Phở Miến Gà Kỳ Đồng

From a hủ tiếu cart to an alley dining room

Phở Miến Gà Kỳ Đồng is a chicken-noodle house down an alley off Kỳ Đồng Street, in the former District 3 of Ho Chi Minh City. It began in the late 1970s as a street cart run by bà Một, mother of the present owner, who sold hủ tiếu with chicken; regulars knew it as Hủ Tiếu Bà Một before the family moved into the alley.

In the 1980s, according to Saigoneer, customers from the north and centre found the southern recipe too sweet, so the family added phở, miến and other noodles and reworked the broth to suit both. Writing in 2016, Saigoneer described a spacious dining area under a large retractable canopy and a prep line deboning hundreds of chickens a day.

The broth

Michelin, which gives it a Bib Gourmand, credits a rich, aromatic broth slow-cooked from chicken and pork bones for three to four hours, with tender chicken slices and rice vermicelli. A 2024 Michelin feature called it “an understated masterpiece.”

Phở gà and miến gà are the signatures, and the same chicken can come with other noodles. MIA.vn, writing in 2024, lists trứng non, soft-cooked young eggs, in the special bowls and gỏi gà, a chicken salad, on the side.

Sources: Michelin Guide; Michelin Guide (Saigon Bib Gourmand feature); Saigoneer; MIA.vn