experience a variety of what Pho has to offer. The curry was exceptionally good, probably the highlight of our visit – it was vibrant in colour with a good amount of spicing. Perfect for warming you up at this time of the year.
We really enjoyed Pho, the food and cocktails were great, but the whole experience was very much enhanced by the surroundings and the service. Definitely one to return to.