I have been craving for a bowl of Pho recently and decided to check out the newly opened Pho Cafe at One New Change, St Paul’s. I decided to call up on an old friend I’ve not seen/met in two years and what perfect way to lure him out over food! I’m not going to lie, I was crazy hungry after a long day of work (it was only Monday). The Pho menu is extensive offering a range of tasty, finger licking starters to soup broth noodle Pho to traditional Vietnamese treats for desserts. For starters I ordered the summer rolls (for my friend) and large crispy spring rolls known as Nem hải sản for myself. The fillings were tiger prawn, crab & pork with nước chấm dipping sauce; wrapped in lettuce leaves.

Next up, after spending a good hour chatting, it was time to devour a bowl of Pho. I went for the house special Phở bò nấm trúng: Brisket, enoki & button mushrooms, creamy egg yolk, in beef broth. I have to admit; for a small girl that I am, I couldn’t for the life of me finish the bowl, however you definitely get your moneys worth for sure. Thankfully; my hungry friend managed to finish my bowl of Pho for me…he clearly loved it. Finally, I ended my meal with a delectable portion of Banh lá dứa (aka Pandan pancake with roasted coconut, served with ice cream (honey & ginger or coconut) and Bánh sô-cô-la truffle (aka Chocolate truffle slab served with green tea ice cream). Being Oriental Asian (Chinese) myself; it’s always a treat for me to dive into some pandan pancake as it’s not often I come across it (if I am not in Chinatown that is). I had such a wonderful meal and the ambience was very relaxing; little did I know from arrival of the restaurant at 6.30pm I would be wandering out the restaurant at 10pm! It definitely says something and if I could, I would have stayed a little longer. I didn’t realise we were pretty much the only customers left.
FYI I’ve never failed to order a glass of vietnamese iced coffee 😀 and for more details about Phocafe; there are 14 branches around London. Pho is a family run business which opened it’s first branch in Clerkenwell serving authentic Vietnamese food for all. I tend to do my food pic research on Instagram so do check out their pics for more inspiration before you order