Eat Fuh
With a tagline like “Turning pho lovers into Fuh-natics,” it’s hard not to love the family behind Marrickville-based restaurant Eat Fuh. If the name sounds familiar, there’s a reason: mother and son team Hoang Nguyen and Hanh Ngoc Tang (aka “Mama Pho”) have been ladling out their nourishing noodle soup at food markets across Sydney – from Kiama to Kings Cross, Warriewood to Woollahra. Eat Fuh took up its permanent, polished residence in May this year, attracting crowds of pho fans in the opening weeks. To say Marrickville is full of pho restaurants is an understatement, so why all the fuss? The Nguyen’s oven-roast their spices, unleashing extra aroma and flavour, before building the beef broth and simmering for eight hours. Pair that with just-cooked beef, springy noodles and a flourishing of fragrant herbs, and you’ve got one special soup. If you’re willing to order something other than the signature dish, grab yourself bò kho (beef stew) or a bowl of bún bò huế (spicy beef soup). They do a vegan “fuh” too.
274 Illawarra Road, Marrickville, NSW; (+61) 416 880 997
I Love Pho
Do I love pho? Who doesn’t love pho? It’s the Vietnamese answer to chicken soup. It’s Indochine penicillin. And of the many, many pho joints on Richmond’s Victoria Street, I Love Pho is probably the best. It’s certainly the busiest after visiting US superstar chef David Chang anointed it with his royal seal of approval. The vats out of the back of the fairly nondescript shopfront are bubbling away continuously and if you visit at lunchtime you can well and truly expect to wait then be shoved onto a barely-cleared share table. But all is forgiven with the aromatic pho broth redolent with star anise, the supple flat rice noodle ribbons, the meat (oxtail, shredded chicken and tendon are available but paper-thin slices of beef brisket are a fine choice) that cook in the broth as you tear fresh herbs off their stalks to throw in with shaved onion, bean shoots and a squeeze of lemon. For around a tenner, it’s a bargain.
264 Victoria Street, Richmond, VIC; (03) 9427 7749 (also I Love Pho Express at Emporium, city);
Pho Hung
This stretch of Preston’s High Street in front of the market makes up Melbourne’s troika of Little Saigon's (along with Footscray and Richmond), and Pho Hung is its bona fide pho star. With its eminently wipeable fit-out, the restaurant itself is indistinguishable from its competitors (although it’s the only one to go for a lime green paint job) but the pho is a standout. Separating a good from a great pho love is often a matter of infinitesimal degrees, but Pho Hung makes the kind of noodle soup that leaves you thinking about it for days. The broth is clear, smooth and fragrant: the sort of thing you want to sit and inhale for five minutes while in deep contemplation. Go for the rich brisket or the gelatinous tendon, or a chicken and beef combo. A plateful of the usual suspects including bean shoots, birds eye chilli and herbs comes along for the ride.
447 High Street, Preston, VIC; (03) 9470 1588.
Yellow Pancake
Look for the place with the yellow door frame. This fresh-faced cafe in Wembley is proof that good Vietnamese eats can and do exist outside of the banh mi triangle of Girrawheen, Mirrabooka and Marangaroo. While the restaurant is named for Vietnam’s beloved banh xeo crepe, Yellow Pancake does a solid line in all the Indochine classics, not least the country’s noodles. Chef Sinh Tang slowly simmers pork and beef bones overnight to produce an elegant, well-weighted pho base that hits that sweet spot between spice and savour. Bolstered with a not inconsiderable quantity of rice noodles and beef slices, balls and tendons, and you’re talking the makings of a very fine bowl of noodles (and one that’s a little closer to the city centre). For something different, try the bright bun bo hue, Central Vietnam’s famous lemongrass noodle soup.
38A Grantham Street, Wembley, (08) 9387 1702, WA; find them on Facebook
Trang’s Café & Noodle House
There are condiment selections, and then there’s the condiment selection offered at Trang’s. Boasting fish sauce, an assortment of chillies and – the real genius move – half-moons of pickled white onion, the range offers diners myriad ways to customise their pho. There are those, however, that would argue the bowls that leave the Trang’s are already perfectly seasoned as is and in zero need of fine-tuning. Brimming with onions (white and green), beefy all-sorts and rice noodles aplenty, Trang’s pho dac biet is your guarantee of a good time in Western Australia’s Vietnamese heartland. The restaurant also serves a variety of daily specials during the week including bun rieu (crab noodle soup with pork) on Thursdays and Fridays, and the French-inspired bo kho (beef stew) on Mondays.
11/70 Marangaroo Drive, Girrawheen, WA; (08) 9247 3880
VN Street Foods
If you like small and cosy then VN Street Foods is a hole-in-the-wall that could quickly become your weeknight hit or a lunchtime winner. It’s street food and leans more towards a sit-down casual canteen - so don’t expect the white tablecloth. It’s a casual space and you can easily arrange yourselves to sit on the few stools and tables provided at the front of the counter. It really is popular with the pop-in and pop-by custom and with its simple décor and no-frills energy, this is a place that is straight to the delicious point, all about the flavours, oh and the condiments! They offer a selection of Vietnamese favourites including Bun cha - and if like me, you like to try a little of everything, then the Vietnamese Bento boxes are a must with a bowl of warming pho, of course. The Pho Tai Lan is a more traditional Hanoi-style beef noodle soup with garlic and all the aromatics and it really is all about the condiments, sauces and garnishes that follow. This is a generous bowl that is all over that light, a translucent stock which is slightly sweeter (no sugar added but all through the nurturing of the broth itself). Hailing from the North of Vietnam, it does differ from the Southern versions in that it is not as rich or thick in texture or sweetness, and their pho is the kind of bowl that you want to start your meal with, clean in texture and taste. And if you venture to the bento side then really test out the soup, salad and pickle options that accompany each selection. Soups of potato and carrot soup, winter melon or a mustard pickle and beef soup are just a few that you can sample.
294 Illawarra Rd, Marrickville, NSW; (02) 9559 4149
