I've been very disappointed previously looking for Vietnamese food in London. From the expensive banh mi at Broadway market, the doable but average places near Old Street, to more serviceable but only open for lunch places in business areas, Vietnamese just hasn't been done well (or cheaply) here yet. Since my last UK living experience, I've spent a year living in Footscray - one of the key Vietnamese restaurant and localities in Melbourne. Even though London will never be as cheap, there's hope it may one day be as good.
There was a 25% off food deal at Pho & Bun and it's location on Shaftesbury Avenue in amongst the bustle was always going to be against it. Additionally the deal requires a £20 per head spend, which is a lot for Asian street food. Nonetheless the 2 of us persevered and tried enough to justify judgement of the restaurant and also qualify for the discount. It wasn't automatically applied - it had to be asked for even though my booking stated it. I think they were amazed someone had actually made the £20pp limit.
A lot of the Tripadvisor criticism is that the staff are Spanish. Yes they are, but the cooks are old Vietnamese men. So does that matter so much? On this occasion the staff worked hard and were friendly.
After a long while without Vietnamese food, it seemed appropriate to order and judge largely by the classics.
- Rainbow Mango Salad with Tiger Prawn £7.5 - although green papaya salad is more common, green mango is a little different and the option with prawn was more enticing than the beef papaya salad (as both noodle dishes already had beef). The nuoc mam was nicely balanced although I would prefer more of it. There was a good amount of large prawns to justify the dish;
- Pho Bo Tai £10.5 - a nice wholesome soup of the more medicinal flavour of pho. The beef was tender and although it could have used more herbs or some Thai basal, it was a good broth;
- Bun Bo Hue £9.5 - the red layer was authentic and the meaty flavour was good too. The beef was brisket here and not too fatty. It could have used much more lemongrass chilli sauce (aka sate) but I won't complain too much;
- Steamed Bao Burger (with 8 hour Belly Pork, secret soy sauce, pickled cucumber, chilli mayo) £8.5 - so this is far from traditional and very expensive for a single small bao burger. The pork is decent but you are really paying for the coolness. It was nice but I wouldn't get it again, more out of price protest than anything else. But it helped to make the £20pp total.
Overall it was a very good meal in an unexpected place. I haven't tried Cay Tre or Tay Do in 4-5 years, but this left me feeling better than my experiences there.