Pho time at Pho An

Chào (I believe that's 'hello' in Vietnamese!) and welcome to fooshion & trinkets...

I'm Nisa, an 18 year old Sydney-sider, but most importantly, I'm a self-confessed food lover and restaurant hopper. I'd love for you to get to know me and 'fooshion & trinkets' a little better, but I feel like the treasure that is Pho An deserves all the glory in this post ♥. So, if you'd like to find out more about me and this blog, just take a quick scroll to the 'about me' section!

Lets start talking about Pho An (I'm salivating just thinking about it)!

One of the first things you should know about me is that the one thing I'm ALWAYS (anytime, any day) craving is a good hearty bowl of Vietnamese Pho. It's quite strange because I can still recall being a little four year old who had to get dragged into a Pho restaurant by my parents, and now I'm the one dragging them (or my friends) into one! 

I just finished my final exams and first year of university (hooray!) and the one thing that got me through the endless pages of legislation and cases, and cramming a years worth of current events in a week, is the thought of going to my favourite Pho restaurant to celebrate after! 

When I say that Pho An is a 'Pho' restaurant, that notion is not a fib. Pho An, which is located at 29 Greenfield Parade, Bankstown, NSW, only has one thing (aside from drinks and deserts) on their menu.... You guessed it. It's Pho! And it's insanely delicious!

 Pho An - 29 Greenfield Parade, Bankstown

When you walk into Pho An, depending on when you come, you either have to wait in a line with other Pho-eyed customers or you are escorted directly to your table by the waiters or the owner himself! 

If you're not Vietnamese and have never been to Pho An, the experience can be a little frustrating and somewhat confusing because up on walls is the menu, but nothing on it, except the restaurant name and the prices, are written in English! 

But never fear dearest readers as I was once a rookie as well! Rather than asking the person beside you to translate the entire menu, just ask one of the extremely hard-working waiters to give you an English menu and your mind-blowing Pho experience will be one step closer.

The first thing placed on your table before you've even ordered is a generous plate of bean sprouts, lemon wedges and mint leaves which you will toss, as you please, into your delicious bowl of Pho. The mint leaves and lemon wedges are always fresh and perfume while the bean sprouts are always juicy and crisp with every bite.

You have two sizes to choose from: regular or large

Once you've ordered, all you have to do is blink and your preferred bowl of Pho  (you  have a great variety of choice but to name a few: rare beef, chicken or my personal favourite...beef brisket) appears right before your eyes. I promise you, this is not a hyperbole by any means. Today, I literally ordered, pulled out my phone from my bag to take a photo of the bean sprouts and as soon as I looked up, my order was already in front of me. 

Regular size - Rare beef brisket Pho

I got the regular sized, rare beef brisket Pho. I promise myself that I'd be more adventurous and try a different type of Pho this time around, but after having numerous satisfying experiences at Pho An, eating their rare beef brisket, I had a moment of weakness and resorted back to my comfort zone. As always, I was not disappointed!

The broth was warm and absolutely mouthwatering! The kind of thing that I'd happily drink straight out of the bowl for. You can tell that the stock is of high quality, as it is full of flavour and is very clear. I'd like to think that my tastebuds does a little dance with every spoonful and slurp!

The beef brisket is soft, tender and all it needs is a little help from your spoon or chopsticks (or forks! no judgment here) before it tears into smaller, bite-size pieces. On its own, the beef does not have much flavour but because its been soaked in the delicious broth, with every chew, the amazing hearty flavour comes out of it. Paired with the broth and al-dente flat noodles, it makes the Pho experience heavenly (don't forget to pile on some bean sprouts and squirt some lemon juice into your bowl too!). 

Pho An Chilli sauce - if you're not given it, ask for it!

If you're a lover of chilli, be sure to ask for their chilli sauce to mix into your soup. Sometimes they place it on your table without questions but more often than not, it's something you have to ask for. I don't know what the chilli sauce is made from (aside from chilli... obviously), but it is so so delicious and brings out the stock in the Pho even more! It's definitely not for the faint-hearted though, so if you're not a big fan of chilli or have a very low chilli-threshold, don't pour too much in cause it may soil the broth!

The service is quick and relatively polite. So long as you don't expect 5 star quality service, you will not be disappointed. The restaurant gets quite loud and busy (they're opened from 7.00am-9.00pm, so if depends when you come) so it's definitely not a catch-up-with-old-friends kind of place as the staff will clean up your table as soon as you've put your cutleries down.

If I had to give Pho An a rating for their food, I'd give it an 11/10, but I'm most definitely biased, so definitely come down, treat your tastebuds and tummy, and judge for yourself! I'm actually craving it again now.. probably wasn't a good idea to write about it then! Haha.

Forever and Always,

Nisa.