Q Kitchen Waiuku is a Vietnamese restaurant at 22 Queen Street in Waiuku, Franklin, holding a 4.7 rating on Google. Its website is qkitchenwaiuku.co.nz.
A good Vietnamese restaurant lives or dies by its broth: proper pho means beef bones simmered for hours with star anise, cinnamon and charred ginger, and shortcuts are easy to taste. Around the soups you would expect vermicelli bowls with grilled pork, fresh rice-paper rolls, banh mi and iced coffee with condensed milk. Regulars judge a kitchen on freshness — crisp beansprouts, a generous herb plate to tear into the bowl — and on the balance of nuoc cham, the salty-sour-sweet sauce that ties a meal together.
For Franklin diners, a well-rated Vietnamese kitchen on Queen Street is a handy thing to have on the doorstep.