Pho Lounge – restaurant review

A massive group of chattering diners, zipping up their coats against the cold, is just exiting Pho Lounge on Gloucester Road on a Thursday lunchtime soon after the restaurant’s opening. Their sudden rush leaves the place quiet and calm, with soft music playing and, from the kitchen upstairs, a warm smell of meaty broth: the basis for the Vietnamese noodle dish from which the restaurant takes its name.

Formerly another Vietnamese restaurant, the new owners have transformed what was once a plain exterior with a sleek black frontage, wooden decking and bamboo-print window decals. Inside, the walls are painted with intricate murals showing pastoral scenes of paddy fields and sampans with bright red sails fishing on calm seas punctuated by rocky karsts. Above the dark wooden bar are Taoist deities wreathed in trailing flowers, and a small shrine complete with whisky offering sits next to the stairs that lead down to the larger back dining room.

This houses a dozen tables surrounded by leather banquettes all set with black and gold chopsticks, and a condiment tray the likes of which you’d find at any roadside stall, offering sriracha, Squid brand fish sauce and toothpicks.

Brisket beef phở, with a bone broth cooked for 18 hours

The leather-bound menu offers starters including báhn cuốn (steamed rice rolls with ground pork, wood ear mushrooms and shallots) for £8, chilli salted and pepper squid (£8.50), soups, salads, Vietnamese curries (from £9.50 for the vegetarian aubergine and okra) but noodles are the speciality. The phở, bún and bún hué include beef, prawn, chicken and tofu options starting from £9, and I opt for the brisket beef phở (£9.50) on the recommendation of the friendly waitress.

It arrives quickly, a huge fragrant bowl of broth, rice noodles, beef, spring onions and fresh coriander, plus a side plate of fresh mint, beansprouts, sliced red chillis and lemon. It smells delicious and rich, the slow-cooked bone broth amplifying the taste of the beef, which melts away amongst the soft fresh noodles. The spring onion and beansprouts add a lovely vegetal crunch, the flavour enhanced by just a little squirt of hot sauce.

There’s a massive amount of tasty broth left once the noodles have been eaten, but the big shallow bowl and a biger-than usual spoon make it hard to drink without spilling or slurping. This might not be the right restaurant to take a first date you’re trying to impress, but for a casual lunch on a cold day it absolutely hits the spot. Pho Lounge joins a run of exciting restaurants, including Bomboloni and Burger Bear on the Pigsty Hill stretch of Gloucester Road, and looks set to become a fellow neighbourhood favourite.

Pho Lounge
209 Gloucester Road, Bristol, BS7 8NN
www.facebook.com/pholoungeofficial 
0117 330 9149

Read more restaurant reviews: Dhamaka