I really like Pho Vina. Go there for great soup. And Jeff.
It is an oddly mysterious restaurant. It doesn't appear to have a website. There is a Pho Vina in Auckland though I have been unable to find any connection. But go to Wharf Street and the guy in charge, named Jeff I believe, is always extremely courteous, efficient, and friendly. And they make absolutely killer stocks for their soups.
(This lack of a website makes it tricky to find their food on-line. As a public service I took pics of the menu. They're at the bottom - click to enlarge.)
Whereas just across Wharf Street at Dumpling Delight the feel is "authentic" because of a slightly rundown funky vibe, Pho Vina is the opposite and just as "authentic" because of it, with a minimalist wooden look, clean and meticulously tidy.
But I find the greatest oddity is that they don't use any "local" descriptions on the (surprisingly small) menu. As the restaurant name suggests, one of the soups is indeed Vietnamese Beef Pho. But it's not called that. It's called Beef Noodle Soup. It's in a section called "Noodle". If it wasn't for the picture you wouldn't know what it was. The whole menu is like that. There are eleven soups from various countries, though you really need to study the pics to work out what they are...
But don't be put off - they make specific stocks for each of them. The "pho" stock, for instance, is very different from the Wonton Soup stock. And all are simply excellent.
The other day we popped by for lunch and it was the first time I'd seen the place open to the street. It looked good! We had...
- Pork & Prawn Fresh Rolls (2) $6
- Fried Wontons (4) $6
- Beef Wonton Noodle Soup $16
- Stir-fry Beef Vermicelli $17
The fresh rolls rock! Rice paper-wrapped, big prawns, tangy dipping sauce - fine value for $6. The wontons were also better than most examples, tasty filling and cooked right. And the soup was, as always, top notch, great stock, good ingredients, big bowl. Cohen was happy.
On the other hand, I rather screwed up with what I wanted, not realising that the stir-fried description referred to just the meat. It was a "noodle bowl", cold noodles and vegetables with stir-fried meat on top, all of which was there to mix with a jar of mildly spicy sauce (good combo!). It was fresh and refreshing but I had a hankering for stir-fried noodles so was somewhat disappointed. My own fault.
The restaurant also does fried rices and a "Steam Boat" option, a bowl of hot stock on top of a burner, where you cook your own ingredients (though it looks more like a Japanese Shabu Shabu than a Chinese steamboat to me. I may be wrong.). A couple at a nearby table was having one and it looked pretty damn good with some impressively-sized prawns.
So, bottom line - it may look a bit straight, and the menu descriptions are somewhat minimalist, but the soups in particular are fantastic and well worth a visit for. Just watch out for their hot chilli paste. You can see it in the pic next to the soup. Jeff will warn you it is hot - do not for an instant doubt him or it will rip your throat out..
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| Outside (Jeff on the left) |
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| Inside (Jeff on the right) |
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