If you are missing Vietnamese food because of the travel restrictions, Mrs Pho could just be the solution to satisfy your cravings. I have long heard great reviews about the food from Mrs Pho and finally had a chance when they opened their latest outlet at Vivocity.
Located at basement 2, half of the outlet resembles the street side food tables in Vietnam and the other half is are booth seats looking like a contemporary cafe in Saigon. The venue itself is not huge but can seat up to 50 customers.
The menu is fairly straightforward offering simple authentic dishes you can find anywhere in Vietnam.
As I visited during the COVID period, I am happy to see that they provide antiseptic wipes as well as another wet wipe for you to use after meals. It is also great that the utensils are all wrapped in plastic to prevent any contamination.
The orders came served in these pretty little blue plates which reminds me those prized ceramic dishes in a typical Asian family home. The sugarcane prawn roll came in a serving of 3 in bitesize. The flavours were light so you can taste the sweetness of the prawn infused with the sugarcane.
One of my favourite Vietnamese dish is the prawn rice roll which is called the summer roll here. Some people do not like this dish because of the mint leaves and I’m not sure if this is why they removed it from their version. I like the texture of the roll but I find that there was something missing since they removed the mint leaves.
We also had the Hanoi crab and fish spring roll which came in 1 spring roll and 1 crab cake lookalike. Personally, I did not like this so much as I could not taste the crab or the fish but instead a mesh of flavours which did not go well for me. This was SGD 6.50 which is quite expensive in my view for this serving.
The chicken pho had a rather huge serving at SGD 10.90 and the taste really resembles the pho I had in Vietnam but I felt it was missing out on the mint leaves and more of the local vegetables you will find in your Pho when you pop into any Pho stall. The pho itself is smooth and the soup very light.
The pork and prawn noodle was more expensive at SGD 13.10 with a couple of pieces of prawn and some pork balls. The soup is more flavoured in this dish compared to the pho but is generally still light in flavour.
We had an avocado and coconut smoothie which was freshly blended upon our order and served in these takeaway plastic cups. The consistency of the smoothies are pretty good and thick but I find it pricey for this size which is quite small.
Overall, the service at Mrs Pho is attentive but not friendly. I like that the decor of the restaurant kinds of brings me back to Vietnam with some of the food tasting exactly the way it was in the country and some of the dishes somewhat lacking in flavours. Perhaps they are really good in their beef pho which I do not take so I would give them a benefit of doubt. One thing that kind of gets to me is that the dishes are not exactly pocket friendly like some other blogs mention especially for the kind of serving sizes, I would class them as a mid price joint instead.
Address: Vivocity, #B2-29, 098585
Operating hours: 11 am to 10 pm
Bear Travels . Bear Eats . Bear Cooks 