Great Value Authentic Vietnamese Restaurant – I am Pho

Hidden authentic affordable Vietnamese restaurant in China Town.

S has only tried some Vietnamese fusion from Viet Shack before, but she had not really had any authentic Vietnamese food. Someone recommended to S that if she wants any good Vietnamese food, she should go to I Am Pho which is located in China Town. The entrance is quite narrow but it’s easy to identify the big red sign displaying the name of the restaurant.

To reach the restaurant, you’ll need to go down a flight of stairs. The decor of the restaurant is nothing fancy but just simple and clean. Interestingly, the decoration is mixed with Japanese and Chinese style since there’s a sakura tree and lanterns in the restaurant. It was lunch time on a weekday when S visited, and the restaurant was relatively busy and full.

The restaurant doesn’t have a website, only a Facebook page, and the website link on Google map is wrong. It’ll be quite tricky to find an accurate menu for this place. Hence, S will provide the menu here to save everyone some trouble. The dishes S has tried so far are the Nem Cuon Thit Lon & Tom(£6), Thit Heo Nuong Xa(£9), Bun Bo Hue (£8), Pho Bo Tai (£8) and Mi Hoanh Thanh (£9).

Appetisers

Nem Cuon Thit Lon & Tom are summer rolls with pork and prawns. It is a common Vietnamese dish which is made from rice paper filling with vegetable, pork, prawns and other ingredients. Moreover, it mostly goes with peanut dipping sauce which is the original way to have it in Vietnam. You can actually taste the prawns and the pork in the summer rolls here, and it was especially delicious when you eat it with the peanut sauce.

Banh Cuon Tom(Rice rolls with prawn fillings) reminded S of the Cheung Fun from Mei Dim and Jade City. However, it’s still quite different since there is some fried garlic and salad with the rice rolls. Moreover, the sauce is very different from the Cantonese sauce as well. If you like Cheung Fun then you have to try some Vietnamese rice rolls!

Mains

Thit Heo Nuong Xa is the special dish from here. It’s a dish with Vietnamese grilled lemongrass pork chops and you can choose either rice or noodles to go with it. This dish was surprisingly good as S underestimated it before eating it. The taste of lemongrass and the grill mixed together perfectly. S would definitely try some other special dishes when she visit next time!

Bun Bo Hue is a rice noodle dish with soup and it’s a bit spicy. The dish also came with raw beansprouts and basil which you can add to the soup. There’s also a slice of lime and chilli you can add into the soup to give the soup more flavour. Furthermore, you can also use the little plate to make the sauce you like to dip your noodles into. Overall, the broth was flavoured well with generous portion of rice noodles and meat. S would definitely recommend this dish if you want something with more flavour.

The taste of the Pho Bo Tai was rather mild compared to the Bun Bo Hue, but its broth was still quite flavourful. The beef was raw when it was served and it was slowly cooked in the hot soup which gave the beef extra tender texture since it wasn’t cooked for too long. The portion size of this dish was also quite big, and the soup was piping hot; definitely a must eat on a cold winter’s day.

The flavour of Mi Hoanh Thanh (£9) was quite different compared to the Bun Bo Hue and Pho Bo Tai, and S would say there was quite a strong taste of shallots. Furthermore, the noodles were slightly different too as you can see from the photo. S really likes the wonton here since the wonton skin didn’t break and the filling was quite stuffed. S would recommend this if you want to try something more favourable and not spicy.

S notices that the more authentic and local the Asian restaurant is, the less information she can find online about them. S only knows these restaurants due of recommendations from locals, such as the Cantonese restaurant Happy Seasons in China Town. Overall, the value was certainly great here for the portion of the food with the price and the quality. Don’t be deterred by the appearance of the restaurant. You’ll definitely not be disappointed when you give it a try, it’s truly a hidden gem!

Restaurant info: 
Address: 44 George St, Manchester M1 4HF
Phone: 0161 236 1230 
Opening hours: Sun.-Thur. 12-9:30pm; Fri. and Sat. 12-10:30pm
Site: https://www.facebook.com/iampho/