Pho PHD, Marrickville

Pho PHD is renowned of course for their pho (Vietnamese beef rice noodle soup). This time though, myself and two friends gave their banquet a go, as a mid-week treat to ourselves (because why not!). Plus, one of my friends coined the term ‘ghetto banquet’ because for $30 a pop, it was super cheap (cue the Cheap Cheap song from Woolworths).

 In short, the banquet is cheap, but definitely not as consistent in quality as their pho. But if you’re with a group, it seems a bit sad to go eat a bowl of pho each and leave in 15 minutes. The great thing with the banquet is that you can choose your dishes so it’s not a fully fixed set menu.

Entrees: rice paper rolls and crispy pancake

The prawn rice paper rolls (1 each) were fairly average with mostly lettuce rather than authentic Vietnamese herbs. I didn’t try the hoisin sauce with peanuts, but did have a fish sauce based dipping sauce which was nice.

The crispy pancake was a little too greasy for my liking though it was really crispy and flavoursome. Not bad but not as good as Mum’s for sure!

Mains: salt and pepper squid, claypot caramelised pork, stir fried king prawns, stir fried bean curd with vegetables, with steamed rice 

So much food! Anyway, that aside, the salt and pepper squid was probably my favourite of the four dishes. The squid was super crispy, the squid was still firm but not too chewy and the batter was the right balance between salt and pepper.

The ‘thit kho’, claypot caramelised pork was really flavoursome from the fish sauce based sauce, but could have been better on two fronts: 1) it was a little too salty and needed a bit more sweetness and 2) the pork needed to be braised for longer so that it has that beautiful falling-apart-in-your-mouth texture as this pork was still a little too chewy.

I found the stir fried king prawns and stir fried bean curd (well, really tofu) with vegetables really similar in flavouring. Both were tasty enough with a sweet soy sauce that worked well on the steamed rice but nothing too special.

Details: Pho PHD, 260 Marrickville Rd, Marrickville NSW 2204