{"id":70614,"date":"2025-11-26T12:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/70614\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T12:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:18:08","slug":"pho-star-casual-vietnamese-in-s-fs-mission-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/70614\/","title":{"rendered":"Ph\u1edf Star \u2013 Casual Vietnamese in S.F’s Mission District"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hadn\u2019t had Vietnamese food in way too long, so when I saw that a new family-run ph\u1edf place had opened up on 16th between Guerrero and Dolores, I hopped to. Their website says they\u2019ve been open in NYC\u2019s Chinatown since 2001. The space in their Mission District outpost is modern, clean, and bright, with floor-to-ceiling windows. And it\u2019s a handy place to have before or after a couple of cocktails at Elixir.<\/p>\n

Three of us shared an order of Imperial Rolls: <\/p>\n

\"AImperial Rolls. Photo by Maria C. Ascarrunz. <\/p>\n

What I really liked about these, besides the good mix of flavorful pork and veggies, was the raggedy, homemade vibe they gave, with the crispiest, crunchiest bites I\u2019d had in an imperial roll in a while. We wolfed these down and I was tempted to order more.<\/p>\n

When the garlic noodles I ordered for the table arrived, however, I thought I\u2019d gone overboard.<\/p>\n

\"AGarlic Noodles. Photo by Maria C. Ascarrunz. <\/p>\n

First, they\u2019re a lot, but second, they don\u2019t look like much. But the aroma! The scent of garlic was so intense that I thought for sure they\u2019d be overwhelmed, or bitter-tasting.\u00a0 I was wrong on all counts. These had the perfect amount of mellow garlicky-ness, with a delicious buttery quality, and the noodles themselves had a wonderfully bouncy and satisfying chew.\u00a0 I especially loved the crispy bits of garlic on top.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of my friends ordered chicken ph\u1edf.<\/p>\n

\"AChicken Pho. Photo by Maria C. Ascarrunz. <\/p>\n

He found the broth a bit bland (but admitted he\u2019d had a cold). I admired the clarity of the broth, and got a clean chicken flavor when I tasted it, but it could have used a bit more oomph. Their other ph\u1edf offerings are pretty standard \u2013 rare beef, brisket \u2013 for instance, but no tripe or tendon. They also have a chicken wonton soup.<\/p>\n

Another at our table had the five-spice chicken b\u00fan plate.<\/p>\n

\"A5 Spice Chicken Bun Plate, Photo by Maria C. Ascarrunz. <\/p>\n

Rather than offering a true b\u00fan dish, all the dishes under the Special Entr\u00e9e section of the menu (lemongrass pork chop, grilled pork, shaking beef, beef stew, and vegetarian options of string bean or eggplant and tofu) come with a choice of rice, garlic noodles, salad, or b\u00fan. My friend\u2019s b\u00fan came with the requisite n\u01b0\u1edbc ch\u1ea5m. The flavor was fine, though I found the chicken a little dry.\u00a0 Her main complaint was that there wasn\u2019t any pickled radish\/carrots, mint, sprouts, or basil, just a few scallions for greenery. The chicken ph\u1edf at least came with veg.<\/p>\n

I had the B\u00fan b\u00f2 Hu\u1ebf.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ABun Bo Hue. Photo by Maria C. Ascarrunz. <\/p>\n

Now that\u2019s what I call a handsome bowl of soup! Unlike ph\u1edf, b\u00fan b\u00f2 hu\u1ebf has a more assertive broth, distinctly lemongrassy and with a bit of a kick. The tender raw beef shank slices were the star of the meats, followed by the sliced pork hock and typically spongy meatballs. The steaming heat disguised some of the boldness, but once it cooled down I was pleased with the rich spicing. And there was more than enough for another meal the next day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pho Star also offers banh mi sandwiches, yellow curries, tofu rolls, and chicken potstickers in a contemporary, casual setting, reasonably priced. I\u2019d be curious to try the all rare beef ph\u1edf and a banh mi. They have decent wine, beer, and Vietnamese iced coffee.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pho Star may not be a destination place, but not all of them have to be. Sometimes it\u2019s just what you find right next door.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pho Star<\/a>
3214 16th St., \u00a0San Francisco <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I hadn\u2019t had Vietnamese food in way too long, so when I saw that a new family-run ph\u1edf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[413,579,412,24928,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-70614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-food","9":"tag-restaurant-reviews","10":"tag-restaurants","11":"tag-reviews","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","14":"tag-san-francisco-news","15":"tag-sf","16":"tag-sf-headlines","17":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}