'I tried the new Vietnamese restaurant at the Trafford Centre that aims to serve your food in three minutes - and was impressed'

When a restaurant promises to deliver your food in three minutes, it’s already a big task. With customers waiting with baited breath as their phone timers near the three minute mark, is it setting itself up to fail? Well, on this occasion, not quite.

First launched in London in 2015, HOP Vietnamese has finally made its way up north with its first restaurant outside of the capital at the Trafford Centre’s The Orient food court. The street food venture offers everything from rice boxes - a mix of protein, steamed fragrant rice, shredded salad, pickled and green veg - to Pho soups, Banh Mi baguettes, and dumplings.

Vietnamese food is known for its use of fresh, fragrant and aromatic flavours alongside a mixture of spices that can really pack a punch. So, while exciting, can HOP really deliver on what makes the cuisine so good?

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I headed down to the Trafford Centre on HOP’s opening day to see if we could get our meal in three minutes and whether it was all worth the fanfare in the first place. And in short, the answer was a resounding yes.

Asking my server for recommendations, they straight away suggested the beef brisket Pho (£9.35). An aromatic broth with slow cooked beef brisket, flat rice noodles, red onion, chillies and spring onion, it is, quite frankly, the perfect bowl of soul food.

The warming broth comes with perfectly soft and slippery rice noodles, packed in with a collection of fresh and flavoursome herbs. And then, adding the chilli oil to the mixture (which comes separately), it is elevated to a whole new level with a spicy and intense taste. It is going to be a perfect hit in the colder months when we’re looking