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Melbourne Vietnam Noodle House - (03) 9650 0172 - 251 Swanston street Melbourne 3000

I had soup with The Mug Punter today. We were going to go to Mekong. Instead, we decided to try a place a few doors up, calling its self plainly, Melbourne Vietnam noodle House Pho Bo Ga. The Menu here is far from plainly Vietnamese noodle soup. I’m not sure that’s a good thing. I find it disturbing when restaurants broaden their menus to temp more customers. It’s much better when they stick to their specialties. These guys had all soughts of things on the menu. The Mug and I ignored most of it, and went straight for the Phở Bo. It wasn’t bad at all. The medium size was generous and the soup was reasonably rich and flavorsome. Only $7.50 a bowl. They only gave us one plate of salad stuff though, and I accidentally used all the basil, leaving The Mug a withered twig.

No mirrored walls here. They seem to be going for a slightly modern look, but it’s a thin veneer.

Melbourne Vietnam Noodle House - (03) 9650 0172 - 251 Swanston street Melbourne 3000

The link below is to an informative discussion about Phở in Seattle. I reckon I’d like to go to Seattle for lunch, sounds like they care about their Phở. Interesting points about the difference between the northern purest Pho, and the more flamboyant southern version.

KUOW pho article

Pho Hung - (03) 9470 1588 - 447 High Street Preston 3072

Pho Hung, I’m hooked on their Bo Kho. I like it with either rice or egg noodles. It’s a rich dark soup of hot spicy curry flavours. The soup contains wonderfully stewed chunks of beef and carrot. I had it with extra chili, onion and lemon.

Mirror walls here too!

… and they were all in my soup, and then some. A few chicken parts were chucked in as well! I had the Ta Pin Lu – combination uber soup at Mekong, the medium size bowl was $8.

The substances I could discern were: Chicken flesh - excellent. Egg yolk - not bad. Cow flesh - both braised and rare. Congealed blood blocks - Jelly like, a bit tasteless. Tripe - chewy and textured. Meat balls - two types, regular processed and rissole like. Liver - chicken and cow, mmm. Tendon - not really in my vocabulary to describe, but pleasing.

There was only one substance I could not make out. It was some strange tubular white stuff, maybe marrow, it didn’t have much taste and the texture was not to my liking.

It was generally a great soup but not as much offal as I was expecting. The waiter did check twice that I was actually ordering Ta Pin Lu, maybe they toned it down for me.

BTW - Mekong has the signature mirrored walls.

Hien Vuong - (03) 9687 9698 - 144 Hopkins Street Footscray 3011

Every Thursday, E and I usually go to the Vic Market to get out weekly food. This week we decided to mix it up a bit, we headed out west to the Footscray Market. E was walking solo, so it made shopping a little difficult but we did pick up some fresh fish and chicken for the week.

After groceries, we got to the real point of the expedition and went out to Hopkins street in search of Pho. There are many Pho shops in this area, and some are even looking a bit upmarket. We chose an eatery that was unassuming. We were greeted by the owner who flatly stated, “We specialise in Vietnamese rice noodle soup!” “Great!”, I said.

E sucked and slurped and dropped things and made a general mess. No one seemed to care and she had a great time. I fed her soup from my spoon. I really enjoyed my Pho, it’s a really great breakfast, among other meals. I’d like to go back to Hien Vuong but there are so many Pho shops in this area, it could be awhile before we taste this specialty again.

By the way, you’ve got to wonder what’s up with the mirror walls in Melbourne Pho shops!

Pho Dzung - (03) 9663 8885 - 234b Russell Street Melbourne 3000

The Pho Dzung empire casts a wide net over Melbourne. Richmond, Footscray, and Russell Street in the city. Personally I think they should continue their conquest. I’d be happy to see one on every street corner, mercilessly conquering enemies like McDonald’s. As the singer, with English as a second language, impersonating John Lennon, crackling out of the speakers put it, “Imagine!”

Today I went to the Russell street outlet. It was quiet, as it’s a public holiday, but they were still dishing out large piping hot bowls of soup. I decided to have the Bun Bo Hue. This, as the name suggests is a soup that originates from Hue in central Vietnam. In my soup the broth was flavoured with lemongrass and chili oil. The rice noodles were different to Pho, they were thicker and round like spaghetti. It contained braised beef and some kind of garlicky sliced pork loaf. I added some basil, lime juice, chili and bean shoots. It was really good. I bit heartier than Pho, but I was hungry.

Onward Pho Dzung! You’ve got to love that smiling cow mascot.

Thu The - (03) 9427 7749 - 270 Victoria Street Richmond 3121

… you get that a bit on Victoria Street, but at the same time it’s one of my favorite places in Melbourne.

Thu The is magnificent! I had a wonderful Pho Ga there recently. It had a rich spiced stock and plenty of thinly sliced tender rare beef. They provide sugar on the tables here, and I’m sorry to say that I don’t mind a bit of sweet in my pho. The shop has a great family home feel, complete with your Vietnamese granny refilling the chili holders. The day I was down there, the street was hot sticky, Thu The was a sanctuary from hustle outside.

Mekong - (03) 9663 3288 - 241 Swanston St Melbourne 3000

For a while now I’ve been visiting Pho Bo Ga Mekong Vietnam on Swanston Street. It is always completely packed, which is a good sign I suppose. The pho is great. It comes in three sizes and many incarnations. The stock is extremely tasty and the ingredients are served generously.

I’ve been working my way through the different combinations. It’s like traversing the great river itself. A stand out was the Pho with beef and sausage. Which was completely unexpected. The sausage was more like a spiced rissole. I really enjoyed it and have never had anything like it before.

Soon I shall reach the end of the Mekong menu, which culminates in a soup called Ta Pin Lu, this consists of a combination of all the previous soups in one grand uber-soup. It includes bone marrow and tendon. I can’t wait.

After placing salad into your bowl of Pho, make sure when your squeezing lemon, that you cover it with your free hand. I learned this lesson the hard way recently. On a packed lunch table, I squeezed lemon willy nilly. Not only did it cascade over the woman next to me, but burnt acid in my eyes. It caused a few very awkward moments of pain filled apology. I was never really forgiven for this faux pas. I spent the rest of the meal very self consciously trying to not slurp.