Pho Minh Long, Mitcham by Bureaucrat

Tasty, reliable and great value is how I'd describe Pho Minh Long.  Pho Minh Long is a modest Vietnamese restaurant located on the outer edge of the Mitcham shopping precinct. It does a roaring trade. Every time I go there, it's quite full with families, office workers and tradies.  Even when it first opens for the day at 10:30am it's already about a quarter full with punters getting an early start at lunch - I know this as I once needed lunch that early!  The service is quick but not overly brusque (unlike other 'cheap eats' restaurants).


It's hard not to order some pork and prawn rice paper rolls when I'm at a Vietnamese restaurant, and these were pretty good.  I particularly liked how these were made-to-order as the noodles inside the roll were still warm.


I do love their grilled pork and spring roll bun (warm vermicelli noodle salad).  It's big and fresh and there's lots of delicious tender-meaty-fatty pork and salad (crunchy shredded lettuce, cucumber, carrot and squeaky fresh bean shoots).  I love how they do the lemongrass pork here - I could easily eat this every day and not get bored of it.  Equally delicious are the spring rolls - tight, deep fried cylindrical bundles of crispy, savoury goodness.  Needless to say, I snaffle these quickly - yum!  I do apologise for the lack of a proper photo for this dish but each time I forget to take a photo because I just want to eat it now! So, I'm afraid you'll have to make do with this photo of my half-eaten bun... :D

The gusto in which I displayed wolfing down the bun made the Lawyer intrigued with the dish; so I gave him a small piece of pork and a segment of a spring roll (they cut them up for the dish) to try.  He enjoyed it so much that he's decided that he'll be ordering it next time we're there.


The Lawyer went for the large combination beef pho. He thought the pho was okay.  It was average in taste and quality and didn't wow him.  While it was generous in size, he felt that the broth lacked the deep beefy flavour. Next time, he's going to go for the bun or even a sizzling hot plate (which was very popular on the day we went - we saw five of them being served out in the space of 30 minutes).

Verdict

We really liked it.

Cheap eats.

Overall

A really great Vietnamese restaurant.  With the exception of the pho, we were very happy with the food.  I've also had the broken rice before which was also very tasty.  Well worth checking out if you're in the area.

Also have a gander of Obelix's review back in November 2015.

Find it at

Pho Minh Long
475 Whitehorse Rd
Mitcham 3132
Phone: 9872 4551