Pho Ta Vietnamese Finchley Road — Restaurant in London

This is by far the best Vietnamese restaurant I have ever tried in London! It's such a hidden gem and I am glad I found this place now because the food was absolutely top-notch 👌🏻

I came here with a friend for lunch on a Saturday afternoon and was happy to see that we didn't have to queue as the place was half-empty. The interior design was lovely with fake flowers and trees surrounding the chairs and tables. There were also Vietnamese street signs all around with Vietnamese music playing in the background which gave such a local and relaxing vibe and the entire experience was just delightful.

We went with the Vietnamese crepe with chicken, prawns and bean sprouts and the king prawn summer rolls as starters and then bun cha as main. I was really glad we didn't go with two mains instead because the portions were absolutely gigantic! For a starter, the crepe was definitely high value for money because the filling was generous and so nicely stir-fried. The crepe was crunchy on the edge and a bit chewy in the middle which was so enjoyable. The king prawn summer rolls were again massive and filled with loads of prawns and veggies, combined with the peanut sauce it's just heavenly and such a great dish for summer. The bun cha was also huge with lots of vermicelli noodles, veggies on the side and two types of pork meat (grilled meatballs and pork belly). The pork was nicely marinated and tender, the sauce went so well with the noodles it was such a good choice. We also ordered two iced Vietnamese condensed milk coffee and it's lovely. Not too strong with a nice sweet taste which almost tasted like a dessert.

The service we received was great. We were greeted by friendly waiters and things were served in good time and hot. It's really reasonably priced for the amount of food you get, not to mention the quality of it.

This restaurant has instantly become my no.1 Vietnamese place in town. I will be visiting this place regularly from now on! Thanks so much for making such...

Amazing restaurant. I had the chicken noodle soup (pho ga) and it was yummy. Great atmosphere and service too. I will be back.

Edited on 8 August after going back - Dear Management team, You really need to increase staff at peak times such as dinner especially on Thursdays which is the new Friday. My fiance and I visited the restaurant as a birthday treat but the service was so poor that we were disheartened by the overall experience. There were only 2 waiters serving all the tables - one taking orders and the other serving. Two things happened from a service standpoint : We had to wait 20 min just to place the order. Had to remind the server twice to send someone to take our order. Need to better train your servers on the menu - when I enquired about which vermicelli dishes are cold and which are hot, she was unsure. When I asked if the salt and pepper tofu is deep fried, she was unsure. Since it had already taken so much time to even come and take the order, it was hard ask her to go back and clarify. This would be bad for people who are enquiring about allergens since there are no allergen warnings on the menu. Food took a very very very time to come out and even when it did, I didn't get what I ordered for. 😑 I didn't have the heart or time to return my order. My complaints are not meant to target the servers. They were really trying to do their best to cater to the many people present. This review is for the management team to hire more people during peak times or atleast help out yourself. I really enjoyed the food but if service continues like this, we wouldn't want to return as it just leaves the customer with a bad mood. (P.S. - the table next to us ordered before us and never got their main course even after we finished and packed...

UPDATE Taste of the food was good, they got our orders right. Food came on time, there were 6 of us who ordered. My food was the same as last time I ordered, rice with lemongrass chilli with beef, this time it came as Fried Rice. The beef was not riddled with onions, which was good, but the outside side of the rice was lukewarm temperature.

Chairs and sittings are quite tight space. I would recommend this restaurant. 👍

Disappointed

I normally don't leave review like this but I was disappointed so much that I had to leave this review.

We wanted to order food for our guest, and the lady/manager was recommending we go for chef's special. I wanted fried rice lemongrass chilli rice with beef. And the lady recommended I get the same but under chef's special.

We ordered our food at the same time with 1 member ordering last minute or 7mins after us. When the food were being served, the waiters didn't even know what food they were bringing to our table, as one was confused if the dish he was holding was pork or beef.

My food came few minutes late despite me ordering along with others. And the person who ordered late and last, his meal was standard rice with beef but under chef's special.

And when my food came, I was very annoyed and disappointed. Because the meat dish was beef, but was full if onions!!! It is really deceiving, and the rice was plain rice but served small portion!

The lady told me if I wanted fried rice, I should have told her before hand because that is £2 extra, yet the menu clearly said the lemongrass rice is served as fried rice.

I am disappointed at this restaurant, and will not be going back nor recommend. If I am forced to return, I would see how their service has been addressed from my experience.

(but the...