Pho Huong Viet Saigon — Restaurant in Melbourne

Our family used to think this is our best local pho restaurant and come here at least once every couple of months. At the last visit we were delighted to find they had produced a beautiful new menu and were excited to try some new dishes besides the mandatory classic pho. We weren't disgruntled at the 15% price rise on the pho. Their business is so good they could probably cope with losing a few customers to the price rise. But we were shocked to see the shrinkage of the bean shoots that accompanied the pho. We felt it was such a rip off when we saw one cup of bean shoots and two little sprigs of basil for an order of 4 pho bowls. Then I found that for my combination beef pho, which was promised beef sausages (plural), had no sausage in it. The beef was thick and tough and the serving was really small for the price. We ventured to have a deep fried quail which turned out to be quite nice. However the salt and pepper egg plant was another disappointment. The absence of salt and pepper must have exposed the taste of the old reused oil. In short it was a disappointing meal. This has been a very busy and popular restaurant among the locals, but it seems to be a dangerous move to up the prices while cutting down on both the quantity and quality of their food. At least they have lost us, and also those within the reach...

I've been here a bunch of times over the years. It use to be good, but the food and service has gotten really bad. I regretted not cooking at home. We went early in the night, so it wasn't busy, there was no excuse for the poor service and really poorly cooked food. We ordered pork rice paper rolls that were falling apart and had no pork in them. We thought they'd given us the wrong order. The vermicelli noodles with veg and tofu had barely any veg and only 5 small pieces of tofu that didn't taste fresh, not at all like what I've had there before. The hainese chicken was not flavored with hainese spices, just covered in thick soy sauce and the flavoring in the rice was so mild that it could have been confused with plain steamed rice. The dude behind the counter needs to help his floor staff. He was just standing around while his one waiter on the floor greated, seated and served all the guests, refilled containers and cleaned down tables all by herself. We ended up having to flag down the kitchen staff to take our order, which should have been the red flag to just leave and go to the place a few doors down. Overall, it was beyond...

I just had lunch here for the first time and it was good, service was alright and waiting time for food to be cooked and served was alright too. None of the regular Vietnamese sauces on the table, but there was chilly oil and it was very tasty. I had vermicelli with spring rolls and grilled pork, just what the doctor ordered. $14 is a little pricey though. I will definitely be returning, probably for dinner! haha

So, I did return for dinner and tried the sliced beef pho, which is the same price for a medium ($14 a little pricey also) and it's alright, unfortunately the veggies portion that comes with the pho was very small and not enough. Other Vietnamese restaurants normally provide much more. Extras were very pricey too.

Overall the two experiences were alright, good without being great, which makes it a little on the expensive side and not really something I would want to pay extra for unfortunately. Try it to see for...