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The Best Pho in Melbourne: Where to Find the City’s Finest Bowls This Winter
From Richmond and Footscray institutions to Springvale, St Albans, Brunswick and CBD favourites, these are Melbourne’s best pho bowls for winter.
Melbourne takes pho seriously. From the Vietnamese dining strips of Richmond, Footscray and Springvale to CBD lunch counters, Brunswick favourites, Preston staples and St Albans institutions, the city is full of steaming bowls built on patience, spice and devotion. The best pho in Melbourne comes down to broth with depth, rice noodles with slip, herbs piled high and beef or chicken cooked just right.
Chasing rare beef, brisket, tendon, free-range chicken or vegan mushroom pho? These are the pho restaurants worth warming up with this winter.
Best pho in Melbourne by area
Footscray: Pho Hung Vuong Saigon, Phở Chú Thể
Richmond: I Love Pho, Hanoi Pho, Phở Chú Thể
Springvale: Phở Nhớ, Mr. Phở Hoa Hồi Vàng, Phở Thìn
St Albans: Phở Sắc, Phở Cô Hiền, Pho Kim Long
Brunswick/Coburg/Preston: Good Days, Pho My Tho, My Tho
The Best Pho in Melbourne
Pho Hung Vuong Saigon, Footscray
Footscray pho doesn’t get more storied than Pho Hung Vuong Saigon. The Hopkins Street favourite moves at lunch-rush speed, sending out rare beef pho with clear, deeply worked broth, springy noodles, sliced beef and herbs piled high. Service is brisk, the queue is part of the ritual, and outposts in Richmond, Clayton and Springvale keep loyalists fed across Melbourne.
Footscray, Clayton, Springvale and Richmond locations
My Tho, Preston
My Tho is the High Street pho shop northsiders defend with unusual force. In the heart of Preston, this Vietnamese favourite keeps things brisk, generous and broth-first, with rare beef pho built on clear aromatics, springy noodles and sliced beef. Regulars also rate the Vietnamese coleslaw, rice paper rolls and broken rice, so order beyond the bowl.
366 High Street, Preston
Phở Chú Thể – Uncle The’s, Footscray & Richmond
Phở Chú Thể, also known as Uncle The’s, has been feeding Melbourne since 1989, with pho shops in Footscray and Richmond. This is old-guard Vietnamese dining at full tilt: hot broth, rice noodles, herbs, rare beef, brisket, tendon, tripe, beef balls and no wasted motion. Order, season, slurp. The queue usually tells you everything before the bowl does.
92 Hopkins Street, Footscray
270 Victoria Street, Richmond
I Love Pho, Richmond
I Love Pho does exactly what its name promises. This Victoria Street stalwart is made for Richmond lunch breaks, late cravings and anyone who wants beef pho, chicken pho or special beef combination without theatre. The herbs are fresh, the noodles have bounce, and the broth lands clean and fragrant. Add rice paper rolls if the table needs distraction.
264 Victoria Street, Richmond
Phở Sắc, Braybrook, CBD & St Albans
Phở Sắc is the St Albans name with reach, ladling Northern-style pho across Braybrook and Melbourne CBD too. The combination beef pho is the full order, with rare beef, brisket, tendon and beef balls in a broth with weight and clarity. Oxtail goes richer, free-range chicken takes the cleaner lane, and winter is better for it.
Braybrook, Melbourne CBD, and St Albans locations
Thiên Long Restaurant, Bayswater
Thiên Long Restaurant is Bayswater’s Mountain Highway pho fix, a family-run Vietnamese restaurant for anyone craving the east’s answer to a Springvale run. The menu travels from rice paper rolls to stir-fries and Vietnamese coffee, but pho is the drawcard, prepared early each morning and served with suburban loyalty in every spoonful. Order beef pho and leave full
718-720 Mountain Highway, Bayswater
Pho My Tho, Coburg
Sydney Road has enough Vietnamese restaurants to punish the lazy, which makes Pho My Tho worth noting. This Coburg staple keeps things brisk and broth-first, with beef pho leading the charge and spring rolls rounding out the order. Chilli sharpens the edges, herbs do their fresh work, and the room gets straight to the point: steam, noodles, broth, done well.
136 Sydney Road, Coburg
Pho Hien Saigon, Sunshine
Sunshine does not play around with pho, and Pho Hien Saigon sits right in the thick of it on Hampshire Road. This west-side staple is all speed, steam and appetite, with special beef combination pho, sliced chicken noodle soup, beef balls and spicy beef soup for people who came hungry. Add Vietnamese coffee, then let the broth make its case.
3/284 Hampshire Road, Sunshine
Phở Cô Hiền, St Albans
St Albans has no shortage of serious pho, but Phở Cô Hiền makes its case through chicken. This small Main Road East eatery is known for rich, full-bodied chicken pho, with free-range chicken lending the broth real depth. Order the half-chicken set if you’re hungry, add crisp youtiao for dunking, and settle into another one of the west’s more quietly adored bowls.
218A Main Road East, St Albans
Pho Bo Ga Mekong Vietnam, Melbourne CBD
Pho Bo Ga Mekong Vietnam has fed Swanston Street for decades, and it still moves with the speed of a city institution that knows exactly what people came for. Bowls land fast, steaming and generous, from sliced beef and brisket to beef special pho, chicken pho and chargrilled chicken pho. Add spring rolls or broken rice if the hunger is serious. For pho in Melbourne CBD, Mekong remains a no-nonsense classic with staying power.
Sitchu Tip: The grilled chicken pho is a yes from us.
241 Swanston Street, Melbourne
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Shop Bao Ngoc, Brunswick
Shop Bao Ngoc is less a standard pho stop than a Brunswick food project with heart, politics and serious kitchen memory. Run by Ngọc Trần, the Victoria Street space moves between Vietnamese food, catering, pop-ups, workshops and community care, with a pay-what-you-can spirit and a fridge stocked for anyone who needs it. If phở gà is on, go.
Just check before you make the trip, because this is not a turn-up-whenever noodle shop.
387 Victoria Street, Brunswick
Phở Nhớ, Springvale, Richmond & Clayton
Phở Nhớ earns its place for the bowl that refuses to cool politely. This Springvale favourite is known for free-range chicken pho with broth that actually tastes of chicken, but the hot stone bowl is the one to chase in winter: bubbling, fragrant and built for dunking quẩy, softening noodles and keeping every spoonful fierce to the end. It is generous, lively and a little theatrical without losing the comfort that makes pho sacred.
Sitchu Tip: Order the coconut juice with kumquat on the side for the sharp, sweet reset you did not know the table needed.
20 Buckingham Avenue, Springvale
90 Victoria Street, Richmond
381 Clayton Road, Clayton
Good Days, Brunswick
Good Days is Brunswick’s sharpest modern pho house, the Sydney Road noodle shop you send to the vegan friend, the beef-broth devotee and anyone who thinks this strip has lost its nerve. The vegan mushroom pho runs on aromatic vegetable broth, grilled and fresh mushrooms, coriander, spring onion and fried shallots, while Black Angus brisket and topside keep the bone-broth crowd loyal. Smart, small-menu Brunswick pho with real point.
165 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Hanoi Pho, Richmond & Preston
Hanoi Pho is where Richmond and Preston go when winter starts biting. The beef pho runs on a 24-hour marrow-bone broth, deep, hot and plain-spoken, with rare beef, tendon, brisket point or beef balls depending on how much comfort the day requires. Chicken pho takes the cleaner road, sharpened with spring onion, lemon and garlic vinegar. No ceremony: steam, noodles and common sense, served fast.
160 Victoria Street, Richmond
4 Cramer Street, Preston
Phở Thìn, Melbourne CBD
Phở Thìn comes from Hanoi with a very clear idea of beef pho: hot, smoky, garlicky and not remotely delicate. The signature is phở tái lăn, with sliced beef flash-fried with garlic before sliding into the broth, taking the whole bowl somewhere deeper and darker. Add chopped herbs, spring onion and quẩy for dunking, then let Melbourne’s more familiar pho habits get rearranged.
CBD, Doncaster, Springvale & St Albans
Mr. Phở Hoa Hồi Vàng, Melbourne CBD & Springvale
Mr. Phở Hoa Hồi Vàng is not here for delicate little bowls. With locations in Springvale and the CBD, this Vietnamese spot goes big on deep, slow-simmered broth and fully loaded toppings, from the special beef pho with rare beef, brisket, tendon, tripe and beef balls to free-range chicken pho with offal and young eggs. Feeling lavish? There is wagyu rare beef, beef rib and oxtail on the menu too.
175 Russell Street, Melbourne
284C Springvale Road, Springvale
Pho Van, Chelsea
Chelsea’s pho scene has a sleeper worth knowing. Pho Van sits on Nepean Highway serving generous, steam-heavy bowls for the bayside south, with chicken, beef, seafood and tofu-friendly pho covering every winter craving. The broth is rich and comforting, the menu stretches into spring rolls and honey-glazed chicken ribs, and the whole thing feels like the reliable local you’re relieved to have close by.
439 Nepean Highway, Chelsea
Pho Kim Long, St Albans
Pho Kim Long is one of St Albans’ enduring pho names, with the Tran family serving Alfrieda Street for more than two decades. The menu stays close to the classics: sliced beef, brisket, beef balls, chicken and aromatic broth made for repeat visits. BBQ pork chop, vermicelli bowls and takeaway traffic round out a local favourite that knows its crowd.
60 Alfrieda Street, St Albans
So, whether you’re chasing rare beef, brisket, tendon, chicken pho or a vegan mushroom broth, Melbourne’s pho scene has a bowl worth crossing town for. From Richmond and Footscray to Springvale, St Albans and the CBD, the best pho in Melbourne is fragrant, fast, restorative and fiercely loved. Add the herbs, go heavy on the chilli, then follow the steam towards Melbourne’s best hot pot restaurants and hidden bars.
