West End Pho Before a Show at Pho & Bun

On Shaftesbury Avenue, the question of pho near me usually comes with a curtain time attached. Pho & Bun, at 76 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6ND, sits between Chinatown and the West End theatres and opens from noon every day, so it works for a quick bowl before a matinee or an evening show. Its menu runs from a £14.95 crispy tofu pho to a £18.95 bowl of red-wine braised beef, and it is a sister restaurant to VietEat in Holborn.

Pho & Bun describes itself as a place for authentic Vietnamese street food at a reasonable price, in a setting meant to feel like a step into Vietnam. The second half of the name refers to its steamed bun burger, which the restaurant says was a first for London's Vietnamese food scene. The buns are made in-house every day and sandwich a beef patty with salad, house pickle, fresh herbs and a smoky mayonnaise. The pho is the reason most people come back, though, and it has its own page of options.

The kitchen simmers beef bones overnight with a mix of herbs and spices for a clear, rich stock, and serves it with fresh rice noodles, beansprouts, lemon, chilli and herbs. The menu also suggests eating it the Vietnamese way, with a fried dough stick on the side for dipping. It even settles a debate printed on the page: whichever way you order it, the restaurant says, pho is pronounced fuh. Pho comes in beef stock, while the Huế noodle soup uses beef and pork stock together.

The pho section lists seven toppings. Rare sliced beef short rib (bò tái) is £17.50, wok-fried garlic beef (bò tái lăn) is £16.95 and tender beef (bò chín) is also £16.95. Corn-fed chicken is £15.95, seafood is £17.50 and crispy tofu is £14.95. The bowl that is hardest to find elsewhere in the West End is bò sốt vang, red-wine braised beef, at £18.95. For a bigger meal, the Pho Premium upgrade adds extra noodles, a meatball and a fried dough stick for £4.95.

If your group has already done pho this week, the menu has two strong alternatives. The bún bò Huế, a spicy noodle soup from the imperial city of Huế, comes with tender beef or corn-fed chicken for £15.95 or with seafood for £17.50. The Hải Phòng-style bún tôm, a tiger prawn and pork belly vermicelli soup marked as hot, is £16.50. Both arrive faster than most grilled dishes, which helps when you are working against a show time. If you want the same noodles without the broth, phở xào is wok-fried rice noodles with choi sum and a house sauce: beef rump steak is £17.95, the vegan tofu and mushroom version is £16.50, and seafood is £18.95. It is a good pick for a warm evening or a diner who finds a full bowl of soup too heavy before sitting through a three-hour musical.

Start with fresh summer rolls with tiger prawn at £8.95, or try the chef's special crispy pork and crab spring rolls, nem cua bể, at £9.95. The chilli salt and pepper squid is £12.95. Away from soup, bún chả Hà Nội with honey-glazed pork belly and pork patties in house fish sauce is £17.95, and you can add a spring roll for £5.50. Most tables order one starter between two and a noodle bowl each.

The steamed bao burgers are all £13.50 with meat, with fillings of 28-day dry-aged beef with red onion relish, BBQ honey pork with apple and chilli mayonnaise, eight-hour confit pork belly or crispy lemongrass chicken. Vegetarian versions with lemongrass tofu or grilled aubergine are £12.95, and sweet potato chips are £6.50. For a fixed price, the theatre menu is £23.95 for two courses or £26.95 for three, served from 5pm to 6:30pm and again after 10pm, and a still, sparkling or hot tea drink can be added for £2. A four-course set dinner at £34.95 gives you two starters, a main and a dessert with a glass of wine, beer or a soft drink.

Opening hours are noon to 10pm Monday to Thursday and on Sunday, and noon to 10:30pm on Friday and Saturday. The pre-show crowd builds from about 5:30pm, when a lot of the Shaftesbury Avenue audience looks for a fast meal, so arrive before then or book a table through the restaurant's reservations page. Tell your server your curtain time when you order, and pho is the safest choice because it reaches the table faster than the grilled plates.

Leicester Square station on the Piccadilly and Northern lines is the closest Tube stop, a few minutes' walk along Charing Cross Road. Piccadilly Circus is about the same distance in the other direction. Shaftesbury Avenue is a bus corridor, and the restaurant is a short stroll from Cambridge Circus, so it is easy to reach from Covent Garden and Soho as well.

From the door, cross into Chinatown via Wardour Street or Macclesfield Street and walk Gerrard Street under the paifang gates, past the bakeries and supermarkets. Then head back up to Shaftesbury Avenue and walk east to Cambridge Circus, where the Palace Theatre's red-brick façade faces the junction. If you have time before the show, Seven Dials and Neal's Yard are a 10-minute walk further east, past independent shops and cafés.

If Pho & Bun is full, VietEat on Kingsway in Holborn is run by the same team and serves a similar pho list. It is about a 15-minute walk east or one stop on the Piccadilly line to Holborn.

Pho & Bun, 76 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6ND. Opening hours: Monday to Thursday noon to 10pm, Friday and Saturday noon to 10:30pm, Sunday noon to 10pm. Reservations are taken online, and all dishes are available for delivery. Prices are from the menu on phoandbun.com. Allergens are marked on the menu, and the salads contain roasted peanuts that can be removed on request.