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In what has turned into an annual event, we hosted pho at my place on Friday at lunch time instead of one of our usual pho restaurants. I made Pho Bo (beef soup), and my SO made deep-fried vegetarian spring rolls for an appetiser, both made from scratch.

Here's a slightly doctored photo of most of the group:

There were eleven of us, and 72 spring rolls. We ate them all.

The Pho Bo was an assemble-it-yourself type lunch, where the broth, rice noodles, thin-sliced eye-of-round and barbecue pork were laid out in the kitchen, along with some sliced shallots and green onions and tofu puffs. Each person helped themselves, buffet-style, to the fixings for their own creation.

Pictures of the soups are below.

Here are the ratings to date. There are lots of places in a virtual tie. That shows how consistently good our choices are.

Vietnam Palace: 9 (1 rating)
New Pho Bo Ga LA: 8.6 (5 ratings)
Mee Xim: 8 (1 rating)
Pho Bo Ga: 8 (1 rating)

Temptation Tea Shop: 7.875 (2 ratings)
Pho Bo Ga 2: 7.83 (3 ratings)
Pho Bo Ga 3: 7.83 (3 ratings)
Pho Rua Vang: 7.75 (2 ratings)
Pho Bo Ga La: 7.75 (2 ratings)
Phu Yen: 7.75 (1 rating)
Pho Thu Do: 7.6 (7 ratings)
Huong Que: 7.56 (9 ratings)
Chez Nam: 7.5 (2 ratings)
Vietnamese Kitchen: 7.5 (1 rating)
Pho Thang Long: 7.5 (1 rating)
Ox Head: 7.25 (2 ratings)
Pho Bo Ga Truc: 7.125 (4 ratings)
Pho Bo: 7 (3 ratings)
Pho Bac: 7 (2 ratings)
Mr. Saigon: 7 (1 rating)
Pho Truc Lien: 7 (1 rating)

Vietnam Noodle House: 6.625 (4 ratings)
May Lynh: 5.83 (3 ratings)
Lan Ky Restaurant: 5.75 (2 ratings)

Cam Kong: not rated, and closed now anyway

Here are the rankings of the restaurants thus far:

New Pho Bo Ga LA: 8.5 (3 reviews)
Pho Thu Do: 8.4 (4 reviews)
Pho Sai Gon: 8.3 (2 reviews)
Pho Bo Ga: 8 (1 review)

Pho Bo Ga 2: 7.8 (3 reviews)
Pho Bo Ga 3: 7.8 (3 reviews)
Pho Rua Vang: 7.8 (2 reviews)
Pho Bo Ga La: 7.8 (2 reviews)
Chez Nam: 7.5 (2 reviews)
Vietnamese Kitchen: 7.5 (1 review)
Pho Bo: 7 (3 reviews)
Pho Bac: 7 (2 reviews)

Vietnam Noodle House: 6.6 (4 reviews)
May Lynh: 5.8 (3 reviews)
Lan Ky Restaurant: 5.8 (2 reviews)

Once again, these should not be construed as scientific, just the ramblings of self-confessed pho enthusiasts.

Update: the list has been reposted. For some reason two of the places did not make it into my original post.

Here are the restaurants so far, in order of preference:

Pho Thu Do: 9 (1 rating)
New Pho Bo Ga LA: 8.5 (3 ratings)
Pho Sai Gon: 8.25 (2 ratings)
Pho Bo Ga: 8 (1 rating)
Pho Bo Ga 2: 7.25 (2 ratings)
Pho Bo: 7 (3 ratings)
Mr. Saigon: 7 (1 rating)
Lan Ky: 5.75 (2 ratings)

This probably isn't statistically valid especially as the top restaurant has only one rating, so don't set your expectations high. This is a work in progress and only reflects ratings as of 2005-07-12.