Non Viet Restaurant
Joanna Nethery, who runs Five March, says where she goes when the weather turns: "I go to Non-Viet for big bowls of pho when it's cold out and the city is a wee bit too fast."
Why go
When it opened at the far end of Sauchiehall Street in December 2016 this was only Glasgow's second Vietnamese restaurant
, which tells you how thin the field was (Glasgow Gourmand). It has since become a three-site group, with Great Western Road and a dedicated vegan room in Edinburgh, and this is the original. The reason people keep naming it is the broth. Grant McAllister put the test plainly, that pho lives and dies on the quality of the broth and Non Viet clearly take theirs seriously
, and eight years later a working chef-owner picked the same bowl. The room is a long glass-fronted space next to the Albany Chambers entrance with Vespas hanging from the ceiling and heavy wooden tables against the walls. Lunch is a stripped-down a la carte rather than a set menu, and a pre-theatre menu runs until 6pm, which is the reason to know about it if you have tickets.
Order this / avoid
- Order: pho with rare beef, sliced thin and cooked in the bowl. Summer rolls with the thick tamarind dipping sauce, and spring rolls, which McAllister found
reassuringly gnarly
and therefore rolled on site2. - Avoid: saying yes when they offer to make the pho spicy. The heat comes as chilli oil sitting on top of a broth that was clean without it, and the reviewer who tried it called it a mistake.
What locals & experts say
- Joanna Nethery, owner of Five March, in Glasgow's industry guide:
I go to Non-Viet for big bowls of pho when it's cold out and the city is a wee bit too fast.
1 - Grant McAllister, Glasgow Gourmand, July 2017, on the thing that decides it:
It's a dish that lives and dies on the quality of the broth and Non Viet clearly take theirs seriously.
2 - The same review's criticisms, both kept: the spring rolls were
slightly greasy where the wrapper had absorbed some oil
, and asking for the pho spicywas a mistake
, because the spice arrived asa film of chilli oil which detracted from the clean-tasting broth for the first few spoonfuls
.2 - Nothing since 2017. The List, The Skinny, the Glasgow Times food desk and Glasgowist were searched on 30 July 2026 and none carries a later assessment, of this room or of either sibling.
- Local rec: Jeff's save. He left no note on it.
Good to know
- Where: the ground floor at 536 to 538 Sauchiehall Street, beside the entrance to Albany Chambers. The register says 538 and the venue says 536.
- Timing: 11:30 to 10pm Monday to Thursday, later on Friday and Saturday, from noon at weekends. The pre-theatre menu runs 11:30 to 6pm.
- Booking: by phone or email, and the venue asks you to confirm which site you mean.
- Groups: five or more attracts an additional ten percent charge, by the venue's own notice.
- Sites: three. This page is the Sauchiehall Street restaurant. Great Western Road is a separate premises, registered with the council as Non Viet Hai. Non Viet Vegan Edinburgh on Brougham Place is the vegan one, and being in another city it tells you nothing about this kitchen.
- Diet: no vegan or vegetarian flag is recorded here, because the vegan branding belongs to the Edinburgh site and dietary facts do not travel between premises. Ask, or read the Sauchiehall Street menu.
- Hygiene: the Food Hygiene Information Scheme records a Pass, rating date 25 November 2022 (FHRSID 1002541, Glasgow City Council). Pass is the clean result in the Scottish scheme, and that inspection is three and a half years old.4
Verdict
could-visit — Glasgow's second Vietnamese restaurant when it opened at the top of Sauchiehall Street in December 2016, and now the flagship of a three-site group that reaches Great Western Road and a vegan room in Edinburgh. The case rests on the broth. Joanna Nethery, who owns Five March, tells the city's industry guide she comes here 'for big bowls of pho when it's cold out and the city is a wee bit too fast', and the one writer who reviewed it in full concluded that pho 'lives and dies on the quality of the broth and Non Viet clearly take theirs seriously'. The same review is useful about the misses: spring rolls rolled on site but greasy at the wrapper, and a spicy pho that turned up as chilli oil over a broth that did not need it. It sits at could-visit rather than higher because that review is from 2017, the group has tripled in size since with nothing written about any of it, and one industry vote is one vote. You get a reliable bowl in the middle of town, and the pre-theatre window makes it useful before a show.