Shoreditch Pho Bowls and Charcoal Barbecue at Viet Grill

Kingsland Road is the stretch Londoners call the Pho Mile, so a search for pho near me in Shoreditch gives you a dozen options within a few hundred metres. Viet Grill, at 58 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DP, is the one where the soup competes for attention with a charcoal grill. Founder Hieu opened it in 2006, and its menu runs from a £21 bone marrow pho to Lạng Sơn-style barbecue pork, all inside a room of palm-patterned wallpaper and dark mahogany.

Hieu arrived in London from Vietnam in 1999 and, after struggling to find the cooking he knew, opened Cây Tre on Old Street in 2003. Three years later he opened Viet Grill a short walk north on Kingsland Road, where a cluster of family-run Vietnamese kitchens had already turned the street into a destination. The group now also runs Cây Tre Soho and Kêu, but Viet Grill is the branch built around grilling. Its kitchen cooks over charcoal on robata grills, which you can smell from the pavement on a busy evening.

The menu explains that its phở blends the deep marrow-bone sweetness of the northern style with the star anise, cardamom and cinnamon of the south. The Original Pho with rare steak and slow-braised brisket is £18, the Saigon Pho with fatty flank is £19, and the Hanoi Garlicky Pho with wok-seared steak is also £19. The Special Large Combo Pho, called tô xe lửa, adds meatballs, tendon and tripe for £24.25. The bowl that sets this branch apart is the Bone Marrow Pho at £21, and the extras list also sells a roasted beef marrow bone, ống tuỷ bò nướng, on its own. If it is your first visit, order the Original to judge the broth, then come back for the marrow bowl on a cold night.

Chicken eaters get their own list. Chicken Breast Pho is £17.50, Thigh and Drumstick Pho is £18.50, and the Special Chicken Pho with breast, boneless thigh and drumstick is £20.25. The regional section includes a Beef Meatball Pho with tendon, tripe and saw leaf (£18.50), a Saigon Sate Pho in a spicy peanut satay broth (£19) and a Seafood Pho with king prawns, squid and crab cake in chicken broth (£19). Vegetarians should look at the Assorted Mushroom Pho (£17.50), which comes with tofu and kai choy and has a vegetarian broth option.

Viet Grill calls its pho section Have It Your Way, and the extras list is where regulars customise. A side bowl of rare steak is £8, a roasted beef marrow bone is £6.75, extra beef meatballs or beef brisket ribs are £6.75 each, and crunchy flank is £5.50. You can add a raw egg yolk for £4, a crispy dough stick for £4 to dunk in the broth, or extra noodles for £4.50. Every bowl comes with beansprouts, lemon and herbs, and the table holds hot chilli sauce and hoisin. The menu notes that northern cooks use only chilli, while southern cooks add hoisin.

The name is not decoration. The group's own story describes Vietnamese street barbecue, and the signature plates include crisp Lạng Sơn-style pork in a lemongrass and galangal marinade and grilled chicken seasoned with mắc khén, the mountain pepper that makes your lips tingle. Beef is Irish, the herbs are grown on selected farms in Vietnam and flown in, and the meats are halal-friendly. A good order for two is one pho each plus a barbecue plate in the middle, or the Shaking Beef (bò lúc lắc, £20.25), wok-tossed sirloin with Phú Quốc black pepper and a fried egg.

Opening hours matter here because of the weekday gap. Monday to Thursday, Viet Grill opens 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 10:30pm. Friday runs 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 11pm. Saturday is continuous from 11am to 11pm, and Sunday from 11am to 10pm. That means a late weekday lunch needs to start by about 2pm. The restaurant says walk-ins are always welcome, but booking is advisable at busy times, which on Kingsland Road means Friday and Saturday evenings from about 7pm.

For a birthday or office dinner, Viet Grill takes group bookings from six to 80 guests, and it has a private dining room with its own bar. That makes it one of the few places on the Pho Mile where a large party can eat pho together without splitting across tables. A discretionary 12.5% service charge is added to the bill, which is worth knowing when you divide it up. The restaurant also does takeaway and Deliveroo delivery for nearby flats and offices.

Hoxton station on the London Overground Windrush line is the closest stop, a few minutes' walk north along Kingsland Road. Old Street station on the Northern line is about a 10-minute walk south-west, and several bus routes run straight up Kingsland Road towards Dalston. If you are coming from the City, the walk from Liverpool Street takes about 20 minutes up Shoreditch High Street and is an easy way to build an appetite before a large bowl.

Before or after the meal, walk a few minutes north to the Museum of the Home, set in former almshouses on Kingsland Road, which has free entry and gardens behind it. Hoxton Square, a short walk west, has bars and a small green that fills up on warm evenings. On a Sunday, time a late breakfast at Viet Grill with Columbia Road Flower Market, which runs on Sunday mornings about 10 minutes' walk south-east.

Viet Grill, 58 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DP. Phone: +44 20 7739 6686. Opening hours: Monday to Thursday 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 10:30pm, Friday 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 11pm, Saturday 11am to 11pm, Sunday 11am to 10pm. Walk-ins are welcome, booking is advised for weekend evenings, and private dining fits groups of six to 80. Prices are from the June 2026 food menu on vietgrillrestaurant.co.uk.