This is one of those places where I say: use it or lose it. Some hot dining spots seem to expand almost the moment they open, but east London’s Vietnamese stalwart Sông Quê has waited almost 25 years to spawn a little sister, Sông Quê Phở Bar. The new offshoot sits on Commercial Street, a mile or so down the road, and serves a tiny menu focusing on phở, as well as a smattering of the original café’s small plates in the form of summer rolls, green papaya salad, grilled lamb chops and savoury banh khot cupcakes.
The phở bar itself is small and unshowy — a narrow room of maybe 30 covers, bare bulbs overhead and a short menu on a chalkboard. There are five broths to choose from: the classic beef with tendon and brisket, a lighter chicken, a fragrant prawn, a rich oxtail and a mushroom version that holds its own admirably. We order two beef, one chicken, and a round of summer rolls while we wait.
The broth, when it arrives, is deeply serious. This is not the watery, pale, slightly sweet soup that passes for phở in a worrying number of London establishments. This is the real thing: dark amber, faintly smoky from char-roasted onion and ginger, properly gelatinous from hours of simmering beef bones. The noodles are soft but not stodgy. The herbs — Thai basil, beansprouts, sliced chilli, wedges of lime — arrive piled high in a separate bowl. Everything is right.
What this place does, above all, is make you feel that cooking has been taken seriously. For £14 a bowl in a stripped-back room on Commercial Street, this is extraordinary value. London is full of restaurants that charge twice as much for far less thought.