Phở Bình Minh
A top-down bowl of phở with rare beef, lime and fresh herbs

The broth wakes before you

Simmered from midnight, ladled at first light on a Hàng Bạc pavement.

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The all-night broth

While the city sleeps

Six hours, the same clock every night. Nobody hurries a pot of phở.

06:00First light, first bowl

Mist lying over a valley at dawn

06:00 - the lid comes off

Build your bowl

Yours in four moves

Point at the pot, nod at the basket. That is the whole ordering system.

  1. Nước dùng - the broth

    • Bò - beef, deep and dark
    • Gà - chicken, light and clear

  2. Bánh phở - the noodles

    • Fresh rice noodles, cut this morning

  3. Rau thơm - the herbs

    • Basil, sawtooth herb, sprouts - pile them high

  4. Thêm - the extras

    • Poached egg
    • Quẩy - fried dough sticks
    • Extra rare beef

The herb garden

Green on top of everything

The basket lands on your table before the bowl does.

  • Húng quế

    Thai basil - sweet anise, torn in last

  • Ngò gai

    Sawtooth herb - the sharp green backbone

  • Hành lá

    Spring onion - showered over every bowl

  • Giá

    Bean sprouts - cold crunch against hot broth

  • Chanh

    Lime - squeeze first, taste later

  • Ớt

    Bird's-eye chili - brave hands only

A street-food stall glowing at night

The family

Three generations, twenty-one stools

Phở Bình Minh is a family quán: grandmother's pot, father's fire, and a row of low plastic stools on the Hàng Bạc pavement. We start the broth at midnight so it is perfect by sunrise.

Build your bowl, pile on the herbs, squeeze the lime, and eat while it steams. When the pot runs dry - usually before lunch - we stack the stools and go home.

“Ngồi xuống, ăn đi!” - sit down and eat.

Saigon skyline at dusk

From dawn

On the pavement from six

No bookings, no list. Take a stool when one is free - the pot decides when we close.

Address
12 Hang Bac, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi
Hours
Daily 06:00-13:00

No bookings - when the pot runs dry, we close.

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Reviews

  • My sister chose it and I was sceptical, having been dragged to worse. Nothing on the table beat the Đĩa Rau Thơm, though the rest of it tried. Bring cash for the tip; the card machine will not take one.

    Matteo R.3 months ago

  • Booked for two, ended up as four, and they did not blink. The Cà Phê Sữa Đá arrived and the conversation stopped for a minute. Booked the same table for a fortnight's time before we had left.

    Petra V.6 weeks ago

  • Went on a wet Monday expecting it to be half empty. It was not. Take the Phở Bò, even if you are fairly sure you do not want it. Worth the trip across Hanoi, and I do not say that lightly.

    Oskar L.last month