Malaysia’s popular Vietnamese chain Pho Vietz opens in Bugis Junction

One thing we love about Singapore’s food scene is the staggering diversity in global flavours.

So often, we see many popular restaurants and brands open here, hoping to share their homeland’s best fare with Singaporeans.

Bugis Junction’s latest international brand is quite different though — Pho Vietz is a brand known for its authentic Vietnamese food, but it doesn’t hail from Vietnam.

Interestingly, Pho Vietz comes from a lot closer, rather than farther up north.

It’s actually started in Malaysia and is also one of the country’s most popular Vietnamese chains, having 11 outlets in Malaysia.

For a brand with such widespread presence Pho Vietz still manages to keep authenticity at its core — it is headed up by Vietnamese chef Kenny Ton Ngoc Hiep, who has over 20 years of experience in the cuisine!

This is the brand’s third outpost outside of Malaysia, with the other two being located in Hong Kong and, curiously enough, Dallas in the US.

Pho Vietz’s Singapore outlet is located in the buzzing basement level of Bugis Junction, and will be serving up its signature pho and banh mi, made with baguettes freshly baked in-house!

Pho real hearty

As the name suggests, noodles are one of the highlights here, and we think that’s probably the right assumption.

The four-beef combo noodle soup (S$16.80) was quite the satisfying bowl, with tender beef slices and juicy beef balls swimming about in its comforting broth.

If you enjoy sweeter, and heartier beef broth, this bowl at Pho Vietz is pho real. However, if you enjoy the cleaner, more herbaceous style, this might not quite be your speed.

As far as noodles are concerned, the ho fun (rice noodles) are also delightfully bouncy and silky.

But there’s also the option for wantan mee (egg noodles) if you go for the Pho Vietz four-beef combo dried noodle (S$16.80), which comes with a portion of dried noodles and a smaller bowl of the beef soup.

The slender, pencil-thin noodles, slicked in the tangy and umami sauce, are quite enjoyable, too!

Those more familiar with Vietnamese food might also opt for a taste of central Vietnam, as Pho Vietz also cooks up some solid Hue style spicy pork rib noodle soup (S$14.80).

This is essentially bun bo hue, a classic dish from Hue — if you haven’t had it before, the highlight is its fragrant and punchy soup that’s usually chock full of shrimp paste flavour.

It packs a mild spice, and makes for a harder-hitting dish than the pho. There is even sambal given, by its side, if you wish to amp up the heat.

Other offerings at Pho Vietz

While we love noodles, we also understand that our Asian programming often leaves us hankering for rice.

Should there be a need to soothe those rice cravings, Pho Vietz’s grilled marinated pork belly rice (S$14.80) is a top pick.

It’s not quite the archetypal com tam (broken rice) as chef Kenny prefers full-grain rice — but you get the same, flavour-packed grilled pork that is usually served with the iconic dish.

Well-caramelised, luscious, and blessed with almost melt-in-mouth fats, the pork was undoubtedly the star.

For the spring-roll lovers, the Pho Vietz menu offers the crunchy fried Vietnamese spring roll (S$6.80), delicate tiger prawn roll (S$7.80), and the steamed flat rice roll with minced pork (S$8.80).

While it’s not hard to find good versions of the ubiquitous fried and rice paper rolls, good banh cuon is a bit harder to come by.

These ones are pretty enjoyable, with the combination between the juicy mushroom minced pork fillings and silky and lightly chewy rice sheets.

In comparison to the rest, we thought the Pho Vietz signature Vietnamese baguette (S$12.80) was rather simple, without any glaring flaws or standout traits.

If you’re in the market for ca phe pha phin (Vietnamese drip coffee), though, we thought Pho Vietz was easily one of our favourites in recent memory.

Both the hot (S$4.80) and cold (S$5.50) versions of the Vietnamese drip coffee with milk were really fragrant and, while fiercely robust and toasty like you’d expect, is well balanced and not too sweet!

Pho Vietz opening promos

Working in the area and looking for some solid Vietnamese food in a convenient location? Well, there probably aren’t many places more convenient than Bugis Junction.

But if you need even more reasons to persuade you, Pho Vietz will be offering a suite of grand opening promos until Nov 30 — prices go as low as S$7.90.

From Nov 17 to 23, you can get:

• Grilled marinated pork belly dried vermicelli at S$8.90 (U.P. S$14.80)
• Grilled marinated lemongrass chicken chop rice at S$7.90 (U.P. S$14.80)

Whereas, from Nov 24 to 30, the promoted items will be:

• Hue style spicy pork rib noodle soup at S$9.90 (U.P. S$14.80)
• Grilled marinated lemongrass chicken  dried vermicelli at S$8.90 (U.P. S$14.80)

Do note that these items are while stocks last and for dine-in only!

This was a hosted tasting.

For more ideas on what to eat, read our stories on Hvala’s aesthetic new decaf-focused cafe and the newest spot where you can get Poonsti’s crunchy good rostis!