Pham Thi Jin Pho, Seoul: Vietnamese Noodle Soup in Cobalt-Blue Bowls near Seoul Forest

Pham Thi Jin Pho (팜티진쌀국수) is a Vietnamese noodle shop in the Seoul Forest area of Seongdong District, Seoul, in the building directly in front of Exit 2 of Seoul Forest Station. Its sogogi ssalguksu (소고기 쌀국수), a beef rice-noodle soup, is described by the Korea Tourism Organization's travel site as having a clear, deep broth.

The noodle bowl and its blue-and-white side dishes

In the cover photo above, taken in January 2022, the soup sits in a deep bowl whose rim is glazed in streaks of cobalt blue. Swirls of sliced onion, rounds of scallion and a pile of broad green leaves with black pepper cover the clear, light-brown broth, and gray-brown slices under the surface look like thin beef. Lemon wedges, chopped red chili and yellow pickle each have a small blue-and-white dish, and the bean sprouts have a pale-blue plate to themselves. A blog post from April 2021 shows noodle bowls in the same cobalt blue in the photos on Pham Thi Jin Pho's menu, and its writer mentions having the cilantro refilled twice.

Fried rolls on the striped plate

The second photo shows fried rolls cut into pieces on a long plate with a blue radial-stripe border, beside small dishes of cilantro and yellow pickle and a plate of bean sprouts. The rolls look like jjajyo (짜죠), the Vietnamese-style fried rolls on the menu. Pham Thi Jin Pho's menu, photographed in April 2021, describes jjajyo as minced pork mixed with shrimp and vegetables, rolled in rice paper and fried, and lists it at ₩6,000.

Bún bò Huế and the rest of the menu

The Korea Tourism Organization's page also lists bibim noodles (비빔쌀국수), a brothless dish, along with bún bò Huế, bánh mì and iced condensed-milk coffee. Bún bò Huế (분보훼) is a beef noodle soup from Huế in central Vietnam. A reviewer on Tistory, a Korean blogging platform, called it the best order at Pham Thi Jin Pho in June 2023, with a broth richer than ordinary rice-noodle soup and a little spicy. The same review found the summer-roll-and-jjajyo set small for its price.

Prices in 2021 and 2023

Pham Thi Jin Pho's beef noodle soup cost ₩9,000 on the menu photographed in April 2021. Beef, spicy and bún bò Huế noodles at Pham Thi Jin Pho cost ₩10,000 each in the June 2023 review, and bibim noodles cost ₩11,000. Both sets of prices come from blog posts rather than from the shop today, so check the menu when you arrive.

How to order

If the words fail you, point at the dish on the menu.