Pho Bowl Chorlton

I'd heard a few good things about Pho Bowl, and after experiencing tasty things at the chain Pho, Vietnamese food was high up on my list of new favourite cuisines. I was excited to give this independent Vietnamese restaurant a go and so last week, we went across to explore...

Its simple interior (think a really laid back, wooden version of Wagamamma) was inviting and despite it being a Saturday night, we didn't have to wait long for a table.

I wanted a light, healthy-ish meal and they seemed to have exactly what I was after (prawn crackers aside!!).

I was really intrigued by their non-alcoholic beer (hi dry Jan) - it was so good, tasted exactly like 'the real stuff' but didn't have that lingering slightly bitter aftertaste. I'd absolutely order this again and will be keeping an eye out for it in other restaurants too.

To start, I ordered the duck rice wraps and James had salt and pepper chicken wings. I tried one, and they were gorgeous - light, crispy, peppery batter with a fresh fried peppers, onions and garlic.

My rolls hit the spot perfectly. Light rice paper with lettuce, raw vegetables and duck breast, and a gorgeous peanut sauce. It was delicious! The perfect starter.

We couldn't believe the portion size of the prawn crackers, and loved the spicy chilli dip it came with.

For our mains, James ordered pork skewers with noodles and a spicy sauce. The sauce comes separately and is cold, and the idea is your pour it all over the dish and mix it in, a little weird as a concept, but it tasted great.

I got the chicken pho bowl, a ramen based dish with noodles, broth, chicken, veg, chillies and beansprouts.

It was so big, I couldn't finish it. It was really, really tasty and I'd definitely recommend it if you fancy ramen, it was gorge.

With two drinks each, the bill came to around £40, which I thought was so reasonable for a really relaxed Saturday night meal.

To round the night off, at home we finished with some Eisberg wine. As I mentioned above I was doing dry January and they'd heard about my plight, so sent me two bottles to try - a  red and a sparkling white, both non-alcoholic.

I was skeptical.

I'd tried the sparkling white the week before and was actually really pleasantly surprised. I'd bought Co-op's non-alcoholic sparkling prosecco not long before which tasted exactly the same as Appletizer: not bad, by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly not an alcoholic tasting, prosecco resembling drink... so I didn't have very high hopes for the Eisberg sparkling white.

To my surprise, it actually tasted so much like sparkling wine, I found it hard to believe I wasn't actually drinking alcohol. This would be a perfect bottle to take with you to a party or an occasion where drinking isn't an option - I'd highly recommend it.

The red was really nice, too. Again, I wasn't sure about it as I'm quite picky about red wine. My favourite types are oaky, smoked, full-bodied red rioja and tempranillo, and this was a cabernet sauvignon. It was a little too fruity for me, but it really wasn't bad at all and genuinely tasted like red wine. It was great with chilli con carne, as well as having it on its own, so again, I'd definitely recommend it.

They sent me one bottle of sparkling white and one bottle of red, and I've since been out and bought another bottle of red, to give you an idea about how I feel about it... definitely a great alcoholic alternative.

We'll definitely be back at Pho Bowl, there were a number of dishes I really wanted to try so Pho Bowl - save us a seat!

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