Guess I am currently at the point where I am starting to check off things that I had been wanting to try in the area for such a long time, yet never got a chance to do so since most of the eateries around the Downtown/Marina Bay neighbourhood only operates on weekdays — some also being only limited to lunch hours. Pho-losophy has been operating their outlet at Asia Square’s Food Garden since 2016 and does seem like one of the stalls that office workers do seem to queue up for (again, what are the chances of a stall not having a queue here); the menu comprising of Pho (i.e. Beef Noodle Soup), Bun (i.e. Vermicelli Salad) and Rice for those looking for a substantial eat for lunch.

The Phos here are pretty popular amongst the folks who have queued up for their food but opted for the Bun Cha instead since it was more of my thing as compared to Pho, and also partially due to my laziness having to deal with hot soup whilst having to mind the limited lunch hours especially given the crowd in the Central Business District these days. Whilst there are other meat options such as pork belly, lemongrass-marinated beef and five-spiced chargrilled chicken available, I went with the Sugarcane Prawn Bun which sounds more unique to their menu. Coming with the usual suspects that are normally included in the Vietnamese dish, expect elements such as rice vermicelli, sliced cucumber, pickled vegetables, chopped peanuts and even a Vietnamese spring roll to accompany the sugarcane prawns here. It also comes with the usual dip that Bun Cha comes with — the fish sauce with chopped chili that one is supposed to dip the vermicelli in. Overall, found this to be a pretty clean eat — no doubt there are fried items around, but I really liked how this came with all the vegetables that provided a good crunch; all that while the springy vermicelli laces up all the savoury fish sauce with a slight kick of spiciness from the chopped chili. The sugarcane prawns did feel like they come with quite a good amount of pork paste and quite lack that bite or sweetness from the prawns, but I really enjoyed how incredibly bouncy they were — all that with the fried Vietnamese spring roll being all crisp without feeling anywhere too greasy.

Felt that the Sugarcane Prawn Bun is a pretty decent eat overall — a great alternative to salad if one really detests having a bowl of greens since this feels more of a lighter (and cleaner) eat for me. No doubt it is a little bit more pricier at $12 — that being said, there don’t seem to be a lot of particularly affordable options around the area so it is just slightly above from the average lunch. I guess I would likely go for the Rare Australian Angus Beef Slices Pho from the Pho section of the menu or the Com Tam from the Rice section of the menu next — a stall which I am likely to make it as a lunch option as long as the queues aren’t too mad.