Top of Minneapolis

Minneapolis / Guides / Vietnamese
Vietnamese

iPho by Saigon

Affordable pho dinners with family and friends.

Open until 7:45 PM $ Local FavoriteFamily FriendlyCasual Vibes
5.6/10
Solid Scored by Kou Thao · How we score
№ 01 · The Brief

Big Bowls, Family Prices, St. Paul

iPho by Saigon runs on a simple promise: large bowls, fair prices, and a rotation of regulars who keep coming back for years. The pho tai anchors the menu, rare beef settling into broth that reviewers return to again and again, and the portion sizes get mentioned as often as the flavor does. Bun bo hue shows up on the table too, the spicier, lemongrass-forward Hue-style noodle soup that separates a kitchen willing to do more than one Vietnamese soup well from one that only runs pho. Egg rolls round out the order almost automatically, the standard starter that a family dinner in St.

St. Paul carries the Twin Cities' deepest concentration of Southeast Asian kitchens, from the Hmong counters on Como and Johnson Parkway to the Lao and Vietnamese rooms along University Avenue, and iPho by Saigon fits into that broader map as a neighborhood pho room rather than a destination in its own right. The price point stays inexpensive across the board, which explains why it functions as a family habit more than an event. This is not a room chasing a modern chef line or a tasting menu; it is a counter-to-table operation built for volume, consistency, and a bowl of pho that a family can afford to order weekly. For anyone measuring St. Paul's pho rooms against each other, the case here rests on portion size and reliability rather than reinvention.

St. Paul carries the Twin Cities' deepest concentration of Southeast Asian kitchens, from the Hmong counters on Como and Johnson Parkway to the Lao and Vietnamese rooms along University Avenue, and iPho by Saigon fits into that broader map as a neighborhood pho room rather than a destination in its own right. The price point stays inexpensive across the board, which explains why it functions as a family habit more than an event. This is not a room chasing a modern chef line or a tasting menu; it is a counter-to-table operation built for volume, consistency, and a bowl of pho that a family can afford to order weekly.

№ 02 · What to Order

The order, from the record

№ 03 · Insider Tip
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Order the bun bo hue if the group already knows pho well; it tests the kitchen on lemongrass heat and depth beyond the standard broth. Egg rolls and cream cheese wontons split well across a table of three or four.

Kou Thao · Top of Minneapolis
№ 04 · The Verdict

What earns the 5.6

01
Portion size

Bowls run large enough that the bun bo hue and pho both work as a full meal with meat to spare.

02
Price and repeat visits

The inexpensive price point turns this into a family habit rather than an occasional stop.

03
Menu range

Running bun bo hue alongside pho tai shows a kitchen handling more than one regional Vietnamese soup with equal attention.

How we score

The Insider Score is our own 10-point editorial rating, set by the writer who covers the room. It is never an average of other sites’ stars, and it is never for sale. It weighs three things:

01Track record

How highly a kitchen rates, across how many diners, over how long.

02Consistency

Whether recent diners still agree with the long-term verdict.

03Distinction

What the kitchen does that its category does not.

iPho by Saigon earns a 5.6, solid on our scale for Vietnamese in Minneapolis.
Kou Thao
Kou Thao

Kou Thao is the St. Paul & Corridors Editor at Top of Minneapolis. Born in St. Paul and raised in Frogtown, he grew up working the family egg-roll stand at Hmongtown Marketplace. He covers the marketplaces, University Avenue, the East Side and West Side, and every corridor counter worth the trip across the river.

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