Our Story
The People Behind
the Pho
Heritage & Vision
From a Single Bowl
of Pho
Every restaurant has a dish at its heart. For us, it's pho — not because it's famous, but because it is the most honest expression of Vietnamese cooking. A single bowl requires three days of work and the wisdom to leave it alone.
Chef Linh Nguyen grew up watching her grandmother make pho in their kitchen in Saigon. She counts the number of bones, the timing of the charring, the moment the fish sauce is added — and she has never forgotten any of it.
Years of training in Paris and Tokyo only deepened her conviction that the most powerful cooking comes from restraint, memory, and an absolute refusal to compromise.
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Our Journey
Milestones
1978
The Grandmother's Kitchen
Bà Ngoại Lan begins cooking pho from a charcoal stove on Le Loi Street in Saigon, feeding neighbors through the city's most turbulent years.
1992
Arriving in Houston
The Nguyen family settles in Houston's Midtown neighborhood. A small catering operation from their home kitchen begins serving the Vietnamese community.
2005
Chef Linh Trains in Paris
Linh Nguyen spends three years at Le Cordon Bleu, learning classical French techniques she would later apply to Vietnamese cooking.
2012
Tokyo & The Kappo Influence
A transformative year cooking at an omakase counter in Shibuya teaches Chef Linh the philosophy of ma — intentional emptiness, restraint, and presence.
2018
PHỞ & CO Opens
The restaurant opens at 2847 Westheimer Road. Within six months, Texas Monthly names it the best new restaurant in Houston.
2022
Michelin Recognition
The Michelin Guide includes PHỞ & CO in its Texas selection, describing it as “Vietnamese cuisine with a capital V.”
The Team
The People Who Make It
Chef Linh Nguyen
Executive Chef & Founder
Trained in Paris and Tokyo, Linh spent years refining classical technique before returning to Houston to cook what she loves most: Vietnamese food at its most honest. Her grandmother's pho recipe is still the soul of our menu.
Marcus Tran
General Manager
Marcus brings fifteen years of fine dining experience from New York and London. His commitment to quiet, attentive service shapes every guest interaction at PHỞ & CO.
Sophie Dang
Head Pastry Chef
Sophie's desserts reimagine Vietnamese street sweets through a fine dining lens. Her three-colour dessert and Vietnamese flan have become must-orders for every table.
Our Beliefs
Three Pillars
01
Memory
Every dish on our menu has a story. We cook from memory — not nostalgia, but the precise recall of flavors that define Vietnamese food at its most essential.
02
Restraint
The most powerful Vietnamese dishes are defined by what is left out. We resist the temptation to over-season, over-garnish, or over-explain.
03
Hospitality
In Vietnam, feeding someone is an act of love. Every guest who walks through our door is treated as family arriving at the table for the first time.