Restaurant Review: Pho Guildford for Vietnamese street food

We took our family (2 adults, 3 children) along to sample this Vietnamese street-food restaurant. 

With the debate raging about how you actually pronounce the name of the restaurant, we headed off to sample the fresh and healthy Vietnamese street-food menu. We discovered a laid back yet buzzy restaurant, a relatively new addition to the recently refurbished Tunsgate Quarter.

The real selling point for increasingly health conscious families is the fact that the food at Pho is, in the main, extremely healthy. Dishes are well flavoured with Asian spices and fresh herbs but most plates are also wheat free, gluten free, dairy free and low in fat. In fact take the noodles away and you have a carb free dish! All dishes are very attractive to children without the high sugar content and bad stuff to make it so. It’s a great way for the family to experience appealingly presented Asian food.

There is certainly no compromise on flavour as we licked our lips through starters, mains and dessert. The kids menu comprised of noodle dishes, skewers or noodle soup, accompanied by a delicious range of freshly squeezed juices, homemade lemonade, coconut water or fizzy water. For dessert kids can choose from ice cream, sorbet, banana fritter or a piece of whole fruit. Of course the kids were given the obligatory colouring crayons and colourable menu with puzzles to keep them occupied throughout the meal. 

For the grown ups the wide choice of healthy soups, noodle dishes and curries made for a challenge on what to order, as it all sounded so good. After some advice from our waitress we tucked into delicious rice paper rolls, baby squid with lime dip and crispy spring rolls for starters. We then moved onto mains, choosing fragrant Vietnamese curry (Cari Chicken), a beef noodle soup (Pho Steak) and Wok fried noodles with all the trimmings (Pho Xao Beef). We don’t have the correct Vietnamese characters and symbols to write those out properly here, nor did we attempt to pronounce them when ordering!

The service was impeccable. The waiting staff were friendly, helpful and attentive but gave us enough space to enjoy our meal in peace. The food is superb and the restaurant’s vibe is busy enough to allow for the more exuberant members of your party to be themselves.

Pho Guildford sometimes offer deals in the school holidays so check out their website before you visit. More info on Pho Guildford click here.