Pho Huong Viet — Restaurant in Melbourne

TL;NR The best place for Vietnamese Pho in Box Hill area since it's first opening. Staying on the front page of the menu is the best choice unless you want some adventures: both good and bad!😅

*Extremely long review with a remark on Vietnamese rice dishes in general at the end

Seriously, it is the only Pho place owned by the skillful Vietnamese. It is also so hearty&filling with its generous amount (try large. I dare you 😎) Their noodles has been top notch since the very beginning. I went there as a teenager when it was in it's original location, next to the laser place and a sushi bar that was ever-empty and owner always drinking... Oh wait I'm going too far in my memory lane again sorry! 😱

So virtually any noodle dishes that are in the first few pages are... 😍GOD-SENT😍 If you want a warm broth based noodles, order Pho! If you don't want hot noodles (like me on the scorching summer 40+💀 my dad still eats pho on those days. Wut), order vermicelli with springroll on top! It's a must have in your vermicelli. It adds a great texture& flavour over a simple noodle that i won't normally eat it without it. And lemongrass pork. Ohhhh now i want it and its past 1am 😭😭😭

if you don't like watery texture of this particular dish because of the sauce, just put minimal and use other 2 sauces on the table. They are in tomato sauce bottles. I use a bit of both but it's up to you😉. And be honest with you all, i only put about a teaspoon full and it still delivers. i usually put few fresh EXTREMELY HOT chillis and munch happily on pickled onions while eating any noodles.

And oh yes, there is no right or wrong way to make your very own Pho👍 If you still ask me how I do it, here it is~

I put a bit of chilli oil, pickled onions (not too much), fresh EXTREMELY HOT chillis, and put ALL of the freshly prepared Asian basil, BEAN SPROUTS OH YES (if you dont like it, put it in the soup and discard it. It makes the broth from 'nice' to '!!!'), and a bit of juice from lemon (great for seafood and beef to instantly stops the "meat smell"). I almost always ask for more for these veggie stuffs if im by myself. Luckily i have lots of friends who dont put these so i am in treat whenever i introduce them to this rice noodle place 😍 My friends uses the two tomato bottle mostly but not for my Pho personally.

The reason why i said adventure earlier is because i believe they have expanded the menu since arrival to the new location and it came with both good and bad: they seemed to be more skilled for what they used to do, which i think it's great. Almost certain that the "master" is still there after all these years in his age! He must be so healthy. Is it because of rice noodles? 😎

But the taste can be random for the meals you don't find in a typical Vietnamese restaurant. E.g mum ordered laksa. It was... Actually wasnt too bad but why the hck would i eat that over the never-betrayed-once-ever-faithful-and-more-beautiful-than-my-ex-girlfriend Pho????? Having Pho in here never fails. I'm glad i don't need to go all the way down to Springvale for a bowl of pho!

If you are still with me, cảm ơn! (thank you in Vietnamese) That is the end of review on this amazing Pho!

Then you might be wondering, "but Bill! Where's the review for rice?" Well, if you really want to know, i will give you an answer. If you really want a rice dishes in a Vietnamese restaurant and if you find problems with the rice like i do, just order rice noodles. They are rice too you know 😁

As a loyal rice lover, i have tried to like rice dishes in many many different Vietnamese restaurants since my teenage years and i failed and failed and FAILED. Yes even my good old high school viet friends who were born here avoided plain rice stuffs. International viet friends never had problem with it though.

So when i asked one of my old viet bud, he told me this: "ITS tHE TeXTurE BILL" it's just how Vietnamese people have been preparing the rice (called broken rice) and we can't like all kinds of food in this world😁 Hence my last two...

Been here many times, although some dishes usually turn up incorrect or not at all. Tonight was a truly fascinatingly poor and scary event. After receiving our entrees, (quite acceptable), the owner and chef started a loud verbal argument which then turned violent with the chef smashing up tables and running around like a lunatic. After a 30 minute frightening floorshow of smashed crockery and psychotic behavior, we politely waited for our remaining dishes, for another 40 minutes and as the restaurant started to fill up, we were told that can't have any more food because the chef resigned (watching meal after meal delivered to the other 7 tables in record time!) I felt scared for the wellbeing of my older parents and this poor excuse for a restaurant and its lackadaisical staff exhibited an absent duty of care for its patrons. The most unacceptable part, was that we were issued no form of apology or any compensation. However, the owner happily took our money and welcomed us to come back again! Haha - I DON'T THINK SO! You should be disgraced with such a performance...

Ordered pho sliced beef and meatball, pho sliced beef and brisket, pho chicken and some spring rolls take away around 430pm today 31st July.

It was very disappointing when we opened the packages to find cold raw clomps of sliced beef wrapped in plastic inside the take away bowl. Why wasn't this cooked?

Was I meant to add the soup to the container and expect it to do the trick? So we tested one and the soup turned bloody colour and the meat was not cooked. It looks disgusting and very unappetising.

Im preganant and the last thing I needed to look at was raw bloody uncooked meat.

$15 for a medium and $17 for a large?? Only to receive them in cooked?? Yuk!!

Its not only expensive but Grose!! We didn't order raw meat!!!

I wanted to ring and complain but I was feeling so sick that I never even ate my dinner. Luckily I had the spring rolls entrees to fill my stomach!!

Most disappointing Vietnamese place I've ever ordered take away from. Considering it's covid times you think businesses would make an effort to deliver good food and encourage customers to...