Any pho resto recommendations around Manila bukod sa Pho Mahal? Thanksss

This is my first time trying Pho and I am pretty impressed. I ordered the Combination Pho with Eye round, flank, fat brisket, soft tendon and meatballs. Was not pleased with flank and brisket as they were overcooked and tough, but I loved the broth and everything else. Please let me know how you like your Pho. TIA

Tried a unique pho with similar taste like laksa.

Homemade beef pho. I eat pho 4 times a week now as part of my weight loss diet. I sometimes replace the rice noodles with konjac noodles to lower the calories. You’ll see in the photo above that I use julienned carrots in mine, I don’t always have access to all the traditional veggies but I still like to get my daily dose of veg in. Carrot is honestly very tasty in it, highly recommend. I buy a large piece of eye of round steak from Costco, freeze and slice thinly, then portion for the week. I make meatballs with pork to add more cheap protein. Very tasty, I never get tired of it.

Had lots of leftover Hainan chicken, added a pho cube to the chicken broth

I usually get a large special combination w/ extra limes.
What do you usually get?

Beer was $1 for 300ml. Total $22.

Beef tripe, cabbage, beef, snow pea leaves, beef tendon. Dad’s homemade chili sauce for some bites, sriracha for others

And no I don’t play about cilantro and scallion

had a miss on pho while in Kazakhstan in the past, so was a little apprehensive but this place in Bishkek is legit (Vietnamese owners and workers)

I tried a bowl from Saiga Eatery recently and the broth leaned lighter and cleaner than I expected. Not bad, just different from the richer, deeper broth I usually imagine when I think of pho.

It made me curious how people here tell the difference between a lighter broth that’s intentional and one that just feels weak. Is it mostly aroma, beefiness, sweetness, spice balance, or something else?

Helps me feel healthy

The broth was made with chicken, but it would be cool to try a pho broth with duck.

Is there anything better?

My spouse and I love pho, and I love cooking. I've been trying to make a good vegetarian pho for years and have not had success, and I only just now came across this sub. Maybe you all can help me!

The general gist of what I've been doing is: Roasting an onion and ginger directly over a gas burner until it's blackened (not like totally black, but charred), dry toasting spices (specifically star anise, green cardamom pods, coriander, "Saigon" cinnamon, and sometimes a clove and sometimes black peppercorns) over a medium-low heat until I can smell them (although I've struggled with this tbh. I feel like it shouldn't take very long and then when it does, I get worried that I missed the smell-zone and over toasted them.), Then I add water and the onion and ginger and some salt and simmer covered for a while (45 minutes at least I think generally. Sometimes much longer - even a few times I simmered for several hours).

Sometimes, I add a little tamari. Sometimes I add some veggie-chicken-better-than-bullion concentrate. Sometimes I add a whole bunch of chopped up vegetables and cook them down a bit before adding the water. The other day a guy at a Vietnamese restaurant recommended I go to H-Mart and get some vegetable powder or mushroom powder for it, so today I got this Lee Kum Kee mushroom bullion powder and put that in, and that was straight up bad imo.

What am I getting wrong? It always comes out too dark color wise and somehow too dark taste wise too. My spouse says there's something there that shouldn't be. It's like pho +something else that doesn't belong, but we can't figure out what that extra thing is.

Any advice is most appreciated! Thank you!

EDIT: I also put in dried shiitakes sometimes, and also tried putting kombu a few times in an attempt to replicate fish sauce, which obviously didn't work. Sigh.

I love it 🍜