Pho Restaurant - Reading Berkshire {restaurant review}

It was in a recent post I wrote about how much Reading has grown and I can't help but support that growth if it includes restaurants like Pho!

Pho is named after the Vietnamese national dish, an amazingly tasty, nutritious, filling noodle soup! I can say in all confidence, after my visit to the newly opened Pho in Reading, that the soup is all those things!

I tried the Pho dac biet which is one of the House Specials. Now before I tell you what is in that soup if you are trying a new restaurant always check out the House Specials; they are called that for a reason so I implore you try something off that part of the menu!

Back to the soup, Dac Biet in Vietnamese means "special" or "super" or "combo with everything" and Pho as we already said means noodle so Pho Dac Biet is Super Noodles combined with everything! Everything being king prawns, chicken & flash fried steak with garlic in beef broth and it was delicious and so filling I couldn't finish it! I suggest sharing if you can agree with someone on just one bowl.

Alyssia, my friend and fellow blogger, was my date and she had never tired Vietnamese food before! So, we had fun trying all sorts of dishes. I sort of jumped right into the noodle soups, but we did trying some amazing starters first!

Alyssia like the sound of the Nem nuong which is homemade pork & lemongrass meatballs with lettuce and herbs to wrap & dip with peanut sauce. The lovely and amazing wait staff informed us that it was best eaten wrapped in the green leaf. I hadn't heard that at first, but not only were the meatballs good wrapped in a leafy green but the Nem hai san was also delicious wrapped in a lettuce leaf!

As you can see the Nem hai san is a large crispy spring roll and is filled with king prawn, crab & pork with nuoc cham dipping sauce, which is a sort of sweet and sour sauce which is delicious! I couldn't recommend this enough, it was my personal favorite dish of the night.

We also tried the muc chien gion (pictured above) which we were told was a very popular dish because it's very lightly coated tender fried baby squid. I ended up using the nuoc cham dipping sauce for my fried squid as the salt, pepper, & lime dip was good, but a little too much citrus for me, but definitely try it and make your own decision!

Then we dived into our noodles, literally with spoons and forks! We had a great time figuring out the best way to eat them, the noodles are slippery! With a little advice from our amazing waiter we managed to twist the noodles with the fork in the spoons just like when eating spaghetti!

I have already talked about - Alyssia picked out the Pho ga - simple chicken breast in chicken broth and I tried a spoon full and I have to say that it's the best chicken soup ever. If I had a cold I would total get someone to deliver this to me pronto!

Which delivery service will be available at some point in the near future, so I've stored that bit of knowledge away! Also with the bonus of having a delicious broth soup with noodles and vegetables and meat when you aren't well is that these soups are packed full of good things that are good for you!

Pho doesn't just serve noodles they also serve other authentic Vietnamese dishes we couldn't resist trying a Com tam dac biet - or super broken rice combined with everything! We had ours with crispy beef, but you could also get it with chargrilled pork or chargrilled chicken thigh. We were both very impressed and happy with what is essentially a rice bowl. It was a mix of fresh crunchy vegetables, perfectly seasoned meat, and soft rice with a great sauce; be sure to mix it all together!! Top tip from our waitress!

Of course we had to try some desserts and authentic cocktails, and other drinks! Again not know where to start we had some help from the waitress on what we should try! We eventually tried the passionfruit cheesecake, chocolate truffle, and banana fritters!

Alyssia was drawn to the cheesecake, Bánh phô mai chanh dây or Passionfruit cheesecake. I am starting to see a trend in her love for cheesecake as this isn't the first time she was drawn to a cheesecake on one of our dinners out! However, I have never heard her talk about how light and creamy and refreshing a cheesecake was until this one! I snuck a bite and I couldn't agree more! 

Generally I'm not drawn to chocolate desserts after a meal, but the green tea ice cream paired with this chocolate truffle slab, had me curious! It's officially called Bánh sô-cô-la truffle and it was as light and creamy as the cheesecake and a perfect ending to a perfect dinner. 

We couldn't get away without trying the Chuối chiên or banana fritter. It's served as is or with a coconut or honey & ginger ice cream. Ours was without and I could only literally eat half of one as I was at this point throughly stuffed. However, that half of fritter was enough to allow me to say if you like bananas then this is the dessert for you as it was perfectly crispy and tasty! 

So, throughout the evening we tried the cocktails! My favorite is the one pictured in the top left corner the Ca the martini, which is basically an espresso martini made with nep phu loc a clear rice spirit, Vietnamese coffee, and condensed milk.

My second favorite cocktail of the night was the Phjoito,  their signature cocktail and it is a mojito with mint, lime, soda, and a clear rice spirit, same as above, nep pho loc Phu Loc. I love a good mojito and this one went down well!

Alyssia, not a big drinker went with the Rose Apple Bellini which like any bellini is made with prosecco and their's is made with a splash of Tao Mea rose apple liquor. It was dry and good accompaniment to dinner.

There are other things to drink besides cocktails, but as I'm not a big wine or beer drinker we stuck to the cocktails. The cocktails reflected the food and were all citrus type based cocktails. Nothing too fruity, we couldn't leave without trying the Lemon & Basil Martini made with their
homemade lemonade & muddled Thai basil. It had a very aniseed type flavor and if you like that sort of thing give this cocktail a try!

Last, but not least the coffee lover that I am couldn't leave without trying a Vietnamese coffee as according to my sister they have the best! So, I went with the iced coffee with a little condensed milk which is what they call Ca phe sua da. You can get it without the condensed milk if you don't like it. 

That pretty much wraps up our night! This place is my kind of food and it's one I will be visiting time and time again. The food was amazing and staff were super friendly and knowledgeable! Not only was the food great, but it was fun taking pictures so bright and colourful, I think this post has the most pictures I have ever put in any post ever.

Pho Restaurant

1-1a King's Walk, King Street

Reading, RG1 2HG

*I was invited to visit and check it out Pho as it's recently opened in Reading, I was not compensated in a monetary way for my review, all opinions are my own, please see my contact/policy page above for more information.

Day Out in Reading, Berkshire! {WOLF, Snog, Urban Decay}

A few posts ago you saw how I went to an Urban Decay event at the Oracle and since the night was a bit rushed Alyssia, a fellow blogger, went back for round 2!

First we went to lunch at a new place in Reading town centre called WOLF: Italian Street Food. It's a bit like Subway. You choose your base: pasta, wrap, bread, salad. Then you choose your meat/veggies followed by sauces and hot toppings and cold toppings.

I picked out an olive bread and had the hot and spicy chicken with peppers and cheese sauce. Topped with more olives, sundries tomatoes, and rocket. It was so good! I couldn't recommend this place more! With only three locations across the UK if you are in Reading it's definitely worth a try!

Then we did a little shopping in the Oracle stopping at a few stores (more of that in a future post) before stopping for a little snog.... at Snog!

I went for the salted caramel frozen yogurt topped with blueberries and dark chocolate chips and covered in caramel sauce! It wasn't my first Snog and it won't be my last, but it was my favourite I've tried so far!

Then we headed upstairs for our Urban Decay makeovers by the same two guys we saw at the event. It was nice to catch up with them and check out a few of the new products!

I went for a day look as I had the school run later, but I did get to try out Gwen Stefani palette which was fun! On my lips we used a lip liner called Liar and the lipstick was Lovelight. We also used the complexion primer, B6 Vitamin-Infused complexion prep spray, liquid makeup foundation #2, Naked flushed palette - bronzer/highlighter, and the chill - cooling & hydrating makeup setting spray. 

We even booked ourselves in for a few weeks time to try out all the new spring products! It should be another good day out! 

Check out Alyssia's post - Girls Day Out!

note: All opinions are my own. We went on our own money and had a great day out! Please see my contact/policy page for more information.  

What’s for Dinner? Lunch? Breakfast? {a note to my readers}

In the past any time I ever posted anything savory it didn't get a lot of love from my readers. So, I learned to stick to the sweet stuff. I do feel more challenged by baking and desserts then I do everyday cooking.

That isn't because it actually is more challenging, but because I am my family’s cook. I cook everyday day, 3 times a day. Cookbooks were my first love, a love that is founded on necessity. I didn't know the first thing about cooking, besides Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (the blue box blues) and scrambled eggs.

So, I taught myself by reading cookbooks. I then discovered that I loved reading about food and where it comes from and then trying all the foods I read about. Then I got the baking bug and hence the blog started.

I’m getting to the point, I promise!

Recently I have been starting to swing back to cooking more then baking. Our dinners started to get very same-y and we needed to change it up a bit. So, (now finally at the point) I’m going to start adding in some of the meals I making for my family and the titles will start with “What’s for …” and I will insert dinner, lunch, or breakfast.

It’s also the question I get asked a lot. That and when will dinner/lunch/breakfast be ready??

Here are my first couple of posts: 

Old El Paso

Udi's Gluten Free Ancient Grain Crisp(y) Chicken

I hope you enjoy the addition of some of my family’s meals on here. I'd love to hear what you think? Please leave me a comment below or on facebook or twitter!