I Am Pho — Restaurant in Manchester

It’s definitely a no frills/no fuss Vietnamese restaurant.

We ordered the:

🥢 bun bo hue (spicy beef vermicelli noodle soup) 🥢bun rieu cua (crab noodle soup) 🥢pho bo (beef noodle soup) 🥢ech xao sa ot (chilli and lemongrass frogs legs) 🥢 prawn salad 🥢crispy chicken wings 🥢sweet and spicy chicken wings 🥢banh mi with the bbq pork skewers (off menu) 🥢iced coffee

You definitely need to add sriracha/chilli oil/hoisin sauce/lime/fish sauce to your own preferences (not just here but every Vietnamese place you go to). I’m a bun bo hue fan as it’s not something I ever eat at home so I always like to eat it outside! Extra spicy please.

The frogs legs were *chef’s kiss”, light, crispy, hint of chilli and lemongrass paired with the sweet chilli dip 😩. It is such a moreish dish. Frogs legs have a very similar texture to chicken so I’d definitely recommend getting these.

Both the chicken wing dishes were great, the batter is light so the chicken is crispy, not crunchy, and lightly seasoned. The sweet and chilli ones is for those of you who love fish sauce! It’s not over powering at all and complementary of the sweet and spicy flavours. Chicken done WELL. If you do not like fish sauce, politely, this is not for you.

The banh mi was so tasty, the baguette was light and crispy and the inside was fluffy (not dense like a French baguette). It would’ve been better with a bit more of the meat filling but otherwise everything else was great. The pickled veg was still crunchy and adds a nice “sour” contrast to the bbq pork skewers. Add sriracha for spice and you have yourself a perfect banh mi.

Whatever you do, make sure you get the salad - don’t say I...

Food was nice and they were generous with the portion size, but the customer service was pretty bad.

We were waiting to be seated, after I said table for two please, a waitress pointed the table and we sat down. When we were ready to order, my partner wanted to get the jerk beef salad so I asked what kind of salad is that, is it like papaya salad? She said no it’s not, what do you mean? I said is it like papaya salad that is spicy and sour, have fish sauce in? She said it has fish sauce. I didn’t bother to ask more because she was quite rude already at this point. No smile, didn’t even say full sentence. Then my partner wanted a lemongrass chicken and it comes with rice or noodles, so he asked the waitress what kind of noodles is that? She said boiled noodles, again I just wanna make her life easier so I told my partner I would pick noodles. Then my turn to order a main, I ordered garlic marinated beef steak with noodles, I asked is it like a salad type noodles? She said what? It’s boiled noodles. I had to repeat myself again and she finally said no it’s not mixed, salad is on the side. Then other people come and put down the food and at the end we asked for be bill and the same lady came over, we asked for a box to wrap up our food, she asked, what is it you wanna wrap up? We had to point the food on the table and said this is what we wanna wrap up. I just feel she was rude and I don’t think we did anything that deserved to be treated like this.

I used to come here alone for lunch and bring my friends over but I don’t think I would ever...

Food was horrendous, the place was dirty and messy (having a leaking air con in the middle of the tables, with buckets and wet towels on the floor).

The worst thing that could happen to us in Manchester in years. Being lovers of the Vietnamese gastronomy we entered here giving them a chance as we donde with other hidden jewels but this accident of restaurant it’s gone passed of any worst experience we could ever have.

£5.50 for 3 mini Spring rolls (from box) “deep -over-fried” £5 = 5 chicken wing “HALVES” (just the tiny side) dry and over cooked.

After the wrong choice of appetisers/starters which despite of being the tiniest “ever”,- we still left them in the plate - but the worst was left to come.

The nightmare of the main dishes….

Two main dishes with “cold and compacted” flavourless rice sticky noodles in a poorly presented plate with a chewy overcooked chunks of beef and the thinnest pork skewers in the world that tasted like the dirty charred smell of the grill that could be perceived from the confusion between the burnt fat and the wet towels with the buckets on the floor.

We returned both of the main dishes after the first bite. We couldn’t pass them down. We still got charged the full price. We’ve been told that was Vietnamese food and “the boss” from the kitchen didn’t even come out and faced the obvious escalation that the waiter couldn’t handle. Correction: that might be the Vietnamese food that is served to an enemy prisoner in jail.

Coca Cola and Guava juice were ok.

Let’s hope we...