Leanne Le (left) and sister Sue Le (right) and their efficient team bring continuity to the changing face of Dickson. Photo: Region.
Apartments have gone up, buildings have come down and the tramline has come to town, but there is one monument to continuity in Canberra’s Chinatown suburb of Dickson, and that’s the Vietnamese institution, Pho Phu Quoc.
Currently on its third owner, Sue Le, who purchased the already popular but somewhat smaller restaurant in 2013, a line of owners and iterations can be tracked back to at least 1993.
I first came to Pho Phu Quoc in 2007 after a trip to Vietnam led me to seek out the aromatic beef noodle soup that was the highlight of our trip, Pho. It’s a dish that is now so common it’s hard to remember a time when it needed to be sought out, but in 2007, that was the case, and it led me to the Cape Street doors of Pho Phu Quoc.
The bamboo-covered walls, ceramic wall cherubs with glittered feet, and hand-built model sailing ships made the Cape Street iteration of Pho Phu Quoc feel quaint in a way that felt like home.
With the Cape Street building slated for demolition, Sue moved the business to Badham Street in 2015, where it still stands today. It was a move that alarmed me at the time.
Pho Phu Quoc moved into new premises in 2015. Photo: 2015.
Taking up residence in the former El Dorado Steakhouse, the saloon vibes lingered in the studded faux-leather chairs that are still in situ throughout much of the restaurant today.
I can see why Sue and her business partners, Tung Dang and her sister Leanne, held onto the chairs, though; the new dining room was vast, and the cost to fill it with new chairs would be exorbitant. To offset the chairs, a bright mural of a diner slurping soup from a deep bowl went up on the back wall; it was a collaboration with Canberra artist Kasy Grainger and her son Solomon, who were also regular customers of Sue’s.
So much time has now passed that Sue and her highly efficient team feel right at home in the former steakhouse, and I now can’t imagine them anywhere else (even the model ships that made the move feel like they have always been there).
Over the years, and despite no longer living anywhere near Dickson, I have regularly popped into Pho Phu Quoc to answer the call of the Pho, and on a recent visit, I was impressed by Sue and her team’s continued fervour.
Sue started managing restaurants at age 16 when her father put her in charge of the family restaurant, Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant in Pearce. Having purchased the business in the early 80s after fleeing Vietnam, Sue’s father was focused on building a new and successful life for the whole family in Canberra.
That lifetime of hospitality experience is on display as you watch Sue on the floor of Pho Phu Quoc, where she is a formidable leader of her large team. There is nothing she isn’t across as she directs staff and dishes around the busy dining room.
Curry chicken with lemongrass and chilli is sweet and aromatic. Photo: Tenele Conway.
There’s nothing I can say about Pho Phu Quoc that hasn’t been written about time and time again; that’s the nature of an institution, but I will say that while the menu has morphed over time and some favourites like the Vietnamese pancake have disappeared, the food still has the same heart that it always had.
The extensive menu leans into sweet and aromatic flavours, with the lemongrass and chilli dishes being among the most popular. I recently had the curry chicken with lemongrass and chilli, and the thick sauce clung to the meat, so each mouthful was packed with flavour. At $23 for the dish, the prices still hold up as a cheap eat by today’s standards, a moniker that has followed Pho Phu Quoc around for years as it pops up on best cheap eats lists.
The Pho is lighter and clearer than many versions are today, and it feels nostalgic to dip back into the first Pho I ever tried in Australia. I do miss, however, the inclusion of a bottle of fish sauce, which was a standard accompaniment back in the day.
As I sit in the dining room, the busiest in Dickson that night by far, it really struck me what an enduring legacy this restaurant has in Canberra and how important it is to the changing face of Dickson to have this kind of stability. I hope to be writing about it again in another 20 years.
Pho Phu Quoc is located at 5 Badham Street, Dickson, and is open 6 days a week, from Wednesday to Monday, from 11 am until 9:30 pm.
