Date Night Reviews
Pho Fo’ Date Night
One of our anonymous users suggests taking your date to eat Pho – Vietnamese noodles for date night! Well, I can’t say I’ve ever been out for authentic Pho and neither had Den. I Googled around to find some recommended places in Melbourne and was stunned to find one of the best was within a 2-minute walk from where we live! Awesome! (We are right near Chinatown, so I don’t know why I was surprised by it).
The place wasn’t much to look at – fluorescent 7-Eleven lighting that accentuates every flaw just so… sticky tabletops (DIY wipe down, apparently) and the television playing Funniest Home Videos in the background… really not the most romantic setting for a hot date. But the place is always packed… and if the décor looks that bad, then it can only mean one thing. That the Pho is really good.
And it was! After passing up the Tripe and Marrow varieties (maybe next time…), I ordered a vegetarian one and Den had the beef and “pork loaf” chilli special. Two steaming bowls of vegetables, meats and noodles were placed in front of us along with the lemon wedges, chillis, bean sprouts and basil to add, to your own taste.
It was delicious! My vegetarian tasted suspiciously like it was floating in chicken broth, but I do eat meat so that didn’t bother me… I imagine they use Pho like Westerners use chicken soup – restorative, calming, relieves all that ails you… A table of six sat down next to us chatting noisily but as soon as their soup arrived, all you could hear was silence (well, Funniest Home Videos) and the occasional slurping.
Oh, yes. The slurping. You know what? I wouldn’t recommend Pho as a first date. It’s messy, you have to negotiate the chopsticks, the noodles, the hot broth… you dribble it down your chin and you spend the entire time with your head down, poking around in your bowl to find out what other treasures may be sunken inside. Not a lot of chatting gets done, and if you do get a moment to talk, you most likely have food on your face as you’re doing it.
But for any couples comfortable enough with each other to slurp noisily away, it’s a great, cheap night out! Two huge bowls of Pho, a Coke and endless tea cost us AUD$20.00. We rounded the night off with a drink at a nearby bar and voila! You have yourself a great night out and great food to boot.
Rate the Date
Romance Factor: 1/5
Cheese Factor: 1/5
Fun Factor: 4/5
Overall: Wonderful food, cheap date out and great for longterm couples… not recommended for a first date! Too much slurpage!
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Writer, dating columnist, wife, coffee addict, foodie, fashionista... Melburnian through and through. Muser, dancer, blogger, tweeter. Likes to get her head on telly now and again. Sleeper, dreamer, a sucker for romance. And of course... a cheap date.
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2 comments for “Pho Fo’ Date Night”
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I regularly have Pho nights because it’s my husband’s favourite food. We live in Sydney and we are very spoiled with many Vietnamese restaurants around us.
My husband has 2 favourite restaurants for Pho. He’s a massive fan of one of the restaurants and I used to joke during our wedding planning that we should have our wedding reception there!
Eating pho is not the sexiest thing but I love it because it’s a simple pleasures in life that we both enjoy… and spending time with my husband is meaningful because we do not see each other everyday due to our work shifts.
[...] 26. The RSL 27. Lunch at a Winery 28. Deck 88 at Eureka Tower 29. Bingo! 30. Video Game Arcade 31. Vietnamese Pho 32. Joint Manicures 33. Swimming at the Local Pool 34. Borrow a Kid 35. The Nudist Beach 36. Plane [...]