Suspicion always lead me to avoid entering this restaurant when I lived around the corner. Peering in to see clueless tourists panic-stricken flipping through a menu of foreign delights, with a waiter patiently explaining to them the concept of fish sauce, lime, lemongrass, herbs as they communicated in foreign tongues asking each other what the safest option would be. ​

Having spent months in Saigon over the course of a decade, I have eaten my fair share of mediocre bowls, ranging from trendy "nu-viet" restaurants, to the quintessential streetside plastic stool job. Of all the bowls I have eaten in varying degrees of lucidity and mental fatigue, three places stand atop broth mountain: Pho Quynh, Pho Hung and my personal fave, Pho Phu Vuong.