So Pho

Once in a while I crave for good Vietnamese food and I was told that So Pho has pretty decent Vietnamese cuisine so I decided to pop over for a meal and a chance to review the restaurant

Located at the far corner of Vivocity, this So Pho outlet has a big and open concept outlet. The restaurant has a nice modern and clean décor with a few eclectic furniture placed in the middle to brighten up the entire space with a pop of colour.

They have quite an extensive menu with the usual pho noodles, bun cha noodles or rice as well as some popular street snacks

I really liked that their drinks menu is extremely extensive with some very interesting selections like this Iced lime tea cooler which comes in a reasonable sized canister at SGD 4.50. The drink was very thirst quenching and great to wash down any grease.

We ordered the mixed appetizers platter to try out the different kinds of Vietnamese snacks like the fried spring roll, fresh spring roll and sugarcane prawn roll. It came with 2 different dipping sauces with the dark one for the fresh spring roll.

The fresh spring roll was refreshing and crunchy but also lacking the mint leaves. There was fresh vegetables, rice vermicelli, carrots and some pork wrapped within the roll.

The prawn roll was juicy and springy and I liked that the sugarcane still has juice to chew on. The only item I was not a fan of was the fried spring roll as you can see that I did not even take a close up picture. The skin was very crispy but the filling has this weird flavour that was not up my alley.

The next item we had was the lemongrass chicken priced at SGD 7.50 and there were 4 pieces per serving.

The chicken has a nice crispy batter which was not too thick and evenly coats the chicken wings. There is a slight lemongrass flagrance as you bite into the wings and the meat is succulent and tender.

My friend had the fried pho with soft shelled crab priced at SGD 13.50. The serving was quite decent for 1 person. At first glance, it reminded me of pad Thai from Thailand and in fact it tastes somewhat similar with a near to sweet flavour. The soft shelled crab was fried till pretty crispy but overall I found the combination a bit dry that we needed a 2nd round of drinks by at this point.

This round of drinks, we had the salty king and the soda chanh which is basically salted plum juice with soda water and lime juice with soda water. While these are simple concoctions, I found them very useful in quenching the thirst after the fried and dry noodles we had.

Our last dish was the bun cha noodles with lemongrass chicken. Unlike the fried wings, the noodles came with fried boneless chicken meat and lots of fried spring roll which I am not so much of a fan. The bowl of noodles also came with lots of fresh vegetables and onions. The amount of sauce provided was quite little so I had to ask for another plate so that the noodles can be nicely mixed up. As we had this dish last, the noodles were all clumped together and was pretty hard to eat so I would suggest to mix the noodles as soon as it is served. Apart from the toppings which I have reviewed above, I really liked the texture of the noodles which were springy and soft and the sauce given also has a savoury and tangy flavour to it.

Overall, the food at So Pho is pretty decent and the prices are also quite wallet friendly although some items are really not my favourite like the fried spring rolls. The service is also warm and friendly.

Address: 1 HarbourFront Walk, #01-171 Vivocity, Singapore

Operating hours: 11 am to 10 pm