This is Pho you

Pho 
48 Brushfield Street

In need of a quick, healthy and filling lunch, Vietnamese is ideal. While the hub of most traditional vietnamese restaurants can be found in Kingsland Rd, it's is a bit out of the way (for us). For a working lunch, we were invited to Pho, their latest opening in Spitafields. Pho has been around since 2005 and has 6 restaurants in London now, and set up by an inspired British couple their mini empire has grown. Clearly they are doing something right, it was packed out on a Thursday lunchtime, hardly a table to spare. Right near liverpool street station, this really is an ideal location.

The exposed brickwork decor is rather too chic and trendy for me, but maybe it's a good thing my tastes lie in food. The options here are simple, pho, bun noodles or curi. It didn't take long to choose, going for the name sake with Pho Tai Chin (steak/brisket), and Bun Tom Hue (spicy with tiger prawns). For starters we shared some chicken breast summer rolls (Gu Con Ga), which for me were a bit bland, which the great peanut sauce more than made amens for.

Chicken breast summer rolls

Service was good and weren't left waiting long before our soups arrived. The Bun Tom Hue was just what the doctor ordered, literally. Coming of the back of some quite severe man flu, this cleared me right up. Before you begin tucking in, you are offered a paper bib that the NHS would be proud of, seems like it was needed the state it was in by the end, I'm clearly not the most majestic of eaters with these soups. It's a nice touch to be given a side herb dish of mint, thai basil, coriander, lime, chilli, bean sprouts, and sawtooth herb. They were all really fresh, not a wilting leave in site, something that can so easily go astray. Although it was stated as spicy, with a mound of chopped chillis on the herb dish you are given, it was too tempting not to throw them all in the bowl. Big mistake as I wept my way through to the end! 

   

Bun Tom Hue - perfect for a cold!

Although this meal was complementary the pricing is reasonable, you can get Pho and starter to share for under a tenner. It certainly makes a change to have something this healthy for lunch than the usual burger! Can feel my cholesterol levels dropping already. A lot of medium size chains seem to unfortunately end up blending into mediocrity, resting on there laurels, Pho thankfully hasn't fallen into this trap.