I Love Pho
Vietnamese Noodle and Cuisine
47 Willoughby Rd
Crows Nest, Sydney
This charming little place is right in the middle of the Crows Nest CBD and offers a covered outdoor space as well as cosy indoor seating. Both areas were busy but we chose a table inside. The bamboo-lined walls and woven basket lamps create a casual, relaxed atmosphere and the smiling staff make you feel welcome. The menu is well presented, with tempting colour pics of all the dishes on offer. They look amazing and there is so much choice that absolutely anybody would be able to find something appealing. There’s also a vegan menu.
The lunch menu is sectioned into entrees, salads, pho varieties, noodle dishes and rice dishes. We begin the journey with Grilled Prawn Paste – a blend of minced prawn wrapped around sticks of sugarcane and served with a sweet chilli dipping sauce. It was a really good dish – tasty and juicy and prawny!
Everyone loves the “salt and pepper” style dishes and we couldn’t decide among the options. They all looked so good. So we had the Salt and Pepper Prawns, served with lime and mint dipping sauce AND the Salt and Pepper Eggplant.
We loved both choices. The tender prawns were very lightly coated and that sauce was just divine. The eggplant was very soft and melty inside but crispy outside. So good.
The Caramelised Fish Hotpot was the final dish. Lovely ling fillets in a steamy seasoned broth. We had some steamed rice on the side with this one and it was really tasty and satisfying - tender fish, nicely done.
Most of the outdoor area was taken and the room inside was full, but there was surprisingly little noise. I believe most of us were too heavily engaged in food appreciation and less in the social stuff! In any case, everyone seemed to be happily eating.
I Love Pho has a very extensive dinner menu which looks amazing as well as offering banquets, takeaway and catering. The catering arm of the business, Chao Catering, is popular and services a large part of Sydney, with bases in Crows Nest and Randwick.
We found the food here to be high quality, fresh and delicious. There is so much more on the menu we want to try so we’ll be back! Thanks to the manager Khanh and his staff for their fabulous service and to OmptyMedia for the kind invitation.