Yee Gan O.

Thanks to Irene L for organising an outing to deepest ,darkest Deptford on a bitterly cold Friday evening for surprisingly good Vietnamese food. After the 10 minute walk from Surrey Quays station (London Overground), our little band of hungrydiners were relieved to see Mama Pho's bright restaurant lights on the corner The first thing which hit me was the trail of wonderful aromas when the door opened. Familiar scents of south east Asian cooking started the gastric juices flowing. We were lucky to have Sophie, one of the restaurant's owners, come and explain the menu to us. She confirmed that the dishes are from old family recipes. Home cooking is truly the source of some of the best food in the Far East, so this was a good thing in my book As we had 7 diners, it seemed the right thing to order all 7 starters! This gave us a variety of dishes, ranging from a spicy but well balanced vermicelli salad to cheong fun little parcels of beef and mushroom to a DIY lettuce parcel to be self filled with a pancake. It was like eating in someone's home but a home with a great chef in the kitchen For main course, it had to be the pho. I went for spicy soup and a mixture of cooked and raw beef. Don't be alarmed if you order this and the dish arrives with literally raw beef on top. Just dunk it in the soup and it will cook in no time. The soup has tremendous depth of flavour, complex and satisfying. I would say this is the best pho I've tasted in London In the Far East, the best food is usually to be found in smaller establishments and this seems to be true here too. Don't let the word cafe put you off. Come down here for the pho in town

Jennie Z.

Hands down my favorite pho spot in London- the broth was perfect, not overly sweet/dosed in MSG like most places and best beef I've had at a pho place. To be honest, pho is never my go-to out of all the Asian noodle soup options (I usually almost always pick ramen instead) because the broth is too sweet most of the time for me and the beef is just too tough. However, I think this place has it near perfect. I ordered the pho tai chin and while the raw beef (which cooks just slightly in the broth) is very tender, the well-done beef flank just melts-in-your-mouth. I will definitely come back again for the pho chin in the near future. While the pho noodles were soft with the perfect amount of bite, some of the noodles were unfortunately clumped together, resulting in a hard mouthful. I did go at the end of the day, so hopefully that was why. If you need condiments (Sriracha/hoisin sauce), you have to ask for it, which can be a challenge with how busy the restaurant is. Also, it's one shared bottle of each for the entire restaurant...which isn't the most sanitary of things in covid times. We had asked for sriracha and the waiter handed us a bottle, which he took away ~15minutes later when another table asked for it. An easy fix would be to just pour out the sriracha into small saucers for tables that ask for it. Surprisingly, even though I went just before closing at 9PM, the restaurant was still packed! I had to wait about 15-20 minutes before I was seated and there was a queue of delivery drivers outside. It would be a safe bet to say that usually a reservation is likely needed given how busy the restaurant is even at an off-peak hour. Definitely recommend this place, for sure the best pho restaurant I've been to in London and much better than Cafe East. I look forward to ordering chicken wings (They had stopped taking orders for most appetizers by the time I arrived :() and hopefully non-clumpy noodles next time!

T E.

Finally... five-star Pho in London! Mama Pho is the replacement for the nearby Cafe East, which upped sticks and moved to larger car-park based digs behind Surrey Quays shopping centre. The same family running East run little Mama Pho but they do things in a slightly different way, so one is certainly not the same as the other. After walking south from Surrey Quays station, past the McDonalds we arrived at Mama Pho. A small and basic yellow place that was full of local Viets on a Monday night. We spent only £16 between the two of us to get the spicy chicken salad, the Pho Dac Biet, an iced coffee and a glass of fresh lychee drink. It could wel have been the best £16 meal I've eaten in my life. The chicken salad was densely flavoured, layered with so many different herbs, thinly shredded vegetables and different textures of meat. It was damn spicy too, leaving me gloriously steaming at the end and reaching for my bang tidy iced coffee. The Pho Dac Biet with spicy broth was stunning too (see photo). The whole bowl looked immaculate when it arrived, with the rare beef still bright pink on top, with juicy chunks of flank, yellow-skinned chicken bits and three fat prawns. Add to this some lime juice, chillis and oodles of fresh vegetables and the spicy, deeep Pho was instantly declared the winner of my wife and I's 1-year hunt for good London Pho. So Mama Pho is now in pole position. A bargain, a real find with lovely staff and the best Pho so far.

Yinnie C.

After many last minute changes of plans, instead of going to shiny sparkly state of the art Stratford, ended up in Deptford. Don't let the fact it's deptford deter you, as many yelp reviewers say, this place is a hidden gem of vietnamese hotspots! Not only because it's pretty much the vietnamese equivalent to china town! Mama Pho is one of these gems, it has family links to Cafe East so you can bet your bottom dollar it'll be as good (or so i hear, I need to try cafe east!) Plus you'll have money to bet your bottom dollar on because it is amazingly cheap and cheerful! (Not that I condone gambling!) Deco looks a bit sparse, but you're there for the food, not the paint. Started with Banh Cuon, cheaung fun type starter dish with vietnamese pork! Really good! Then the two massive bowls of Pho and Bun bo xeo. I mean massive. £6.50 each, it was amazing value. The Pho broth depth test was a winner, it just tops the list. Beef wasn't chewy at all either! We also ordered iced coffee, ice lemon tea and two lychee juices. Our bill came to £11 per person! I'm definitely coming back here, especially during the summer because with our condiments plate, there didn't seem to be alot of mint but that might be because it's not in season yet.

Josy A.

This is a fantastic place to come for Vietnamese food, and that is pho sure. From the outside, it looks like a slightly dodgy greasy-spoon cafe with a strange name. Even once you sit down at tables with plastic table cloths it doesn't 'look' amazing. However, looks can be deceiving, just smell the lovely, pho aromas and get ready to order everything!! It's cheap, cheerful and yummi-licious. I'll be back.

Chrissy H.

Tasty food and less busy than cafe east! Everything was tasty, although they forgot the pork skin that went with my noodles, but that's probably a good thing to cut down on the calories and fat! Banh cuon was my fav for of the night. :)

Wayne H.

A decent pho option in London though why it's ass out in lower slobovia is beyond me. First, it's run by what appears to be Vietnamese speaking folks. Second, the menu is focused and uncomplicated (and not trying to play up the ethnic or freshness factor that most restaurants here like to do) - it's just good old no non-sense rice and noodles. Lastly, they offer drip French coffee and jelly dessert drinks. Oh yeah. Now, if they would consider going heavier on the onions and pork oil in their soup base. Main dishes here start at 7 quids on up, appetizers 5 quids.

Linda T.

Mama pho is very small so I do not recommend coming here in large group. But the food was nice and a nice alternative if you find Cafe East is closed (like we did), since they are both not far from each other. The menu has a range of pho and rice dishes, along with a selection of sides. As it is called Mama Pho then it must be about the pho, so I ordered the Pho Chin which had the cooked beef (or well done beef as on menu). The soup I found was bland at first so I added some of the fish dipping which gave it a bit more flavouring. But the cooked beef itself have a lot of flavour which compliment the broth and the pho which lack flavouring. Along with our pho we ordered the Banh Cuon (Vietnamese steamed rolls) and Cha Hue (Deep fried Vietnamese sausage) to share. Both was nice and you could have on its own if you are not very hungry. From the outside it might not have that look that says come in for tasty Vientamese food. But Mama Pho does serve decent Vientamese food.

Vega W.

Taste good! Serving speed good:) Dishes variation but more than café east but the price roughly the same expensive... Staffs friendly, small peace

Erika L.

We started with the prawn summer rolls, packed with vegetables and a slice of pork, nicely garnished with cilantro & mint. We then had the lemongrass grilled pork on a bed of rice (it was perfect) and the pho with raw & cooked beef (very good). Iced coffee was a nice treat at the end. Venue is small and very casual, a good lunch spot.