Taste Test - Phong Vinh Vietnamese & Chinese Noodle House

Tel: 9228 8238

After a long walk around King's Park - Miss Em, Miss Tee and I were ravenous and decided to have dinner at Phong Vinh Vietnamese & Chinese Noodle House.  This is probably the second or third time I've been here and it hasn't disappointed me so far (probably because my expectations weren't high?).  Phong Vinh is a casual dining restaurant with lights that don't match the rest of the decor in the restaurant but the food is good.

As soon as we sat down, the waitress brought over menus, serviettes, tea in a thermos flask and tea cups.  After perusing the menu, we ordered two serves of "Goi Cuon Tom Thit" (rice paper roll with prawn and pork) for entrée.  You can't really go wrong with rice paper rolls so if they are bad I suggest leaving the restaurant before you get your mains.  The rice paper rolls arrived and were adequately filled and quite tasty; the only complaint I have is the sauce - I've had better sauce, something was missing but I couldn't pin point it...

Goi cuon tom thit (rice paper roll with prawn and pork)

Pho Tai Nam (raw and cooked beef hofan soup)

Beansprouts, red cabbage, mint

 For our mains, we decided to get a bowl of noodles each.  Miss Em ordered "Mi De Tiem Thuoc Bac" (braised goat noodle soup), Miss Tee ordered "Bun Bo Hue" (pork and beef vermicelli in spicy soup) and I ordered "Pho Tai Nam" (raw and cooked beef hofan soup).  Whenever you order "Pho"  at Vietnamese restaurants, they also give you an accompanying plate filled with an assortment of bean sprouts, mint and Asian basil plus another small dish of chilli and some lemon - I have to say Phong Vinh probably serves the cleanest looking bean sprouts amongst the Vietnamese restaurants I've been to and they also give you red cabbage!

Mi De Tiem Thuoc Bac (braised goat noodle soup)

Bun Bo Hue (pork and beef vermicelli in spicy soup)

Our food came out and we tasted each other's soups - Miss Em's soup tasted like it had a tinge of Asian medicinal herbs, Miss Tee's soup was SPICY and mine compared to theirs was quite plain but still good.  My hofan would have been even better if it was cooked for a little, teeny bit longer. The servings were decent, we were all satisfied with our bowl of noodles and neither one of us managed to finish our noodles.  I still haven't found a place that makes "Pho" better than my friend's mum...

Overall, I recommend Phong Vinh Vietnamese and Chinese Noodle House to anyone that wants to grab a quick, cheap, decent sized meal which is also satisfying to the taste buds.

Taste: 3.5/5
Presentation: 3.5/5
Service: 3.5/5
Atmosphere: 3.5/5

TASTE TEST OVERALL SCORE: 14/20