Bang Bang

What a quaint name for a Vietnamese restaurant! Pho Bang Bang was pretty quiet when I dropped by on a weekday for a quick lunch. The sunny bits: I ordered the broken rice. There was an attempt to make the dish look attractive with the vegetables and egg. The rice was delicious and the pork chop was flavoursome with lots of lemongrass. It did not take long for it to be served. I liked the chilli oil that was available on each table. The cloudy bits: This place was pretty dark and run down. Service was on the colder side. The forecast: I’m not sure if I’ll be back anytime soon as there are surprisingly many Vietnamese options along this stretch of High Street.

DISAPPOINTING PHO A small cafe on the busy High Street Northcote strip offering a Vietnamese / Chinese cuisine. The name implies a pho noodle specialty so I was doubly disappointed at what was served up as a "chicken pho" - basically a bowl of plain noodles in a weak broth with a side dish of a leg of fried chicken. No bean sprouts, coriander, lemon, fresh chili to rescue the blandness. The service was very perfunctory. We had to wave the staff over to our table despite the cafe having almost no other customers. The other items we ordered were a bit better quality and they were able to cater for the vegan eaters among us. Its the kind of place where you get up to grab your own bottle of water and glasses, poach a container of chopsticks and cutlery from a nearby table and grab a tissue from the box as your serviette. That's all fine given the place doesn't pretend to be high end ... and has commensurately low prices. Probably an OK place to go if all you want is to eat and go. You will be disappointed if you are expecting a good bowl of pho however :. Its BYO and takes credit cards. People with mobility issue will be fine as it is on one even ground floor level. Parking is just awful here at least on weekend nights and you'll very likely have to park a few blocks away on the side streets. The Route 86 tram runs right past the door and the Northcote train station is a 5 minute walk away.

Popped down for lunch. I ordered a large serve of Salted fish fried rice and crispy calamari with spicy salt. Serving portions are super generous. Fried rice was delicious, nice and salty with a little smokiness from the wok. The addition of the table sauces just amp it up. The calamari was divine. Perfectly cooked, crispy and addictive. Generous serving, with fragrant crispy garlic and spring onion. Will 100% be back!

Food was ok, but service was sub par. Waiting over an hour for the food even after asking how far off it would be. I understand busy service and struggles with staffing working in hospitality myself. I would usually give most of my gripes a pass in the current climate, but when being served I was met with such attitude and aggression that I was deeply uncomfortable leaving the restaurant. Me an my friends will never return.

The combination fried rice was excellent, I'd go back just for that. The XO chicken was pretty much flavourless and the shredded pork rice paper roll was terrible.

The worst Pho ever. No flavour, left out all the goodies. No coriander, chilli, basil, onions, sprouts, lemon or sauce. I thought they would specialise in pho given their name but nope. Just a bland bowl of noodles

Price is reasonable. Meat is fresh. But the soup is not tasty enough. The taste of Milk tea is quite special because it contains more milk then tea.

Had some pretty nice pho noodle soup, and the crispy skin chicken was awesome. Coupled with some spring rolls was a very cheep and nice meal. About 40 bucks with drink. Reasonably priced too

It was okay- we got the vegan pho and the veggie laksa. Average. Priced well and nice staff though.

No fuss dining. I had the mixed beef pho and the broth was amazing... So warming and savoury, and addictive! As someone mentioned, the service is not overly friendly, but sometimes you just don't need that - you want a quick lunch with efficient service. That's what I got! Definitely will go again for that broth!