Completely New Pho

The pho Nam Dinh is hot and homemade at chef Nhu Ton’s shop near Union Square.

- CHRIS CROWLEY

When Nhu Ton—the chef and a co-owner at Bánh, a small Vietnamese restaurant on the Upper West Side—first visited Nam Dinh, Vietnam, about an hour and a half southeast of Hanoi by scooter and said to be the birthplace of pho, she was immediately impressed by the region’s famous noodle soup. “There are different styles, but in general the soup is a lot more peppery and there’s a lot more fish sauce,” she says. She also knew what had to be done: She’d bring Nam Dinh to New York.

At Ton’s new shop,