Chinatown Vegas pho restaurant closes after more than 30 years

Before Chinatown Vegas was Chinatown Vegas, there was Pho So 1 (Pho No. 1).

In 1994, a year before Chinatown Plaza debuted as a high-profile step toward today’s Chinatown — and five years before then-Gov. Kenny Guinn officially designated the pan-Asian neighborhood — Pho So 1 opened on Spring Mountain Road, east of South Decatur Boulevard.

Now, as ChinatownVegas.com first reported Friday, the Vietnamese restaurant, at 4745 Spring Mountain Road, has closed after 31 years, making permanent what had seemed to be a temporary closing in November for repairs, with caution tape out front and work crews inside. Instead, the family owners have issued a statement that Pho So 1 would remain closed “for good.”

But they offered a soup spoon of hope: “We will be back,” the statement said, without specifying if that meant the return of Pho So 1 in its original space or somewhere else or a new project entirely. Viet Noodle Bar, owned by the same family, remains open at 5288 Spring Mountain Road.

Keeping to tradition

Unlike some newer Chinatown spots that feature Vietnamese fusion, Pho So 1 kept to tradition on the pho front, provisioning bowls with broth, tangles of rice noodles, steak, flank, brisket and fatty brisket, meatballs, and chewy connective tissue like tendon and tripe. Vegetables, seafood and chicken were also options.

Elsewhere, the menu ran to rice or egg noodle dishes served dry or with soup, thick banh canh noodles (similar to udon) in soups, rice vermicelli dishes, and stir-fried rice, rice noodles or egg noodles with vegetables or proteins.

The shuttering of Pho So 1 follows the closing in 2025 of two other noteworthy Chinatown restaurants: District One Kitchen & Bar in July and EDO Tapas & Wine in October.

Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.