Welcome to Order Up. There are an estimated 4,000 restaurants in San Francisco, so according to our back-of-the-envelope math, that means at least 40,000 different dishes from which to choose. Fortunately, our food expert and man-about-town Omar Mamoon cuts through the noise to recommend that one dish that you should eat right now.
I was heartbroken when Turtle Tower, the San Francisco institution famous for its big brothy bowls of pho, suddenly closed its locations in SoMA and the Tenderloin in late 2023. The restaurant was incredibly special to me — I had been a regular since I moved to the city in 2007, and it was the one place in all of the Bay I wanted to rave about when I was on Check, Please! once upon a time.
So you could imagine the extreme joy that filled me when I learned of its reopening in the former Barbacco space last month in the Financial District. But would it taste the same?
After a visit during its grand opening last month, I’m happy to report the answer is a resounding yes. The broth? Still served piping hot, clear, clean and pristine. The noodles? Flat and wide as a chopstick, slippery and soft as ever.
Turtle Tower specializes in Northern Vietnamese cuisine. Its owner, Steven Nghia Pham, hails from Hanoi and immigrated to San Francisco in 1991. After a few years of taxi driving, he saved up enough money to open his first location on Larkin Street in the Tenderloin in 1999.
“There were Vietnamese restaurants here, but not in the Northern Style,” says Pham. “I saw it missing in the market, so I wanted to add something.”
Unlike the pho found in Saigon and the rest of southern Vietnam, the northern Hanoi style is a bit subtler and more minimalist, made sans warm spices like star anise and cinnamon, and served without the typical garnishes of basil, bean sprouts, and hoisin sauce.
Everyone loves Turtle Tower’s phở gà (chicken pho), and rightfully so: It’s delicious. I even published a recipe Pham gave me back in 2017 for Esquire. But I’m here to tell you that the sleeper hit on the menu is the number six, phở áp chảo, aka stir-fried pho ($20). This pho is a bit heartier and richer than the rest and will cure the heaviest of hangovers.
The bowl you slurp today starts the night before. To make the broth that’s used in the number six, Pham fills a large pot with 50 pounds of beef bones, using a mix of marrow-filled knuckles along with meaty neck bones. He adds roasted aromatics like ginger, onion, and shallot, covers it all with water, then slowly simmers it overnight — 14 hours in total — so that all the ingredients slowly seep together.
The next morning, both beef brisket and flank are simmered in the broth until cooked, adding an additional meaty depth. The meat is removed and the soup gets seasoned with a sachet of spices consisting of sugar, ginger and onion powder, and some secrets. Fish sauce and MSG are also added to ensure an ultra-umami blast, then the whole pot is strained.
When an order comes in, fresh wide rice noodles (which are made daily by a San Francisco noodle purveyor), are stir-fried in a screaming hot wok until charred. It’s removed and placed in a bowl while thin slices of beef, celery, carrot, yellow onion, and leek get stir-fried in the same wok, quickly picking up the aromatic smoke that comes from licks of the flame (oh heyyy, wok hei!)
The stir-fried mix is placed over the noodles, garnished with chopped cilantro and green onion, and the hot soup is poured over it all. For extra protein, order an off-menu side of rare beef ($6) and you’ll get a small plate of thinly sliced beef knuckle garnished with grated ginger. Quickly dip in the broth while it’s hot so it’ll cook through.
The number six isn’t better than the other bowls, per se — it just provides extra texture and bite and char and chew. The dish just hits different, and is sure to warm your soul on the coldest, foggiest San Francisco night.
Omar Mamoon is a San Francisco-based freelance writer and cookie dough professional. Follow him on Instagram.
