• 4
• Pho Chay Nhu, Ho Chi Minh City

1stly I managed to find this place quite easily by taxi. Its located in a quiet side street. However I showed the address listed on the happycow app and the cabbie brought me straight here with no issues. 2ndly as a previous reviewer observed, sadly this place isn't all vegan. I was also offered the yogurt that on questioning I was told was made with cow milk. Again as others have said the pho was really delicious. This was only my 3rd day in Vietnam so I don't exactly have decades of pho connoisseur experience. I was given the bowl with most of the ingredients plus 3 separate portions that allowed me to add each to suit my taste of mint leaves, lime and chilli (in my case leaving the chilli out completely). It tasted really good. Currently in my 5th decade of my humble and insignificant time on this earth, I experience something in this eatery that while it may be routine for others, I can honestly & modestly say I have never experienced before in my life. I was sitting down gleefully chomping my way through my superior flavoured pho when lo and behold, a gentleman showed up and drove right between my table and the counter to the back of the restaurant on a motor bike. This turned out to have some unexpected benefits. While the manager spoke a little English (and certainly more than my current 10 word vocab of Vietnamese), it turned out that Evel Knievel's English was pretty good. Indeed it was he who was more than happy to act as interpreter with the manager to help me ascertain that the yogurt I was offered was indeed made from cow milk. As well as the pho I tried a couple of other things. One was a bit like some sort of a dough ball in some kind of sauce. The other was some sort of triangular savoury. I had one of each. All the food I tried was great and the total bill was 48 000 dong. There can't be many all vego places in central HCMC where you will get better value for your dong. I liked so many things about this place. The hole in the wall vibe of the place was great, the people were lovely, the food was great and terrific value for money and of course rounded off perfectly with that unique motor bike experience. This place was only a yogurt tub away from being a sure fire 5 out of 5 rating from me.