Ordered the ‘master beef’ pho and was not impressed. I’ve eaten a lot of pho around Sydney and this one in particular was disappointing. The broth completely lacked depth and flavour, which was surprising considering the colour of the broth looked right - naturally I expected a flavour explosion, but was left with an overly sweet broth that seemed diluted and lacked aromatics and spices.
Beef quality was ok, but definitely felt like it was skimped on; I had 3 small pieces of rare beef and 3 extremely thin pieces of brisket and when you consider this a “master beef” pho, it really isn’t good enough. Noodles were overcooked so made it difficult to grab any with chopsticks as they’d all fallen apart. The basil bunch that had been provided to garnish was black and wilted. I can understand if one or two basil leaves of the bunch are a little worn, but the whole thing was old! Shame because basil is one of the ingredients that is supposed to be really fresh and cut through the beefiness of the soup. The onions were way too big and round, where the onions should be sliced so that you are getting a nice crunchy bite with your noodles, not shoving a huge piece of onion in your mouth and ruining the balance of the different components.
I normally wouldn’t be this critical of a dish and picking apart every component, but considering the price of the bowl on it’s own was $21 takeaway ($19 when you dine in) it is pricier than your average bowl of pho, and as such you expect a quality pho that has been prepared carefully and thoughtfully. And just as an FYI, the soup is delivered by separating the ingredients from the broth, so the broth had not affected the integrity of the dish before it arrived. See less
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