Martin Brudnizki designs latest Pho restaurant

Martin Brudnizki Design Studio won the job on the strength of the interiors group’s work on Pho’s restaurant in Brighton. Pho originally appointed the consultancy to create the Brighton branch in October 2009 after seeing its work on Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant in the same city.

The 60-cover Soho restaurant occupies the former premises of a 24-year old family-run Italian restaurant on Wardour Street. It now features bare-brick walls, a herringbone-tiled floor, reclaimed scaffolding boards cladding the bar and three fireplaces hung with lanterns. The low ceiling is painted gloss red.

‘The first thing Martin [Brudnizki] said when he walked into the space was that it should have a gloss red painted ceiling. This is our most oriental-influenced interior,’ says Pho co-owner Stephen Wall.

The dining concept revolves around traditional Vietnamese street food, particularly pho noodle soup, served in a contemporary, largely Western setting.

This is the fifth Pho branch, with three others in London – in Clerkenwell, Great Titchfield Street, and Westfield Shopping Centre in White City, all designed by owners Stephen and Juliette Wall – as well as the Brighton outpost.