Pho Covent Garden — Restaurant in London

Almost everyone in London knows about Pho. The vietnamese restaurant in London serving comforting warming street food dishes like pho noodle soups, curry and rice bowls. Their venues have a minimalist, stripped back canteen feel with a touch of the South-East asia shining through. The relaxed yet friendly service which makes it feel more like you’re popping into a casual dining spot and taking things at your own pace. Pho does get busy, but that’s just a sign of how popular it is. In fact, it now has 27 locations across the UK! We don’t often include big chains on East London Girl, but we were excited about the new Healthy Special menu that we just had to.

The new Healthy Specials menu features a handful of teas (from teapigs, their usual go-to tea brand), as well as a Nojito – a booze-free cocktail of muddled lime & mint, homemade lemonade & soda. The Nojito (£4.95) was so refreshing and zesty, it made a fab accompaniment to our dishes. It might even make us consider whether to go for an alcoholic option or not in future too!

We tried the UpBeet tea, an energising tea with hibiscus, and the Happy tea, an uplifting beverage with lemon balm.. Both (£1.95) were subtle in flavour yet beautiful teas. We would definitely recommend finishing with one of these!

There are two new starters and four new mains (one with additional options for toppings) on the new menu. Everything sounded delicious. What’s more, we noticed how low calorie everything was. Not that you should neccessarily count calories, but it’s good to have a guide to help you get that balance.

The Enoki Hand Rolls (£4.95) – rice paper hand roll filled with crunchy veg, enoki mushrooms, fine vermicelli & perilla – were a little different at first, served cold. It’s not something usually top of the list for ordering, but they were pretty tasty, very fresh and a fab mix of textures. They came with a peanut sauce which is always a winner! They were a little messy to eat – but perhaps we still need to master the ways of consuming hand rolls.

The Boodle Pho Chin (£10.25), tender brisket in beef broth with butternut squash “noodles”, was the ultimate healthy comfort meal. The rich beef broth, the a la dente boodles, the super tender beef, and the crunchy beansprouts and fresh garnish went so well. It was one warming, filling meal and was so tasty! We thought we’d miss the carbs, but we did nothing of the sort.

The Cauliflower Rice Bowl, topped with wok-fried Chinese leaf, veggies, pickles, herbs & fresh chillies, chosen with Tofu and vegetable (£9.75) was a delicious option too. The cauliflower rice really impressed, and the mix of flavours and textures again making one fab dish

We couldnt’ help but order a side of Đậu que green beans & sugarsnaps in a mild peanut dressing, from the normal menu too (£4.75). The greens just cooked, slightly crunchy, drizzled in just enough peanut sauce to add the flavour, and sprinkled in sesame seeds. There was extra peanut sauce for dipping, because when can you have too much on the side? This is definitely a side you can’t resist.

We think Pho has outdone themselves. The new Healthy Specials menu features some fab healthier options for if you want lighter options. The new dishes are super fresh yet warming, don’t lack in flavour, and are just as filling! A consistently good and affordable Vietnamese...

I can't recommend this restaurant enough. We had a deeply moving experience at Pho in Covent Garden on the 17th of May at around 4pm. I had stopped here with my elderly parents, who love Vietnamese food. The staff were welcoming from the moment we arrived, especially Luke, who was warm, attentive, and kind throughout.

During our meal, my father suddenly felt lightheaded and collapsed. It was an incredibly distressing moment, but the response from the staff was immediate, calm, and full of genuine care. Luke rushed over to help me ease my father to the floor, while his colleagues brought cold drinks and offered to call an ambulance. When my father briefly regained consciousness but collapsed again, they continued to support us without hesitation, gently cooling his face with water and checking on him throughout.

Luke stayed with us, helping me walk my father across the restaurant and down to the toilets, even waiting there to assist us back up. Other team members- Darcy, Kate, and even the chef from the back-came to check on us and offer help. They packed up our food (quietly declining payment in the rush and stress of it all), cleared our table, and stayed with us until we were safely in a cab. Luke even offered to call the Uber himself, seeing how stressed I was, but I couldn’t accept, they had already done so much.

It’s rare to encounter such compassion, quick thinking, and genuine humanity, especially from such a young team. I’m truly grateful for how they looked after us. Thank you, Luke, Darcy, Kate, and the rest of the Pho team that day, you turned what could have been a traumatic afternoon into something that reminded me of the goodness in people. You were a blessing that day.

My dad is much better now and extends his thanks to you too.

And as a side note, the food here is honestly so good. It is one of my favourite chains in London and is great for healthy but flavourful and...

For my daughters 18th we booked a table here at Pho for a supposed 6 people that ended up being 7, including my wheelchair bound son. Since the reservation our experience went downhill from then! All I can say for future customers, who would like to dine here beforehand, please state that if you have a disability MAKE IT CLEAR because when we turned up with my disabled son we were met with such rudeness, by one particular waitress, in such an inhospitable manner, that my wife felt uncomfortable waiting inside for the rest of the party to come with my son. So, instead she waited outside by the nearby Zara for the rest of us to arrive (early as we got there before the reservation time) and when she went back to get our table, our reservation was given away (before the reservation time!). In usual hospitality settings it’s is common courtesy to keep the reservation at least 20 minutes after the reservation booking - this was not done at all! When the birthday girl arrived (after waiting excitingly to dine here) she tried to talk to the waitress twice about the situation but it seemed useless. She dismissed her with such contempt stating that just because she couldn’t walk a couple of seconds down the street to talk to my wife, our booking was rendered invalid! She tried to get her to see our point of view but even that seemed like an impossibility for this restaurant who can’t seem to take their costumers seriously. So therefore I would like to state if you value costumer service and hospitality do not come here. We found the Italian Miscusi to be much more accommodating needing no reservation with such polite and helpful staff who helped my disabled son thoroughly. Unlike Pho, it was very wheel chair friendly and really made my daughters...