Pho?!?!?!?!

[jeepers]

^ what i've been told as well

[hhenryhhh]

Man 200,000 for a bowl of pho is getting ripped off hard - can probably be had for 50,000 or less (and I'm being real conservative here)

I'm sure the majority of Vietnamese Americans/etc. would agree that you're simply better off just having pho in socal

End of the day though, mom still makes it the best - never get shorted on hu tieu/meats/whatever when you're eating at home

[Ahlvahroe]

skip pho 24 that shit is like the kfc of pho.

pasteur and 2000 is the go.

what he said. i've had better pho in america than at 24.

[dismalfuture]

Just ate 5 bowls of pho in Saigon in 48 hours, and I'm back. Here's my quick roundup.

Got in really late and ordered a bowl of pho tai from room service, 200,000 dong (like $10) - it was awful, like they dumped a whole side bowl of nuoc beo in there. It was like eating noodles in pure grease, this was a slap in the face after I'd just flown down here 6 hrs from Japan. Had a couple bites and couldn't do any more. This whole bowl was ridiculous for a number of reasons.

Woke up later that day, was finally time for the real deal - hit up Pho Hoa Pasteur for some more tai. Just like it looks in pics all over the internet, except I wasn't fully prepared to go straight from my hotel to a Vietnamese shop for the first time I guess - it was like 95 degrees in there, filthy, tables waited by young Vietnamese guys with sweat beads all over their faces, and the food wasn't good enough to make it charming, it's hard to tell what the restaurant was like from the pics of the food I'd seen before. I was honestly a little disappointed at first, then realized it was partly shock as well. Strong MSG flavor, meat was kinda crappy, the soup too subtle, and this was my first realization that the noodles in Vietnam are served softer than I'm used to and prefer:

Dinner we had back at the hotel after a day of running around, looking at stuff. It was a regular hotel restaurant, didn't plan to have pho; got thirsty and popped a bottle of Cristal but I got hungry later and I'd only had 2 bowls of pho on my trip by then so I figured I'd catch up and got a small mini bowl of pho tai; it was very different from the room service pho I got the night before, so I'm guessing they came from two different places. So Cristal and pho, drinks of a king, food of peasant.

Next day I started off with Pho 24, the fast food-ized pho place in Vietnam; people down this place but I thought it was alright, it was admittedly not as good at Pho Hoa but it was similarly bland and everything else was fairly in line with what I'd come to expect by the 4th bowl of pho in 36 hrs. Greasy head on the soup, but not excessively so like the joke bowl I got first from room service.

A few hours later, for the last bowl of pho, we were walking through the marketplace and had to wait 15 minutes on something and I spied Pho 2000 out on the street, so we went in for one last bowl of pho. Pho 2000 doesn't serve a choice of meats, they just serve Pho bo chin or pho ga. Really clean stock, but seasoned with nuoc mam more heavily than the others, less MSG sweetness/head feel though. I'm not really a fan of pho chin, prefer tai. Overall though, this was a decent bowl of pho. If it was tai, this would've been the best of the bunch, I think.

[azn8oi]

I've been joking for years that I would one day make a journey down to Vietnam for like 2-3 days just for a couple bowls of pho, and it's since been realized by Dis. Now that he has confirmed everything that I've been afraid of-- that is, that pho in Vietnam perhaps isn't as good as what we're used to in the States, it seems that this journey can now be put on hold.

[azn8oi]

I'd imagine pho in France and Australia to be pretty damn good as well. Someone post pics of pho from France.

[blm14]

pho 88 in lowell. Not bad. the bun bo hue was yummy

[broneck]

Just ate 5 bowls of pho in Saigon in 48 hours, and I'm back. Here's my quick roundup.

this makes me happy because of all those stupid conversations we had ages ago about how white people couldn't be pho connoisseurs

[poly800rock]

Am up in San Jose next week. Best pho spot nor cal speak up.

[bfan]

pho y #1 on capitol expressway is bomb

[t0eknee]

pho y #1 on capitol expressway is bomb

truth

[homme.homme]

I'd imagine pho in France and Australia to be pretty damn good as well. Someone post pics of pho from France.

Pho here is Australia is really good. My fiance is Viet and her Mum is a chef so we got all the good places on lock. I'll start taking pics.

Edited February 1, 2013 by homme.homme

[diniro]

If the pho is not good without added sauces then the pho is shit. For some kick I usually just have some sriracha on the side to dip the meat. My mom's:

Dug up some pho bones to chew on. Bone marrow>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[baldy]

where to get pho in nyc?

[comicto]

If the pho is not good without added sauces then the pho is shit. For some kick I usually just have some sriracha on the side to dip the meat.

Truth, I'm a purist when it comes to pho as well, no extra sauce in the broth. Little hoisen and sirachi on the side for dipping meat, done deal.

[fatKARLOS]

where to get pho in nyc?

there are a couple good places on grand st. ive been to Nam Son (245 grand) i like this place on 1st ave + 1st st called v-nam cafe because they do an oxtail broth it's really good but i'm trying to find some more great pho places for a better price than ~$8 at v-nam. anyone have a different favorite spot?

[wurm]

if anyone lives in or visits houston and wants pho (or any vietnamese food), i highly recommend huynh near downtown. food is so fucking good - the pho especially. i ate dinner there over christmas break and was back the next day eating lunch. prices are pretty good, too.

Edited February 4, 2013 by wurm

[baldy]

there are a couple good places on grand st. ive been to Nam Son (245 grand) i like this place on 1st ave + 1st st called v-nam cafe because they do an oxtail broth it's really good but i'm trying to find some more great pho places for a better price than ~$8 at v-nam. anyone have a different favorite spot?

that's funny, vnam is my girls dad's spot, just ate there on sat. it is good but a lil salty for me

[Burgdorfhoodman]

pho pasteur is pretty legit. between canal and baxter. still need to try V-Nam. but i grew up in Houston,Texas so I'm never satisfied with nyc pho.

[poly800rock]

where to get pho in nyc?

an choi on orchard. pay a little more and get exponentially better soup and ingredients.

[Sigur Rós]

Does anyone know if Vietnamese pork chop is marinaded with nuoc cham?

[nobgobling]

if anyone is in San Jose check out pho 90 degree

don't pay attention to yelp, as per usual

 

from what i understand their noodles are handmade and cut 

always go for the thick noodles, they'll give it to you if you ask

personally, it's one of my favorite spots in sj, but i'm no pho connoisseur 

[llobey]

[blm14]

i phoking loved the pho king. RIP

[Kale Kohai]

Pho Cafe in LA (on silverlake) is pretty good actually. People want to hate it and say it's hipster cuz silverlake, but no white people work there. It just uses high quality ingredients so semi pricy, but the meat is on point quality wise. Like eating meat from nice restaurant.

Also their vegetarian pho is actually fire since its just a crazy medley of nice mushrooms  

[mr.invincible]

pho pasteur is pretty legit. between canal and baxter. still need to try V-Nam. but i grew up in Houston,Texas so I'm never satisfied with nyc pho.

 

just went here tonight base on your suggestion. its aiite

[mr.invincible]

Pho Cafe in LA (on silverlake) is pretty good actually. People want to hate it and say it's hipster cuz silverlake, but no white people work there. It just uses high quality ingredients so semi pricy, but the meat is on point quality wise. Like eating meat from nice restaurant.

Also their vegetarian pho is actually fire since its just a crazy medley of nice mushrooms  

 

the restaurant across from it, Black hog (i think) is pretty good.

[CASSAVA PIECE]

a place ain't hipster because white people work there. it's hipster because white people go

[blm14]

if restaurants where white people go are hipster doesn't that mean every restaurant in the country is hipster?

[andrewisdope]

The regular dac biet at pho2000 in Ktown is okay, but they have this oxtail pho that's pretty good. The noodles come with the regular broth and the oxtail comes in a separate bowl that has its own broth. It's really beefy when they're mixed together.