Pho Saigon

Authentic Vibe, Exceptional Vietnamese Cuisine!

After simultaneously devouring and dissecting a slew of mixed reviews, I decided it was time to slip into Pho Saigon in Ealing. My entrance was greeted by an eerily silent dining room and fragrant whispers of fresh herbs and spices. The service, while not all smiles and hand-holding, was refreshingly efficient—though the absence of enthusiastic grins might be more to do with the pronounced tire marks left by demanding patrons of yesteryears. Let’s face it, the staff can only maintain a bright-eyed bushy-tailed disposition for so long amidst our unrelenting bombardment for prompt seconds of ginger soy brisket.

My venture into their famed pho options revealed a conspicuous spectrum. The rare beef pho boasted tender morsels cradling amidst a broth teeming with rosemary’s sultry cousin, star anise—not as anguine as advertised, but guiltlessly slurp-worthy nonetheless. Whereas, undersized prawn veterans were tragically bisected to masquerade in their shells, under fixed vegetarian counterparts that could alleviate any misgivings: solid pak choi and spicy tofu securing second orders each time over my omnivore inclinations. An expelled temple for filet mignon this may not be, but the authentic edges can't escape appreciation. The communal lack of conversational buzzing notched toward either a lackluster ambience or an evening too early, leaving me daringly pining for warmth over residual wooden schmaltzers rather than ceramics. Would I return? Only when hoping to subdue an insistent longing for lemon-grass divertissements away from raging grounds. — Penelope Savory