REVIEW: Pho, Brighton
I usually find that it can be quite a challenge looking for somewhere safe to eat when away from home so I was expecting have the same problem when staying in Brighton. Pho definitely proved me wrong!
The staff are really friendly and greet you at the door, offering you a choice of tables that included window seats, outside on the terrace or seats nearer the bar. The restaurant has a really nice spacious layout and I especially liked that the tables were not placed too close together.
When it was explained that I have Coeliac Disease the waiter immediately knew what this meant and explained that the whole menu was gluten free except for one of the desserts, one of the table sauces and some of the beers. This was good to hear as it meant that the chance of cross-contamination was almost non-existent!
The menu had quite a lot of options including starters, salads, noodle soups, sides, rice dishes and various noodle dishes. The waiter gives you the option to have the starters before or with the main meal. We chose to have them seperately.
I decided on the veggie summer rolls as a starter with the peanut sauce, my parents chose the veggie summer rolls with nuoc cham (fish sauce) and the pork meatballs with peanut sauce. The summer rolls tasted so fresh and had a lot of flavour especially from the herbs used. The peanut sauce was delicious and not too sweet, sticking to the summer rolls perfectly. The pork meatballs also tasted freshly made and flavoursome.
For the main my mum and I chose the chicken pho xao (wok fried noodles) and my dad chose the chicken ca-ri (chicken in curry sauce with broken rice) which were both presented beautifully. The noodle dish was perfect, it came with a side of nuoc cham and extra beansprouts. It had just the right amount of spice and so much flavour in every mouthful, clearly Pho uses high quality ingredients. I tried a bit of the ca-ri which was a lightly spiced, fruit, coconutty curry sauce. It was really tasty!
Overall I would thoroughly recommend Pho to people suffering with Coeliac Disease or following a gluten free lifestyle looking for fresh, delicious food. They also offer vegetarian and vegan options. Pho has several restaurants across the country so i will definitely be visiting some of their other restaurants!