For the next 20 weeks, we'll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2011 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year's winner is no easy task. We'll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which the winner had hefty competition from other Houston bars and restaurants.
5. Cafe TH
Cafe TH wasn't always known for its pho; it used to be a standard banh mi shop in Old Chinatown until owner Minh Nguyen took over and started revamping the menu. These days, it features an array of Vietnamese favorites, including an anise-perfumed pho rich with beef stock and even a vegan pho made with veggie broth and tofu.
4. Pho One
Robb Walsh named Pho One the best pho in Houston back in 2009, and the little family-run shop on Wilcrest near Westheimer is still going strong today. Owner Kim Oanh Vu comes from a famous pho family, who owned one of the most famous noodle shops in Saigon in the 1960s called Pho Tau Bay. Vu's father ran the equally successful chain of Pho Tau Bay restaurants in New Orleans before Katrina hit. When the family relocated to Houston afterward, they brought all of their pho-making skills with them to Pho One -- and Houston pho fans have been grateful ever since.
