My Pho Bar for Lunch

My Pho Bar
6/19 Kooringal Drive, Jindalee

Familiarising ourselves with the new neighbourhood, I did a search on Zomato for nearby Vietnamese restaurants. It's hard not to miss being a 2min drive from Trang's in West End. A few expected results came up for Darra and Inala but I was intrigued by My Pho Bar which won by being closest to us.

We headed there just before 2pm on a weekday and as expected for such a suburban area, it was fairly quiet. I was quite impressed by the cleanliness of the place. A large mirror near the back of the restaurant fooled both me and Marc into thinking there was another room there. It was spotless! I couldn't see a single smudge mark.

The menu at My Pho Bar comprises of Vietnamese soup favourites with a choice of main protein (eg rare beef, tripe, beef ball, tendon, or most exciting to me, ox tail). Marc ordered the MySpicy and I chose the MyOxtailstew.

Grilled pork rice paper rolls

We ordered some grilled pork rice paper rolls to begin with. These were generously filled and very juicy. The issue with some rice paper rolls is they taste dry but these ones tasted fresh.

Vietnamese iced coffee

My iced coffee was wonderfully strong and had a creamy condensed milk flavour to it. I like that Vietnamese iced coffee ticks the dessert and beverage boxes in one.

Both our soup noodle dishes were huge. This place is definitely value for money. I can't imagine how anyone could possibly finish the bowl. We noticed a pho eating challenge too, presumably for an even bigger serve. No thanks. I'm good at eating but not that good.

Ox tail stew

Our dishes were served with the usual fresh herbal compliments of basil, mint, bean sprouts and lemon. My ox tail stew also came with raw shredded cabbage, which I thought was a weird accompaniment but actually tasted quite good when added to the stew. My dish was so filling that next time I would probably order it without egg noodle. The ox tail pieces were perfectly slow braised with a tender, melty, gelatinous quality.

Spicy beef noodle soup

Marc's spicy hue style beef noodle soup had a beautiful depth of flavour. It was just the right amount of spice for me that provided a heated hum without causing tears.

We really enjoyed our meal at My Pho Bar and are grateful for such a tasty, affordable and clean Vietnamese eatery so close to our house. The next step is to actually pop in for their namesake pho and see if that lives up to expectations.