Chau Tran has quite the knack for inspiring culinary success. After conquering Canada with his phenomenal Pho, the chef and owner has now transported his traditional recipes from the streets of Southern Vietnam to the City of London, bringing the true taste of South Asia to Spitalfields. It’s colourful, warm, and enticing – and indeed, absolutely delicious.
Cuisine doesn’t get more authentic than this.
If you’ve spent any time around Liverpool Street or Spitalfields Market recently, you might have noticed a new ray of bright yellow delight beaming out from the backstreets, with an enticing aroma and captivating aura.
Its source is Delicious Pho, and its inside is just as striking as its façade. Draped in Vietnamese poster art and adorned with great designs, a canopy of greenery covers comfortable banquettes and wooden square tables, painting a very real Vietnamese street vibe. It’s clean and slick, with an open kitchen upstairs, a full Vietnamese bar downstairs, and of course, the bubble tea bar.
Delicious Pho offers an array of starter options that work brilliantly as sharing plates. You can choose from various spring rolls, succulent panko prawns, and even papaya salad, featuring carrots, mint, roasted peanuts, and fish sauce.
The main menu unsurprisingly gravitates around Pho, Vietnam’s national rice noodle dish. The fragrant broths are created with Tran’s own secret recipe, and are left to simmer for 12 hours before serving to absorb all the flavoursome goodness. The menu is broken down into ‘Simple’, ‘Regular’, and ‘Pho Master’, offering various combinations of meats and fish such as sliced steak, flank, and chicken, as well as vegetarian options.
Let me tell you – it delivers. The soup is soulwarming, the meats tasty and tender, and the entire bowl intensively aromatic and deeply satisfying. While we can’t begin to guess the secret ingredients injected by our masterchef, we can certainly say that this globally tried-and-tested recipe is sensational. While there’s a certain flexibility in the menu in the mix-and-match component for add-ons, the quality, intensity, and authenticity of the flavours and textures resonates though any chosen combination. It’s really a spot-on menu.
If pho isn’t for you (though let’s face it – are we speaking to anyone at all here?!), there are a variety of curries on offer, as well as stir fries, rice dishes, and even dry pho if it’s the broth you want to avoid.
Bubble tea, and its thicker, decadent dessert drink sibling, have become sensations in London. There are, of course, the universal offerings we have grown to love, from the jasmine green to the mango and peach teas. However, Delicious Pho elevates the concept one step further, playing with unexpected ingredients to create genuinely mindblowing results.
While the Lychee and the Coconut Choco are great options, it’s the avocado and bean choices that are the undisputed champions. The Che Combo has red, white, & mung beans, taro, pandan jelly, boba, rainbow jellies, and coconut milk, while the Smashed Avocados comes with avocado, boba, coffee & rainbow jellies, and condensed milk. Think thick, luxurious, and intensively indulgent. Whether you prefer to drink it or eat it with a spoon, do not leave without dessert – you’ll thank us later.
Delicious Pho strikes the perfect balance between an easy and satisfying bite, and an immersive experience straight to the streets of Southern Vietnam to live and breathe its cuisine and culture. The true-to-tradition signature dishes along with the creative drinks and desserts make this an excellent choice for the quick commuter and foodie alike, and the quality, flavour, and uniqueness in the bustle of the City of London will, much like in Canada, guarantee its success.
You can find Delicious Pho at 3-6 Steward Street, London E1 6FQ, open 11:00 – 21:00 every day.
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