Best Pho in Saigon: Where to Eat in 2026

Updated5 September 2026 · original article published 19 May 2025

Two of Saigon’s pho shops hold a Michelin Bib Gourmand: Phở Miến Gà Kỳ Đồng for chicken and Phở Hòa Pasteur for beef. Start with those. But the more useful thing to know before you order is that Saigon serves two different dishes under the same name, and most guides never mention it.

Northern pho and southern pho are not the same bowl

Southern pho — what you get almost everywhere in Saigon — arrives with a plate of herbs, bean sprouts and lime on the side, and a slightly sweeter broth. You build it yourself, and hoisin and sriracha are on the table.

Northern pho, the Hanoi original, arrives finished. No herb platter, no sprouts, no sauce. A clear, savoury broth, spring onion, and that is the point of it.

If you order northern pho expecting the herb mountain you will think something is missing. If you order southern pho expecting restraint you will think it is a salad. Both are correct. Know which one you’re walking into — it’s noted for each entry below.

1. Luli’s Kitchen

182A Pasteur Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1 · southern style

A small family-run room on Pasteur, cooked by a Franco-Vietnamese couple, and the closest thing on this list to eating pho in someone’s home rather than in a pho shop. The broth is unhurried and the room is quiet, which is not a combination Saigon offers often.

It is not the most famous bowl here and it isn’t trying to be. It’s the one to take someone to on their first morning in the city, when the 5am scrum at a street counter would be too much.

Order: pho bo, and stay for the coffee.

Saigon Scene members get 10% off at Luli’s Kitchen.

2. Phở Miến Gà Kỳ Đồng

14/5Bis Ky Dong, Ward 9, District 3 · roughly 5am–10pm · southern chicken pho · about 65,000₫

Fifty years old, a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and a Netflix Street Food: Asia feature — and still a plastic-stool operation down a lane off Ky Dong. The broth is chicken and pork bones simmered three to four hours, deep without being greasy.

Order the phở gà, or the miến gà if you want glass noodles instead. Go early: this is a breakfast place and the city’s early risers get there first.

Order: phở gà, before 8am.

More on it in our piece on Phở Miến Gà Kỳ Đồng and the Netflix episode.

3. Phở Lệ

303–305 Vo Van Tan, Ward 5, District 3 · southern beef

Ask a Saigon local where to get the best beef pho and this is the name that comes back most often. The broth carries beef bones, star anise, cinnamon and cloves and a great many hours, and it tastes like every one of them.

Big room, fast service, no ceremony. This is the benchmark bowl in the city and the one to measure the others against.

Order: phở tái nạm, and use the herbs.

4. Phở Hòa Pasteur

260C Pasteur, Ward 8, District 3 · 6am–10:30pm daily · southern beef

Open since 1968 and a Michelin Bib Gourmand. It has a reputation as the tourist choice, which is true and beside the point — the bowl is still excellent. Slightly sweeter than Phở Lệ, generously topped, with the biggest herb plate on this list and free quẩy on the table.

The long hours make it the reliable answer when it’s 9pm and you want pho.

Order: phở đặc biệt, and dip the quẩy.

5. Phở Hùng

243 Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Cu Trinh Ward, District 1 · 6am–3am · southern beef · 50,000–150,000₫

Near Ben Thanh, and the one that solves the 2am problem — it serves until three in the morning. Lighter broth than Phở Lệ, cleanly flavoured, and consistent in a way that matters more than brilliance when you’re eating at that hour.

A bowl averages 80,000–100,000₫; the đặc biệt is 90,000₫.

Order: phở đặc biệt, at whatever hour you’ve ended up there.

6. Phở Thìn by SOL

37 Xuan Thuy, Thao Dien, Thu Duc (also District 4 and District 7) · 6am–11:30pm · northern style · from 90,000₫

The northern bowl, and the reason the section at the top of this page matters. No herb platter, no bean sprouts, no sauces — a clear savoury broth, spring onion, and beef. The Hanoi original, served in a considerably smarter room than the Hanoi original.

Do not ask for the herbs. There aren’t any, and that’s the dish.

Order: phở tái lăn, and taste the broth before you touch anything.

What pho costs in Saigon, and when to eat it

A street bowl is 40,000–60,000₫. The famous shops on this list run 65,000–100,000₫, and Phở Thìn starts at 90,000₫. Anything over 150,000₫ is a hotel restaurant charging you for the tablecloth.

Pho is breakfast. The best broth is the morning broth, most of these places open between 5am and 6am, and the good ones sell out or tail off by early afternoon. If you can only go once, go at seven in the morning. Phở Hùng until 3am and Phở Hòa until 10:30pm are the exceptions that cover the rest of the day.

Prices checked September 2026.

How to order pho like you’ve done it before

• phở bò is beef, phở gà is chicken. That’s the first decision.
• tái is rare beef, chín is well done, nạm is flank, gầu is fatty brisket, gân is tendon. Đặc biệt means all of it.
• Taste the broth first, before adding anything. That’s what you’re paying for and it’s what separates these six from the shop on your corner.
• Hoisin and sriracha go in the side dish, for dipping the meat — not squeezed into the bowl. Nobody will stop you. They will notice.
• Quẩy is the fried dough stick. Dip it. It is not optional.

How we picked these

Saigon Scene is based in Ho Chi Minh City. Every shop here was checked as trading in September 2026 and each address was verified — the previous version of this guide placed Phở Thìn by SOL in District 1, which is wrong; it is on Xuan Thuy in Thao Dien. One venue has been removed because its location could not be confirmed.

Saigon Scene partner venues are listed first and identified as such. A bowl only makes the list if it earns it, and two of these hold a Michelin Bib Gourmand independently of anything we think.