Pho & Bun

First, this place has A+ customer service! Immediately I was greeted by my server and he let me know there’s 20% off. I got their sampler and they let me substitute the yogurt/​coffee for the Aloe Vera juice. So far ²⁄₂!
Now the food… Disclaimer I’m from LA and I’m Asian so setting the bar lower in London. HOWEVER the food was GREAT! The mango salad, beef carpaccio and spring rolls were fire. They have crab/​pork egg rolls… SAY WHAAAAT??? Instant CLASSIC! They use the bigger flat noodles for their phở, which I typically don’t like but they pulled it off!
As I’m writing this, the manager brought me a free refill on my Aloe Vera juice. Highly recommended!

My party got there at 6pm, there was already a queue & the restaurant was full. We were going to be in for a wait which was fine as everyone was getting on the value train. The queue was 5 people in front of us & after about 5 minutes 6 behind, we were a party of 4. After about 10 minutes 2 people in front of us left & 2 people behind left so we edged closer to the front. Then a person from the restaurant came outside to let us know how long the wait was going to be approximately & it was looking like 25 – 30 more minutes. We didn’t get any menus but I guess as it was the soft opening they might change it after the feedback they got. My Sister pointed out there was a well lit menu board outside so we could scrutinise the options.
45 minutes in & we got a table for 4 a nice distance within the restaurant away from the door. I noticed there were 2 seats close to the door & the people there still had their jackets on so if possible avoid there if you don’t like the cold. We already knew what we wanted but I had to get the attention of a waiter to come over but this didn’t take any time at all. He took our order really quickly & confirmed it by repeating it again.
We got 4 Starters Summer Roll with Prawn, Mango Salad, Chilli Squid & Beef Carpaccio. For mains we ordered 3 Bun Burgers & a Rare Beef Phở plus another 3 portions of the sweet Potato Chips. Drinks we took a bottle of still water & 3 Vietnamese Hot Coffees.
Our drinks were served quickly & we shared a bottle of their filtered still water. The waiter poured us our drink which is a nice touch & the bottle filled up our glasses about half way each. A decent Vietnamese restaurant knows a good coffee & Phở & Bun has theirs. Everyone enjoyed the coffee & commented that it was an excellent balance of sweetness from the condensed milk to the richness of the coffee.
I absolutely love Chilli Squid when it’s done right & these guys have done a good job with theirs. The Squid was crispy & best eaten with the ingredients that it’s fried with which is the fresh chilli & spring onion. The Chilli’s gave it a kick without burning our mouths off.
The Beef Carpaccio was an interesting dish full of flavour & was a real hit with our party. Bathed in I think a soy sauce with fried bits of garlic & shallots it melted in our mouths & really got the juices flowing. The Mango salad’s lettuce was crispy, the prawns were juicy & the dressing was a good accompaniment with the mango without it being too sweet. The Summer Rolls were fine they came with a tasty peanut sauce & it was quite a light starter but the other 3 were better.
We thought the starter portions were small but after eating them we all came to the conclusion that they are about right as they built up our appetite for the main courses without making us too full.
Our burgers came out while we were halfway through our starters which weren’t a problem as they cleared the finished plates away before they put them down. The rare Phở Beef wasn’t as rare as I thought but tasty nonetheless. I could see some pinkness in the beef but as someone who doesn’t eat this dish often I couldn’t tell if it was done right or not but we didn’t leave anything left in the bowl. The servers also asked us how the food was each time a new dish came or was cleared away & we had a few different people come to our table.
The main purpose of the visit was the Burger & we were all pleasantly surprised. The Angus Beef was tender, juicy, not overcooked & complimented the soft fluffy bun. It came with lettuce, signature burger sauce & a slice of what initially looked like cheese but upon closer inspection was a slice of mango which disappointed my Brother as he is a real cheese lover. The Sweet Potato Fries were real winners too they were drizzled with a yummy orange sauce which was also in the burger. We didn’t think they were too salty & what you wouldn’t expect from a place that served fries.
There wasn’t a dessert menu so as soon as we finished we asked for the bill. It came promptly & we were in, out & looking for a dessert place quicker than it took too queue to get in. The total came to a wallet friendly £46.35 in the end which at under £12 each inc. drinks was an excellent deal. Overall I & my party thought that it was a good experience, service was quick, attentive & we didn’t feel rushed or pressured to leave even though the queue was building up outside. Also considering it was a Saturday night. Looking forward to coming when the restaurant is fully open & trying the burger but with the belly pork, the Lunch menu looked value.

As they extended their soft launch discount I thought let me go and try for myself what Phở and Bun new branch have to offer in Soho.
We started off with the Summer rolls with tiger prawn. For £3 you get three sushi size pieces. The peanut sauce went well with the roll and gave it the flavour. But I felt like some thing was missing either the texture or the filling.
The bun is apparently a highlight so we tried the steamed bun beef burger and the steamed bun belly pork. Both are about a size of burger and comes served in a Chinese dim sum basket with a Vietnam flag for deco. I thought the beef burger one is nicer than the belly pork. The steamed bun beef burger consist of a juicy beef patty served pink, lettuce, sauce, coleslaw kinda relish and cheese. Only thing was the cheese looked dry and a McDonald cheese look more appealing. The belly pork was smiliar but I was not so keen on the dry pork that reminded me of over cooked pan fry bacon. Both the bun itself was fluffy and soft.
The phở with rare beef slices looked better than what I saw at the beginning of the soft launch. Hopefully this is improvement to stay. The noodle was not too soft and I thought the texture was just right. There didn’t seem to be a lot of beef in the soup, may be it ended up swimming in different directions! The broth I thought had a lighter flavour than other places in London. I feel this is down to preference. But to me it wasnt the best phở I have had in London.
Service still needs improving, though it been a week since they open. Orders were being served on the wrong table, although it was not busy and the place is not big either.
There is a range of drinks and Jasmine tea for £1.50 served in a typical Chinese cup seem pricey if with no refill. That’s a price you get charged if you go to a Chinese restaurant and order Jasmine tea. But it will come in a teapot with unlimited refills. This branch is in Chinatown and although your food might be slightly different there is still competition!
Althought we had 50% off food we still manage to spend around £22 for two people that includes drinks and service charge.

So, it appears Phở & Bun so far only got half of the element right, which was the bun, phở on the other hand, was best left forgotten. The service was also a little chaotic on my visit, very slow to take orders and took forever to come up with the bill. The manager on duty also looked very grumpy and doesn’t seems like he was interested in attending customers’ request, all I can say is my visit at Phở & Bun was mediocre at best.

I had to queue almost one hour, which is acceptable as it was very busy. However, for the first half an hour, no one checked on us or even a greeting, until I had to look for a staff and asked him how long I would have to wait.
We waited for the menu, then the dishes for very long time till we got so bored that we cancelled one dish so we could leave.
The food was just ok. The burger bun is nothing special as I expected.
The whole experience in Phở & Bun was 2 hours of waiting and disappointment.

Went with some work colleagues on 04.11.15, as one had read that we should check it out. We arrived at 12.15, the restaurant is quite compact however the decoration and layout is done quite well for the space allowed. The restaurant had 4 other patrons there as we arrived, one couple and two single diners. We were pointed to a table and handed some menus with no greeting.
Over the next ten to fifteen minutes the restaurant filled with more patrons filling the restaurant, during this time we had tried to get the attention of the two members of staff so that we could place our order. However they just stated to us several times «one second» before going to serve and greet customers that had come after we had arrived. They took orders from three different groups who arrived after us, whilst we were trying to get their attention, finally they went to a fourth customer who also arrived after our group. At this point I said, «Excuse me, excuse me (still being ignored), Hello?», the server then turned around and shouted «There is no need to shout across the whole restaurant, my name is not HELLO! If you don’t like it you may leave!» This resulted in the whole restaurant going quiet and odd looks being passed around, bear in mind this is a small restaurant so the whole atmosphere changed.
Needless to say my group left before having a chance to order, the server turned out to be the restaurant manager Dimitri, who should know better to deal with customer service especially with a small establishment treat customers fairly and serve them in order of their arrival (obviously if they are ready to order).
I cannot comment on the food, the menu did look nice but the service absolutely let this place down.

Loved it.
I’m gonna make this one of my stops every time I am in town.
Was shocked to learn that this was a two day old establishment. Food was super authentic and fresh; service top notch .
So coming back! Ordered the shrimp roll and the beef phở.
The roll was fantastic. Most joints get that wrong because the skin gets dry, or the filling is off. This was spot on.
The phở broth was rightly seasoned and totally warmed. Nommmm

This place serves mostly the food from the Viet Eat branch in Holborn with one exception. The sandwiches appear to have disappeared and these are now replaced with buns. You are now thinking small hirata buns from Flesh and Buns or Bao? Nope, it looks more like a hirata bun Western style hamburger, complete with a toothpick down the centre of the bun.
Warning this is a first day soft launch lunch + review: —
The décor is quite homely. I like that they have gotten rid of the canteen style seating and now each table has its own chairs, albeit they still have to put tables in groups of 4 or 6 as there is just not enough space in the restaurant.
The service needs a lot of improvement. They do not have enough menus for the tiny tiny restaurant so a lot of people ended up sharing or waiting for a ridiculously long time without a menu. They keep forgetting orders and needing to ask customers what they ordered (the guy next to us got asked twice by two different waiters and he was irritated).
Food wise, it felt like a let down due to the small portions of food and the eye-​watering price on the menu. When we ordered the crab and pork spring roll, one fat spring roll came in two halves. This costs £3.25 I believe? £3.25 for one spring roll is really pushing it. I mean even the portugese tart ladies in Covent Garden only charged £2 for one portugese tart and that was beyond expensive for a tart. I would pay maximum £1. I double checked with the waiter that this is not some half sized dish for the soft launch but he confirmed it was the full priced dish. The second disappointing thing is that you could not taste any crab either.
I ordered the BBQ pork vermicelli and the pork was only luke warm and whilst the portion just about fills you up I left unsatisfied. My colleague’s rare beef phở was not very hot either. She thought the noodles were a bit too thick making her think it was Chinese ho fun rather than phở.
When we asked for the bill we were presented with a full priced meal. This was beyond shocking was this was a soft launch and they should automatically charge 50% to everyone. The fact that we had to query this for them to change the bill was the nail in the coffin.