Tuesday 1 September 2015

Pho, Manchester.

The question is, how do you pronounce Pho? Logic would suggest 'Foe' like Phone but no, apparently it's 'Fuh' like this. But are we Mancunions going to pronounce it the correct way or Anglicise it? Imagine telling your colleagues at work that you're dining at what sounds like 'Fer' tonight? Of course we should try to get these things right to try and be culturally sensitive but there's no blanket rule. After all we don't pronounce Paris 'paree' like Parisians or Madrid like the Spanish do. Try ordering Spaghetti like an Italian and you will sound pretentious and affected.
However you decide to say it, Pho is another new small chain restaurant from London arriving in the revamped Edwardian Corn Exchange. We went on Friday and apart from a few niggles (a long wait for the mains) we have a good time. Starters are Nem hải sản. (£4.50). Large crispy spring roll of tiger prawn, crab & pork with nước chấm dipping sauce.
Nem nướng. (£6.50). Home-made pork & lemongrass meatballs with lettuce & herbs to wrap & dip. A little bland and dry but nothing a bit of hot sauce wouldn't fix.
The starters are fine but it's the Pho you're here for, a Vietnamese aromatic rice noodle soup with a side dish of fresh herbs to add yourself. They say that these dishes take 12 hours to prepare. We go for the Phở bò nấm trúng (house special). (£9.75). Brisket, enoki & button mushrooms, creamy egg yolk, in beef broth.
Also the Phở đặc biệt, Tiger prawns, tofu & flash fried steak with garlic in beef stock. (£10.75). They took an age to come and the latter didn't have the promised prawns (we think we got another dish). However we are not petty minded TA reviewers, it was absolutely fine, mistakes are to be expected as they've only just opened. (I've just noticed they removed this from the bill too).
We loved the spicy and fragrant Pho dishes and in the end were both greedily slurping it up from the bowl as we saw our Chinese neighbours on another table do. It's the only way. Not only is it as tasty as, it feels healthy and doesn't sit heavily on your stomach. So in our case, we carry on drinking.
I've no idea if this chain restaurant is considered truly 'authentic' by the experts in this cuisine or how I'm supposed to say Pho but I can tell you that we enjoyed it and I've managed to write this whole review without making a Pho-pun either.
See the Pho-tos in high res here

* 25% off food order, opening offer.

Click to add a blog post for Pho on Zomato

No comments:

Post a Comment