Although the aim of this blog is to show that Vietnamese food is not only about those well known dishes, I am a fanatic phở lover (to the extent I even tried to cook it at home), and just can’t ignore them completely. Plus, even the best phở in my home country is not 100% authentic, and has been modified compared to the real deal. So every now and then, I’ll have a review entry for phở restaurants I went to in Vietnam.

First of all, just like how Japanese food has a Kansai and Kanto style, Vietnamese food differs greatly depending on the region. In general, Southern style dishes are sweeter and have stronger flavouring, while Northern style dishes have a more subtle, fragile flavour without too much sweetness. Central Vietnam also has its own style, but more similar to Northern style food. This is also true in phở—Southern phở has a sweeter soup, typically served with raw beef (i.e. phở tái), and comes with vegetables and herbs on the side which you can add to your personal preference. Northern style phở, on the other hand, has a less sweeter soup, served with cooked (pan fried) beef, and also vegetables and herbs are already included in the dish, without anything on the side (except for some sauces, and the delicious garlic and chilli vinegar common in the North—dấm tỏi).

Phở đặc biệt from “Phở Cao Vân” in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City

One morning, we were feeling like some beef phở for breakfast, and decided to go to a nearby, yet non-chain operated restaurant, and came across this place after some searching on Google. The restaurant had a fancy chrome-plated sign in the front, but the interior was much like any other local phở restaurant.

The phở arrived relatively quickly after placing the order, and came with an extremely generous serve of herbs—more than enough to get quite full if we decided to just have all the herbs provided I was so surprised that I forgot to take pictures of the herb bowl The phở bowl looked really delicious where you can see all the ingredients inside with the appetising half-cooked beef in the middle.

I started by sipping a bit of the soup before adding any herbs or mixing up the noodles and beef. The soup had a very clear flavour—no spices which stood out, but all in a harmony, although it was slightly lacking the deepness and richness (for me anyway). The raw beef tasted good but not outstanding, same goes for the tendon and brisket. The beef balls, on the other hand, was something unlike what I’ve tasted before. The ball itself had a very light colour, unlike the brown/grey colour of typical beef balls. The taste was also different—you could feel there were fresh herbs and spices mixed into the mince when it was prepared, and the meat itself tasted like a combination of beef and chicken (which may explain the lighter colour of the ball).

After initial impressions were made, I started adding some herbs. Usually, I just add bean sprout, lime and basil, but since there was so much herbs served, I decided to try a bit of everything this time. The lime and basil definitely improved the flavour of the broth, making it more refreshing, and also bringing out the flavour of the spices to the front. Culantro, I was a bit unsure about as I’m not much of a cilantro/coriander fan, but I felt it definitely made a positive impact to the soup. Mint, on the other hand, didn’t cause much of a positive effect—more negative if anything—as the minty flavour kind of started to dominate the entire broth.

Overall rating

This phở was a very nice bowl, bringing a very nice start to the day, even though it certainly was not the best phở I’ve ever tried. Overall, I would give this phở a rating of 7.5/10, as I feel the soup needs to be deeper, although the balance of the spices was on the spot.