Making Preparations...

Graffiti Art

Something funky I saw along the streets of Singapore. This is quite cool!

Pho 24 at Millenia Walk

LJ and FJ got me excited when they had informed me that Pho24 can actually be found in Singapore! We had fond memories of their food during our trip to Vietnam last year and I was eager to reminisce the taste of tradition pho and Viet coffee.

So I took a special trip down to Millenia Walk after the ante-natal course with Xiaomin and we were so happy to see the familiar logo. We promptly placed our orders and enthusiastically waited for the food to come.

But we were disappointed.

Firstly, the "Thit Bo Ga" or the quail eggs that we ordered was not even de-shelled properly. There were 'craters' or broken skins on them. When I feedback that they should have run the eggs under cold water immediately after cooking them so as to make de-shelling easier, they defended by saying that the 'central kitchen' had prepared them so there was nothing they could do.

Secondly, the soup for the pho and the quail eggs were too salty and tasted 'MSG-ish' which left an unsavoury aftertaste on my tongue. The beef was okay but the quality of the soup was somehow inferior than what I remembered.

Thirdly, the size of the filter for the Viet drip coffee seemed to be a tad bigger than the grounded coffee they use so we had a bit of the residue. The coffee was also not as aromatic as the ones we had in Vietnam. Do they even use coffee from Vietnam, I wonder?

Lastly, and most disappointingly, they actually RAN OUT of basil leaves! HOW COULD THEY! Who serves pho without basil leaves?!? Ridiculous for such a renowned establishment to actually overlook this. This kind of attitude and oversight is the bane of such an industry. It was so appalling!

You can say I am being too fussy but I just feel that if you undertake a franchise, at least adopt the correct and determined attitude to doing it right. NEVER think for a moment that the customers and the general public can be taken for a ride. People dun mind paying for good food but such slack and "Aiyah... no one can tell" way of business would only mean one thing:

Suicide.