Pho Nom

I quickly stopped by Pho Nom for an easy take out dinner. Their rice paper rolls are high quality and quite delicious, though on the mildy expensive side. Really nicely presented, with fresh fillings and a nice thin rice paper on the outside makes for a tempting treat.

Crispy Green Rice Prawns ($3.5)

Citrus Cured Rare Salmon ($3.5)

Crispy Tofu + Mushrooms ($3.0)

with Hoi Sin Nuoc Mam sauce, and Lemongrass + Pineapple sauce

TL;DR Quick easy bite in the CBD

Pho Hung Vuong Saigon

I really enjoy Pho and thus actively seek it out, and I've found that of all the chains, Pho Hung Vuong seems to be the most consistent across all stores. Identify them by the massive cow and chicken head on the sign.

I'd always recommend getting the Prawn Spring Rolls ($8.0), they are crispy, perfectly fried and taste amazing. Wrap them in that there lettuce leaf, dip it in the sauce and omnomnom your way to bliss. I prefer these over the pork ones, which have a very gamey taste to them. 

And then the Pho. The Raw Sliced Beef Pho ($9.0), ask for raw beef and when it arrives, separate the slices and watch it cook in the piping hot broth. It's kind of the best. Thin rice noodles with a hearty broth. Simple but delicious. You can change up the ingredients too, adding beef brisket, tripe or other vital organs of animals; but if you're not game, tried and true beef or chicken is the way to go. 

TL;DR Good Pho in a suburb with an abundance of Vietnamese restaurants

Tan Lac Vien

Going against my rule, we paid $29 for this Scoopon deal for two at Tan Lac Vien but I was pleasantly surprised. The restaurant was largely empty though it was dinner on a Wednesday night, but we didn’t let that deter us. There were a fair few different dishes we could choose on the menu, and it wasn’t restricted which was nice.

The entrée we chose was the Pi-Pi in XO Sauce (usually $14.0) which was delicious. The sauce was where the action was at, but I was so surprised at how many pipis were in the dish! They didn’t skimp at all and it was a very filling dish – nice and spicy and full of flavour. I enjoyed eating the pipis in sauce with the extra rice I ordered ($2.0)

I wanted to try the Vermicelli with Grilled Pork ($10.5) and I was rewarded with a really fresh, lovely dish. The Grilled pork was perfectly done; the outer had lots of flavour and was well marinated and cooked. The vermicelli was plentiful and the sweet and spicy salad dressing brought the flavours to the front.  

I loved the look of the Vietnamese Mud Crab Noodle Soup (price is seasonal) so this made our second main. The soup had a very strong crab flavour, much like the Singaporean Har Mee (prawn soup), yet I couldn’t find much crab meat present. There was a large omelette type block in the middle which had some crab meat in it, but otherwise it was mostly supplemented by lots of other meat – luncheon meat, pork slices which tasted a bit old and too fatty, fish cake and coagulated blood! I loved the contrast between the two noodle dishes we chose, one was light and crispy with the fresh vegies giving it a crunch, whilst the other was a deeper, heavier noodle dish.

Lastly, we finished the meal with one of my favourite Asian desserts – BANANA FRITTERS WITH ICE-CREAM!!! Tan Lac Vien does this very well, deep frying the batter to perfection and though the ice-cream was not the highest quality, it was sufficient. I feel the cheap chocolate flavoured sauce was unnecessary and I left most of it on the plate.

Overall I was very pleased with this Scoopon and Tan Lac Vien, it was very much worth the price we paid. Though prices are higher than most restaurants in the Springvale area, they also offer very well cooked Vietnamese/Chinese cuisine, which is a nice option if you're willing to take the chance.

TL;DR A nice alternative to the usual Springvale pho fare.

Pho24

So to celebrate the ‘official’ opening of Pho24, a renowned chain straight from Vietnam, a decision to tempt the masses with free Pho or Banh Mi for a day was made! Despite being open for several months, I wasn’t complaining and let my Asian focus on free-things senses guide me. Now, there was a lot of hating going on about Pho24, the comments ran something like, “tastes like dirty dish water mixed with MSG” and “not worth the free”, but I wasn’t going to let people rain on my free parade. Plus, the benefit of the doubt is always nice to give establishments second chances.

The line was considerably shorter than I expected, but I soon realised this was due to the subway-style chain line production system they had going on. It was incredibly effective and made a quick lunch even faster. The staff handling the money (not this time) dispense a ticket and you move down the line sliding your aluminium trays (a la American high school lunch line) watching them create your Pho or Banh Mi from scratch. I assume this means you can choose your fillings as you go, but as this was free day they were pre-made, beef weighed and the standard everything chucked in without question. Then the soup is dispensed from massive vats and handed out at the end of the counter where there are tubs of fresh cut chilli (very spicy!) and lemon.

The coolest part of this whole process is the potted herbs around the seating area, these are there for you to garnish your meal with something a little extra and they even provide the scissors to cut the plants too! The uncool part was they served the pho in disposable bowls, again, may have just been due to free day, but that was a lot of environmental waste. Uncool!

The Pho itself was quite non-descript, the soup didn’t have a lot of depth of flavour and tasted quite weak and thin, despite simultaneously tasting like it had been reboiled over and over, instead of having a fresh and clean taste like other shops. The noodles were a lot softer than standard fare and I don’t think the beef was served raw to be cooked in the steaming hot broth. Despite that, they were very generous with the apparent southern beef porterhouse slices. The normal price sits at $8 for regular and $11 for large, which in my opinion, isn’t worth the price for something that is subpar to what I can get for a cheaper price. 

The smoked paprika pork Banh Mi was also available, which was acceptable although the meat they used tasted cheap and stringy with a lot of chewy tendons through it. The bread was crispy though smaller sized than the Springvale variety and IT WAS MISSING THE PATE! As such, it didn’t taste anything like what I am used to, and despite the claim on Vietnamese roots, it tasted white. The overall flavour was slightly sweet due to the relish added and only had one slice of meat, rather than the three varieties stuffed into the roll. For $7.50 it was very much capitalising on the CBD location, as Springvale Banh Mi are sold for $3.50 and they are much heavier.To their credit however, they did allow me to take another Banh Mi to my friend who couldn't get out of work.

TL;DR Unless they pick up their game, I’d spend my monies somewhere else.