Brass Spoon Wanchai — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

Brass Spoon is a Vietnamese pho specialist with a few branches around the city including this popular joint on Moon Street in the Star Street Precinct in Wanchai. Opening hours are 12 to 7pm daily (closed on Sundays).

Simply put - this is an 18-seater noodle bar dishing out pho, vermicelli noodle bowls, spring rolls and a small selection of drinks. Service is quick, food is as good as advertised at this Bib Gourmand recognised restaurant.

No reservations accepted and there is often a queue at Brass Spoon. Seats are turned over fairly rapidly so waits shouldn't be too long. There is a simple order card and pencil at all seats. Select you main ingredient for the pho and vermicelli and (+, - or hold) on additional ingredients. Hand your card to wait staff and your orders will be served in a few minutes.

Recently tried the pho with cooked beef (HK$82). This is a large and tasty pho. Broth is a good flavour, beef, noodles, greens and other ingredients just fine. Overall, a filling bowl of really good pho. Tried the friend spring rolls (HK$55) as well. These were nicely-fried, crispy and compact. Nice flavour as well, a good complement to the pho.

Overall, Brass Spoon is a straightforward concept with really good pho. It is as simple as that. Will...

Brass Spoon used to be one of my favorite places along with Springfield and Pho Le for Pho Bo. It has also been awarded the Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand for 6 years in a row. It used to be a restaurant with a fairly higher end. However, my recent visit was a big disappointment, with a deterioration of quality and service. First of all, the quality of ingredients was below par. The soup base lacked depth and aroma from herbs, and tasted much blander than before. The supposedly complex flavors from the dish were absent. The pho itself was not as smooth and chewy as the ones from Springfield. The worst part has to be the beef. They were hardly edible with nearly 70% of them being fat.

Apart from the food, the service was also below par. The staffs gave off a pretty unfriendly and indifferent vibe. The interior has also worn off with time, and probably needs some refurbishing. Being around 10-20% more expensive than its counterparts, Brass Spoon definitely has to up their game to stay competitive among other pho...

Terrible, borderline insulting service and mediocre food that doesn’t deserve the hype.

The broth was very salty. Meat and condiments were decent. Noodles were just okay.

The service and atmosphere were terrible. Hostess was nonchalant at best and rude at worst, barely bothering to give any verbal responses to customers. Waiters were also rude, perhaps because I was with Mandarin-speaking friends (?). Put a wrong order on our table and when we told them they just took it away with no apologies or any acknowledgment whatsoever. When we asked for water they would refill our glasses to less than half full, a bizarre and frankly rather childish treatment.

Worse still, hostess and waiters were exchanging glances and whispering among themselves the whole time to get rid of us. They would remove wishes from our table without asking whether we were done, effectively hurrying us to leave. This was at 530pm when the restaurant was not full.

Save yourself the trouble and go somewhere else....