Comments on: Pho Restaurants in the United States – Pho on the Move

By: Cuong Huynh

Cuong Huynh — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:04:02 +0000

Hi petercuong: Good question and I think on your quest to find the answer to this question you will find that this pho is not so simple, and therefore one shouldn’t expect a simple answer. Maybe you should approach it from the standpoint of recognizing pho as an intricate culinary creation, then take down each answer as an element of the overall answer. Only then will your mind be at ease

Sometimes the simplest of question sparks the most complex of answer(s).

By: Cuong Huynh

Cuong Huynh — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:03:12 +0000

Sometime the simplest of question sparks the most complex of answer(s).

By: Cuong Huynh

Cuong Huynh — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:57:04 +0000

Hi Vanessa: Thanks for the suggestion. I will certainly check out Pho 95 if in the area.

By: petercuong

petercuong — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:55:16 +0000

What the pho? What is the meaning of pho? Why is this simple noodle soup is so important to the Vietnamese? Interested in people comments on this.

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 06:10:26 +0000

We have so many Pho restaurants in Denver but the best by far is Pho 95 so if you’re ever in the area make sure to check it out!

By: Peter Cuong

Peter Cuong — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:36:01 +0000

Thank you for the US/Aus/Can numbers. I am very curious on the numbers in VN – can you make an educated estimate based on your assumptions and VN population which is now ~87m people? Based on my rough estimate of 2500 Pho shop divide by ~1.5m Vietnamese in the US, the Pho shop ratio is ~.17% and extrapolating this .17% x 87m, I get 145,000 in VN. Do you think this is in the ball park? Many thanks

By: Cuong Huynh

Cuong Huynh — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:37:48 +0000

Peter Cuong: here’s what I would do. Looking at a few pho restaurant “databases” available online, you can get a sense of the relative magniude or range but the numbers themselves can be misleading. Taking http://www.phofever.com as an example, you can come up with the following:

Aus. 85+
Canada 220+
US 2300+

I would venture to say, because of the nature of this db, it probably represents only 70-80% of the actual numbers. For the Pho shops in VN i wouldn’t even want to guess. One can probably guess based on assumptions about average people served per day for typical small, medium and large shops, then compare to regional population. There’s a way to do it, but I’m just not ready to do this exercise right now

By: Peter Cuong

Peter Cuong — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:26:52 +0000

Understand the issues. Would you have a rough estimates or venture to guess on the # of pho shops in Vietnam and US? Curious on the numbers in comparison to say Mcd: +32,000 McDonalds globally and +13,000 in the US – none in VN yet? thank goodness. Regards, Peter

By: Cuong Huynh

Cuong Huynh — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:01:58 +0000

@Peter Cuong. Hi. That’s always a good question with not so good answer. The challenge is multi-faceted. One, nobody is tracking pho restaurants (big or small, any size) because the payback for such activity is nonexistent. It just takes too much work for the little returns that such activity provides. Two, pho shops open and close regularly, so keeping your database updated is a big challenge in itself. And third, it may be easier for the U.S. markets and elsewhere where a commercial restaurant is clearly defined, in Viet Nam it’s not so easy. You will find street vendors and hole in the wall pho vendors in any neighborhood in Vietnam. And along any row of homes you’ll also find pho vendors. Finally, somebody even told me he finds pho restaurants in some remote place in Africa! So I guess the short answer to your question is, I could be wrong, but I can’t imagine someone having this information that is considered accurate.

By: Peter Cuong

Peter Cuong — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:36:05 +0000

Hi Cuong, Do you have sources of good estimates for the total number of Pho shops in VN and outside of VN globally? Regards, Peter Cuong