This brick-lined restaurant with ample tables lurks under the elevated 4 train tracks in Fordham Manor, in a small Cambodian neighborhood near Edgar Allen Poe’s country cottage. The pho is in the style of the Mekong Delta southwest of Saigon, with delicate rice noodles, which has great beef balls, nice sliced steak, and an oniony savor. Chicken, vegan, and seafood versions are available. 

The appearance of Bánh in 2020 redefined the Vietnamese dining landscape, Suddenly we had new and novel banh mi, and unusual main ingredients like snails. There are currently four choices of pho, including pho ga and a vegetarian pho presented in the dry style.

The menu of this West Side Vietnamese micro-cafe is comfortable despite its adherence to fast-casual principals. Two kinds of beef pho are offered with a choice of cuts, and Italian-style meatballs substituted for beef balls. The usual sprouts, basil, and fresh jalapeno accompany. Pick one meat for the lowest price, and be very satisfied with the soup, which uses a beef broth of medium weight.

This Teochew restaurant offers a full range of southern Chinese and Southeast Asian specialties — including the selection of barbecue shown in the window — but devotes the most attention to Vietnamese food. The pho section of the menu presents nine varieties, including those focusing on duck, and a beef and pig foot combo that is wonderfully gluey.

This new upscale Vietnamese in Greenwich Village right on Bleecker Street is great for people watching and the pho is substantial. It’s loaded with sliced raw ribeye and fatty oxtail, making the broth one of the richest in town. The garlic vinegar on the side is a welcome innovation.

This wildly popular MacDougal Street mainstay offers what is probably the richest version of pho in town. The unabashedly aggressive broth is heavily laden with tallow, and an entire beef rib — sloughing a substantial quantity of beef — is thrust in the middle of the soup, eclipsing every other ingredient including the noodles. Ask for an extra lime wedge.

The handsome setting, with a bicycle rickshaw in the front window is reason enough to visit this East Village spot. The pho from chef Jimmy Ly is good, in a Saigon sort of way. The Madame Vo version features flank steak, bone marrow, and — best of all, to my way of thinking — bouncy beef balls. A plate of fresh basil, sprouts, and jalapeno comes on the side, along with bottles of hoisin and sriracha. The rice noodles are thicker than most.

Hanoi House turns out an unfussy pho propelled by cilantro and green onions. The broth is particularly strong, having been boiled for 30 hours and seemingly devoid of sweet spices. Don’t miss the pickled garlic vinegar and house hot sauce, for adding to the soup or dipping the meat in.

For a time late in the last century, this was the city’s favorite pho spot — and not only because it was located on the Lower East Side. Indeed, the pho was fine, with a light broth that tasted slightly of five-spice powder, sturdy noodles, and a bewildering number of beef types. Most customers ordered xe lua, the most deluxe version, because why not? Note: There’s a new branch downstairs at the Essex Market with a limited menu.

This offshoot of a banh mi shop on Elizabeth Street operated by Cô Út Trang has an ambitious Vietnamese menu, and one of its best dishes is pho ga in the northern style, a plainish but delicious chicken version of pho that’s becoming more popular partly due to the high cost of beef. Special attention has been paid to the noodles, and a beef version is available, too.

The menu explores the cooking of Laos and Thailand. The biggest and most impressive feed, however, is an excellent bowl of pho in the style of Nong-Khai, a northeast Thai town on the Mekong River. Based on a highly caramelized oxtail broth, the soup is furnished with a whole slew of dips, herbs, and add-ins, and the brisket is delightfully rich and gooey.

The sliced eye of round thrown into the soup is so rare it’s still mooing, at this Sunset Park Vietnamese stalwart famous for its banh mi sandwiches. The dining room offers views of the street, and it couldn’t be cozier, as the neighborhood population darts in for a coffee or a pastry from the bakery case. The beef pho is way above average, and the accompanying herbs and sprouts sing with freshness in one of the city’s quintessential Saigon-style bowls.

This small unpretentious shoebox of a place poised over the light rail station at New Dorp really rocks the pho, and they’ll let you depart from the pre-set beef combinations, which is how I scored a bowl with just brisket and beef balls — my two favorite inclusions. The broth is pleasantly plain, and not overly laden with cinnamon or five-spice powder, and the noodles are soft and of medium circumference. The raw white onion and cilantro make the broth soar.