![\"Illustration:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/PhoDuoiBo.jpg\")
While Ph\u1edf \u0110u\u00f4i B\u00f2 is best known for its blowtorched wagyu beef, the East San Jos\u00e9 restaurant\u2019s ph\u1edf itself is worth seeking out in its own right. \u00a0(Thien Pham)<\/p>\nWhile Ph\u1edf \u0110u\u00f4i B\u00f2 is best known for its blowtorched wagyu beef, the East San Jos\u00e9 restaurant\u2019s ph\u1edf itself is worth seeking out in its own right. \u00a0(Thien Pham)<\/p>\n
The Midnight Diners<\/a> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist Thien Pham<\/a>. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area\u2019s after-hours dining scene.<\/p>\n When we pulled into the strip mall parking lot in Eastside San Jos\u00e9<\/a> at a little past 9 o\u2019clock on a recent Friday night, the whole plaza had mostly shut down for the night: the beauty salon, the durian dessert shop<\/a>, the vegan tofu deli<\/a>. The one restaurant still open, a neon-lit beacon in the night, was Ph\u1edf \u0110u\u00f4i B\u00f2, where about a dozen would-be diners mingled on the curb outside, waiting for a table.<\/p>\n Their goal? To snag one of the city\u2019s most talked-about bowls of ph\u1edf \u2014 and, especially, for its blowtorched wagyu beef, served on top.<\/p>\n Both of us had eaten at \u0110u\u00f4i B\u00f2 before and liked it enough to return on multiple occasions, families in tow. But the restaurant hit our radar again this summer when it put up a neon \u201cLATE NIGHT EATS\u201d sign and extended its hours past midnight \u2014 a rarity in a city whose excellent ph\u1edf shops mostly close by 8 or 9 p.m. \u0110u\u00f4i B\u00f2, on the other hand, is now open from 9 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. every day of the week: breakfast, lunch, dinner and second dinner. The shop\u2019s hours are so long, we got dizzy just imagining the size of their stock pot.<\/p>\n The crowd is largely Vietnamese (with other assorted Asians), but less overwhelmingly so than at many of San Jos\u00e9\u2019s other top ph\u1edf spots. There were at least two or three tables\u2019 worth of diverse, non-Asian twentysomethings who\u2019d waited in line like everyone else \u2014 evidence, perhaps, of the restaurant\u2019s recent popularity among the South Bay\u2019s food influencer class<\/a>. A lot of times you can tell how good an Asian restaurant is by its cross-generational appeal. Even at 9 p.m., there seemed to be as many 70-year-old Vietnamese aunties and uncles lining up for a hot bowl of ph\u1edf as there were big groups of college kids.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Ph\u1edf \u0110u\u00f4i B\u00f2 first opened in 2024, the restaurant captured the attention of local ph\u1edf lovers by offering flame-blasted Kobe beef as a topping option, sizzling the well-marbled slices of meat with a mini blowtorch tableside: the very definition of a gimmicky, Insta-viral offering. As it turns out, the torched beef (not really \u201cKobe<\/a>,\u201d as it\u2019s listed on the menu, but American wagyu from Snake River Farms) is delicious (more on that in a second).\u00a0<\/p>\n But beyond the flashy pyrotechnics, the core of the restaurant is a lot more rustic and homey. During our visit, the soundtrack was a mix of smooth jazz and old Vietnamese love ballads. In this age of tacky AI-generated wall art, the handpainted murals that line \u0110u\u00f4i B\u00f2\u2019s dining room depict Vietnamese countryside scenes \u2014 a bull rearing up in a grassy plain, a resplendently garnished bowl of ph\u1edf. Nothing about the place reads as overtly \u201ccool\u201d or trendy. And nothing tastes homier than the ph\u1edf broth itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n The name \u201c\u0111u\u00f4i b\u00f2\u201d means oxtail, so of course we decided to order the deluxe oxtail ph\u1edf, which comes with all the meats you\u2019d get in a bowl of \u0111\u1eb7c bi\u1ec7t (\u201cspecial\u201d) ph\u1edf, plus a big, meaty tailbone that we happily gnawed clean. Here\u2019s our pro tip, though: The reason the restaurant has that name is because it uses dozens of oxtails to make the broth itself, through hours upon hours of slow simmering. The end result is that those tails wind up rather chewy, and all of the flavor has gone into the broth, which is some of the richest and most flavorful we\u2019ve had in the Bay. It\u2019s loaded with collagen and big, glistening droplets of fat, but also clean and light on the palate. And that\u2019s the same broth you get no matter which ph\u1edf you order.\u00a0<\/p>\n For our second bowl, then, we stuck with our usual favorites: raw steak (served on the side so we could poach it in the hot soup at the last minute), the soft tendons, the fatty brisket and bouncy meatballs. We opted for the wider, springier fresh noodles, and doctored up a little dipping sauce for our meats: some fish sauce and Sriracha, a clutch of vinegared onions (available as a $1 side), a squeeze of lime. \u0110u\u00f4i B\u00f2 also offers Chinese fried crullers as a side dish. Fresh out of the deep fryer, these make an excellent addition to a bowl of ph\u1edf; the contrast between their crunchiness and the bit of sogginess they pick up after they\u2019ve bobbed around in the soup for a minute is just sublime.<\/p>\n![\"Storefront](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/PhoDuoiBo2.jpg\")
The restaurant recently extended its hours, which means its ph\u1edf is now available until 12;30 a.m. daily.\u00a0(Thien Pham)<\/p>\n