Vietnamese Near Gouger Street: The One-Block Walk Worth Making
★ As featured in Glam Adelaide — 2025 SA Restaurant & Catering Awards finalist
Gouger Street is where Adelaide goes when it can't decide — dumplings, seafood, hotpot, all shoulder to shoulder along one of the city's best-loved dining strips. But if what you actually want is a serious bowl of phở, the answer isn't on Gouger at all. It's one block north, on Grote Street in the heart of Chinatown, where Bà Năm ladles an 18-hour bone broth over paper-thin rare beef and lets the bowl finish the cooking. Same precinct, same night out — just a very short stroll and a very different kind of dinner.
Where is Bà Năm from Gouger Street?
Close. Genuinely close. Bà Năm sits at 65 Grote Street, Adelaide — the street running parallel to Gouger, one block north, threading straight through Chinatown near the Victoria Square end of the city. If you’re standing anywhere along the main Gouger dining stretch, you’re roughly a one-minute walk away: round the block into Chinatown, and you’re at the door before the conversation about where to eat has even finished.
That geography matters. A lot of people treat Gouger Street as the whole precinct and never look past it. In reality, Gouger, Grote, Chinatown and the Central Market edges all function as one big eating neighbourhood — and some of the best food in it isn’t on the famous strip. Our Chinatown Adelaide guide covers the wider precinct; this page is simply the honest answer to a common question: we’re on Gouger, where’s the real phở? One block. That way.
Why peel off Gouger for Chinatown phở
Because the broth took eighteen hours and it shows. Bà Năm’s phở starts with real beef bones simmered overnight and through the day — no concentrate, no shortcuts. It’s the same recipe Bà Năm Lời cooked from her home kitchen in Trảng Bàng, Tây Ninh, from the 1970s onward, brought to Adelaide in 2023 by her grandson Huynh Nguyen and owner Thi Gai Vo. The full 18-hour broth and red coin story is worth reading if you care how a bowl is built.
The signature move is the Phở Tái “red coin”: a round of paper-thin rare beef laid raw into the bowl, cooked in front of you by the boiling broth itself. It blushes from red to rose in seconds — hence the name — and it’s the clearest possible proof the broth is hot, deep and honest.
The beef is locally sourced, and Huynh still does his Sunday farm runs to keep it that way. Bà Năm is not a luxury venue, just very genuine — timber tables, steam, family on the floor. In 2025 it was named a finalist in the Vietnamese category at the Hostplus SA Restaurant & Catering Awards, and it’s been featured in Glam Adelaide. Decent form for a family recipe that only landed in Adelaide two years earlier. If you’re ranking the best phở in Adelaide, a one-block detour off Gouger is a fine place to start.
What to order when you’re already out for dinner
If you’ve wandered over from Gouger with a table of hungry people, the ordering logic is simple.
The bowl that made the name. Phở Bò comes in at $20 small or $22 large, and the Phở Thố Đá — the stone bowl version, $25 — keeps the broth at a rolling heat so your tái beef cooks right at the table. If someone at the table runs towards spice, Bún Bò Huế is there too ($20 small / $22 large / $25 stone bowl) — lemongrass-forward, chilli-warm, a completely different beast to phở. Combination eaters can go straight to Phở Đặc Biệt at the same $20 / $22.
Sharing the table. Start with gỏi cuốn or chả giò at $14 — fresh rice paper rolls or crisp fried ones. Bánh xèo ($22) is the crackling turmeric pancake you fold into herbs and lettuce, and cơm sườn bì chả ($20) is the grilled pork chop rice plate for anyone who claims they don’t do soup.
Going all in. The Stone Bowl Set at $39 is the full spread, and stone-bowl tái dishes come with a TÁI CLUB ticket for the monthly draw. A nice little bonus for coming back.
Round it off. Cà phê sữa đá or đen đá at $8, fresh nước dừa at $8, trà đào cam sả or trà tắc at $10, and chè at $10 if the table wants something sweet before heading back out into the night.
Timing, waits, and booking — honest notes
Straight talk: at peak dinner and lunch times, expect a 15–30 minute wait. Broth that takes eighteen hours doesn’t get rushed at the pass either, and the room is popular. If you’re coming off Gouger on a Friday night, that wait is often still shorter than the queues on the strip itself — but plan for it rather than being surprised by it.
Two ways around it: book a table via OpenTable on our book page, or order ahead through the app at order.phobanam.com.au if you’d rather take dinner home. The phone is (08) 8151 0106 if you’d rather just ask a human. Groups of 8 or more, please call ahead so we can seat you together.
Hours are easy to remember: open seven days, 11:00am to 9:00pm, stretching to 9:30pm from October through March — which lines up nicely with long summer evenings in the Gouger–Chinatown precinct. For the wider city map, see Vietnamese food in the Adelaide CBD; if you started at Rundle Mall instead of Gouger, there’s a separate Rundle Mall walk.
As featured in Glam Adelaide: Chinatown family phở spot serves up grandma’s authentic recipe · Named among Adelaide’s best restaurants of 2025 (finalist). Bà Năm was a 2025 Hostplus SA Restaurant & Catering Awards finalist in the Vietnamese Restaurant category — finalist, not winner, and we’re happy to say it straight. The broth still gets its 18 hours either way.
Gouger nights end better one block north
Gouger Street will always be Adelaide’s classic strip, and there’s no shame in loving it. But the precinct is bigger than one street, and some of its best eating lives just off it. Bà Năm on Grote Street — a one-minute walk, one block north, deep in Chinatown — is a home-kitchen recipe from Trảng Bàng that happens to have found itself an Adelaide address. Eighteen-hour broth, red coin beef, honest prices, honest waits. Next time the Gouger crowds are three-deep, peel off. The bowl is close, and it’s worth the stroll.
Working the civic end of town? See also our Vietnamese near Victoria Square guide — about a five-minute flat walk north to 65 Grote Street.
Frequently asked questions
How far is Bà Năm from Gouger Street?
About one block — roughly a one-minute walk. Bà Năm is at 65 Grote Street, the street directly north of Gouger, in the middle of Adelaide's Chinatown near the Victoria Square end of the city.
Is Grote Street part of the same precinct as Gouger Street?
Effectively, yes. Gouger, Grote, Chinatown and the Central Market surrounds all form one connected dining neighbourhood. Bà Năm sits on the Chinatown side of it rather than on the Gouger strip itself.
Gouger Street is packed — is Bà Năm a good backup?
It's a good first choice, not just a backup. Expect an honest 15–30 minute wait at peak times, but you can book via OpenTable on phobanam.com.au or order ahead at order.phobanam.com.au to skip the guesswork.
What is the "red coin" everyone mentions?
It's Bà Năm's Phở Tái signature: a paper-thin round of locally sourced rare beef laid into the bowl raw, then cooked at the table by the boiling 18-hour bone broth. It blushes from red to rose as it cooks — that's the coin.
What are Bà Năm's opening hours?
Seven days a week, 11:00am to 9:00pm — extended to 9:30pm from October through March. Phone (08) 8151 0106 for anything else.