As someone who has followed a strict gluten-free diet for over eight years, I understand how difficult it can feel to eat out. From asking for a specific gluten-free menu to being thrust the complete, dietary-needs manual, to picking between only a handful of choices being the normality — it is exhausting, even though it should not be.

However, sit comfortably in your sedan chairs. Across my first year of living in Birmingham, it has been Vietnamese street cuisine that saved the day, serving itself well with options that are not only gluten-free but tasty too.  

Pho (Grand Central)

Pho is a restaurant that provides Vietnamese street dishes, specialising in curries, rice, and noodle dishes. It is the failsafe restaurant for gluten-free dining to both myself and my mum, who does not eat gluten either. Traditional, thick style of vermicelli noodles can be simply rectified with wok-fried rice noodles, without changing the main body of the dishes which also, mostly, happen to be gluten-free. The chicken and prawn noodles is my go-to dish, with a likeness to the ‘Pad Thai’ from Wagamama’s. However, I find Pho’s take on it more citric and refreshing, which is partly due to the lack of sauce applied.

Some might say it is a disadvantage to not be able to experience the dish as it is listed on the menu, but a restricted diet forces you to embrace the new qualities of a meal. Fortunately, the menu at Pho was far from restrictive (a pho-nomena, some might say); and I trusted my flatmates to choose something from it in my absence.

They opted for the prawn curry, which to me, superseded the tastiness of the chicken and prawn noodles. King prawns feature in this meal too, scattered amongst mushrooms and tomatoes. The curry sauce was creamy and packed with spices; and thankfully it was only mild in heat, which suited my preference. When both meals come with complimentary prawn crackers, it is safe to say that Pho is no foe, but a friend, to those with a gluten-free diet.

Vietnamese Street Kitchen (Bullring)

I have been invited to Vietnamese Street Kitchen with friends twice in the past three weeks, and there are certainly reasons to underpin why I accepted, with regards to my food intolerance. Though the contents on it are limited to an A5 page, a dedicated gluten-free menu is a small step towards feeling acknowledged, and not marginalised to a small ‘GF’ sign at the corner of the main menu.

At VSK, there were a substantial number of options: ‘Bowl of Rice’, ‘Bowl of Bun [rice noodles]’, ‘Bowl of Salad’ and ‘Bowl of Pho [rice noodles in a broth]’; and the friendly waiting-staff showed me how I could combine these with other toppings not listed on the main menu. On both occasions, I ate the ‘Bowl of Bun’: the first visit with tofu and mushroom, and the second with grilled chicken (as seen pictured). Both dishes were lovely for a summer’s day: simple, clean, and filling, but still relatively light.

Though there is no chance that they contain gluten, the drinks were also noteworthy. For those who enjoy a sweeter flavour, the Rum Runner is a mouthwatering cocktail choice; and the Saigon Sunset is a deliciously refreshing ‘mocktail’ alternative. C’est la Vie(tamese cuisine).

Vietnamese Street Kitchen and Pho are great places in Birmingham’s city centre to dine in or get a takeaway from. The biggest takeaway from this Vietnamese cuisine is that having a gluten-free diet and enjoying a meal out do not have a mutually exclusive relationship. In fact, those who bloat after thick, gluttonous meals might go as far as to say that the relationship is symbiotic!

All in all, I am certainly left with food for thought as I intersect gluten-free and Vietnamese cuisine. Hopefully, more eateries will latch onto the efforts of VSK and Pho to be more inclusive, continuing to make gluten-free — and fuss-free — alternatives for intolerants and coeliacs alike.

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