Pho Showdown: Thai Son vs Pho Bang

While it has been cold, many of us craved soupy noodles. And one of the better options out there is pho. It's Vietnamese rice noodles in a beef broth served with beef and other delicious cow organs. Yes, I said cow organs. You may call it tripe/offal/etc if you please. Anyway, off we went to Queens to see which Pho restaurant was better. There has been great debate over Thai Son and Pho Bang. We wanted to settle it once and for all. Let the showdown begin!

First, Thai Son. When we arrived, there were some scattered tables of other patrons. We sat down and quickly ordered. I knew pretty much what I was going to order: the xe lua. It the bowl of pho that includes all of the beef and the beef parts. I like the different textures and flavors of this. And it's a larger bowl.

BeerBoor ordered pho with fish meatballs and vegetables. He though of it as okay but then proceeded to pick all the broccoli out. Oh well, I happily ate it.

And here's my xe lua. Nice brown color to the broth, pink beef eye round, scattered tripe and other things, cilantro, and some onions.

Here's a closer look to my sliced beef. Nice and thin, it finishes in the broth. So what did I think? The noodles were good and plentiful. The meat was good and tender. Not much of the tripe though. The broth was just okay. It tasted like beef but wasn't overly flavorful. I proceeded to eat all of this to the end of the bowl. Yes, until all of the soup was done. I enjoyed it.

And now off to Pho Bang with my stomach feeling quite full. But I wanted to try it out anyway.

And so I went and ordered the same thing. This ordered seemed a little bigger. I couldn't really tell though because this bowl was more shallow but had a bigger circumference. Anyway, I dug in. The meat was overcooked as you can tell. It was actually a poor cut of beef. It became chewy and kind of grisly. It wasn't very appetizing. The noodles were standard. However, the beef broth was significantly better. You can really taste the beef in it.

Here's a closer look at the low quality beef. Bleh...

So which one did I enjoy better? Well, I guess it would have to come down to the better beef vs the better broth. It's a hard toss up. But I think I would pick Thai Son. It had a better quality meat and okay broth. Pho Bang had great broth but bad beef. This is only the case for their pho with beef. I have no idea what their other dishes taste like. Maybe I should go back and do another showdown.

Thai Son
4010 74th Street
NY 11373-5602
(718) 476-6805

Pho Bang
8290 Broadway
Elmhurst, NY 11373
(718) 205-1500