The Naughty Chef

For food, service, and eating environment, this place is a bit pricey.
Naughty chef is located right under the station. The store owns two location, one stall where you order and get your food, another stall full with seats.
This place is popular for lunch, but it’s on the pricey side. It’s also not the cleanest place…

Hard to find — but worth it if you’re in the mood for fast Vietnamese food. Under the Wynard station (enter through George street, walk into the middle of the station, hook a hard right and take the stairs underneath. Naughty Chef will be about 4 stores on your left. The dining room is another 2 doors down.
Solid Phở, yummy and fresh ingredients. They deliver the phở super fast and charge about $ 10 – 11 average for the bowls. It’s got dingy, hole in the wall ambiance — but the quality of the food is good.
I like the spring rolls, rice noodle, salad combo when I’m not in the mood for Phở. Takeaway might be a better option if you’re looking for a better place to eat that isn’t underneath the train station.

My coworkers and I tried to come here once during lunch at around 12:30 and it was packed, so we settled on another phở place nearby.
The next time we got there right at 12 and was able to order and snag a table fairly quickly.
I was just coming off a healthy detox and was tempted to get the beef phở, but changed my mind at the last minute and got the veggie noodle soup. It was 9.50 which is not too bad. It was pretty tasty, lots of veggies and bean curd, but I envied my coworker’s beef soup. Everyone seemed to enjoy their food. Need to go back for the authentic beef phở.
There’s another one near Central which is more sit down, so have to try that as well.

I had heard so much about The Naughty Chef. So many people would return to my former workplace with delicious looking phở soups I almost always had lunch envy. Finally one day when I had the time I walked the 10 minutes down the street to experience some Naughty Chef goodness.
Maybe I had it built up in my head but I expected more than this unassuming Vietnamese restaurant. It is a sort of down and dirty takeaway joint. I chose a phở soup with chicken and veggies and when I got it back to my desk I was sort of disappointed. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t amazing either. This is a decent phở place but I don’t know if I’d believe the hype about it.

Enter via Hunter Street or Pitt Street entrance and follow the arcade towards the dungenous underground Hunter Arcade near Wynyard Station and you will eventually find the Naughty Chef.
There is always queues probably because its reasonably priced and especially if you want to get your Phở fix. Phở’s start from $ 8.50. Though the only thing they do which is disappointing is they serve the bean sprouts in the soup. I love getting my little package of bean sprouts, mint leaves etc and adding my own.
I always eat in at the Naughty Chef though eating in means the reserved dining area next door which is separated by another shop and resembles a kind of transport tunnel. So if your looking for the Phở and have the time to take the walk, see Naughty Chef to break that business day with a cheap and cheeful lunch.