Pho Brighton — Restaurant in Great Britain

Perhaps my standards are set a lot higher because I have eaten so much pho in Asia. From the photos posted here on reviews I thought it looked alright as I saw the herbs they provided were abundant (mint, basil, lime and the usual bean sprout and chilli). Unfortunately I think (and wow google search proved me to be right) a pair of white couple that have been to Vietnam once, and were magically successful in opening multiple chain stores of what they think to be “pho” because they’ve rebranded a Vietnamese staple as “healthy” … as if the authentic Vietnamese pho isn’t…anyway, I couldn’t care less about who opened the restaurant. The food just needs to taste authentically good.

The “house special” was very underwhelming. Usually you can tell a good pho by first drinking a spoon of their broth. Sadly, this had no depth and flavour and was only really helped with the spicy chilli oil they provided (which had some fragrant kind of dried prawn or crustacean). Same broth with the hot and spicy beef brisket, but they’ve added a lot of the spicy chilli oil so it formed a layer in the top and it looks like “a completely new broth” nah.

The beef brisket was so so so dry, tasteless and tough. They pulled it apart so sparse it just seemed to be part of the cooking broth (floating around randomly) rather than an actual pairing with the noodle. I would recommend using a cut that has a little bit of fat to keep it moist and still enjoyable to eat and not shred it so much (well actually I get why you shred it so much, because it’s so tough nobody would be able to eat it if you didn’t).

The flat rice noodles which is typical of Vietnamese pho, was too thick and squared edged. I think you just went to buy the most basic “rice noodle 河粉”. You can definitely buy more authentic ones than those! Viet pho is meant to be thinner, bouncy and much more soft to slurp.

And.. don’t get the iced coffee with condensed milk. Way too much condensed milk!! And nothing Vietnamese about it. Vietnamese coffee is so much more fragrant, so much deeper in colour.

I just hope people don’t think this is authentic Vietnamese food…

I snooped round the rest of the negative reviews and saw your responses to them - no I won’t be emailing you thank you. I believe I gave all the specific constructive...

Oh dear 🙄

Here's an update for 2024, a Deliveroo takeaway at home :

Worst. Takeaway. Experience. Ever...

So, a family unit of 7 of us, made up of 4 vegans, 1 person allergic to shellfish, 1 person allergic to chilli, & 1 'normal' person (so only 1 customer able to eat anything without restrictions), decided to have a birthday celebration and get a takeaway from Pho, via Deliveroo. Sadly, an expensive decision, and one we regret. 😞

The £170 food order arrived unlabelled, so we were unable to distinguish between cardboard boxes of assorted spring rolls made up of pork and vegetables, as well as a selection of curries in identical plastic tubs, including chicken, tofu and 'this is not chicken' that were also unlabelled and therefore unable to be indentified, as they all looked exactly the same, are photos.

So of course, the vegans would not touch anything.! They aren't going to trust a meat eater to tell them what's in their dinner.!

That wouldnt have been quite so bad if ALL the food we had ordered and paid for had arrived, but only 9 of the 13 items were delivered, despite the sales receipt showing tick marks against all items.

And then, when we rang Pho, they said it was Deliveroo's error, and denied that they label anything anyway, despite the cardboard boxes having clearly defined boxes into which a tick mark could be added to show whether it's chicken, pork etc, see attached images.

Then, Deliveroo would only refund the value of the food that wasn't delivered, despite the fact that most of what did arrive went in the bin, as only two of us were happy to eat from the unknown containers. This was despite the fact that we made it clear that, had we ordered this in 'real life', sat in the restaurant, we would have walked away, as five separate customers dietary requirements were completely not met to an acceptable level.

What a shame. I loved pho...

2021 Review Meal In Restaurant :

Had a 30th birthday here and staff were amazing, they could not have been more accommodating, helped us put up balloons and sang happy birthday when they brought out the cake.! Food is delicious and there's lots of it.! Really lovely people tho, that's what makes this place special, and they really appreciate it when you share the birthday...

Absolutely appalling. It's a great shame, because I have been to Pho often, but it was my first time in Brighton. I was happy to go there, because I love the food and never had any issues....until this time. I informed the waiter as soon as I arrived about a food allergy and I ordered what I always order at Pho, so I was certain it would be ok. 30 minutes later, I am told that there is no way the kitchen staff can remove the ingredient I am allergic to from most of the dishes and gave me the menu again, telling me I could choose only between 2-3 options. I ordered again, from one of the few options they indicated. After a while, another member of staff comes back to interrogate me on the type of allergy, asking whether I was lying and said allergy only because I don't like an ingredient. I was quite insulted but confirmed that it was in fact an allergy. Then they continued on to lecture me on how I should be more considerate when eating out, and hinting that I should leave instead of making a request to prepare a dish for someone with an allergy. They even suggested I eat there, and use an EpiPen! If that wasn't enough, starters for the table arrive and I am told that I cannot eat 2 out of 3 of them....after they brought them to the table! This is the worst experience I have had in a restaurant and I will certainly not be going to Pho...