Pho Vietnamese Restaurant in Flushing, NY

Pho Vietnamese Restaurant in downtown Flushing is a casual, inexpensive spot for tasty, classic Vietnamese cuisine, especially for the dish that named the restaurant: pho beef noodle soup.

The restaurant isn't big on atmosphere, but customers throng for the quality food and the good prices. A large bowl of steaming pho noodles and veggies swimming in delicious broth and topped with beef is only $6. Add a plate of delicate Vietnamese spring rolls (fried or fresh) for only a few dollars more.

Chock-a-block with eateries, downtown Flushing can overwhelm with dining options, from the great to those best avoided. But on Prince Street there's one solid block of Chinese and Southeast Asian restaurants that consistently stand above the norm. Whether they share fate or feng shui I do not know, but these back-to-back restaurants offer some of the best casual Asian eats in Flushing.

I strongly believe that you should eat through them in an orderly fashion, maybe geographically, from China to Malaysia, or simply, from left to right. I like to start at Pho Vietnamese Restaurant for an early lunch of pho or bun.

Pho is the national dish of Vietnam, a bowl of rice noodles and veggies swimming in delicious beef broth and topped with beef ($5-$6). Don't be put off by raw beef toppings. These thin slices cook up in the hot soup. Add bean sprouts, hot peppers, and lime if you like.

Bun, a.k.a. rice noodle salad, is another classic Vietnamese dish. It's a refreshing salad of thin rice noodles, lettuce, carrot slivers, mint, crushed peanuts, bean sprouts, and fish sauce, topped with grilled pork, fried spring rolls, or other savories ($6-$7).

Pho's beef, pork, and fish entrees are tasty, though more expensive ($8-$20). Don't neglect the spring rolls. Fried, they are golden and delicious, but even better are the fresh rolls of rice paper wrapped around thin noodles, lettuce, carrots, mint, and shrimp, tofu, or pork. Finish your meal with sweet, intense Vietnamese coffee.