The 3 Best Bowls Of Pho in HCMC Vietnam, Saigon

We're here for pho, the national dish of Vietnam. This is one of the best bowls of pho in Vietnam. Let's eat it. Ho Chi Minh City, the heart of southern cuisine. Beefy, fragrant. The iconic Vietnamese noodle soup has spread the hype all over the world for a reason. Here are my top three bowls of pho that you have to try when visiting Saigon. Not only that, we have many other styles of pho to show you. But get ready for something unexpected. I never eat pho. You never eat pho. Except for last week. Yeah. So I'm sure most people have already heard about pho before. I don't think a lot of people know that there's many different styles of pho. Mostly broken down into northern and southern style. So first, we're going to start out with a southern bowl because we're in Saigon. I have a friend who I'm meeting over at District 5 at my favorite southern spot. It's one of the oldest pho restaurants in the city and there's a reason it's been there for so long. It's damn delicious. Are we live? What do I do with my hands? All right, so we're at Pho Le. This is Fred. He's the owner of Backyard Tours. Long, long-term friend. You've been here before. Many a time. What do you think about it? I love it. I think it's the best pho in the city for me. Do you really believe that? I do really believe that and I've ate a lot of pho. I'm trying to find the best pho. I've eaten 11 bowls of pho. To me, this is the best. Let's go eat it. Tan, you ready? Let's do it. For me, Pho Le is the best southern style bowl in the city. Absolutely. When you think of southern style pho, what do you think of? A lot going on. I want to feel that cinnamon, that cardamom in the background of the broth. That's what I'm looking for. There's never a time that you specifically crave it. For me, it's like I end up craving things if it's easily accessible. Yeah, if it's close. So there was a northern style pho that opened up in my building over in Mizuki. To be honest, it was a really good bowl of northern pho. What's the difference between southern and northern in your view? I don't want to use the word plain. It should be more of just a simple flavor. You're eating a very rich beef broth and onions and that's what I expected. But we're here for the southern style. A sweeter, more complex bowl. Pho Le has been selling here for 54 years, serving her local clients, and the flavor never changes. And what's your typical meat order? What do you like to get? Honestly, I'll do beef brisket and meatball. I don't have to do the tenderloin. Sometimes tenderloin feels a little bit disappointing to me. Because? I don't know. It just doesn't hit the spot. I think it's more about like the looks. It's like cool. Like, oh man, this nice, beautiful sliced raw beef on the top. But when I eat it, I'm not like all blown away. So I would just rather skip it and get some braised beef. Right. Let's eat. Let's eat. I'm very hungry. So this totally, to me, is like the classic southern style. Yep. I don't expect to see a ton of green onion like I would in northern style. It's kind of just got some. We got a pile of herbs and bean sprouts. Although here at Pho Le, it's a serious pile of herbs and bean sprouts. That's not normal, but there's a lot of variety. Family of 10. Right. Let's try the broth and see where we're at with that. Yeah. See, it's like full body. It's very beefy. A little bit fatty. A little sweet with southern style. It's not as spice as I remember. I was really surprised by some that I ate. Because you just did a video of like, you had 10 or 12 bowls, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. We'll link it somewhere. But he ate a lot of bowls. I did. Back to back to back. 11. And this is the best one out of all. So of course, with southern style, I'm going to load this up with herbs. Do you do everything? Do you have a preference? Oh, I do everything. Yeah, yeah. Do you like the rice paddy herb too, though? Yeah, absolutely. I like that one. I think I'm going to go satay though. For me, it just got way better. It was already good. Now when you hit it with that satay. Satay and lime. Satay and lime kicks this up. I like how thin the noodle is. The noodle is like super thin here. It is good. This is what I needed. It is. I was hungover a little bit. I mean, I'm okay. You just found out that pho is good for a hangover? No, no, I just didn't think about it. It did sound good at 12.30 when you told me that we could eat it. I'm excited to see Balvian though. Because I haven't seen the beef ball in a long time. I haven't had a beef ball in a while. Yeah. Now let me ask you a question that somebody going to make pho ba at home, is it worth doing? Yeah, it's easy. It's like, can you put bones in a pot and boil them? Yeah. Okay, you can make pho. The only thing is, I mean, like when you make it, it's not worth it to make three bowls. You should make 20 bowls. You got to make 20 bowls. Do you have like a typical time of day? Like do you eat pho in the morning or night or all the time? I never eat pho. You never eat pho? Except for last week. But there's also just so many different options in Saigon. I will eat, yeah, late at night is when I will eat pho. If it's late at night and I'm coming back and like, say I'm coming to this area, I will stop and get a bowl of pho. I agree that for me, like people always ask me about pho and I kind of have the same thing. I don't eat pho in Vietnam often. Yeah. But for me, it's late night, super early morning or when I'm sick is like the perfect time. That's when I want pho and nothing else. And really like a bowl of pho at three in the morning hits so hard. Yeah. It's so good. It soaks up the alcohol. Yeah, for sure. That was good. Was that good? That was good. Super enjoyable. Yeah, yeah. Do you think that this is a spot worth traveling to? This is not the center of the city. So is it worth for somebody coming out from District 1? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I agree. I thought you meant is it worth traveling from America to here for this? It is. You think? It is. It is worth the plane ticket. Good to see you, man. Good to see you, brother. See you next time. Next on the list is pho back, the northern style. This is a special one. This is truly the taste of Hanoi. To me, this is definitely the best northern bowl I've had in Saigon for sure. Next, we're at Pho Tin by Soul. This is a restaurant that has many locations throughout Saigon. I think they have five locations. And right now, we're at the District 2 location, which is the biggest one. Like a little Hanoi inside Saigon, this restaurant has everything you want from the northern cuisine. Here, pho is not just beef soup. They innovate it, making something you've never seen before. So although pho is used as a shorthand for the complete dish, pho bo. Pho by itself actually just is referring to the noodle. When we talk about pho or banh pho, we're talking about a flat white noodle. This restaurant, they have a lot of different pho dishes. So we'll show you a few before we get to the main course. And this is really cool because this is actually another pho dish. This is called Pho Chin Phom. Puffy, deep fried pho. A cuisine twist on a traditional dish. Crispy, golden brown exterior, but light and soft on the inside. With the side of freshly stir-fried vegetables, stir-fried beef, garlic, and cornstarch. Coating a thick, deep glaze on top with a smoky flavor. So since we're at a northern style restaurant, we have this special northern chili sauce, which I love. Northern style Vietnamese chili sauce is funky and garlicky and spicy. And this is going to be served with some sweet fish sauce. So we'll take one of these little pho puffs and throw some beef inside. I mean, you can eat this anywhere you want, but this is how they told me to eat it. And then I'm just going to dip it in the sauce. I love it. Super cool, super interesting. Texturally, I love the pho noodle. It's just something different. This is not something I've ever seen in Saigon before. When I saw this on the menu for the first time, I was pretty excited about it. All the beef here is always tender and stir-fried, so it has like a nice toasty or smoky flavor. I think this dish is unique to this restaurant. I don't know if this is a normal thing in Hanoi or not. Usually when we come here, my kids tend to get this, and I usually steal a few pieces, so it works out for me. Next, this is pho cuon, which is another variety of pho. Cuon means roll, so this is like a wrapped pho or rolled pho. Inside we have stir-fried beef, lettuce, Thai basil, and then we just dip this. So this is kind of like a summer roll, sort of, but made with fresh pho noodle instead of rice paper. This is always good. It's super light, simple. Even though this is called pho cuon, it doesn't really have any flavor like pho bo would. A good appetizer. The next one's super cool. So I want to show you one more thing before we get the beef pho. This is pho tron. Tron means to mix, so you could say that this is mixed pho. I've seen pho tron in a lot of different places, but this place does something super unique where they do smoked beef tongue. The idea of smoked meats in Vietnam is so rare. I was so curious when I found this for the first time. This is also served with a side of beef pho broth. But first, we're going to take the pho and we're going to tron it. We're going to mix it. The pho noodle already has a sauce on it, so it's seasoned really well. It has a little bit of heat to it already. It's like room temperature, so it's kind of a nice dish. And the beef is sliced so thin. It's super tender. There's also smoked brisket and beef ball in here too. It's kind of like a grilled pork noodle bowl or bún thịt nướng, but very different. And now the star of the show. This is what we came for. Pho bo, Thailand. Garlic, smoky flavor, and a great bone broth. Three elements to make a great bowl of pho here. But it's a tough task to master. So the one thing that's really unique about this particular pho location is they stir fry all their beef. All their beef, they wok fry it and do it at a really high temperature. So like the smoke comes back inside the beef and then gets kind of a smoky, more deeper flavor. And you really taste that. That's part of the reason why this is one of my favorite bowls to eat. So when I think of a northern style bowl, there's almost like no vegetable. So you'll see like I have no herbs here. I have no bean sprouts. What I have is just soup, noodle, meat, and a lot of green onion. It's excellent. Super good. Because the beef is stir fried and has that smokiness, the broth tastes really deep and rich and just more complex than most northern bowls would. So for northern style bowls, the standard condiments you're going to get on the table is pickled garlic, which I'm always going to add. And then you could do fresh chili, or I'm always going to use the northern chili sauce because I just love this stuff. So let's mix it up. So satisfying. This is truly the taste of Hanoi. They told me they did not change the recipe at all from what they're used to in the north. This is completely the flavor of Hanoi. And then I can take the banh hoa, the little fried donut, just stick that right in the broth. These are super crunchy and kind of dry, so you let them sit in there a little bit and soak it up. It just gives you another layer of texture. When you get the pho with the stir fried beef in it, it just completely changes the broth. So normally at most pho locations where the beef is going to be boiled, you add the beef into the bowl and it's just the same thing. It's like how the broth was created. But when you do the stir fried beef, it's like another layer. It's almost like a condiment or a seasoning you're putting on top of the broth that changes the broth completely. I mean, we're here because this is one of my favorite bowls already, but this is a great bowl. If you want to try this pho, another good reason to come to the District 2 location is this cat is always here. His name is Moi. He's a house cat, a restaurant cat. I think he's wild, but he just hangs around here all the time. And he's super sweet. All right, let's go. This is one of the best bowls of pho in Vietnam. Let's eat it. So our last bowl is going to be at Pho Vietnam. They have like four locations across the city. Right now we're in District 3. Let's try this pho next. And what makes the pho here special? What's special about the broth or what you do here? For the North and South fusion pho, freshly house-made pho noodles. Start with the rice batter spread thinly on the tray. Steam for three minutes. Leave it on a bamboo mat to dry. Fast. Precise. The big sheets of pho noodles get chopped up by hand, ready to hit the table. Why was it so important for you to make the fresh pho noodle? It's so much extra work. What's the difference? So the hard part about this place is like, how do you season it? Do you want to season it Southern style or Northern style? Let me try the soup first. The broth here is super rich, super beefy. It has a stronger cinnamon flavor to it. So I would describe this bowl as like a heavily spiced Northern style. So it's like a Northern style bowl, but they use a little bit more cinnamon and spices than they typically would use in the North. But the cool part is they serve it with all the condiments they will find throughout the country. So you can basically do whatever you want once you get it. For me, I got to go herbs. Thai basil. Cilantro. And I love the rau om or the rice patty herb too. Pickled garlic. And then like the central style element is the pickled shallot. And of course, if you want to just the classic Southern style pho, you can season with hoisin and chili sauce. That's not my preferred thing though. Do I go Northern style chili sauce or do I go Southern style chili satay? I'm a sucker for Northern style chili sauce. All right. Now this thing's loaded up. Let's try it again. It's a totally different bowl now. A whole different new soup. To me, this is just great pho. It's super good. And I love these homemade noodles how they're hand cut. So some are a little bit thinner, some are a little bit thicker. And they're just so much softer. The beef shank here is really tender. The flank, they have all different kinds of flank. They have a soft one, a crunchy one. You get a little bit of everything or you can order exactly what you want. But now with all those different pickles inside and herbs, the whole bowl just like wakes up. So good. And of course, there's no way I'm not putting in these Chinese donuts. Although I prefer the big chewy ones. But these little crispy ones are good too. Before I get too full, we want to order one more bowl here and show you the special thing they do. We're here for the restaurant's speciality, the hot stone bowl. Let's see how this homemade pho noodle makes a difference. Come on. So if you're looking for a different experience, you can get the tou da or the hot stone bowl. All the cooked meat is already inside the bowl. And then everything else is served on the side. So for me, I'm going straight away with all the onion because I like that. So and then we have the shaved beef shank on the side raw that we can just dip in here and just cook it in the bowl. For the sake of variety, I'll season this one a little bit differently. So I can't say no to pickled shallots. This time I'll do a little bit of the satay. Fresh chili in here. Kick up the acidity with some lime. With all these different seasonings, we have to create a new bowl every single time. And then kind of find your perfect flavor. Let's see. Let's try this out. So different now. Honestly, the first bowl was great. And this second bowl is great as well. Eating it separately with the hot stone feels different. And then seasoning it with the satay and the lime, it's completely different again. I thought before the first bowl was like the way I like to do it. But this is really delicious as well. So it's hard to say. When I have this style, I usually just dip the noodles as I go. So they don't get overcooked or anything like that. And there's a chili. This is gonna be painful. There's such a big difference between the homemade fresh noodle compared to what you'd find in the market or even dried. It's so delicate. And I never understood that until I tried it. When I tried it here and I tried it in the north, you could really feel the difference between the homemade noodle. That's fantastic. There you go. Those are my three current favorite bowls of pho in Saigon. You cannot go wrong with any of those. They're all fantastic. And if you're here for three or four days, I recommend you try all three. I know for people in the know, the people who know about Vietnamese cuisine, the whole battle is pho versus bún bò huế. And for me, it was always bún bò huế, 100%. Like that's the best soup ever. I don't know. This pho is pretty damn good. I'm really starting to appreciate it more and more and more. If you enjoyed this video, make sure you subscribe to the channel. A lot more coming. I'll see you guys later. I think that's it. Oh, you might like this video. Check this one out next.