A bowl of pho can be a quiet thing right up until the steam hits your face and the scent of star anise, charred onion, and beef broth takes over the table. Then somebody orders bánh mì, a plate of crackling spring rolls lands nearby, and suddenly lunch has turned into a full operation.
New Jersey has plenty of Vietnamese restaurants that inspire exactly that kind of escalation.
The range is impressive, too: Edison counters built around sandwiches, sprawling Bloomfield menus with bánh xèo and bò kho, pho specialists in Palisades Park, and Jersey City kitchens serving everything from grilled meats to sour soups and clay-pot dishes.
Some of these places make an easy weekday stop; others reward bringing enough people to order half the menu. What connects them is food with actual personality—crisp, herbal, brothy, spicy, funky, sweet, and deeply savory, sometimes all in the same meal. These 12 spots are excellent places to start.
1. Baguette Delite
The name gives away the strategy: come to this Edison spot hungry for bánh mì and start there. Baguette Delite offers a deep sandwich lineup that goes well beyond one token pork option, with traditional cold cuts, BBQ pork, grilled chicken, and lemongrass beef among the choices.
The BBQ pork bánh mì is a particularly sensible first order, combining the rich, grilled centerpiece you want with the crunch and freshness that keep a Vietnamese sandwich from feeling heavy. Better yet, sandwiches sit around the kind of price point that makes grabbing a second item dangerously easy.
This is where the menu starts plotting against your self-control. Pho is another major draw, including combination bowls and plenty of add-ons such as tendon, tripe, oxtail, meatballs, and even bone marrow.
The menu also stretches into rice plates, vermicelli, shaking beef, crispy wings with garlic and fish sauce, summer rolls, and more specialized dishes. Weekend visits can bring additional choices such as bánh ướt, grilled chicken, and bún đậu mắm tôm.
Located on Old Post Road, Baguette Delite works especially well when your group cannot agree between soup, sandwiches, and grilled meat over rice. The correct compromise, naturally, is ordering all three.
2. Binh Duong Restaurant
A quick glance at the menu at Binh Duong can turn into a minor research project, and that is part of the fun. The Bloomfield restaurant serves the obvious crowd-pleasers—pho, bánh mì, rice platters, and spring rolls—but the real reason to linger is the breadth beyond them.
Start with bánh xèo, the crisp rice-flour crepe filled with shrimp and served with greens, or bánh cuốn, soft steamed rice crepes paired with Vietnamese pork sausage. Then decide whether you are going toward noodles, grilled meats, seafood, or one of the beef dishes.
Bò kho is especially appealing when you want something richer than pho: the Vietnamese beef stew can be ordered with bread, rice, egg noodles, or rice noodles. Bò lúc lắc brings marinated beef cubes, while bò lụi leans into lemongrass and ginger.
Even the bánh mì selection has range, including grilled pork patty, beef roll, pâté, cold cuts, and fried egg versions. This is a restaurant to visit with people who share, because sticking to one entrée means leaving too many good possibilities unexplored.
Binh Duong sits on Belleville Avenue in Bloomfield and currently keeps straightforward lunch-through-dinner hours, with Tuesday as its regular closing day. Come prepared to negotiate table space.
3. Simply Vietnamese
Tenafly’s Simply Vietnamese does not treat pho as a one-size-fits-all proposition. Beef, chicken, pork, tendon, shrimp, duck, seafood, tofu, vegetables, and even spicy jerk beef all make appearances among the noodle soups, giving repeat visitors plenty of ways to dodge the “same order every time” trap.
Duck pho is an especially interesting move when you want something different without abandoning the comfort of a steaming noodle bowl. The rest of the menu happily wanders, too.
Bánh mì sliders make an easy opening round, while full Vietnamese sandwiches come with pork, chicken, tofu, basa, or beef. There are warm peanut noodles, pork bao, curry chicken skewers, summer rolls, dumplings, rice noodle salads, fried rice, and entrées built around ginger, garlic, lemongrass, curry, and coconut.
In other words, this is a useful place for mixed groups: the person laser-focused on pho can get exactly that, while everyone else can head in entirely different directions.
Simply Vietnamese also feels suited to a proper sit-down dinner rather than a grab-and-run sandwich mission, particularly once the table starts accumulating dumplings and appetizers.
Finish with Vietnamese iced coffee if you still have somewhere to be afterward. If not, order it anyway and accept that the evening may become more energetic than planned.
4. Pho Tastic Vietnamese
There is something reassuring about a restaurant willing to put “Pho” right in the name. Expectations are established before you reach the door, and Pho Tastic in Brick has been doing its part since 2015.
Pho đặc biệt is an obvious introduction, especially on one of those damp Jersey Shore days when the only reasonable lunch involves a large bowl, a pile of herbs, and absolutely no rushing. But stopping at pho would miss the point.
The kitchen also serves chả giò, Vietnamese egg rolls that provide the crunchy counterweight every broth-heavy meal needs, along with rice and noodle dishes such as hủ tiếu xào. Seafood options expand the field further, making this more useful than a specialist you visit only when one person wants soup.
Located on Route 70 in Brick, Pho Tastic is a particularly handy Vietnamese option in a part of Ocean County where the cuisine is not as densely represented as it is farther north.
The restaurant is family-owned, and its schedule is worth knowing before you make the drive: Monday is the regular day off, with service running Tuesday through Sunday.
For a first visit, keep the order simple—pho, egg rolls, maybe one additional noodle or rice dish for the table. You can get ambitious on round two.
5. Pho One Vietnamese Restaurant
The temptation at Pho One is to see “pho” on the sign, order a bowl, and declare the job done. Resist for a minute.
This Metuchen restaurant has one of those menus where the supporting cast can steal the afternoon. Bánh xèo arrives as a Vietnamese pancake filled with shrimp, pork, scallions, onions, and bean sprouts, while fried sweet rice and lemon-leaf chicken wings offer two very different ways to start.
Then there are vermicelli bowls piled with grilled pork, shrimp, sausage, and egg roll, plus broken-rice plates topped with grilled meats. Pho remains a strong center of gravity, but hủ tiếu deserves attention from anyone who automatically orders the same beef noodle soup everywhere.
Pho One serves the translucent noodles with combinations such as seafood, shrimp and pork, chicken, or beef stew. That beef stew can also arrive with egg noodles or with a loaf of bread as bánh mì bò kho, which is exactly the sort of order that makes cold weather seem slightly less offensive.
Sandwich seekers get grilled pork, grilled beef, and other bánh mì options as well. Pho One sits along Route 1 in Metuchen, making it an easy detour when hunger hits during the inevitable Central Jersey driving marathon. Bring an appetite broad enough to look past the restaurant’s name.
6. Pho 420 Saigon
Oxtail, brisket, flank, tendon, and tripe sharing one bowl is not a timid lunch. That combination anchors the house-special pho at Pho 420 Saigon in Palisades Park, and it tells you pretty quickly what this place does well: substantial bowls with plenty happening beneath the broth.
Traditional beef combinations are available, but the special-pho section is where things get especially interesting. Thin beef belly has its own bowl, including a spicy version, while another option combines pork belly and garlic with heat.
There is even spicy intestine pho for diners whose idea of comfort food comes with a little more adventure. If soup is not calling, the vermicelli bowls pair noodles with combinations of grilled chicken or pork chop, spring rolls, meatballs, and shrimp tempura.
Rice plates cover grilled chicken and pork chop, while the bánh mì lineup keeps things focused with beef, pork, and chicken choices. This is the sort of menu that works best when you arrive knowing whether you want classic or maximalist.
For the latter, the Pho 420 Special makes the decision for you by putting several prized beef cuts into one bowl. The Broad Avenue location also places it right in Palisades Park’s famously food-packed commercial corridor, so arriving hungry is the only responsible strategy.
7. Saigon Bistro
Pho broth here starts with the heavy hitters: beef, charred onion, roasted ginger, star anise, cinnamon, herbs, and spices.
That aromatic foundation is a good reason to order the beef combo at Saigon Bistro’s Communipaw location in Jersey City, where brisket, sliced beef, beef ball, tendon, and tripe turn the bowl into a full meal rather than a polite starter.
Still, the menu gives you plenty of reasons not to spend the entire visit staring into soup. The Vietnamese sandwiches come on toasted baguettes with pâté, mayonnaise, cilantro, pickled vegetables, and fillings that can include grilled pork, chicken, pork belly, beef, or classic cold cuts.
Spicy lemongrass noodle soup makes a sharper alternative to standard pho, while sugarcane shrimp, beef satay, caramelized Vietnamese-style chicken wings, and spring rolls are good table-sharing territory.
Vermicelli platters bring grilled proteins together with lettuce, mint, pickled daikon, carrots, and cucumber, making them a solid move when you want big flavor without a steaming bowl.
Saigon Bistro has several New Jersey locations, but the Pacific Avenue restaurant is especially useful for anyone exploring Jersey City’s Communipaw area. Street parking means building a few extra minutes into the plan is wise. The reward is a menu broad enough to settle almost any group-order debate.
8. Nha Trang Restaurant
Few entries on this list come with as much Jersey City backstory. Nha Trang opened on Grand Street in 2025 with the team formerly behind New Thanh Hoai, bringing back a familiar style of expansive Vietnamese dining after roughly two years away.
The resulting menu is gloriously difficult to summarize, which is exactly why it belongs here. Pho and bánh mì are present, but they are merely the entrance.
Bánh hỏi—fine woven rice vermicelli—is served with grilled pork, lemongrass beef, shrimp, sugarcane shrimp, and bò lá lốt. Sour soups come with shrimp, salmon, chicken, or vegetables.
Clay-pot preparations, stir-fried seafood, garlic water spinach, broken-rice dishes, and whole crispy fish push the menu firmly into “bring friends and share” territory. Shaking beef is another strong choice when soup is not the mood, while the papaya and mango salads can bring freshness to a table otherwise crowded with grilled meat.
The location at 414 Grand Street puts Nha Trang near the edge of Downtown and close to Jersey City Medical Center. This is not the place to visit with a strict one-dish agenda.
Give the menu a proper read, order something you did not walk in planning to eat, and let the table get crowded. That’s where Nha Trang becomes especially fun.
9. Thanh Huong
Sometimes the correct lunch is a bánh mì that does not need a speech before you eat it. Thanh Huong on West Side Avenue in Jersey City is well suited to that mission, with Vietnamese sandwiches sitting at the heart of a menu built around straightforward, filling classics.
The pork-and-ham bánh mì is a natural starting point, bringing together savory meat and the fresh, pickled elements that make the sandwich such an efficient little engineering project.
Grilled pork is another strong direction, particularly if the smell of charred meat has already made your decision before you finish reading the menu.
Then look beyond the sandwiches. Rice noodles, grilled chicken, grilled pork, and rice plates make this an easy stop for a full meal, while traditional noodle and porridge options add more depth than the quick-service setup might initially suggest.
Vermicelli with grilled pork delivers one of Vietnamese cooking’s great hot-cold contrasts: warm meat over cool noodles, herbs, and vegetables, ready for fish sauce to tie everything together. Thanh Huong’s appeal is partly its lack of fuss.
This is not a special-occasion dining room demanding advance planning; it is the sort of neighborhood place that makes an excellent answer to “Where should we grab lunch?” Just remember that “grab lunch” can quickly become bánh mì plus noodles plus something for later.
10. Pho Today
The signature bowl at Pho Today’s South Plainfield location does not believe in making you choose one luxury topping. Filet mignon, oxtail, and meatball all land in the Pho Today, creating the kind of bowl that immediately justifies two hands when you lift it.
The đặc biệt goes even further into classic territory with rare steak, flank, brisket, tendon, tripe, and meatball. Not into prescribed combinations?
Build your own pho instead and settle the argument yourself. The sandwich side is equally capable of derailing plans.
Bánh Mì Today combines chicken, beef, pork, avocado, and house sauce on a baguette with the familiar pickled carrots and radish, cucumber, cilantro, scallions, mayo, and jalapeño. Grilled pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, and mixed-meat versions give you easier choices if that sounds like too much traffic on one sandwich.
Rice plates, vermicelli, papaya salad, lotus-root salad, and vegetarian pho fill out the savory side of the menu. Save a little room at the end, because dessert includes chè ba màu, Vietnamese fruit desserts with coconut milk and shaved ice, and flan served with coffee and ice.
Located on New World Way, this is an especially good group pick when one person wants serious pho, another wants bánh mì, and somebody else has already skipped ahead to dessert.
11. Pho 99
Pho 99 in Eatontown understands that sometimes you want a classic bowl and sometimes you want to treat pho like a construction project.
Its build-your-own option lets diners choose up to three toppings for beef broth and noodles, while straightforward bowls such as rare beef keep things simple for anyone uninterested in negotiations.
That flexibility extends beyond soup. Sticky rice dumplings stuffed with ground pork and mung bean make a less-common opening, and they can be ordered steamed or fried.
Summer rolls, shrimp-and-pork spring rolls, wings, bánh mì, stir-fried noodles, rice dishes, fried rice, and vermicelli bowls give the menu enough range for repeat visits. The grilled-beef-short-rib vermicelli is a particularly appealing break from pho, pairing smoky meat with noodles and vegetables rather than broth.
Vegetarian diners are not left with a sad plate of side dishes, either: there is vegetable-broth pho with tofu, vegetarian vermicelli with fried tofu and spring rolls, rice plates, and fried rice.
Pho 99 sits on Route 36, making it a convenient Monmouth County stop when Vietnamese food is the goal but driving north toward the state’s denser restaurant corridors is not. One practical note: Tuesday is currently the regular closing day, so schedule that broth craving accordingly.
12. Vietnam Bistro
The sizzling crepe is a fine way to make an entrance. Vietnam Bistro in Howell fills its bánh xèo with shrimp, pork, onion, green bean, and bean sprouts, then sends it out with greens and lime-chili fish sauce.
It is crisp, messy in the most productive way, and a strong argument for ordering an appetizer that could nearly become lunch by itself. Do not stop there.
Vermicelli bowls come with grilled pork or beef, egg rolls, and shrimp in various combinations, while the soup side extends well beyond standard pho. Central Vietnamese spicy beef-shank and pork-hock vermicelli soup offers a richer, more forceful direction; another bowl combines crab paste, tofu, and tomato.
Chicken curry with potato and carrot brings yet another kind of comfort. Broken rice plates and pho round out the more familiar choices, and the appetizer section includes pork-filled Vietnamese egg rolls, grilled pork rolls, vegetarian rolls, salt-and-pepper calamari, and chicken wings.
Located along Route 9 in Howell, Vietnam Bistro fills an important geographic gap for diners in western Monmouth County who would otherwise face a longer drive for this kind of menu. For a first visit, pair one of the more distinctive soups with bánh xèo or egg rolls.
Then start mentally reserving your second visit for everything you had to skip.