It's become a quasi-tradition for me to go for a bowl of pho soon after landing in Melbourne. This fine tradition was continued on Thursday night when we headed over to Hien Vuong Pasteur (I joked that given the name, we could at least be certain it was salmonella free dohoho) in Footscray.
I've been on a large and arduous quest for the best bowl of pho in Melbourne for years and had heard good things about HVP's. Thus far, my personal favourite is from Ninh Kieu on Victoria St in Richmond and so it remained after trying HVP's.
M went for the braised beef brisket noodles which while the brisket was nicely soft and unctuous, the soup itself had a overtly sour and quite unpleasant flavour. My rare beef pho (what I always get), while better, wasn't anything to write home about. As discussed in my review of My's in Canberra I look for a few things when judging a bowl of pho. While the noodles and the beef here weren't bad, the broth kinda let it down. It was one of those pho broths which don't possess much flavour beyond being sweet and MSG-laden. No richness or depth of flavour from spices was to be detected. The spring rolls were just kind of your stock standard spring rolls...tasty enough but utterly unmemorable other than somewhat of a pong from the pork filling.
While the meal was tasty enough (pho is almost always tasty and satisfying to me) I definitely wouldn't rush back.
No comments:
Post a Comment