Delicious Pho Launches in London

From Canada to Spitalfields, a successful Vietnamese restaurant finds its newest home in East London’s lively hub of food, art, music, and events.

Its founder, Chau Tran, with her natural talent for Vietnamese cooking and flavours, opened the very first Delicious Pho in Canada in 2003 and it became an instant success. 

Delicious Pho offers, you guessed it, an authentic Pho at the core of its menu. What is Pho? 

It’s a Vietnamese national dish made of a fragrant homemade broth, with its flavours developing for over 12 hours. Rice noodles and protein are then added alongside fresh herbs, beansprouts, lime and chilli.

I was keen to tuck into Pho because I never had the pleasure to taste this phenomenally sounding dish before.

With its acid bright coloured art on the walls and a diner vibe, you cannot but smile walking into Delicious Pho restaurant in Spitalfields. I passed an open kitchen on the left and before I got to my table, I quickly scanned their take-away area on the right, jazzed up with Tea’licious and Pho’licious light signs on its walls.  

Delicious Pho in Spitalfield can seat 134 people and its vast space downstairs hosts a drinks bar, comfy leather sofa booths with tables, high chairs with long wooden tables and smaller low tables too.

I sat down to the sound of chilled Vietnamese music and pretended I was in Hanoi or Saigon, which were also the names of the two beer brands Delicious Pho served.

I started with Jasmine Green Tea to warm me up, it’s February after all, but I almost couldn’t choose because tea in Delicious Pho can also mean Milk Tea or Bubble Tea. For example, I never had a Wintermelon Tea and you can get it as a Bubble Tea version too, amongst a long list of other flavours of tea. And don’t get me started on their 21 types of Smoothies. Avo-Coconut or Pina Colada Smoothie anyone?

The starters menu looked scrumptious and a finger-licking good food it was. My guest and I got over-excited with the starters order – a rookie mistake – and then we got overwhelmed with massive portions of Pho for our main course but we’ll get to that later. 

Summer Rolls were generously filled rice paper rolls, so you can see all the contents of your rolls, and they’re simply all the more mouthwatering, presented nicely on the plates. We tried Tofu and Avocado Summer Rolls and Grilled Beef Summer Rolls, followed by Chicken Wings tossed in caramelised fish sauce, and a zingy Papaya Salad which can be served with prawns, chicken, beef or tofu. 

Phew! Let’s move on to the Pho dish! On the Pho menu, the protein options are divided into ‘I Like It Simple’, ‘The Regular’ and ‘Pho Master’ categories. 

‘I Like it Simple’ means that one protein is added to the broth, ranging from nine combinations including beef, chicken, prawn, veggie and tofu.  ‘The Regular’ is centred solely on a beef protein and includes six combinations of beef cuts such as sliced steak, flank and tendon, sliced steak and tripe or brisket and flank. The ‘Pho Master’ comes in three beef combinations of varying cuts and can also be supersized.

I felt brave and went for the Brisket and Beef Meatball combo in my Pho. My guest went for the Veggies and Tofu option of the ‘I Like It Simple’ category.

Large, steaming hot bowls of Pho appeared in front of us and I wonder if I packed my extra stomach to be able to eat such a generous portion, after gorging on those starters. 

We powered through our Pho as much as we could and just because I never had Vietnamese Dessert Drink called Chè, of course, I ordered one of those too. A Fruit Lover is a combination of lychee, longan, jackfruit, palm seed, agar agar jello, pandan jelly, red rubies, coconut meat and coconut milk. I don’t know how it all fitted in a plastic cup but it did and it looked like a new twist on Sundae dessert to me.

Apart from the above mentioned dishes, Delicious Pho menu offers meaty or veggie sharing platters, Specialities, Curries, Fried Rice, Stir Fries, Vermicelli bowls or Dry Pho,  which are noodles tossed in tangy tamarind sauce, egg and fresh herbs and your choice of chicken, tiger prawns, beef or tofu to accompany them with. 

For more information visit  http://www.deliciouspho.co.uk/