From her mother's recipe
Mother sold chicken phở; the daughter sells bò lá lốt
Mrs Liêng's mother sold chicken phở and taught her the basic bò lá lốt. When she opened her own shop, she reworked the recipe herself — and customers started coming back.
Before the Võ Văn Tần shopfront, the shop sold from a scrap-market alley; after about 3 years it moved to the main street and has stayed there since. The owner is Mrs Trần Thị Kim Liêng, now in her 70s.
Her mother sold chicken phở and taught her the basic bò lá lốt. She experimented and changed the original recipe — fresh beef, richly seasoned, wrapped in green betel leaf, grilled over fire — and customers started coming regularly.
Today the shop welcomes Saigon regulars and foreign visitors alike — people who found it through Michelin, through “Somebody Feed Phil”, or through Mark Wiens' 2015 write-up. Step inside and the large frame on the side wall, with more than 50 photos, tells the story of all those visits.
