This is how I pho it:

- Beef pho
- Large bowl, easy on the noodles (they expand way too fast)
- Brisket (chin), tendon (gan), meatballs (bo vien)
- Use hoisin sauce and sriracha (and chili oil, if they have it) as a dip, but not in the broth.
- No bean sprouts or lime.

Bonus stars if they have oxtail on the menu!

Maybe here

As much as I like soup, many different kinds, I have not been able to get into pho. I've only had it about 4 times, so maybe I haven't found the magic place. Always really bland to me, and adding the various fixins doesn't seem to help.

Thanks, that thread didn't turn up in a search for me. Though a) last post was from 2013, and b) I'm more curious about how people eat their pho, while that "consolidated" thread seems to just talk about where to eat it.

Where have you tried? Pho shouldn't be bland, so my guess is that you maybe haven't had a good one yet? But you could very well just not like it, which is fine too.

Without MSG.

Why pho when you can chua?

on a rinky dink blue plastic stool in a small alley in Hanoi :P always order the meatball pho when available. Can't wait I will be back there next week.

With MSG. Just kidding (well, not really - I love MSG).

It varies so widely even at the same place, so I take a taste of the broth first to see what would work best. I always add lime, basil, a slice of hot pepper and sawtooth herb (I love it when this is available!). Sometimes I'll also add some of the available sauces, depending on the flavor profile.

If at home and the broth is bland, I'll add MSG and/or fish sauce. The last batch I made needed almost no doctoring - I used this recipe and it was awesome:

http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/09/t...amese-pho.html

There's an embedded link in this post that explains how the various bones and cuts of beef affect the end product in a pretty dramatic way.

It had been years since I had eaten pho. I used to hit a couple places a stone's throw from SFO, out on Camino Real, I think.

I now live in a city with a good sized Vietnamese population. A guy who goes to our church opened up a place called The Noodle House. I go with the beef and add the bean sprouts and cilantro and little bit of jalapeno. I skip the lime. I just wish there were forks as my chopstick skills make me dangerous to every diner within 10 feet. Each bowl comes with very nice spring rolls too.

For me, the key basic test to a good beef Pho Tai is the clear broth base or soup itself with the spice mix but I don't care for the northern style with its sweetness, masking that "beef" taste. "Rare" thinly sliced beef flank, steak, brisket & beef meatballs - served with thin white rice noodles, onions, chopped scallions, bean sprouts - topped off with hot broth to finish cooking everything. Drop some fresh Thai basils (sometimes, coriander or Chinese parsley offered instead) and squeeze some fresh lemon or lime juice. Finished off with a nice iced cold Cafe Sua Da.
Southern California is the place for pho - called me crazy, we would drive 20 miles down to Westminster a/k/a Little Saigon just to get some with all that crazy LA traffic. It's 15 degree F outside now, wind chill near zero - I could use a nice big bowl - or, the hot & spicy, Hue style - B�n b� Huế ...
okay, dream on, time to get some work done.

Brisket, copious mung bean sprouts and lots of lime.

My go-to places are in Philly, because that's one cuisine where NYC miserably fails.

* With rare steak and brisket
* With sriracha, no hoisin
* Decent amount of steamed bean sprouts
* Lime

Which one is your favourite in Philly?

My go to Pho is Pho ha at 6th & Washington ave in south Philly. Btw, check out sky cafe for good Indonesian food.

- Large
- choose the one with large of selection, tendon, brisket is a must
- Bean sprout
- lots of lime
- Hoisin sauce into the bowl
- No Sriracha

I used to only be able to get a bowl of pho by venturing down from the Great White North (Lake County -- I mean that in the sense that we're currently buried under a few feet of snow, but I guess in another sense it's always true) to Argyle Street in Chicago, but a pho restaurant (The Pho House) has recently opened up in nearby Libertyville.

The carryout pho order they give you is huge in terms of both the amount of broth and the add-ins. Too big a bag of bean sprouts; I only use a fraction of what they provide. Next time I think I'll just say no bean sprouts.

Biggest thing with pho for me is tender meat, such as brisket. I haven't yet tried tendon in pho; that might be my next order ... although the first few lines of this Serious Eats post have me reconsidering ...

What I won't order again is sliced pork or beef round. Raw lean meats turn into unappetizing shoe leather (in my opinion) in hot broth, and I'm not interested in chewing and tugging at them while I'm trying to enjoy the broth.

I like to add cilantro, Thai basil, and lime (this place gives you another bag just for those) and add dashes of fish sauce, hoisin sauce, and or chili paste as needed.

I really prefer Saigon style Pho over Hanoi style. Give me stuff to put in (spicy stuff, limes, sprouts, whathaveyou) and some sauces and a small plate to make a dip-mix for the meat. And as many varieties of beef as possible.....


... damn i really need to get back to vietnam as soon as possible

rare beef, flank, brisket, tendon, extra tendon.

lots of lime and herbs, and a little sriracha.

No bean sprouts in the soup, but will dip raw into sriracha/hoisin