You don’t come to this cosy basement in St-Michel for the view. The real draw is beef pho bo noodle soup with brisket, rare flank steak, chewy tendon, and tripe. The space is so small and the soup so aromatic, you’ll most likely smell like pho for the rest of the day, which is most definitely not a bad thing. 

Beef pho bo on the terrasse of this BYOB St-Michel shop is a summertime treat that’ll have you sweating in a heartbeat. Come winter, the rich broth is an indoor welcome warmer, full of rare beef, meatballs, tripe, tendons, well-done flank, and brisket. Boiled chicken pho gà and grilled chicken pho gà round out the soup options.

This family-run restaurant in Laval serves a mix of Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese specialties, but many just come for the pho, which include the classic rare beef, meatballs, tripe and flank as well as grilled chicken. Other soup options include long-simmered bun bo hue with beef and pork, tapioca udon noodles with pork and shrimp, and Vietnamese ramen with pork and seafood. 

At $9 for a small, $10 for a large and $11 for an extra-large, there’s no reason to not get the most giant bowl of beef pho here possible and toss in all the fresh herbs and bean sprouts that your heart desires. Top it up with extra meat for $3, and add on a red bean icy drink to cool off and you’re still getting one of the best deals on a soul-satisfying bowl of pho any day of the week. 

Rarely does Triple AAA-certified beef figure prominently on a pho menu, but longstanding Vietnamese restaurant La Belle Tonkinoise and its newer, cooler offshoot, La Belle Tonki (over on Beaubien), are big on quality. The former serves lunch, while the roomier Belle Tonki has taken over dinner service, adding funky menu items inspired by traditional Vietnamese cuisine, such as poutine with braised beef, homemade meatballs, and pho gravy. Bonus: it has local beers from 4 Origines, kombucha, and fun cocktails like the Old Feng Shui with bourbon, five-spice syrup and Thai green chili bitters.

The rare beef is a bloody treat at this pho spot tucked in a shopping mall near Côte-Vertu metro. It’s also some of the least expensive pho in the city, and comes with ample basil, mint and bean sprouts on the side whether you order your bowl with meatballs, tendon, tripe, or all-dressed. 

Sometimes when a restaurant says it has vegetarian pho, it turns out to be vegetables in chicken or beef broth. That’s not the case at Pho Rachel, where “vegetarian” means no animal products, and there’s even tofu instead of just leaving out the beef or chicken. But meat-eaters are catered to as well, with beef and chicken versions, served piping hot with all the fixings.  

Au 14 might be the only Vietnamese restaurant in the city serving duck pho, featuring a meaty, sweet-and-savoury broth kicked up a level with star anise. Those looking for something more nutritionally balances can add seasonal veggies to the soup for $1.50. 

There’s no hint of MSG in the earthy beef broth from Pho Real, a welcome addition in downtown Montreal. Even better, the homemade meatballs and sliced beef are a cut above what you sometimes find at the least expensive pho shops — no pre-frozen hot pot meat here. 

Arguably he best-known and most highly rated pho destination in Montreal, this restaurant near the Montreal Jewish Hospital draws diners with its giant bowls of noodles in a heavily spiced broth heady with fish sauce and sweet onions. Come for the raw beef version that usually gets to your table before the meat cooks through (as it should). The plates of herbs and bean sprouts are always fresh thanks to the high turnover. And if you don’t want to wait in the lunchtime line, there’s now a Pho Lien Express on Bishop Street, near Concordia University.

Quick and inexpensive, this soup is addictive. The basement location near Concordia University is perfect for when you want to keep your dinner date on the down low — or for when the only company you want is a huge bowl of chicken pho gà and a side of fresh rice paper rolls.

St-Henri’s relatively young Vietnamese snack bar serves a chicken broth soup with rare beef, flank, chicken or bean curd. With a family connection to Pho Tay Ho near Beaubien metro, the place uses quality ingredients, meaning it won’t be the cheaper MSG-hit you might expect (and crave) — but it’ll still be delicious. 

You don’t come to this no-frills Vietnamese restaurant in Brossard for the ambiance — you come for the broth that makes you close your eyes and sink into a sort of soup-induced zen. Beyond the beefy variants, there’s a chicken and lemon leaf pho, a grilled shrimp and vegetable option, and a hard-to-find vermicelli soup with snails (bún ôc). This isn’t officially pho (because of the broth and seasonings), but fits in nicely among the other noodle soups. The restaurant is also known for its other Vietnamese specialties, including steamed, savoury spheres of turmeric-hued pork, and shrimp cakes.