Updated 09-22-09. Here are some stats on Vietnamese pho restaurants in the U.S. - part of a market analysis project I'm working on. The results are still preliminary but worth sharing. I had many sources, but the data presented here came from PhoFever.com's own Pho Restaurant Directory. Thanks to Tom Nguyen of PhoFever.com for keeping up the database. I'll share other interesting info as they become available.
Caveat #1. The pho restaurant industry in the U.S. is quite dynamic, and with the popularity of pho on the increase, new pho restaurants are open all the time. I don't think there is a list anywhere that can call itself a complete pho restaurant directory. Since many available pho restaurant lists are really voluntary efforts, meaning the restaurants are either submitted by the restaurateurs themselves, or by diners giving reviews, the "most complete" list would have to be one that is active and updated often. I think PhoFever.com's directory is a good starting point.
One thing is for sure: the actual pho restaurant industry is larger than shown here. Once we can include them all, I'm sure adjustments of the rankings for some markets will need to be made. Not all, just some.
Caveat #2. Because of the dynamic nature of the pho market and the voluntary nature of these databases, absolute numbers are not available at this point. Much more important, though, are trends for relative comparison and quick glance purposes. You won't find exact numbers here, or anywhere else.
Caveat #3. Many many Vietnamese restaurants offer pho, but some specialty restaurants do not. Though they exist, I don't expect many non-pho restaurants present in PhoFever.com's Directory.
On with the stats. Below are some snapshots of the data. The market analysis itself is much more extensive. Click on the graphics to get larger versions.
Top U.S. Cities With Pho Restaurants
The first graph shows the top 15 American cities with the largest number of pho restaurants. Many of us take for granted that we have a pho shop right around the corner, within driving distance, or multiple places to go for our pho fix. For many others, such luxury is not available to them. Much more detailed stats to come.
Pho Restaurants in California Cities
An overwhelming number of Vietnamese live in California, with many many more pho lovers who are not Vietnamese. Here are the number of restaurants doing business in California cities. San Francisco leads the pack with trendy places, high tech-mined population, cool young and old people (both restaurateurs and diners,) and a huge number of Chinese/Viet descents. My San Diego is not doing too bad at rank number 5. Collectively though, Orange County is still the place to go if large numbers matter to you.
Pho Restaurants by States
Of course east and west coasts of the U.S. have the most pho restaurants. Houston, Texas stands its own ground smack in the center of the country, of course with a very large Viet presence there. So what's amazing? It's the fact that, though still sparse in many places, there are now pho restaurants in all 50 states, including Alaska, Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota! The U.S. is a big place, so there's still some more work to do.
Stay tuned for more stats from the analysis.
@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.
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
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 😉
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 🙂
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!
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.
Hi Vanessa: Thanks for the suggestion. I will certainly check out Pho 95 if in the area.