San Francisco's pho scene is scattered across Chinatown, the Tenderloin, the Richmond District, and the Sunset — with Golden Star Vietnamese Restaurant in Chinatown drawing the most reviews (911), while Pho de Nguyen in SoMa stands out for a rarer duck pho and Pho Star in the Mission posts the highest rating (4.8) of any restaurant on this list.
Like Los Angeles, San Francisco doesn't have one concentrated Vietnamese district — its pho restaurants are spread across Chinatown, the Tenderloin, the Richmond District (sometimes called "New Chinatown" for its dense Asian food scene), the Sunset, and SoMa. San Francisco's directory also skews heavily toward banh mi shops and garlic-noodle specialists (Crustacean, PPQ, Perilla, and others built their reputation on garlic noodles and Dungeness crab, not pho), so the filtering step mattered more here than in most cities. We went through all 94 listings and kept only the restaurants where the category tags and real review topics point to pho as the actual specialty.
The most-reviewed pho specialist in the city, tucked into a small pedestrian alley in Chinatown. Cash-only service and its Chinatown location come up often in reviews alongside the food.
Reviewers specifically call out the broth and beef satay, alongside the pho itself and a five-spice chicken option for something different.
A second strong Chinatown option, with reviewers mentioning the broth and the pork specifically.
A breakfast-hours pho spot in the Tenderloin — closes mid-afternoon, so this is more of a morning or early-lunch destination than an evening one.
A Sunset District option where reviewers talk about the pho and the food quality directly, split-shift hours in the middle of the day.
Reviewers mention both chicken pho and beef pho specifically here — a good option if your table wants to split between the two.
A second strong Richmond District pick, with pho, broth, and seafood all coming up as recurring review topics.
Broth and bowl quality are what reviewers bring up most here, alongside price — a dependable, no-frills Tenderloin option.
Reviewers mention the pho directly, alongside price and cash-only service — sitting right on the edge between North Beach and Chinatown.
Specifically known for Hanoi-style pho gà (chicken pho) based on review topics — a lighter, clearer broth than the richer beef versions found elsewhere on this list, and open very late.
The one restaurant on this list where both duck pho and oxtail pho show up specifically in reviews — a wider variety than the standard beef-or-chicken choice found at most other spots.
The highest rating of any restaurant on this list, with a smaller review base than the Chinatown leaders. Reviewers mention the broth and chicken pho specifically.
Note: this list is drawn from the restaurants indexed on our San Francisco directory page across all 4 pages (94 total listings) as of September 2026. We noticed two listings sharing the same address at 667 Monterey Blvd (Phở Đồng Hương and an older "Wha Da Pho" entry) — likely a duplicate from a past rename, worth running through the Duplicate Finder tool. Restaurants open and close often in San Francisco — let us know if we're missing a pho specialist that belongs here.
Golden Star Vietnamese Restaurant in Chinatown has the most reviews of any pho specialist in San Francisco (911), with a 4.3 rating. Pho Star in the Mission District has the highest rating on this list (4.8) but with a much smaller review base.
Our directory lists 94 Vietnamese restaurants in San Francisco, but many specialize in banh mi or garlic noodles rather than pho. After filtering for restaurants where pho is the actual specialty, 12 make this list.
The Richmond District has the densest cluster of true pho specialists, including Pho Huong Viet, Kim Sơn Restaurant, An Chi, and Mai's Vietnamese Restaurant, all within a few blocks of each other. Chinatown and the Tenderloin also each have several strong options.
Turtle Tower in the Financial District stays open until 3 AM and specializes in Hanoi-style chicken pho.
Curious what makes a bowl of pho a bowl of pho in the first place? Read our full guide: What Is Pho?
