Pho Tai appears as a signature dish in 2 United States cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Pho tai · Minneapolis
Pho tai is rare-beef pho: paper-thin raw eye-of-round laid over rice noodles, cooked at the table by ladles of clove and star anise broth simmered overnight from beef bones.
The Twin Cities Vietnamese community grew steadily after 1975 and now numbers around 30,000 in the metro, concentrated along University Avenue in Saint Paul and around Eat Street on Nicollet in Minneapolis. Quang opened on Nicollet in 1989 as a four-table bakery run by Lung Tran and grew across the street into the full restaurant; five of Tran's children still run the line. The pho-tai cult is real: Twin Cities reviewers regularly debate Quang versus Pham's Deli at Midtown Global Market versus Pho Tau Bay, with Quang holding the popular vote for the cleanest broth and the biggest portion.
Where to eat in Minneapolis:
- Quang Restaurant
- Pham's Deli
Pho tai · Orlando
Pho tai is the canonical Vietnamese beef noodle soup, with rare-sliced beef cooked at the table by hot broth poured over rice noodles, herbs, lime and chili.
Pho came to America with Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon in 1975, and Central Florida absorbed a major Vietnamese settlement through the 1980s and 1990s. Orlando's Mills 50 district along Mills Avenue and Colonial Drive became the Southeast's densest Vietnamese restaurant corridor by the 2000s, with dozens of pho counters within walking distance. Pho 88 on North Mills has anchored the corridor since 1996, with Z Asian and the newer rooms expanding the form. Pho tai is the rare-beef starter version that most Mills 50 cooks treat as the canonical first order.
Where to eat in Orlando:
- Pho 88
- Z Asian Vietnamese Kitchen
- Hawkers Asian Street Food