Pho 79

2529 Nicollet Ave
Minneapolis, MN
612-871-4602

Category: Vietnamese

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 7
Service: 6
Ambience: 3

Recommendation: Very Good. This Eat Street Vietnamese restaurant serves excellent Pho (Beef Noodle Soup)!

There is a lot of debate on local food blogs on who serves the best Pho in the Twin Cities. We ourselves have written about the Pho at Quang, Kimson, and Hoa Bien and are on a quest to find our Twin Cities favorite. So when a close friend told us the best Pho he’s had is at Pho 79, we had to try it. The restaurant itself has little in the way of atmosphere, which we have come to expect after having been to a couple of dozen ethnic places that all serve great food. Pho 79, a Vietnamese restaurant and Caravelle, a Chinese restaurant share their kitchens. While the two dining rooms are separate, there is only one entrance and you can be seated in either dining room. They bring you menus to both restaurants. Pho 79’s menu has more than 15 different Pho’s listed...the primary difference being the type(s) of meat you add to your soup (the broth is the same regardless of what version you get). Pho 79 also offers a variety of appetizers, other Noodle Soups, Rice Vermicelli Salads, and some vegetarian entrees.

Pho is a traditional Vietnamese Noodle soup with a flavorful beef broth, various cuts of meat, and accompaniments to top your soup with. The toppings is what makes each bowl of soup unique as everyone adds varying amounts of jalapeno peppers, sprouts, lime wedges, fragrant Thai Basil, and sauces such as Sriracha and Hoisin. We like our Pho to be spicy and sour so we add all of these ingredients (minus the sweeter Hoisin sauce) in plenty. The traditional way to eat this soup is with chopsticks in one hand and a soup spoon in the other – once you get the hang of it, you’ll have fun. After trying a variety of meats in our Pho, we have both switched to the meatless version. Meats such as rare lean beef, well done flank, fat brisket, soft tendon, tripe, and meatballs can be added to the dish but we have found them to be consistently bland and very “meaty” tasting. Our palates prefer bold flavors and we’re just not able to appreciate the bland meat in the Pho, especially given that the broth has plenty of flavor. Our opinion – the Pho at Pho 79 is delicious but we’d still rank Quang and Hoa Bien up there along with it. The Iced Coffee, made traditionally with Chicory Coffee and sweetened condensed milk is nice and strong. The Spicy Chicken Wings were an excellent appetizer (sweet, spicy, and deliciously sticky) but the Fried Sweet Potato with Shrimp didn’t impress us. A bowl of Pho costs $6-$7 and you’ll have leftovers for the next day.

$. Free parking in the lot located right next to the restaurant.