Vietnamese Near Pulteney Street, Adelaide: The Walk to Bà Năm Is Worth It

★ As featured in Glam Adelaide — 2025 SA Restaurant & Catering Awards finalist

If you spend your days somewhere along Pulteney Street — the uni end, the office blocks mid-city, or down near Hutt Street — good Vietnamese food isn’t on your doorstep. But it is within walking distance. Head west toward Victoria Square, keep going onto Grote Street, and you’ll land in Adelaide Chinatown, where Bà Năm has been simmering real bone broth for eighteen hours at a time since 2023.

It’s not a luxury venue, just very genuine: a family-run kitchen built on a recipe from a grandmother’s home kitchen in Trảng Bàng, Tây Ninh, dating back to the 1970s. The broth is the whole point. Real bones, no shortcuts, and a stone bowl that arrives at your table still boiling.

The Walk from Pulteney Street

Pulteney Street runs the full length of the CBD, so your walk depends on where you’re starting:

• North Terrace end (near the universities): roughly 15–20 minutes. Cut west along North Terrace or through the city grid toward Victoria Square, then onto Grote Street. Longer framing: North Terrace.
• Mid-city, near the Rundle Street East corner: around 12–18 minutes, heading diagonally south-west through the CBD. Retail-side neighbour: Rundle Mall.
• Southern Pulteney, near Wakefield or the Hutt Street end: the shortest stretch — about 10–15 minutes west along Wakefield Street to Victoria Square, then a short continuation onto Grote. See also Wakefield Street and Hutt Street.

Whichever end you start from, the landmark to aim for is Victoria Square. Grote Street runs west off the square, and Bà Năm sits at number 65, in the heart of Chinatown. Once you can see the Chinatown gates, you’re close. More on the civic hinge: Vietnamese near Victoria Square.

It’s a genuine lunchtime walk — long enough to earn the bowl, short enough to do on a work break if you keep a decent pace. If you’re on a tight window, order ahead through the app at order.phobanam.com.au so your food is underway before you leave. There’s a small credit on your first app order.

What to Order Once You Get There

Phở Thố Đá — the stone bowl. This is the signature. The broth arrives at a rolling boil in a stone vessel that holds its heat from first slurp to last. It keeps everything hot the way phở was meant to be eaten, right down to the tendon and rare beef swimming in it.

Phở Tái with “red coin” beef. Paper-thin rounds of rare beef, served raw at the table, cooked in the bowl by the boiling 18-hour broth itself. You watch the red coins blush to grey-pink in seconds. It’s simple, and it only works because the broth is that hot and that honest. Deeper dive: bone broth & the red coin.

Bún bò Huế. For those who want lemongrass, chilli and depth — the spicier, bolder cousin of phở, from Central Vietnam.

Cơm tấm. Broken rice, done the Southern way. A proper plate lunch when noodles aren’t the mood.

Gỏi bò tái chanh. Rare beef brightened with lime — sharp, fresh and herbaceous, a good counterpoint to a hot bowl on a warm Adelaide day.

Vietnamese iced coffee. Strong, sweet, slow-dripped. The right way to end before the walk back up Pulteney.

If you’re weighing this against other bowls in town, we’ve put our case in our honest take on the best phở in Adelaide — read it and judge for yourself.

The Kitchen Behind It

Bà Năm is named for Bà Năm Lời, whose home kitchen in Trảng Bàng, Tây Ninh, has been feeding people since the 1970s. That recipe travelled to Adelaide in 2023, when founders Huynh Nguyen and Thi Gai Vo opened the Grote Street restaurant to cook it the same way it’s always been cooked.

That means real bones simmered for eighteen hours — no concentrate, no shortcuts — and locally sourced beef, with Huynh making Sunday farm runs to keep the quality where it needs to be. The approach earned the restaurant a place as a finalist in the Vietnamese category at the 2025 Hostplus SA Restaurant & Catering Awards — finalist, not winner — and coverage from Glam Adelaide along the way. But the kitchen would tell you the recognition that matters most is a regular walking back through the door. More on Southern Vietnamese cooking in Chinatown.

Practical Notes for the Pulteney Street Crowd

• Address: 65 Grote Street, Adelaide — Chinatown, west of Victoria Square from Pulteney.
• Walk time: about 10–15 minutes from southern Pulteney / Wakefield; 12–18 from mid-city; 15–20 from the North Terrace / uni end.
• Hours: open seven days, 11am–9pm (until 9:30pm October–March), public holidays included.
• Peak times: expect an honest 15–30 minute wait at the busiest lunch and dinner stretches. Turnover is quick, but we won’t pretend queues don’t happen.
• Ordering ahead: the app at order.phobanam.com.au lets you skip some of that, and there’s a small credit on your first app order.
• Bookings: walk-ins welcome; you can book via OpenTable at /book/. Groups of 8+ should call ahead on (08) 8151 0106.
• TÁI CLUB: ask about the monthly lucky draw connected to the stone-bowl tái while you’re there — staff will explain. Details: TÁI CLUB.

Coming from Somewhere Else in the CBD?

Pulteney Street isn’t the only route to Grote Street. If you’re starting elsewhere in the city, we’ve mapped the walk from other corners too:

• Vietnamese near Carrington Street — quiet southern CBD fringe, one block south of Wakefield
• Vietnamese near Rundle Mall
• Vietnamese near Hutt Street
• Vietnamese near Frome Street
• Vietnamese near Wakefield Street
• Vietnamese near Victoria Square
• Vietnamese near Grenfell Street
• Vietnamese near Flinders Street
• Vietnamese near Pirie Street
• Vietnamese near North Terrace
• Vietnamese near Angas Street
• Vietnamese in Adelaide Chinatown
• Vietnamese food across the Adelaide CBD
• Vietnamese near the Central Market

The Short Version

Bà Năm sits at 65 Grote Street in Adelaide Chinatown, a 10–20 minute walk west from most points along Pulteney Street. The draw is an 18-hour bone broth made from real bones, served boiling in a signature stone bowl, with paper-thin “red coin” rare beef that cooks in front of you. It’s a family recipe from Trảng Bàng, Tây Ninh, run in Adelaide by Huynh Nguyen and Thi Gai Vo since 2023. Not fancy, just genuine — open seven days, and worth the walk.

Bà Năm — 65 Grote Street, Adelaide SA 5000. Open seven days, 11am–9pm (until 9:30pm October–March), public holidays included. Phone (08) 8151 0106. Order ahead at order.phobanam.com.au — there’s a small credit on your first app order. Bookings via OpenTable; groups of 8+ please call.

Frequently asked questions

How far is Bà Năm from Pulteney Street?

It depends on where you start. From the southern end near Wakefield Street it’s roughly 10–15 minutes on foot; from mid-city around 12–18 minutes; and from the North Terrace end closer to 15–20 minutes. Head west toward Victoria Square, then onto Grote Street in Chinatown.

What is “red coin” beef?

Paper-thin rounds of rare beef served raw with your Phở Tái, cooked in the bowl by the boiling 18-hour broth. The heat of the broth does the cooking at your table — especially in the Phở Thố Đá stone bowl, which keeps the broth hot enough to finish the beef properly.

What is Phở Thố Đá?

Bà Năm’s signature stone bowl phở. The broth arrives at a rolling boil in a stone vessel that holds its heat throughout the meal, keeping the noodles, beef and broth properly hot from start to finish.

What are Bà Năm’s opening hours?

Open seven days a week, 11am to 9pm — extended to 9:30pm from October through March. That includes public holidays.

Why does the 18-hour broth matter?

Because it’s made from real bones simmered slowly, with no concentrates or shortcuts. The long simmer draws depth and body from the bones that quicker methods can’t replicate — the same approach used in Bà Năm Lời’s home kitchen in Trảng Bàng, Tây Ninh, since the 1970s.