Pho Cali (Springvale) 08/2013

When one thinks of Vietnamese food and especially Pho, one thinks of Victoria Street on the edge of the city but the demographic centre of Melbourne is about 20 km away near Springvale. There is an incredible market there dominated by Chinese and Asian shops and supermarkets, This is where you can find chicken testicles, beef spleen, lung pigs caul, sea snails, Bailer fish, as well as exotic vegetables and funghi. There are also a variety of inexpensive restaurants serving all sorts of Asian food including excellent pho. We wandered into a cash only small very clean Vietnamese Noodle shop on Springvale Rd. advertising pho. Don't look for their 'phone no. in the phone book, although they do have one, as you can see from their sandwich board.

Not only do they serve pho but they also have a very large menu of traditional Vietnamese dishes, almost all under $18 and many under $10. There are plenty of photographs both in the menu and on the wall to help too.
 
 Cutlery, chopsticks and condiments are on the table and a thermos of hot tea was presented as soon as we came in. 
The place impressed with it's obvious cleanliness and simple, no frills set up.



They are community spirited too.

We had a serve of crisp pork spring rolls with a sweet chilli dipping sauce and lettuce and cucumber. They could not have been better. 

After a serve of very crisp spring rolls with the usual adornments, which were excellent
We then tried a couple of pho soups. Both dropped pigs trotters, which was actually slices of roast pork with soft noodles
 
 and pork with glass noodles were served in very tasty bouillon.

They were big serves with more than enough to eat. 
Service was pleasant, efficient but unhurried and we left with a very nice feeling about the place. We'll be more than happy to go there again when we visit the market.  
 Score: 13/20