Pho Cue — Restaurant in Manchester

Oh my word...I could leave my review of this amazing place with just 3 words and it would sum up my thoughts on it...but I think I would be doing it a disservice by not saying more.

I've been trying to eat here for a while now but for one reason or another I haven't been able to...it is notoriously difficult to get a booking as its a small restaurant and hugely popular.

You can turn up when it opens at 5pm for walk-ins but by 530pm the line is round the corner on most days!

But persevere! I did and today I managed to walk straight away at 510pm...and I'm so glad I did.

This was the finest Vietnamese meal I have eaten in my life...and one of the best meals of any cuisine I've had in the UK or any other city or country I've been fortunate enough to visit.

It really is that good.

There are so many choices on the menu...we ordered the Vietnamese pork tacos (the shell is egg based), Vietnamese bbq wings, green papaya salad with king prawn, soft shell crab (2 types - salt and pepper & garlic butter) and lemongrass roasted lamb chops.

Everything was just so good! The balance of flavours is exceptional...the dressing for the papaya salad and the soft shell crab in particular were works of genius.

Then we ordered 2 bowls of spicy beef pho...it was a special today. And again...it was wow. The depth of flavour of the broth is something you won't see often.

And if the food wasn't enough...the service was excellent. The manager came over twice during our meal to ask how things were...which was a real bonus.

Finally...the prices are simply too low for the quality of the food (maybe I shouldn't alert the restaurant to this...)

Everything we ordered above plus 2 Vietnamese iced coffees (again...amazeballs) and a bottle of water came to £40 per head. We paid £100 total because it just seemed fair...and I'm normally the biggest grumblepants about paying service charges and tips when I don't think they are deserved.

Here...the tip...

Been craving pho and my friend took me here for the first time a few weeks ago. We came a little after 5PM which is when they open for dinner service and there was already a bit of a queue by the door (she was not kidding when she said the place fills up fast). We ended up waiting for about 20 minutes for a table.

We ordered the traditional raw beef pho, garlic butter wings, and king prawn banh xeo. Also got ginger beer and lemon iced tea.

1. Traditional Pho

The broth was really tasty. I enjoyed it immensely as I have been craving pho for awhile (having moved to northern UK area from Toronto, it was hard to find Viet food around 🥲) so I was pleasantly surprised.

2. Garlic Butter Wings

My friend recommended this and I can see why. The chicken was crispy and coated with the sauce well (you get a taste of garlic butter with every bite).

3. Banh Xeo

This was a modern take of the banh xeo. They made it into tacos and it worked great.

I visited again for the banh mi as they stopped making it after 4PM.

1. Chicken Banh Mi

I wasn’t expecting the bread to be that big but it was huge and they were generous with the filling. I got it with the sriracha mayo. The baguette was nicely toasted and I liked it.

2. Garlic Butter Chips

I enjoyed the garlic butter wings so why not try them with the chips. I made a mistake in ordering another side thinking that the banh mi wasn’t gonna be enough for me but oh, man. I was a trooper and finished my food though (that’s how much I enjoyed them).

3. Vietnamese Coffee

I got this with the popcorn syrup (I got really curious after seeing it the first time I came) and it was actually not bad! I wasn’t expecting too much (I still found the drink to be sweet but it’s Viet coffee so).

Overall, the service was fast, the staff was friendly. Would definitely come back and try the other...

We were seated very quickly after waiting in the queue, I would definitely recommend booking a table as this place gets really busy. My only critique would be there can be a wait for service as they look understaffed. It seems like there were only two servers for the whole restaurant (also doing drinks!), Saying that the service was personable when you did interact. Food didn't come out all at once but you knew the food was coming out fresh, I would probably recommend staff telling customers this as my parents didn't understand why that happened. We all had a look at the menu and we got prawn tacos, pork steamed rolls, spring rolls and chicken summer rolls to start. For mains the chicken papaya salad, chicken katsu and pork belly bun. Prawn tacos - delicious filling but a bit messy to eat! Pork steamed rolls - filling was flavourful and it was delicious in the dipping sauce, the texture was really interesting, it had almost a thick summer roll outer coating (chewy and delicious) Summer rolls- very fresh vegetables with plenty of coriander, yum! Spring rolls - massive highlight for us, came out piping hot, crispy and were amazing in the dipping sauce. Papaya salad - really fresh, spicy and was really needed after all the starters Chicken katsu - really lovely, exactly what you'd expect. Pork belly bun - this was really delicious, my only critique would be for my taste there was too many noodles and not a great variety of different greens - in most bun I have had it has some herbs added to the dish. However this is just my personal taste. The sauce was nice but I feel like could have had some more chili (again personal taste). Overall it was a great experience and I would definitely come back to try their pho...