Banh xeo @ Miss Pho
57 Renshaw St, Liverpool, L1 2SJ
Compared to the more Instagram-worthy Doux Chaton, Miss Pho is the less glamourous, less buzzy of the two Vietnamese restaurants on Renshaw Street.
This can be a good or bad thing depending on your mood. There’s a case to be made for the vibe-free restaurant, or at least one with a much dialled-down vibe. Sometimes you want to be able to sit somewhere quiet — a clean, well-lighted place — and enjoy a good bowl of noodle soup.
The menu at Miss Pho is fairly extensive but, as is often the case at Vietnamese restaurants in the UK, the really good stuff is all in the ‘Starters’ section (even if none of the dishes are actually, technically starters).
Banh cuon (steamed rice flour rolls with pork and wood ear mushroom) is, for example, a popular breakfast in Vietnam. Here it’s light, silky and scattered with crispy fried onions and topped with thin slices of cinnamony pork cake. The filling of the rolls is earthy and richly savoury and the nuoc cham dipping sauce has lots of bright, sour lime and a nice fresh chilli heat to it.
You’re also given a pair of scissors to cut the crepe with – genuinely ingenious – sprigs of fragrant mint and coriander and lettuce leaves to wrap everything up in (although usually not enough of these, so always worth asking for more).
They also have cold Saigon Special beer and a huge flat screen TV on the wall playing videos of moped rides around Hanoi. Who needs vibe.
