Design mockup. The shop shown is invented, and the phone, address and prices are placeholders.

Lantern Row Phở

One broth, twelve hours, every morning.

If you have never ordered phở before, the menu can look like a wall of numbers. It is simpler than it reads. Four things arrive, and one of them arrives on a separate plate for you to add yourself.

Open 9:00 am to 8:00 pm, seven daysKitchen stops ten minutes before close

What arrives

The bowl, from the bottom up

Built in this order, which is also the order it cools in, which is why the herbs go in last and not while you are waiting.

01

Broth

Beef bones and brisket, twelve hours, skimmed. Charred ginger and onion, star anise, cassia, coriander seed. Salted lightly on purpose, because the sauces on the table are salty and you cannot take salt back out.

02

Noodle

Flat rice noodle, bánh phở, blanched to order. It keeps cooking in the broth, so the bowl you get at minute one is not the bowl you have at minute six. Eat the noodles first.

03

Beef

Whatever you ordered. Rare steak goes in raw and cooks in the broth on the way to the table, which is what tái means and why it should not be sent back for being pink.

04

The plate beside it

Thai basil, bean sprouts, lime, jalapeño. Not garnish and not decoration. Tear the basil in a few leaves at a time, squeeze one lime wedge, taste, then decide about the second.

Order by number

Phở

Small is a proper lunch. Large is a proper lunch and a half. There is no extra-large and we will not pretend a large is one.

P1
Tái
$13

Rare steak, sliced thin, cooked by the broth. The one to order first.

P2
Tái nạm
$14

Rare steak and well-done flank. The most ordered bowl in the room.

P3
Tái gân sách
$14

Steak, tendon and tripe. Order this if you already know you like tendon.

P4
Bò viên
$13

Beef meatball only. What most children in the room are eating.

P5
Đặc biệt
$15

Everything in the case. Steak, flank, brisket, tendon, tripe, meatball.

P6
Phở gà
$13

Chicken, in chicken broth, not beef broth. A separate pot, made the same morning.

P7
Phở chay
$12

Vegetable broth, tofu, mushroom. No fish sauce anywhere near it.

Bún and cơm, no broth

B1
Bún thịt nướng
$13

Grilled pork over cold vermicelli, herbs, pickled carrot, nước chấm on the side.

B2
Bún chả giò
$14

The same, with two fried spring rolls cut across.

C1
Cơm tấm sườn
$14

Grilled pork chop, broken rice, fried egg on request for a dollar.

Bánh mì and drinks

M1
Bánh mì thịt nướng
$8
M2
Bánh mì chả lụa
$8
D1
Cà phê sữa đá
$5

Made to order in the filter. It takes four minutes and we are not going to rush it.

D2
Fresh lime soda
$4

If it is your first bowl

Five things, in order

  1. Taste the broth before you add anything. That is the thing that took twelve hours. Decide what it needs after you know what it is.
  2. Sprouts first, a handful. They go soft fast, so put in what you will eat in the next two minutes, not the whole plate.
  3. Basil torn, not whole. Tearing releases it. Whole leaves float and do nothing.
  4. One lime wedge, then stop. Two is usually one too many, and there is no way back.
  5. Hoisin and sriracha in the little dish, not the bowl. Dip the beef. Squeezing them into the broth turns twelve hours of work brown and sweet.

Takeout

Broth travels separately

Every takeout phở goes out with the broth in its own container, hot, and the noodles and beef in another. Combine it at home or the noodles arrive as paste. It is not us being fussy, it is the only way it survives the drive.

There is no app and no delivery. Ring the shop, tell us the numbers, and it will be on the counter in about fifteen minutes.

Find us

A small room in a strip off the highway, eleven tables, one high chair, and a car park that is easier at two in the afternoon than at noon.

Monday to Sunday9:00 am – 8:00 pm
Kitchen closes7:50 pm
ClosedLunar New Year, three days
123 Main St
Gladstone, MO 64118
(816) 555-0162
Order for pickup, about fifteen minutes Call (816) 555-0162