Pho Saigon - Twickenham

I admit to being a bit of an experimenter when it comes to food- I love to try new things, not matter how disgusting or ludicrous they may sound (I've tried haggis twice, but I just don't like the taste), so when I noticed that Twickenham had a Vietnamese takeaway and restaurant, I couldn't resist giving it a try.

Ordering for just the two of us, I selected a fairly random choice of food - Cha Gio (spring rolls), Thit Cuu nuong hanh gung (char grilled lamb sate marinated with ginger and spring onions) as starters then the beef Pho Noodle Bowl and the pork Bun Thit Nuong.

Before I go any further, let me copy out the description of these dishes:

Pho Noodle Bowl:
Pho Tai, gau, nam, Ga hoac Hai san - flat rice noodles in a large bowl with a piping hot, rich beef broth topped with your choice of thin sliced meat or sea food and fragrant herbs served with fresh Vietnamese basil, chopped coriander, sliced fresh chilli mung bean sprout, lemon wedge, fish sauce, chilli sauce and hoi sin sauce. Delicious and healthy dish (very popular dish with the Vietnamese diner. This dish has been voted the top 50 dishes around the world by CNN recent foods survey)

Bun Thit Nuong:
A classic Vietnamese dish. A very healthy dish (a complete meal). A warm rice vermicelli noodles salad topped with char grilled marinated meat or seafood then topped with an aromatic herbs salad and crusted peanut served with chill, garlic and lime fish sauce.

Now grammatical errors aside, they both sounded rather tasty to my inexperienced eyes.

The two starters were yummy - spring rolls were standard and the lamb dish was tiny pieces of cold lamb with a sweet and spicy marinate. The starter was meant to come with a chilli and lime dip and so was the 2nd main - we got a pot of sauce with a wedge of lime so we weren't sure what it was meant to go with so we mixed and matched.

The Pho noodle bowl was a huge disappointment - there were about 4 slices of beef floating on top of a bowl of beef stock with noodles in side. It tasted ok, but it felt like I could have made it at home by dissolving a stock cube and adding some flat noodles. We ate it, but not as unenthusiastically as the starters.

The Bun Thit Nong on the other hand was amazing! The pork on top was cold and marinated with a lovely flavour, there were a few peanuts on top, but I wouldn't describe it as a crust. The meat sat on a lovely, cold, crisp salad and underneath were some warm noodles with a sweet chilli sauce. Overall the textures and tastes combined to create a delightful medley and we were incredibly impressed - this dish more than made up for the blandness of the noodle bowl.

Overall I would give Pho Saigon 4 out of 5 - the service was fantastic, two of our dishes were well above our expectations, one was as expected and one was a little disappointing, but still edible. I would definitely recommend eating here, however it's perhaps worth avoiding the noodle bowl and trying something more interesting instead - I can't wait to try another new dish!