The Sydney Tour – Restaurant Check – Phó Pasteur

Phó is probably Vietnam’s most famous dish besides spring rolls. So, everytime I come to another place, I have tro try out a Vietnamese restaurant. I just arrived in Australia, but already craved for my absolute favorite noodle soup. That is why my housemate and I decided to have lunch at a restaurant a friend of us recommended – Phó Pasteur at Haymarket, Sydney.

She told us that they have great rice noodle soups and that they are the best in that area. Of course, I had to check if she was right. Phó Pasteur has two restaurants; one in Bankstown and, as I already mentioned, the other at Haymarket. Hence, it had to be a good and successful one. Well, at least the second fact was right.

The restaurant itself doesn’t have loads of decorations, just like many other Asian restaurants. We don’t really care about design… We arrived there during lunch, so it was quite empty, but I already heard that they are pretty busy in the evenings. My friend and I ordered a „Bun Cha“, cold rice noodles with grilled pork, springrolls, salads, herbs  and mixed fish sauce as well as „Pho Bo“, which is the rice noodle soup with beef.

First, the waiter was pretty unfriendly and cold (like all Asian waiters?!) and second, well … my friend really liked both dishes. However, as a true blue Vietnamese and Pho-expert I have to say that this was quite bad. The most important thing of Pho is not the noodles, but the soup itself, and this was way too sweet. I also didn’t like the giant beef pieces. The grilled pork thing wasn’t really grilled pork. The springrolls looked quite cheap, small and missed good fillings while the the pork tasted like some bad rissole. Everything was too sweet and I really missed the real Vietnamese taste.

Nevertheless, I guess this place is good for those who aren’t used to that kind of food as everything seemed to be very adjusted to Western or other tastes. And as I said, my friends loved it and it’s usually very crowded.  And I think 12 bucks each is okay in Australia.

See you next time and don’t forget to follow my Instagram Account

Yours,

H.Trang

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