Pho Phi Nhung, Vietnamese Noodle Soup and Grill in Calgary

Eight sections, one kitchen. Here is what to expect from each part of the menu before you order.

Vietnamese noodle soups start the day before they reach your table. Beef bones, charred ginger and onion, star anise and cinnamon go into the pot and stay there for hours until the broth runs clear and deeply savoury. Pick the cuts you like, from rare beef and brisket to tendon, tripe and meatball, then finish the bowl yourself with the bean sprouts, Thai basil, lime and chilli that arrive on the side.

Grilled plates arrive two ways. Rice dishes come with steamed jasmine rice, a small salad and a bowl of nuoc cham for pouring, while vermicelli swaps the rice for cool rice noodles under charred pork, chicken, beef or shrimp with pickled carrot and cucumber. Special stir fried rice dishes are fired in the wok to order, and the chef's special listings follow whatever the kitchen is doing best that week.

For the start of the meal, appetizers cover crisp spring rolls, fresh salad rolls and satay skewers made for sharing across the table. Vietnamese subs are built on a crackly baguette with pate, house mayonnaise, pickles, cucumber and coriander. The vegetarian section runs the length of the menu, from tofu vermicelli bowls to vegetable noodle soup, so nobody at the table has to order around everyone else.

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