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[PHO NEST] There is no consensus pick for the city's best pho shop. So why is Pho An Sandy a lone wolf in this guide? Well, while the broth isn't quite meat-sticky enough—my favorite pho broths recall liquid steak—the place nails pretty much everything else. This plainly decorated restaurant actually includes culantro in your garnishes, has outrageously addictive mix bird's eye chilis and fish sauce on the table, and every rice plate we've had has been at least as good as the soup. Banh hoi dac biet ($13), which you'll find on the last page's list of traditional Vietnamese dishes, is a sort of DIY goi cuon delivered as a tabletop-clearing plate of ingredients and accessories including juicy ground beef wrapped tightly in the leaves of a pepper plant's leaves, rice noodles, two dipping sauces, dry half-moons of rice paper and the water to make them pliable and an herb garden of crisp leaves and sprigs. Don't worry, they'll show you—or try, at least—the proper assembly technique. For dessert, there's everything you expect plus a jelly-filled coconut, which is one of very few things here that proves more novelty than flavor. MARTIN CIZMAR.
Pho is in the name because "Traditional Vietnamese Dishes An Sandy" sounds weird. Start at the back of the menu and work your way forward.
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