Pho Battersea – Restaurant | Review

We saw that the Battersea location of Pho was having a refurbishment launch, offering 50% off all of it’s menu items for one weekend only and we had to go check it out. The venue was packed, with a full bar and all the seats were full. We didn’t have to wait too long for a table to free up though! The venue itself is quite nice, though it’s a bit dark when it comes to lighting, apart from spotlights that literally shine on a single person in one of the seats, which feels odd.

Drinks & Table Setting

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Dann’s a big fan of beer so he got a Beerloa, which he enjoyed. Jupiter got a cocktail; the Pride Punch which is a really fruity, sweet drink where £1 of each sale is donated to a local pride organisation. This is a nice idea and the drinks were good, but we were there for the main meal – loads of Vietnamese food! Pho, in case you weren’t aware, is a soup that is very customizable. On the side of our table, we found a guide as well as a bunch of different additional condiments to include in our pho. Vinegar chili and garlic, chili oil, fish sauce, and more were there for the picking and to help us make the best pho for us.

Summer Rolls, Spring Rolls & Green Papaya Salad

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For starters, we picked out the Summer Rolls from the new vegan menu, Spring Rolls with meat and Green Papaya Salad. The Summer Rolls were really nice, they were refreshing and felt like very fresh vegetables. Jupiter has always wanted to try summer rolls and these were a really good base. They came out nice and cold, which felt good before a hot, hot soup. The Spring Rolls on the other hand are deep-fried and heavier, in the best sort of way. This is a favorite among the both of us, as they just taste amazingly meaty and delicious. The Green Papaya Salad came with a good amount of chicken in it, as well as tons of refreshing vegetables and fruits packed in. Vietnamese salads, unlike the salad you might think of when salad is said, isn’t made of a bunch of lettuces, and thus has better texture and flavor. The starters were really nice and filling too – and they came out basically at the same time as our pho.

The Phos

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Both of us actually ended up getting quite similar phos as we seem to have basically the same pallet. Dann got the Brisket and Mushroom Pho, which had brisket, enoki and button mushrooms and a creamy egg yolk. This egg yolk made the broth look almost milky and added a lot of depth to his broth. Jupiter got the Beef Brisket Pho, which had tender brisket that was slow cooked in broth. She had added bok choy and button mushrooms to hers – there are a bunch of extra add-ons including more meat that you can pick from. Our phos also had noodles in them. Once our phos were at the table, we started adding in bits of chili oil and vinegar to make it our own! Each of them also came with a plate of herbs, fresh chili and bean sprouts. This is a really fun way of eating food, as you can really make your own dish your own. We had fun tasting each other’s broth and seeing how different it was after adding in different flavors. The pho was delicious – really the star of the meal – and something the restaurant clearly does super well.

Coffee & Dessert

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We were pretty stuffed when it came to dessert, but Dann wanted to get a black coffee, so we decided to split a Banh so-co-la Truffle. This was a chocolate truffle slab served with your choice of ice cream or sorbet. We choose the mandarin and yuzu sorbet. Our sorbet was delicious – such good mandarin and yuzu flavor. The truffle itself was still very frozen, which was a bit of a let-down, but they were busy and our server was simply perfect in service, so we will give it a pass. When it came to the coffee, these were served in small glasses with it’s own single-person coffee grind thing on the top, where you place in the grinds and add water on top, then let it drip. We actually ended up purchasing one of these for our house after having a coffee at Pho – and we now make little condense milk coffees in the evening.

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We really love Vietnamese food and Pho does a great job of making them. It’s more of an expensive pho venue, but the food is well worth the price and their added vegan menu seems really wonderful. We took a survey at the end of our meal and got a postcard, which was super cute. We both look forward to going back!

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