Pho, pronounced 'fuh', opened in the iconic, and newly renovated, Corn Exchange in the heart of Manchester in September 2015. With an entrance on Cathedral Street, just a stone's throw from the Manchester Arena, Royal Exchange Theatre and Manchester Arndale, the restaurant is set across three floors with a mix of cosy booth seating, large tables and benches, or external tables within the amazing central atrium.
The Pho story actually started ten years earlier though, when Stephen and Juliette Wall opened London’s first Vietnamese street food restaurant, after they had travelled to Vietnam and fell in love with the food. They made the decision to start a restaurant serving pho, the Vietnamese national dish – an amazingly tasty and nutritious noodle soup - while sat on high stools, slurping pho bo, around the shopfront of Pho Quynh in Ho Chi Minh City. Today, Pho is still a family-run business serving great value, authentically prepared Vietnamese street food, with sixteen restaurants across the country.
As their name suggests, Pho Manchester specialise in the Vietnamese national dish, pho; a fantastic steaming bowl of rice noodle soup served with a side plate of fresh herbs. The addition of these herbs and table condiments is an essential part of the experience and adds another dimension to the dish, whether it be a chilli paste for a kick, fish sauce for extra saltiness, or garlic vinegar for sourness.
