Anyone who has spent an evening craving a proper bowl of pho in Dublin already knows the problem: plenty of places call themselves Vietnamese, but only a handful that regulars actually recommend, and community threads on r/BestInDublin put Pho Kim on Parnell Street at the top, while Madame Pho’s website says its broth simmers for eight hours across two city locations. This guide sorts the verified details from the marketing, so you can pick a Vietnamese restaurant near you that actually delivers.

4 related posts

Top-rated on Reddit: Pho Kim (Parnell Street) · Madame Pho location: 6 Rathmines Road Lower · Pho Kim phone: 01 8783165 · Vietnamese restaurants listed on TripAdvisor Dublin: 10

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts
2What’s unclear
  • Exact calorie counts for dishes like pho or banh mi are not published.
  • Off-menu items and daily specials exist only at the counter, not in delivery apps.
3Timeline signal
4What’s next
  • Check whether your address is inside a kitchen’s delivery zone before you order — coverage varies by branch and by day (see restaurant websites for maps).
  • Confirm opening hours on the restaurant’s own page, because third-party listings lag.

Seven directory-style facts, one pattern: the restaurants that document their own details are the ones you can plan around.

Label Value
Restaurant Name Pho Kim
Address Parnell Street, Dublin
Specialty Authentic Vietnamese cuisine
Popular Dish Pho — beef noodle soup
Phone 01 8783165
Madame Pho (Rathmines) 6 Rathmines Road Lower
Madame Pho (Exchequer Street) 7–9 Exchequer Street, Dublin D02 P998 (Tripadvisor Ireland)

What is the best thing to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant?

If you’ve never eaten Vietnamese food, the menu can feel like a code. Three dishes unlock most of it.

Pho

  • Base: rice noodles in a savoury broth
  • Protein: beef, chicken, or tofu
  • Garnish: lime, chilli, and fresh herbs

Pho is the dish most Vietnamese restaurants are judged by. At Madame Pho’s Rathmines kitchen, the bowl comes with rice noodles, lime, chilli, and fresh herbs, and the traditional broth is built from beef brisket, beef bones, bone marrow, herbs, and spices — simmered for 8 hours (Madame Pho’s Rathmines page (official restaurant site)). For a first-timer, that means a meal that is easy to eat, easy to customise, and forgiving of a late dinner order.

Banh Mi

  • Crisp baguette, light and shattering
  • Pickled carrot and daikon
  • Grilled pork, chicken, or tofu

Banh mi is Vietnam’s answer to the sandwich — a crusty baguette packed with pickles, protein, and herbs. It’s the fastest dish on most menus and the easiest to eat on the move.

Spring Rolls

  • Goi cuon: fresh rice-paper rolls with shrimp or pork
  • Cha gio: crispy fried rolls

Spring rolls come in two styles: fresh ones stuffed with herbs and shrimp, and fried ones that arrive golden and crunchy. Order one of each and share, so you get the contrast.

The pattern: pho tests a kitchen’s broth, banh mi tests its bread, and spring rolls test its herbs. Get all three right and you’ve found your local.

A restaurant that masters pho, banh mi, and spring rolls is worth returning to — these dishes are the true test of a kitchen’s skill.

What is the healthiest thing to get at a Vietnamese restaurant?

Vietnamese food leans on fresh herbs and bright flavours, but “healthy” is a per-order decision, not a menu-wide promise.

Fresh spring rolls

The trade-off

Fresh rolls skip the fryer, but the peanut dipping sauce carries sugar and oil. Ask for it on the side and you control the damage.

Goi cuon — the fresh rice-paper rolls — are the closest thing to a salad on most Vietnamese menus. They’re assembled cold with herbs, lettuce, and shrimp or pork, so no oil touches the roll itself until the sauce arrives.

Pho (low-calorie options)

  • Clear broth over thick curry
  • Extra herbs and beansprouts, light on the hoisin
  • Skip the fried sides

Pho can be a lighter pick when the broth is clear and the toppings are vegetables rather than fried extras. Exact calorie counts are rarely published, so treat “light” as a spectrum, not a number.

Grilled meats with rice

  • Grilled pork or chicken
  • Steamed rice and fresh cucumber
  • Sauce on the side, to limit sugar

A grilled-meat plate over rice is balanced and filling. The marinade often includes sugar, which means “grilled” and “low-calorie” are not the same thing.

The catch: without published nutrition data, the healthiest order is the one you can control — clear broth, fresh rolls, and sauce on the side beat any menu label.

Without calorie data, your healthiest bet is to control the sauces and sides yourself — clear broth and fresh rolls are your allies.

What does Madame Pho in Dublin have on their menu?

Madame Pho is the best-documented kitchen in this shortlist: its own pages list the menu, the branches, and the delivery map.

Appetizers

  • Fresh spring rolls (goi cuon)
  • Crispy fried rolls (cha gio)

The starter list leans on the two Vietnamese classics: fresh rice-paper rolls and crispy fried rolls. They’re a low-risk way to start, particularly if you’re sharing.

Main courses

  • Pho — the signature noodle soup
  • Banh mi — the Vietnamese sandwich
  • Rice plates, curries, and noodle salad bowls

The main menu runs the full set — pho, banh mi, rice plates, curry dishes, and noodle salad bowls — with the restaurant billing itself around “authentic Vietnamese flavours” (Madame Pho (official restaurant site)). The Rathmines branch sits at 6 Rathmines Road Lower, and the city-centre branch at 7–9 Exchequer Street. That split — a neighbourhood base plus a city-centre outpost — matters when you’re deciding which location is actually “near me.”

Dessert menus at both branches change too often for a directory to stay current, so ask at the counter. The implication: one menu, two neighbourhoods, and the closer address usually wins.

Madame Pho’s two locations give you flexibility, but the closer one is the one you’ll actually use — check delivery zones first.

What are the best Vietnamese restaurants near me?

The shortlist below combines community recommendations with Irish food-directory roundups. Where the two streams overlap, you’re on safe ground.

Pho Kim

Location: Parnell Street, near O’Connell Street · Known for: Pho — beef noodle soup · Phone: 01 8783165

Pho Kim is the name that keeps surfacing in Dublin subreddit threads, where one r/BestInDublin user calls it “the best Vietnamese restaurant.” Its pho is described as a beef noodle soup (Dining in Dublin (Dublin restaurant directory)), and the phone number above is the one to keep for takeaway.

Madame Pho

The authenticity debate

“Authentic Vietnamese flavours” is a phrase on Madame Pho’s own site. It’s a claim, not a certification — and the menu is what actually proves the kitchen’s skill.

Best in Ireland shortlists Madame Pho among its five Dublin pho places and names the Exchequer Street branch as the city-centre option (Best in Ireland (Irish food directory)). Alongside the Rathmines kitchen, that gives you two locations to measure against your own address.

Saigon Kitchen & Hanoi on Capel Street

  • Saigon Kitchen: downtown, with a fan rating of 15/10 on a Reddit thread
  • Hanoi on Capel Street: a neighbourhood favourite with less documentation

Both come from community threads rather than directory roundups. Saigon Kitchen’s 15/10 is one r/BestInDublin user’s enthusiasm, which should lower your expectations before it raises them. Hanoi on Capel Street gets steady local mentions, but there’s little published verification to pin down its hours or menu. Treat both as worth a test visit, not a destination.

The pattern: the restaurants with the strongest documentation — Pho Kim and Madame Pho — are also the ones community threads recommend. The quieter names may reward discovery, but they won’t reward a wasted journey.

Pho Kim and Madame Pho have the strongest documentation and community backing — the other names are worth testing but come with uncertainty.

Which Vietnamese restaurants offer delivery near me?

Delivery is where Dublin’s Vietnamese scene splits: some restaurants publish their own zones and ordering systems; others leave the logistics to third-party apps.

Delivery options via platforms

  • Check your address against each restaurant’s published delivery zone
  • Confirm hours on the restaurant’s own page — app listings lag
  • Click-and-collect usually beats delivery for speed

Madame Pho publishes a delivery map covering Dublin City Centre, Temple Bar, Ballsbridge, Sandymount, Rathmines, Dundrum, Blackrock, Clontarf, and Drumcondra (Madame Pho’s delivery page (official restaurant site)). That’s a wide net, but “covered” still depends on the day’s driver supply and order volume.

Direct ordering from restaurants

  • Madame Pho: order from its own site with click-and-collect or delivery
  • Pho Kim: collection and delivery through its own services

Direct ordering gives a kitchen more control over packaging and timing. Best in Ireland notes that Madame Pho’s takeaway arrives in strong containers suitable for carrying (Best in Ireland (Irish food directory)). Pho Kim’s directory listing shows collection and delivery, with a window from 1pm to 9pm, Monday through Sunday (Dining in Dublin (Dublin restaurant directory)). If you’re planning dinner, that window means ordering before the evening rush matters.

The trade-off: direct ordering buys you clearer information and stronger packaging, but a fixed window. If your schedule runs late, check the app listings first, then call the kitchen to confirm.

Direct ordering gives you better packaging and information, but fixed hours may limit late orders — balance convenience with reliability.

Confirmed facts

  • Pho Kim’s Parnell Street location and its pho credentials are documented by a Dublin restaurant directory, and its top recommendation comes from a named Reddit community thread.
  • Madame Pho’s menu categories, broth ingredients, and delivery zones are published on the restaurant’s own site.

What’s unclear

  • Exact calorie counts are not published, so “healthy” ordering is a matter of judgment, not data.
  • Off-menu items and daily specials exist only at the counter, not in any directory or app.
  • The “authentic” label is marketing, and one Tripadvisor Ireland review expresses strong skepticism about it (Tripadvisor Ireland).
  • Saigon Kitchen’s 15/10 rating is a single user’s opinion, not a consensus.

“Pho Kim on Parnell Street is the best Vietnamese restaurant.”

— A Reddit user in the r/BestInDublin community thread

“Your destination for authentic Vietnamese flavours right in the heart of Dublin!”

— Madame Pho, official website

Dublin’s Vietnamese scene is small enough that one good recommendation carries further than any advertising. Pho Kim brings the seniority; Madame Pho brings the documentation; the quieter names are best treated as experiments. For anyone searching “Vietnamese restaurant near me” in Dublin, the choice is clear: order from a kitchen that shows its address, its broth time, and its delivery zone — the alternative is trusting a menu photo and hoping the broth matches it.

Related reading

Additional sources

phodublin.com, phodublin.com

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Frequently asked questions

How do I order at a Vietnamese restaurant?

Walk in for lunch, order at the counter, or use the restaurant’s own online ordering where it exists. Some kitchens — Madame Pho among them — let you order click-and-collect or delivery directly from their own site, while Pho Kim lists collection and delivery through its directory entry. For third-party apps, confirm the delivery zone and hours before paying.

What are common Vietnamese dishes for beginners?

Start with pho (beef noodle soup), banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich), or fresh spring rolls. All three appear on most Dublin Vietnamese menus, and they show off the kitchen’s broth, bread, and herbs without requiring an adventurous palate.

Is Vietnamese food spicy?

Not by default. Heat usually comes from fresh chilli served on the side or from chilli sauces, so you control the level. Pho broth is savoury and herb-forward rather than hot.

What is the price range for a meal in Dublin?

There’s no single answer across Dublin kitchens. A pho bowl and a banh mi usually cost less than a full rice plate or curry, and the restaurant’s own menu is the only reliable price list.

Do Vietnamese restaurants cater for allergies?

Most kitchens will adjust common requests, but be specific: fish sauce and shrimp appear in many dishes, and fried items risk cross-contact. Tell the staff directly rather than relying on a delivery-app note.

What is the difference between pho and ramen?

Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup with a clear, herb-and-spice broth and rice noodles. Ramen is a Japanese noodle soup with wheat noodles and a heavier broth, often thickened with miso, soy, or pork marrow. Both are worth eating; they just answer different cravings.

Can I find vegan options at Vietnamese restaurants?

Yes. Fresh spring rolls, tofu pho, and vegetable rice plates are common starting points. Ask whether the broth is vegetable-based, because traditional pho broth is built on beef bones.