The Best Phở In San Francisco - San Francisco - The Infatuation (2024)

photo credit: Erin Ng

Whether you woke up craving a steaming bowl of noodles in a slow-cooked broth, or your foggy San Francisco chilled-heart has you searching for something warm, phở is the answer. Grab some chopsticks, ready your bottles of hoisin, and grab a handful of basil and bean sprouts. This city is packed with places serving up everything from tender braised brisket to juicy meatballs that’ll make you forget the sun hasn’t been out in days.

THE PHỞ

The #3 at Yummy Yummy in the Sunset is unparalleled. This big bowl of phở tái has a rich dark broth with enough umami to be legally classified as its own type of meat. Paper-thin slices of ribeye cook in three seconds in the near-boiling soup and pair nicely with chewy rice noodles that we would gladly eat on their own. The menu is long, but we always get the same thing, because we’re now in a committed relationship with this broth and we’ve never been stronger.

Broth is key to a good bowl of phở, so going for a version where the broth is served separately might feel like committing a mortal sin. But, the dặc biệt phở kho at Phở Tân Hòa in the Tenderloin will rewrite your entire phở-eating philosophy. Long egg noodles are backed by a crew of peanuts, tendon, flank, brisket, tripe, and rare steak. Drizzle on some chili oil and dunk everything in the broth that’s served on the side, performing a constant, back-and-forth of dipping and slurping. Get a creamy cà phê sữa đá for a wake-me-up kick to get you out of your post-phở slumber.

A bowl of phở at Quê Việt in SoMa is like your favorite pair of worn-in jeans: not flashy, but dependable. Out of the seven options on the menu, go for the phở tai sườn bò with beef short rib and ribeye. The hulking piece of short rib arrives bone-in, is as tender as a loaf of freshly baked bread, and the almost-see-through ribeye completes the bowl. This place is never busy, making this the perfect near-Oracle spot post-game.

Phở 2000 is a multi-level oasis of fragrant broth and noodles. The Tenderloin restaurant keeps their phở dặc biệt simple—unlike other versions in town, theirs isn’t overdone with dramatic beef ribs or mounds of toppings. The bowl, which is bigger than a dunk tank, is loaded with smooth broth, the requisite beef cuts, and noodles that never lose their bounce. Service is quick, too, so you can get in, vacuum up a large bowl, and be out within half an hour.

There’s plenty of space to spread out with a group at Phở 808, which is excellent news when you and your entourage are in dire need of highly swiggable soup. The phở at this casual Tenderloin spot has a slightly sweeter broth that tastes like it was cooked in a vat made of star anise. Most of the phở here is beef-based—you can get combinations of rare steak, well-done flank, tendon, and meatball. They also have chicken versions and other noodle soups like bún bò huế and bún riêu.

The crowds congregating outside Kevin’s are all jostling to see who can eat their incredible phở first—and you should join them. The laidback place on Irving pumps out steaming bowls of soup so full they put the laws of surface tension to the test. There are about 30 phở combinations to choose from with different cuts of meat (it’s all about personal preference in the beef department, but the chicken renditions are excellent, too). You can go small, medium, or large, but you’ll want large.

If you’ve heard of Gao Viet Kitchen, you’ve probably heard of their $110 “phởzilla.” The maximalist bowl of soup is loaded up with lobster, filet mignon, bone marrow, a Jurassic-sized beef rib, and other expensive-sounding buzzwords. While it’s a guaranteed way to spice up your social media feed, the regular bowls of phở are a much more cost-effective—and equally as tasty—way to enjoy noodle soup. This two-story restaurant knows how to do well-spiced, complex broth more comforting than a late-night hopecore spiral. If you opt out of the big-ticket toppings, other options include BBQ chicken, duck, or a vegetarian version with fried and fresh tofu.

For anyone who dreams of cows frolicking through fields of hoisin and Sriracha at night, Viet Quan is your happy place. The phở at this relaxed Parkside restaurant is the beefiest in town. One version comes with an entire beef rib and has so many thin rare slices and meatballs it’s hard to take a bite without getting a mouthful of meat. The dining room is typically packed with families and dates, but no one can resist polishing off their bowls as quickly as possible, so you won’t have to wait long.

Bodega SF takes northern Vietnamese dishes and amps them up with fun twists—there’s caviar on bánh khọt, and yuzu coconut foam atop oysters. But one classic they’ve kept, well, classic, is the phở. At dinner, it’s only available on their $90 tasting menu (miniature bowls of phở round out the multi-course extravaganza). If you come for lunch, you can order the phở a la carte, each with slippery tangles of noodles in chicken or beef bone broth. There’s also a vegan option with mushrooms, tofu, and bok choy.

Swing by this low-key Richmond restaurant when you need to wipe a layer of mist off your cheeks and warm up with an Olympic pool’s worth of hot soup. A bowl of phở Huong Viet’s northern-style phở will inspire you to pledge your allegiance to broth. The soups are loaded with umami from your choice of beef or chicken. The rice noodles stay chewy, and slivers of ginger and green onions add a zippy crunch. And hoisin is deemed “Not Available” on the menu, so don’t even think about asking (not that you’ll need it).

You’ve got some choices to make at Ly’s when it comes to phở. But even the most indecisive need not worry, because there’s no such thing as going wrong at this Marina sit-down. Go for the beef satay for something with heat, the five-spice chicken if you want a whole deep-fried chicken leg, or opt for the vegetarian-friendly fried tofu bowl. For phở traditionalists, there’s chicken and beef—for the latter, you get to choose what cuts you’d like simmering in your broth. If you’re not interested in limiting yourself to just one type of phở, invite your friends. Getting a last-minute table, even for a large group, is usually easy to do.