Victoria Street in Richmond is Melbourne's Vietnamese quarter, a kilometre-long strip of restaurants, pho houses, grocery stores, and bakeries that has been the heart of the city's Vietnamese community since the late 1970s, when refugees resettled here after the fall of Saigon. The street is one of the best places in Australia to eat Vietnamese food, with dozens of restaurants competing across a relatively small block. Prices are low and the quality is consistently high.
Pho is the thing to come for: large bowls of deeply flavoured broth with rice noodles and your choice of beef cuts, served with bean sprouts, fresh herbs, and chilli. Several restaurants have been operating since the 1980s and have loyal followings; Pho Hung and Thy Thy are among the most reliable. The street also has good banh mi (Vietnamese baguettes) from the bakeries, and several grocery shops selling South-East Asian ingredients. Come for lunch — the restaurants are busiest then and the food is at its freshest.