Politely showing foodie enthusiasm and disobeying kind recommendations by Anan’s staff to use the elevator to save my breath for dinner, I trekked up to the third level (4th floor) of Anan Saigon’s in-the-middle-of-wet-market-action venue to Pot au Pho, Michelin-starred chef Peter Franklin Cuong’s (IG: petercuongfranklin) new culinary brainchild that promises to elevate the experience of good ole phở consumption.
The view is both antiquated and stunning, but I’ll save you time and jump into the gourmet details.
A symphonious clash between Vietnamese culinary techniques and modern innovations
“We clarify our broth for 4 to 6 hours with French consommé technique after 24 hours of cooking traditional Phở broth for a liquid that is both clear yet complex at the same time,” Thượng, or Top (as he prefers to be called), mans Pot au Pho’s ramen bar-like counter.
It’s not your typical venue where hierarchical back-of-house terms are used, so I conveniently started calling him phở-master-boi for ease of mental processing.
Oddly enough, a starter unique to Pot au Pho (which is not offered at Anan) is based on central Vietnam’s favorite mì quảng. Enriched with what is best described as a bisque made from tomalley, (or shrimp entrails if you’re a layperson in reality like myself), garnished with authentic mì quảng herbs such as baby mustard greens and topped with flambéed giant river prawn, I’m not going to avoid calling this dish mì quảng on crack that has kept to its ancestral roots.
Another starter unique to Pot au Pho is the Đà Lạt Xíu Mại — heartwarming without the need of being life-changing thanks to buttered bánh mì toast, finely shredded raw papaya and a flavorful pork-based broth that prepares your taste buds for the main course.
“People in Đà Lạt love this because of the cold weather,” Top explains with geographical precision.
A noodle soup where ultimate richness meets clarity
Queue the star of the show — Pot Au Pho’s torched bone marrow phở bò complete with sous vide wagyu short rib, Angus tenderloin, ribeye, and a Chinese-style quẩy breadstick made dogmatically out of uncut puffed phở noodles.
And my oh my this chunk of marrow goes way beyond its truffle dressing.
“We sous vide [it] before grilling. But not so much until it melts so we can torch it before serving!” Top elaborates.
Admittedly, I could not commit to finishing the entire serving of marrow, but whether scrapped into Pot Au Pho’s rich broth or enjoyed off the spoon like the “butter of the gods” as Guga calls it, the mouthfeel was awesome and devoid of what you might call overt or disagreeable beefiness.
The experience has certainly convinced me about chef Peter’s insistence that Pot Au Pho is best described as “a modern phở restaurant with French and Japanese influences”.
A member of Saucefish’s team jokingly calls it ra-phở.
To be honest, that is deserving praise not too far from reality — ramen’s obsession with numerically precise prep, rich complexity, and caloric goodness meets traditional phở’s never-ending mission to realize divine-bovine clarity.
POT AU PHỞ
- Address: 3F, 89 Tôn Thất Đạm, Bến Nghé Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Opening hours: 5–11 PM, closed on Mondays
- Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/POTAUPHObyANAN/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/potauphobyanan/
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