One new restaurant… two hungry reviewers… three courses, a bottle of wine and… well… coffee from beans selected by weasels, but I'll save that for the end.

Vietnamese food is something that most of us won't have sampled - which instantly makes the experience at Pho an interesting one, even if only for novelty value. But novelty aside, Pho delivered freshly cooked, tasty food that is actually even good for you!

Carl and I tried to sample a dish from each part of the menu (purely for your sake, dear reader, of course), comparing notes as we went...

On the starters menu there are some recognisable things (fried spring rolls) and some less recognisable things (grilled pork and lemongrass meatballs). We ordered some Goi Con cold veggie summer rolls which were lovely and minty and a Goi Du Du papaya salad with prawns… unexpectedly quite fiery but equally fresh and tasty! It was neck and neck with these two, and although you may well grab a bowl of their big, fluffy and crunchy Ban Phong Tom (prawn crackers) when you arrive, the starters menu seems to be full of unusual treats!

Carl then went for a Pho Ga as his main course. Pho is the dish after which the restaurant is named and is a healthy rice noodle soup served with herbs on the side that you can add to taste as you go along. Yum! I opted for the Bun Chay with tofu and mushroom… and I absolutely adored it. So much so, in fact, that I have been ranting about it to anyone I can find who will listen. It's a big bowl of cold rice noodles with a hot stir fried topping, a veggie spring roll, and nuoc cham sauce on the side to pour over. The whole hot/cold thing works really well and if you go to Pho and only order one dish then order a Bun!

Desserts… it's been years since either of us have had banana fritters, so Carl ordered some up - accompanied by some honey and ginger ice cream which went together very well indeed. The pandan coconut pancake that I ordered was also pretty good - but the banana fritter won the battle of the desserts hands down for us!

And just as we were about to head for the door we were directed to examine the coffee menu in more detail. Like everything else at Pho - it held some surprises!

Pho has put Chon Ca Phe on their menu… the first place in the country to serve up the infamous coffee that is made from beans that are hand selected, eaten and then defecated by weasels! We couldn't resist! Wiki has the finer details about how the coffee is produced but you need to make up your own mind about it… coffee without the bitterness of coffee. At six quid a cup it was something to be savoured, which was a bit of luck because we both loved it.

Pho Brighton opened earlier this month on Black Lion Street - just next door to Jamie's Italian and along from the Black Lion pub.