After months and months of re-modeling, with owners expecting to open late, last year, the beloved pho space known as Phở Hông Phát will finally reopen in Zaferia on May 21.

Though I included the spot in my underrated restaurants list last year,  those in the know have never underrated it since it outshines other joints such as Pho America and 123 Pho and the definitive American pho that is Number Nine.

However, those in the know are in the few.

Phở Hông Phát’s focus is spectacularly simple: beef pho. And that beef pho is served in a tiny, packed, loud, no-A/C, Cash Only joint that eschews complexity or costly extras and sticks to doing one thing incredibly well. Sure, they have three options outside of beef pho—an alright chicken soup, a noodle-only soup, and a seafood soup—but these options are the only ones out of a list of nearly 20 pho offerings that revolve around beef.

From rare flank to beef balls, everyone appreciative of consuming beef will find something they like. My inner Creature of Habit always goes for the #10, Pho Tai Gan Xach with meatballs added; a cow-centric concoction of rare steak, tendon, and tripe. It’s an homage to the heifer if there ever was one as pink bits of beef float toward the top while swimming alongside the parts of the cow frowned upon by most American palates.

Phở Hông Phát is located at 3243 E. Anaheim St.