For those that are not familiar with Vietnamese cuisine, Pho is a noodle soup that contains broth, rice noodles, herbs and meat. It’s a popular street dish that first originated in North Vietnam in the early 20th century. It was only until 1930 that Pho was served with beef cooked rare (Pho Tai), and then later that decade Chicken Pho appeared when beef wasn’t readily available. It can be best described as Vietnam’s national dish, and as something so versatile, it’s something you can have at any time of the day.

Pho 75 is located inside a small western suburbs shopping centre just off Days Road in Croydon Park. There is a decent amount of parking outside, however, all these parking spaces are shared with the other stores in the complex. The building itself is modern and the store itself takes up two retail tenancies. The decor is basic yet well presented. The walls are a nice neutral creamy colour tone, while the solid dark timber furnishings give this place a touch of class.

The menu here is very simple. There are 7 types of pho, available with either beef or chicken broth. The dishes are then sold in 3 different sizes. The drinks menu is actually larger than the food menu with a good selection of traditional Vietnamese beverages available. Today, I ordered the Pho Tai in a medium sized bowl, and within 10 minutes, all the meals were served and each was nicely presented. The meals came with a side serving of bean sprouts, basil, lemon and fresh chilli, although the mint and coriander were notably absent. They also provided small dipping bowls for your hoisin sauce, chilli sauce and chilli oil.

The medium sized bowl was a decent size and the broth was piping hot as it was served. It needed to be hot otherwise the rare beef that this dish comes with isn’t cooked properly. The rice noodles were well cooked and amount provided was a bit on the conservative side. The noodles came in nice individual pieces that weren’t too soft and had that right amount of firmness. The beef was lean, although the way the pieces were stuck together, it was obvious the meat was frozen before hand and then thawed out. The dish came out with spring onion and Spanish onion already added. I usually eat Pho with white onion when at home, but the use of Spanish onion also worked.

Now the whole key to a good pho is the quality of the broth. The beef broth that was served had the hallmarks of being very good except for the fact that it was diluted down with water. Businesses are open to make money and I get that, but watering down the broth affects both the quality and the experience. I also thought the ingredients to soup ratio was too much in favour of the soup, in other words, too few ingredients and too much broth.

For dessert, I ordered the Creme Caramel. I have to say that this is the worst creme caramel I’ve ever had and I don’t know how you could even call it that. The dessert came in a cheap plastic cup. The custard was firm, but it tasted bland and was like a jelly. The caramelised sugar on top was crunchy in texture and I’m not sure why it was mixed with a layer of ice.

The staff were friendly and the service was good. The atmosphere was relaxed and the pricing was reasonable. The pho was good for the most part but was let down by the dilution of the broth and the conservative amount of ingredients. The dessert was a huge let down and it didn’t help their cause.

This place was OK for me although I doubt I’ll be back to this place.

WHERE: Shop 17-18, 113-131 Days Rd, Croydon Park