Hong Trang Nguyen

Hi this is my first Unilocal review. I must say being newish to Singapore Unilocal has helped me a lot so I wanna give back to the community with a little gem I discovered myself.
I am Aussie Vietnamese working in Singapore. I am a bit of a Vietnamese food Nazi as I grew up with an abundance of good Vietnamese food and have been to vietnam recently. You can even check out my YouTube videos from my recent trip to Vietnam
Considering the number of Vietnamese migrants in Singapore the Vietnamese food can be hit and miss. I generally stay away from the franchises. My favourite is Mrs Phở (Bugis) and everyone on Unilocal keeps saying good things about Orchard Towers place (yet to experience).
Anyway I have been to Hong Trang Nguyen twice now. First was a test lunch with phở bo (beef noodle soup) and goi xoai (green mango salad). Simple flavours yet clean and fresh. Perfect.
(I won’t explain the specifics of these dishes because this review is really for people who are familiar with Vietnamese food. If not just go try the meal is only $ 4!)
So I decided to take my uncle and aunty (my land lords from Singapore) to try the Hu Tieu tonight. Again, broth was simple yet fresh and a familiar taste to home (in Australia) and Vietnam. We also ordered the goi cuon which is nice but they are using a Chinese style pre packed pork I suspect. We also got the cha gio (deep fried spring rolls). This was quite disappointing and poorly wrapped, which made them very oily (a well wrapped spring roll is not that oily). Aunty also got the rau muong xao toi (stir fried morning glory and garlic). Nothing too special. Quite oily and usually a dish served as a side with rice. Again I ordered the goi xoai which was consistently good (better than the one I had in Joo Chiat).
My General Vietnamese food tips:
–if the aunty speaks Vietnamese it’s probably good
— stay away from franchises: expensive and their quality control is operated by a corporation so always disappointing
— if the beef noodle soup is good I’ll come back
–stay away from the banh mi bread in Singapore, you will be disappointed. No one here makes good banh mi here. I won’t even try the one at Hong Trang Nguyen cos I can tell it’s not legit
My tips for Hong Trang Nguyen
–Aunty says they have only been opened for one month, so I suspect they can only get better.
–when it’s busy be prepared to wait they haven’t quite perfected their prep chain yet
–go for the phở bo beef noodle soup or any other noodle soup. This is their specialty. I haven’t tried their special combo yet as I’m a phở tai purist.
–goi xoai mango salad is a nice side dish
–anyone on the NE SMRT purple line it is probably worth checking out only a few mins from the station but is a bit tricky to find as it is around the corner from Hougang central (block 805 under the car park)
–they don’t have the banh xeo crêpe yet so watch this space
–they prob use MSG but so does everyone else in Singapore (I have come to accept that)
–overall I am happy there is a nice little Viet place that I can access in my area, Singapore needs more Vietnamese people who are producing good honest Vietnamese food. It may be a small shop in a hawker centre run by 2 aunties but isn’t that where all the best food in Singapore is anyway? ;)