Victoria Street's pho is Melbourne's central Vietnamese plate: 12-hour bone broth, rice noodles and a condiment tray of herbs, bean shoots, hoisin and chilli that every diner assembles to spec.

Vietnamese-Australian refugees began settling in Richmond's Victoria Street strip from the late 1970s after the fall of Saigon, transforming a declining shopping precinct into Melbourne's primary Vietnamese restaurant row by the mid-1980s. The phở format on Victoria Street is Northern-style Hanoi pho with longer, clearer broth, contrasted with the Southern-style sweeter broth that dominates Footscray. Pho Hung Vuong 2 opened in 1990 and is the rare original-generation room still operating with the founders. The herb-and-condiment tray was an Australian adaptation, with Thai basil, bean sprouts, lemon and sliced raw chilli set down with the bowl rather than at a buffet.

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