Pholicious - Chatswood

Arriving late in the afternoon 3.30pm it was unclear if they were closing for the day or preparing for mid week shoppers looking for their evening meals. I ordered the tomato rice with crispy chicken which was 'food court' ok Nothing special. Chicken may have been dry over time as it tasted like it may have been cooked earlier in the day. Salad was fresh and rice was passable.

Hmm.. looks like i have been missing out the good food here as this was my 1st patronage ????. The black pepper beef was surprisingly full of flavour and served quite generously at a reasonable price too. If i were to nitpick, i'd say few pieces were a little dry but more than compensated by the sauce and the tomato fried rice. Polite service too ????. Will be back!

At the food court in the Mandarin centre. Pho is strong flavour soup with generous amount of noodle. $11 for pho is not overly pricy, however, very little herbs. 5-8leaves on stalks Thai basil are in the soup, no coriander. I don't use it but no lemon wedge comes with it neither. Bahn mi is ok, but $6.50 is slightly over priced.

Pholicious sits comfortably in a good location at the well established Mandarin Centre. The modern fit out reflects the centres recent refurbishment but dangerously places Pholicious into the category of a shallow modernised Vietnamese take out with no substance. Unfortunately, perception becomes reality and customers always judge a place by it's appearance. But the image is of far from the truth if customers would give them a chance. Speaking to the owners when they opened, I expressed my appreciation at their authentic Pho stock. The young owners told me that their parents had a Pho shop in Cabramatta so it was no wonder they had foundation right. I informed them that the other Pho places in Chatswood contained far too much star anise to the point the soup looked dark and to not follow suit. Pho stock should be deceiving simple meaning the beef flavour should be pronounced and the star anise should only ever compliment the soup, not be the dominant flavour. However, due to the pressures of business, I think they have second guessed their product and leaned towards making Chatswood Pho. What a shame! The raw beef is also sliced too too thin and small. Their prices are reasonable and they also sell very good Banh Mi (Pork Rolls).  The Vermicelli Special Combination delivered with no short cut on variety of elements like so many modernised Vietnamese restaurants do. The lemongrass pork was well marinated, the herbs and salad were fresh and the spring rolls good. What they need is to really market the hell out of their product, offer more authentic Vietnamese lunch dishes and have more specials and advertisements to generate excitement and let the public try their product. They have potential to deliver excellent authentic Vietnamese cuisine so they should not be afraid to shout from the top of the roof as they ARE better than most Vietnamese cuisine offered in Chatswood!

Pholicious sits comfortably in a good location at the well established Mandarin Centre. The modern fit out reflects the centres recent refurbishment but dangerously places Pholicious into the category of a shallow modernised Vietnamese take out with no substance. Unfortunately, perception becomes reality and customers always judge a place by it's appearance. But the image is of far from the truth if customers would give them a chance. Speaking to the owners when they opened, I expressed my appreciation at their authentic Pho stock. The young owners told me that their parents had a Pho shop in Cabramatta so it was no wonder they had foundation right. I informed them that the other Pho places in Chatswood contained far too much star anise to the point the soup looked dark and to not follow suit. Pho stock should be deceiving simple meaning the beef flavour should be pronounced and the star anise should only ever compliment the soup, not be the dominant flavour.... read more