A Beginner's Guide to Vietnamese Noodle Soups.

Pho is the one everybody knows, and it is genuinely great, but it is one entry in a long list. Vietnamese cooking has a dozen noodle soups that are as established as pho at home and almost unknown outside it — different broths, different noodles, different regions, and in several cases a completely different idea of what a soup should taste like.

Here is what is on the menu, and which to order next.

How to read a Vietnamese noodle soup menu

Most names are a compound of the noodle and the main ingredient. Once you know the noodle words, half the menu decodes itself.

• Phở — flat rice noodles
• Bún — round rice noodles, like a thick vermicelli
• Hủ tiếu — thin rice or tapioca noodles, chewy and clear when tapioca
• Mì — yellow wheat-and-egg noodles
• Miến — glass noodles, from mung bean
• Bánh canh — thick, round tapioca or rice noodles, closer to udon

So bún bò is round noodles with beef; mì quảng is wheat noodles from Quảng Nam; miến gà is glass noodles with chicken.

Phở

Northern, from around Hanoi. A clear beef broth simmered with charred onion, ginger and warm spice — star anise, cassia, clove, coriander seed — served with flat rice noodles and thin-sliced beef. It arrives deliberately underseasoned, and the herb plate is how you finish it.

Order tái for rare steak, chín for well-done brisket, đặc biệt for everything including tendon and tripe. Chicken versions (phở gà) are common and lighter.

Bún bò Huế

Central, from the old imperial capital. Beef and pork bones, a great deal of lemongrass, fermented shrimp paste, and annatto chilli oil that turns it red-orange. Thick round noodles, beef shank, pork hock, cubed pork blood and steamed pork sausage.

It is spicier, funkier and more assertive than pho, and it arrives already seasoned. This is the single best next soup for anyone who finds pho mild. There is a full explainer in what is bún bò Huế and a direct comparison in pho vs. bún bò Huế.

Bún riêu

A tomato broth thickened with a paste of freshwater crab or shrimp, seasoned with fermented shrimp paste and topped with a soft, curd-like raft of crab and egg. Often served with fried tofu, congealed pork blood and pork hock.

Sour, savoury and light in a way that surprises people expecting another rich bowl. If you like tomato and shellfish, this is the one to order early.

Hủ tiếu

Southern, with Chinese and Cambodian roots. A clear, faintly sweet pork broth — often with dried squid or rock sugar — served with thin noodles, sliced pork, shrimp, quail egg and fried garlic.

Critically, it is frequently served khô: dry, with the broth in a separate bowl. If you dislike eating soup but like noodles, order hủ tiếu khô and you have found your dish.

Mì Quảng

From Quảng Nam in central Vietnam, and barely a soup at all — the broth is a small amount of intense, turmeric-yellow stock at the bottom of the bowl rather than something you drink. Wide yellow noodles, pork and shrimp, peanuts, fresh herbs and a piece of toasted sesame rice cracker crumbled over the top.

Texturally the most interesting bowl on this list: crunchy, chewy and soft at once.

Bánh canh

Thick, slippery tapioca noodles in a broth that is usually thickened rather than clear. Bánh canh cua with crab is the common version, and it eats almost like a chowder. The noodles are the point — dense and bouncy, closer to udon than to anything else Vietnamese.

Miến

Glass noodles, usually with chicken (miến gà) or eel (miến lươn). The lightest option here, and the standard order for someone who wants a soup that does not sit heavily.

What to order, in order

1. Phở, to establish the baseline.
2. Bún bò Huế, to find out what the opposite philosophy tastes like.
3. Bún riêu, for a broth built on tomato and shellfish rather than bone.
4. Hủ tiếu khô, to see what the noodles do without the soup.
5. Mì Quảng, once texture has become the thing you are chasing.

Where to eat them in the South Bay

San Jose has one of the largest Vietnamese populations in the United States, and the range on offer here goes well past what most American cities can support — regional soups from Huế, Quảng Nam and the Mekong Delta are all cooked by people from those places.

Not everything Vietnamese is a soup — cơm tấm is the plate half of the cuisine. Forkelo currently ranks two of the soups in depth: the best pho in the South Bay and the best bún bò Huế in the South Bay. Every noodle soup ranking is at the noodle soup category page, and if you would rather eat a sandwich, the banh mi ranking is next door.