The 10 best pho restaurants in Boston
Pho in Boston starts in Dorchester, where the Fields Corner blocks of Dorchester Avenue and Adams Street were designated the Boston Little Saigon cultural district in May 2021, according to The Boston Globe. This list covers ten pho restaurants inside the city limits, from Fields Corner and Chinatown to East Boston, Jamaica Plain, Back Bay and Fort Point. It is for anyone who wants a bowl of beef or chicken noodle soup and wants to know where to sit down for one.
The list favors family-run Vietnamese kitchens where pho is the main business, plus a few neighborhood restaurants with a wider menu. Pho is still one of the cheaper sit-down meals in the city: The Food Lens puts Pho Le and Pho 2000 in the guide’s lowest price tier.
How we chose
This list is alphabetical, not ranked. Every restaurant is inside the City of Boston, which rules out well-known shops in Brookline, Somerville, Quincy and Cambridge. Selection rested on years in business, named and dated awards, and coverage in more than one independent outlet, including The Boston Globe, Boston.com, Boston magazine, the Dorchester Reporter, Time Out, The Infatuation and The Food Lens. No single site’s star rating decided a place. Hours appear only where the restaurant publishes them on a working website.
Hours and prices below come from each business and change without notice. Call ahead if you are making a special trip.
Ban Toi
Ban Toi is a Dorchester Avenue dining room north of Fields Corner whose kitchen cooks southern Vietnamese food, mostly dishes from Saigon, according to a Boston.com review published September 12, 2019. That review described the pho bo dac biet as a beef noodle soup with short rib, brisket and thin strips of beef aorta in a broth that was neither salty nor oily. The Infatuation’s November 2019 review singled out the chicken pho and a very clear broth. The Boston.com reviewer also ordered snails cooked with butter and garlic. Phone the restaurant before a special trip, because no official website with current hours could be found.
Hours: Check current hours before you go.
Address: 1035 Dorchester Ave., Dorchester, MA 02125
Why they made the list
- Boston.com gave the restaurant a full review in September 2019, and The Infatuation followed in November 2019.
- Boston.com readers named the restaurant in a May 2022 roundup of pho recommendations.
- The menu reaches past pho to a jackfruit salad, glass noodle soup with chicken and several seafood plates, according to the Boston.com review.
Mecha Noodle Bar
Mecha Noodle Bar is a regional group with five shops in Connecticut, others in Washington and Philadelphia, and Massachusetts locations in Brookline, Dedham and on Thomson Place in Fort Point. The company says the name means “mom and pop” in Vietnamese. The pho list is short and built on a beef and chicken broth: pho ga with sliced chicken, pho tai with rare flank steak, pho bo vien with beef balls, a braised brisket bowl and a triple beef bowl with roasted bone marrow. Ramen, bao and cocktails fill out the menu. The Boston shop does not take reservations, so expect to wait at peak times.
Hours: Check current hours before you go.
Address: 44 Thomson Place, Boston, MA 02210
Why they made the list
- The company’s menu lists six pho bowls and a children’s version called Baby Pho.
- Seating is first come, first served, and the company does not add names to the waitlist by phone.
- Pho add-ons on the menu include tripe, tendon, beef balls, sliced brisket, greens, tofu and marrow oil.
See the full directory listing
New Saigon
Orient Heights, the East Boston neighborhood along Bennington Street, is home to this counter-service Vietnamese shop. Time Out’s April 2024 pho guide recommended the seafood pho, a bowl with shrimp, squid, fish cakes, crab meat and vegetables, and a Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk to go with it. The Infatuation, in a February 2020 review, pointed to the pho, the vermicelli with grilled meat and the fried rice plates. The restaurant’s website takes online orders for carryout and delivery, and carryout ordering stops at 8:45 p.m., fifteen minutes before closing.
Hours: Daily, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Address: 985 Bennington St., Boston, MA 02128
Why they made the list
- The Infatuation called New Saigon the better of East Boston’s two Vietnamese restaurants in February 2020.
- Time Out included the shop among nine pho picks in April 2024.
- The restaurant’s own website lists vegetarian options alongside the beef noodle soups.
Noodle Barn
Jamaica Plain’s entry is a small Centre Street restaurant that cooks both Thai and Vietnamese food. Time Out’s April 2024 guide recommended the dac biet, the house combination pho, which can be ordered with rice noodles or yellow noodles and with added vegetables and tofu. Starters named in the same guide include spiced wings, salt and pepper calamari and crab rangoon, so a table with mixed tastes can eat here without everyone ordering soup. The restaurant’s website has an online ordering link and a phone number, 617-522-2299. On the day it was checked, the site showed opening at 11:30 a.m. and closing at 9:30 p.m.
Hours: Check current hours before you go.
Address: 707 Centre St., Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
Why they made the list
- Time Out picked Noodle Barn as one of nine pho spots in April 2024.
- Boston.com readers recommended the restaurant in a May 2022 roundup of pho around Greater Boston.
- The restaurant’s website gives the address as 707 Centre Street and carries a 2026 copyright date.
Pho 2000
Regulars in Fields Corner know Pho 2000 as a casual, cafeteria-style room on Adams Street, to borrow The Infatuation’s description. Boston magazine gave the restaurant a 2018 Best of Boston award for neighborhood restaurant in Dorchester and praised the extra-large beef noodle soup, which comes with tripe, tendon, brisket, steak and flank. The Food Lens, in June 2023, recommended the same style of bowl and noted that beef balls can be added. Beyond pho, The Boston Globe’s 2021 Little Saigon guide named the bun bo hue, the seven-course beef dinner and a whole crispy catfish, and The Infatuation’s favorite dish is the banh xeo, a fried crepe with shrimp and pork.
Hours: Check current hours before you go.
Address: 198 Adams St., Dorchester, MA 02122
Why they made the list
- Boston magazine named Pho 2000 the best neighborhood restaurant in Dorchester in the 2018 Best of Boston awards.
- The Infatuation kept the restaurant in a Dorchester dining guide that was last updated in January 2025.
- The Boston Globe listed the restaurant in a May 2021 guide to the Boston Little Saigon district.
Pho Basil
Students and neighborhood residents are the regulars at this Massachusetts Avenue dining room at Haviland Street, according to Time Out, and The Food Lens notes that Berklee College of Music is close by. Pho Basil cooks Thai and Vietnamese food side by side, and the restaurant’s website gives pho a menu section separate from the Thai noodle soups. The Food Lens, in June 2023, recommended three bowls: pho sate with chili, the dac biet combination and pho ga with chicken. Eight other pho bowls were on the menu at that time, and any bowl could be ordered with added meatballs or a raw egg yolk. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free sections on the website make ordering simpler for a mixed group.
Hours: Check current hours before you go.
Address: 177A Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA 02115
Why they made the list
- The Food Lens included Pho Basil in a June 2023 guide to pho in Boston.
- Boston.com readers recommended the restaurant in May 2022.
- Time Out’s listing says the kitchen prepares the Thai and Vietnamese menus equally well.
Pho Hoa
Since 1992, by the restaurant’s own account, Pho Hoa has cooked pho in Dorchester, and The Infatuation describes the dining room at 1370 Dorchester Avenue as larger than most Vietnamese restaurants nearby. Thanh Le founded the restaurant, and in February 2022 the Dorchester Reporter wrote that Pho Hoa was merging with Anh Hong, another Fields Corner Vietnamese restaurant, which had closed in late December 2021 after a dispute with a landlord. That merger brought Anh Hong’s seven courses of beef onto the menu. Order the pho dac biet, the bowl The Boston Globe singled out in 2021, or the filet mignon pho that Boston.com readers praised in 2022. Online ordering runs through the restaurant’s website.
Hours: Sunday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Address: 1370 Dorchester Ave., Boston, MA 02122
Why they made the list
- Boston magazine gave the combined Pho Hoa and Anh Hong the 2023 Best of Boston award for Vietnamese food.
- Boston magazine also named Pho Hoa the best neighborhood restaurant in Dorchester in 2022.
- The Infatuation’s Dorchester guide, updated in January 2025, calls the restaurant the guide’s choice for a bowl of pho.
- Boston.com readers put the restaurant in the top five for pho in Greater Boston in May 2022.
Pho Le
On the same Fields Corner block of Dorchester Avenue as Pho Hoa, Pho Le belongs to the Le family, who say on the restaurant’s website that they have run restaurants in Boston and Cambridge for more than 30 years, starting with a small shop that made only noodle soup. The Boston Globe identified them in 2021 as the family behind the original Pho Pasteur restaurants. The Infatuation’s review, updated in January 2026, names the house special soup as the best one: rare eye round, well-done flank, brisket, tendon and tripe in bone broth. The same review recommends roasted quail and tapioca dumplings filled with caramelized shrimp. Takeout orders go through the website or by phone at 617-506-6294.
Hours: Check current hours before you go.
Address: 1356 Dorchester Ave., Boston, MA 02122
Why they made the list
- The Infatuation includes Pho Le in a guide to the top 25 restaurants in Boston.
- Time Out, The Food Lens and Boston.com readers have all recommended the restaurant since 2022.
- The Infatuation describes the room as always busy with fast service and a table usually available.
- The Food Lens counted eight variations of pho on the menu in June 2023, along with seven-course beef and oven-roasted catfish.
Pho Pasteur
Chinatown’s best-known pho house opened on Washington Street in 1991 and, by the restaurant’s own account, was the first Vietnamese restaurant in the city. The broth is made fresh every morning from family recipes, the restaurant says. When Boston.com asked readers for pho recommendations in May 2022, more than 150 replied and Pho Pasteur was the clear first choice. Time Out suggests the dac biet, or the bo vien soup with beef meatballs for something simpler. The location works for a meal before a show, since the restaurant is a short walk from the Theatre District, Boston Common and Tufts Medical Center. A second Pho Pasteur is in Quincy Center.
Hours: Daily, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Address: 682 Washington St., Boston, MA 02111
Why they made the list
- Boston.com readers ranked Pho Pasteur first for pho in Greater Boston in a May 2022 poll.
- The restaurant has been at the same Chinatown address for more than 30 years, according to the restaurant’s website.
- Online ordering and a rewards program are available through the restaurant’s website.
See the full directory listing
Saigon Hut
A bright pink storefront on Meridian Street in East Boston marks Saigon Hut, a small noodle shop with a full Vietnamese menu. Time Out’s April 2024 guide called the paint job hard to miss and recommended the chicken pho, made with a natural chicken broth, shredded chicken, rice noodles and vegetables. A separate local roundup from 2023 pointed to the steak pho. Along with New Saigon, this is one of the two Vietnamese restaurants in East Boston that The Infatuation counted in 2020, so the neighborhood has little else for pho. No official website could be found, so confirm hours by phone at 617-567-1944.
Hours: Check current hours before you go.
Address: 305 Meridian St., Boston, MA 02128
Why they made the list
- Time Out chose Saigon Hut as one of nine pho picks in April 2024.
- Boston.com readers recommended the shop in a May 2022 roundup.
- The menu covers the standard Vietnamese dishes in addition to pho, according to Time Out.
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