Pho Hung Vuong Saigon, Footscray, Victoria, Australia

On our way out of Melbourne, we drove through Footscray for a late lunch (dinner), which was on the way to the airport. The reason we chose this area was because of the Vietnamese community there, as we were looking for some noodles (pho). (Not very Australian I know, for our last meal in the country.)

We wandered along the main street looking into different restaurants and opted for this one, Pho Hung Vuong Saigon, as it seemed fairly populated with diners.

Exterior Signboard

The furniture inside was modern and functional and the menu is written on big sign boards in three languages (Vietnamese, English and Chinese).

Without too much of a wait the waitress came to take our order. I chose a medium bowl of noodles with sliced beef and tripe, as I am quite partial to the offal.

As we were waiting we helped ourselves to Chinese tea that was available on the tables in flasks, to retain their heat.

When my order arrived it was a decent sized bowl of flat, white noodles with slices of beef and pieces of tripe. There was a plate of bean sprouts, lemongrass, lime and freshly chopped chillies to add as condiments to the noodles. This is all shown in the photograph below.

My noodles, with condiments at top of picture

The noodles were good and well cooked, broth was flavoursome and tripe was chewy. The beef was the best part and excellent, thin (hopefully Australian bred) slices that cooked in the hot broth. My wife ordered ordered a small bowl of noodles and was not disappointed either.

After we finished we paid at the counter and went on our way to the airport.

We enjoyed ourselves at this restaurant. It was clean, convenient, tasty and relatively inexpensive. In fact it was probably the cheapest meal we had here so a good way to sign off our trip to this country. Thank you Australia for all your culinary treats and offerings!

Scores
Food: 4/5
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 3/5

Total: 13/20

Total bill: AUD$19.00 about GBP£6.50 a head.

I ate: Pho with beef and tripe.

I drank: Chinese tea.

I wore: Travelling clothes to take us back to Hong Kong.