Phô Tai

One of the first to open at Capitol Piazza, Pho Tai is a family-owned Vietnamese restaurant located at B2. Originated in Paris more than 10 years ago, it is opened by a Vietnam-born Chinese family who moved there. Though the menu does not boost an extensive range of items, everything here is supposedly homemade. For example, the broth is freshly boiled with bones, meat and herbs for hours every day. Visited twice, both times for dinner on weekdays – ordered beef steak slices phô on my 1st and dry vermicelli (or bùn) with marinated pork during the 2nd. While the phô was silky smooth and herbal soup rich yet light, the tender beef slices tasted too gamely for my liking. The latter was served with a glass flask of flavourful fish sauce, atypical of commercially available ones, which accentuated the dish. I loved the aroma and crunch of crushed peanuts atop the well-marinated tender meat and springy vermicelli, reminiscent of local thick mee hoon in laksa.

Update: The restaurant has closed.

Comnam Vietnamese Street Eats

Located at the basement of Raffles City Shopping Centre beside Nam Nam Noodles Bar is Comnam, another Vietnamese restaurant founded by chef-owner Nam Quoc Nguyen with the Les Amis group. The former which serves phô and báhn mì can also be found at Plaza Singapura, Resorts World™ Sentosa, Suntec City and Wheelock Place. Although this is the only branch of Comnam Vietnamese Street Eats, it is rarely packed. And the focus here is South Vietnamese staple of supposedly lower-grade broken rice, previously meant for poorer people, with less fibre and nutrients. My choice of lunch set was rice bowl of kimchi fried brown rice with tender and flavourful pork simmered in caramelised shrimp paste sauce, pickles and Vietnamese steamed egg with pork and fungus so salty I cringed with every bite. Could neither rave about the Vietnamese black coffee nor fault its soup of the day. Similarly for the crispy vegetable spring rolls and shrimp paste sticks that I also tried.

Saigon Lotus

We let a friend who was visiting from overseas choose the cuisine for our catch-up over dinner on a weekday and his choice was Vietnamese food. For the convenience of everyone who stays and works all over Singapore, we decided to meet around City Hall MRT Station. So our options were Nam Nam Noodle Bar at Raffles City Shopping Centre or Suntec City, Comnam Vietnamese Street Eats also at Raffles City and Saigon Lotus at Marina Square's Dining Edition. We settled on the latter even though the brightly-coloured place owned by a Vietnamese-Australian was never packed whenever I walked by. The menu cover was made of wood with carvings of its name and drawings. Except for one, the rest of us ordered a set meal each that comes with a dessert or drink. Since there was no more rice paper roll, my entrée was the pork spring roll – nothing impressive. Chose sliced beef noodle over chicken noodle and egg noodle, which I could neither rave about nor fault.

Update: The restaurant has closed.

So Phô

After reading an article on the top 5 phô in Singapore, I decided to try So Phô by Katrina Holdings who also owns Bali Thai, Bayang and IndoBox among others. Located at the basement of Jem next to Jurong East MRT Station, the place is spacious and brightly-lit with round paper lanterns hanging from above. Red metal chairs, orange and white plastic chairs with wooden legs stood out against the mostly neutral palette – black ceilings with exposed pipes, grey walls with red and white motifs on one side and black drawings against white tiles on the other, dark flooring. Wood could be seen in shelves with plants and tealight holders from IKEA, tables and benches. There were available seats when I visited for late lunch on a weekend. Ordered Pô Bò, Vietnamese sliced beef noodle soup. The silky smooth flat noodles, reminiscent of thin kway teow, went well with thin slices of tender (neither too chewy nor gamely) beef in a rich yet light soup.

Ngon

Located at the basement of One Raffles Place is Ngon, which means delicious in Vietnamese. With non la (the iconic Vietnamese palm-leaf conical hats) hanging from its ceiling, the place mimics a casual roadside dining in Vietnam. Having travelled across his country and sampled dishes from the north to the south, Vietnamese chef Lucas Dinh presents the best with many ingredients imported from Vietnam. To maintain authenticity, some items such as the meatballs and bánh cuõn are also handmade daily. Ordered a beef sliced phõ set that comes with a choice of coffee and lotus tea, and two deep-fried spring rolls. Beef was tender and thin flat rice flour noodles reminiscent of kway teow smooth, in an herbal broth I could not fault. Spring rolls, crispy on the outside with fillings I could not rave about, were perfect when dipped in the accompanying sauce. A tad oily, if I must nitpick.

Wrap & Roll

I first saw Wrap & Roll in The Star Vista and thought it only sells Vietnamese rice paper rolls. That is, until my dining companions and I saw it over the weekend in Ion Orchard. We were looking for a place to lunch before our Christmas shopping and decided to eat at the contemporary casual dining restaurant from Ho Chi Minh, after trying a sample of its Grilled Pork Steamed Rice Crepe Rolls – tender pork full of flavour from the marinade with a nice charred aroma. The award-winning chain was established in 2006 and currently has more than 10 branches in Australia, Singapore and Vietnam. According to the website, it is the first Vietnamese restaurant on our sunny shores to serve freshly made steamed rice paper rolls. Every dish is delicately handmade with more than 50% of the ingredients imported from Vietnam to maintain its authenticity. For quality control, the chefs are trained in Vietnam for a month while chefs from Vietnam will train the staff here every 6 months.

Nam Nam Noodle Bar

More affordable than Annam Vietnamese Cuisine, also by Les Amis Group, is Nam Nam Noodle Bar. Its 1st branch opened at Raffles City Shopping Centre and the 2nd at B2 of Wheelock Place where Marks & Spencer used to be. Waited to be seated at the latter, indicated what I wanted on the order chit and brought it to the counter for payment. No different from Marukin Ramen, food is served to the table and there is no service charge. There were a few condiments, some with Vietnamese words including fish and hoisin sauce, and a nostalgic metal cup on every table. Red and green lanterns stood out against lots of wood in the bustling place with old pictures of Vietnam and newspaper articles that gave the place an old world charm.

New Kid on the Block – Kilo at Pact

Kilo, a restaurant at Kampong Bugis by owners of former Raw Kitchen Bar, teamed up with menswear boutique KIN from Haji Lane and hair salon Kizuki+Lim from Osaka to open Pact. Tucked away on the 2nd floor of Orchard Central, the 3-in-1 space had an industrial look with lots of concrete. Interestingly, the desert has been brought indoor with cactus and sand as part of the interior design at the sparsely furnished place. Paired with concrete tables were chairs in wood, a simple menu (black fonts on white paper) and wooden blocks that were given to customers as their table numbers. Every piece of furniture was either square or rectangle with sharp corners and edges that I had to be careful not to be jabbed by.