Pho Café Farringdon

So much to look forward to, so much anticipation, and in the end, so much disappointment. Pho Café was not the saving grace I was looking for.

Food

The menu is not as varied as your typical Vietnamese, but contained variations of Pho, Bun and Goi (Salad), plus a few starters to add variety. Things started promisingly with my apple, pineapple and mint (£2.95) juice. Slokky got the apple, pineapple and coconut juice (£2.95), and both were freshly squeezed. It could have been a bit colder though. We ordered the Cha Gio (£3.75) - fried pork spring rolls to share, which were fresh and had a nice light dipping sauce to match. As usual, we always test a Vietnamese restaurant by their pho, so we ordered the Pho Tai (£7.45) - thinly sliced fillet steak (all beef pho's served with beef stock). This was so, so disappointing. The soup was very substandard, with no depth and maybe even worst….hardly any flavour. The accompaniment was only a few bean sprouts, a sprig of basil and a slice of lime, not the pile of sprout and aromatic herbs of other establishments. I, who prefers fresh to heavy, added all the chilli into the sauce, and I still could not make it taste good. Even worst, the noodles were flat and the beef was almost non-existent.

Bun Hue Chay 9£7.45) - hot and spicy brisket soup seemed like to be the exact stock base and noodles as the pho, except with a spoon full of chilli paste added. The only thing I can say is…well, now you have flavour. The only thing it had going for it was the brisket. I would have preferred it to be more sinewy, but the beef was soft and flavoursome enough to please.

After the shocking mains, I skipped desserts. Slokky tried the “regurgitated” coffee though. It didn’t taste any different to the coffee we brought back from Vietnam.

Rating - 3

Atmosphere

It’s a small place, a little away from the hustle nad bustle of St John Street, but still close enough to be popular with the office workers and locals. In fact, the place was full to bursting, and extremely warm. It makes a nice and pleasant hang out…now if only the food was better.

Rating - 2

Service

The waiters were all airheads. They were nice and all, but none of them even know what the dishes were or who ordered what, so there was so much confusion when the food came. They had no anticipation, and we had to ask them for everything. They kept reaching over us to remove our plates, sometimes before we’d finished with it.

Rating - 1.5

C-factor

For Farringdon? Average. For pho? Appalling. For decent food? Outrageous.

Rating - 0

Brownie Points - 6.5

Info

86 St. John Street
London
EC1M 4EH
Phone +44 (0) 20 7253 7624
Website