Hanoi calling: a review of Pho and Bun, Shaftesbury Avenue
After a frantic walk along Oxford Street, where several protests against Covid, Lockdowns, Israel and almost anything else had converged, we finally made it along to Shaftesbury Avenue to visit the Vietnamese restaurant, Pho & Bun. The establishment sits just a few minutes away from Chinatown and in prime theatreland of London, offering a unique taste of Viet food. Vietnamese food has had something of a popularity boost in the the UK recently with many restaurants popping up around the country. You can see why as compared to rich curries from Indian or Thai cuisine, Viet food offers a lighter alternative with more emphasis on including salad, raw vegetables, rice noodles and thinner soups. Any opportunity I have to go to Vietnamese restaurants and I will take it...even better this had been gifted to me by my former colleagues and friends at BT as a leaving present!
The menu
Pho & Bun offer a couple of menus for different purposes, the first is the full dining-in experience:
This is very much in the style of a la carte menus where you order what you want off the menu and pay per dish with drinks costing additional amounts of money. For our visit, however, we had the Virgin Experience Menu as it was paid for via a Virgin Experience Days voucher.
The voucher was inclusive of two starters, one main, one dessert (with vegetarian options also available) and two drinks per person. Drinks can include house wine or beer, soft drinks and Vietnamese coffees. Additionally, I spotted a lunch and dinner set menu which offer four courses for GBP 25.
The food
With there being two of us we managed to almost take full advantage of trying a lot of the Virgin Experience Days menu and sharing between us. The starters were served quickly but it was clear the food had been prepared on demand and not pre-made, making it fresh and tasty. In my view, this was the best course because of the variety of foods that we could taste test between us. We opted for:
Starting with the Mango Salad Vegan with Tiger Prawns, firstly I am not quite sure how it can be vegan...regardless the flavours were fantastic. The mango combined with fresh vegetables were refreshing and not too heavy for starter whilst the prawns were of high quality. Squid can often be a difficult dish to serve in any cuisine and too often are rubbery and disgusting - not at Pho & Bun. Covered in a delicate coating and deep fried to perfection whilst seasoned with chilli and salt, the squid made your mouth water and was one truly to be savoured in every bite. The addition of raw red onion added a crunchiness and sweetness to the dish that topped it off. Spring Rolls are a feature of almost all cuisines in East and South East Asia but each cuisine has variations on the dish - with Vietnamese no different. Conversely to Filipino and Chinese cuisine, Viet spring rolls are wrapped in rice paper as opposed to egg spring roll pastry. Surprisingly, this does change the flavour even though it is deep fried in much the same way whilst the pork & crab filling is satisfying. Finally, and probably my least favourite dish, was the Sticky Honey Chicken Wings. There was nothing wrong with the wings per say, they just didn't feel very Vietnamese and were much like what you find in a lot of other places that serve wings up.
Onto the mains and we went for the restaurant's namesakes - Vietnam's most famous dish, Pho, and steamed buns which the establishment has innovated within the London Viet food scene.
The Noodle Soup was divine. Full of flavour, hearty, well made noodles and tender beef - the spice was just right and came with the option to add extra chilli if you wanted. Compared to Bone Daddies ramen, the portion was a lot more generous and I didn't feel the need to have extra toppings added (although these were not offered). The Lemongrass Chicken Bao Burger was not so impressive. The concept is good - fried chicken with a light and fluffy steamed bao bun as well as fresh salad. It tasted good but this definitely was not on a similar pegging to the noodles when it came to portion size or making one feel full afterwards. I recommend if you have the bao burgers to opt for an extra side to avoid feeling a little hungry after, although I don't think you will be disappointed with the bao burger concept.
Finally, for dessert we opted for the Vietnamese flan caramel alongside a Vietnamese iced coffee. The flan caramel was similar to a flan caramel in most parts of the world but was served with a dash of condensed milk and Viet coffee on top. It was tasty and satisfying, although I suspect flan caramel would not be most people's preferred dessert. Alongside this the Vietnamese iced coffee was not served in the original style - that being a little condensed milk in the bottom of a glass and then a phin or filter sitting atop the glass to let the coffee filter into the condensed milk. This is slow but the results are very moreish. Instead, Pho & Bun pre-make the Vietnamese black coffee and mix with condensed milk in a cocktail shaker. This improves the speed at which they can serve Vietnamese coffee but it does detract a little from the experience of trying Vietnamese food and embracing a little bit of their culture.
In all, I would recommend Pho & Bun as a good place for beginners to try out Vietnamese or Indochine cuisine. For the uninitiated, Vietnamese food can be a little confusing and unfamiliar but the set menus offered by Pho & Bun allow people to have a taster of what the food culture has to offer. For those feeling a little more adventurous or who already know their favourite Vietnamese dishes, I recommend trying one of the many Viet cafes around London including:
- Dragonfly Cafe in Compton Street, Clerkenwell, EC1V 0BN
- Banh Mi Town in Hanson Street, Fitzrovia, W1W 6TS
- Bang Bang Vietnamese Canteen in Warren Street, Fitzrovia, W1T 5NL
In all, regardless of whether you go to Pho & Bun or any of the more rustic cafe style Vietnamese establishments above you will not be disappointed with the experience.
Pho & Bun can be booked at their website here. If you are using a Virgin Experience Days voucher, you will need to call +44 203 230 1086 to redeem the voucher and book a table.
Many thanks to all my former colleagues and friends at BT for gifting this restaurant experience, it was much appreciated!