Pho Phu Quoc, Dickson

We were once regulars at Pho Phu Quoc when it occupied a small space at the bottom end of the Dickson strip, with little in the way of decoration, but a friendly and hardworking attitude, and what for us was an irresistible bit of interactivity in the way of "campfire beef".

It's a dish where you cook your own beef over a gas flame at the same and use it, and an array of vegies, to make your own rice paper rolls. Simple food, gentle entertainment, cheap and easy. We loved it. For a while after that, though Pho Phu Quoc fell out of our favour, for us losing a sense of freshness and effort. So we haven't visited for a number of years, and not since Pho Phu Quoc moved out of that humble, bottom-end space, into its new digs.

The new restaurant is much bigger and considerably brighter, decorated with buddhas and big coloured lanterns, and fresh with a glassed kitchen on view. It's a different beast, although, thank goodness, campfire beef ($22.90) still appears on the long, long menu.

We like it, as we used to, albeit with a fancy new contraption for softening the rice paper rolls. There's something excellent about building your own food out of simple fresh ingredients, just cucumber, bean sprouts, pineapple (canned), lettuce, carrot, noodles, Vietnamese mint. This epitomises Pho Phu Quoc, where there's nothing fancy, nor innovative, nor even especially exciting, just a large list of dishes from which regulars have clearly found their favourites.

It's super busy this Friday night with casual and speedy dining. Our table piles with the remnants of our over-ordering and general chaos reigns with kids and mess and dishes arriving from all directions, but the staff is clearly used to this and the place is made for it. Service is efficient and friendly and fast.

We're clearly on a nostalgia kick because one at our table orders sesame prawn toast ($7.90 for four), and it wasn't a sensible decision. Fried toast is going to struggle to taste like anything but fried toast and here it is quite greasy and has been fried quite dark. Steamed dim sim ($4.90 for two) are large and rather filling pork dumplings, uncomplicated and uninteresting in flavour. Fresh rice paper rolls ($7.90 for four) are what they are - super simple, fresh and fine.

"Flaming beef" ($16.90) comes with more at-table pyrotechnics, to no obvious purpose this time, even the beef dish is already cooked and complete, and the flame is lit under the ceramic plate. It's for effect and that's okay. The meat and onions is a simple stir-fry and well liked by the teenager who ordered it.

Beef pho ($12.90) is a large bowl of aromatic beef noodle soup, with a spice both familiar and unusual that we struggle for a while to put a name to, before we shrug, put our forgetfulness down to old age and move on. Deconstructing flavour components is not really the point at Pho Phu Quoc, which is a place about simplicity, regular clientele, speed and cheap prices. The serve is large, but surprisingly you can order a larger service still for another $3.

Pepper fish in claypot ($21.90) is not a big success tonight, with the pieces of battered fish tasting rather watery and the dish lacking any pepper kick or other source of interest. On a second occasion, though, we enjoy a rather better version of this dish.

Our favourite is the sour chicken soup ($13.90 small/$18.90 large), a soup that continues to reward after we pile most of it into a takeaway container and eat it for lunch over the next couple of days. The astringent tamarind flavour of the thin soup is refreshing, with plenty of chilli heat, and the similarly acidic contribution of cherry tomatoes and crunchy celery. This is the kind of soup you eat to give you health and strength.

For drinks, it's Chinese tea, or beer, or you can choose from no fewer than 13 wines, all offered by the glass, including an unidentified house white and house red for $5 glass, and some sensible locals - Bourke Street chardonnay, Nick O'Leary riesling, and Long Rail Gully shiraz.

Pho Phu Quoc is one of Dickson's popular and busy Asian eateries, and while the food repertoire is entirely unsurprising, the place is clearly on track in terms of care and focus, making an effort to get the basics right.