Long Phung - Slow Simmered Bone Broth Beef Noodles & Crispy Rice Crepes

Tucked along Joo Chiat Road — a stretch that Singaporeans have long dubbed a little piece of Saigon — Long Phung Vietnamese Cuisine has been drawing steady queues since it opened in 2009.

The restaurant runs a menu of over thirty dishes spanning pho, dry noodles, rice plates, seafood, and Vietnamese-style hotpot, all at prices that rarely breach $15 a head. In early 2023, a second outlet opened in Chinatown, bringing the same kitchen philosophy to the city centre. The cooking here is unadorned and unapologetically Vietnamese — bone broth simmered low and slow, pork and shrimp hand-rolled into fresh rice paper, cockles hit with garlic and wok heat — the kind of food that keeps a dining room full on a Tuesday night.

Pho Dac Biet (Special Beef Noodle Soup) — $11.90

The Pho Dac Biet is the benchmark dish at Long Phung. The broth is built from beef bones over an extended cook, producing a clear, amber stock with a depth that reads clean rather than heavy. The bowl arrives with a combination of beef slices, brisket, meatballs, and a soft-boiled egg, laid over silky flat rice noodles. Diners are given a side plate of fresh bean sprouts and herbs to add at the table, which is the standard Vietnamese way — the heat of the broth gently wilts the greens on contact.

Bun Bo Hue (Hue-Style Spicy Beef and Pork Noodle Soup) — $8.50

Where pho is restrained, Bun Bo Hue is not. This dish originates from the city of Hue in central Vietnam and uses a pork-and-beef broth seasoned with lemongrass, shrimp paste, and dried chilli. The result is a soup that carries both a fermented depth and a building heat. It arrives with thick round noodles, tender beef slices, and a section of pork trotter, all of which absorb the spiced broth well. Among the noodle soups on the menu, this is the most regionally distinct.

Hu Tieu Bo Kho (Spicy Beef Stew with Noodles or Baguette)

The Bo Kho is a Vietnamese beef stew built with braised beef cubes, lemongrass, star anise, and tomato, producing a broth that sits somewhere between a soup and a sauce — rich, rust-coloured, and aromatic. At Long Phung, diners can order it with rice noodles or paired with a baguette for dipping, a nod to the French-Vietnamese culinary crossover that remains common in southern Vietnamese cooking. The baguette option, listed on Burpple at $10, is particularly well-regarded — the bread is baked to a crisp crust with a soft interior that draws up the stew effectively.

Cha Gio (Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls) — $12

Long Phung’s fried spring rolls are rolled in a rice paper wrapper and deep-fried until the casing achieves a thin, shattering crunch. The filling is pork-forward, seasoned simply, and proportioned generously — these are not light starters. They are served with a sweet chilli dipping sauce. The contrast between the brittle shell and the dense, savoury filling is what regulars come back for. The portion size at this price point makes them one of the better-value items on the menu.

Goi Cuon (Fresh Spring Rolls)

The fresh spring rolls present the other side of the same format — translucent rice paper wrapped around shrimp, pork slices, vermicelli, and fresh herbs, served at room temperature with a peanut-based dipping sauce. Where the fried version is about texture and heat, the fresh rolls are light and herb-forward. The sugar cane shrimp variant, where prawn paste is moulded around a stalk of sugar cane and then wrapped, is a noted variation on the menu.

Banh Xeo (Vietnamese Sizzling Pancake) — $10

Banh Xeo is a savoury rice flour crepe made with coconut milk and turmeric, which gives it a yellow hue and a faint sweetness underneath the crisp surface. The batter is poured into a hot pan and filled with pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts, then folded. Eaten wrapped in lettuce with fresh herbs and dipped in nuoc cham, it is one of the more interactive dishes on the menu and a lesser-ordered item that rewards those who go beyond the pho.

Xo Huyet Xao Toi (Stir-Fried Cockles with Garlic and Chilli)

Vietnamese-style cockles are a staple of street-side seafood drinking culture in Saigon, and Long Phung carries that tradition into Joo Chiat. The cockles are cooked live over high wok heat with garlic and chilli, served with a condiment of salt, pepper, and lime on the side. The tamarind variant — Xo Huyet Xao Me — offers a sourer, fruitier counterpoint to the garlic version. Both are best ordered alongside a cold drink as a shared table dish.

Ca Phe Sua Da (Vietnamese Iced Coffee with Condensed Milk)

Long Phung serves Vietnamese drip coffee in the traditional style — dark robusta grounds brewed slowly through a metal phin filter directly over ice, sweetened with condensed milk. The result is intensely strong, with a bitter edge softened by the cream of the condensed milk. It is the natural closer to a meal of pho or noodles and among the more consistent representations of Hanoi-style cafe culture available in Singapore.

Long Phung Vietnamese Cuisine has held its ground in Joo Chiat for over fifteen years by staying close to what Vietnamese food actually tastes like — bone-deep broths, hand-rolled fresh rolls, wok-fired shellfish, and properly made drip coffee. The second outlet in Chinatown has extended that reach without diluting the formula. For a thorough, affordable read of Vietnamese regional cooking in Singapore, it remains one of the more complete options available.

Joo Chiat: 159 Joo Chiat Road, Singapore 427436
Chinatown: 239/241 New Bridge Road, Singapore 059439
Opening Hours: 12pm – 11pm daily
Tel: +65 6440 6959
Facebook: Long Phung Vietnamese Restaurant