Vietnam's First Pho Museum Opens: A Bowl With a Hundred Years of History

Japan has had a ramen museum for thirty years. Vietnam finally has its own equivalent for pho.

On January 15, 2026, Vietnam's first Pho Museum opened in Ho Chi Minh City. The privately funded museum sits on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street in District 1's Ben Thanh Ward -- a five-minute walk from the Ben Thanh metro station and steps away from Ben Thanh Market and the Pham Ngu Lao backpacker area.

One Ticket, a Hundred-Year Journey

The museum occupies about 800 square meters across three floors, designed as an immersive experience.

Visitors start on the third floor, where a small screening room plays an 8-to-10-minute documentary. It begins with Hanoi street vendors carrying pho on shoulder poles and traces the dish's journey across oceans to become the world's introduction to Vietnamese cuisine.

The second floor is the main exhibition. Over 200 authenticated artifacts fill the space: century-old stone mortars, early cooking vessels, jars of spices, and contemporary art -- someone built a bowl of pho from Lego bricks; another knitted one from yarn. Wall displays map out how pho differs across northern, central, and southern Vietnam.

The ground floor is an open kitchen. Chefs simmer broth, blanch noodles, and plate bowls in full view. At the end, visitors receive a house-special pho. The broth blends flavors from all three regions -- clean, slightly sweet, and closer to the southern style.

The full experience runs about 60 to 75 minutes. Tickets include the guided tour and a bowl of pho: VND 750,000 (about USD 30) for adults, VND 500,000 for children. Walk-ins who just want to eat can order a bowl starting at VND 125,000.

Pho Is Younger Than You Think

Many people assume pho is an ancient Vietnamese tradition. It is not. The dish is only about a hundred years old.

Most scholars place its origins in Nam Dinh Province in the early 20th century, before it spread to Hanoi. At the time, Vietnam was still French Indochina. The French built the largest textile factory in mainland Southeast Asia in Nam Dinh, employing tens of thousands of workers at its peak. The French appetite for beef left behind bones and scraps, which flowed into local markets. Street vendors began simmering beef bones into broth and pairing it with rice noodles brought by Chinese immigrants, adding local herbs and spices. Pho was born.

Later, workers from Nam Dinh migrated north to Hanoi for construction jobs on French infrastructure projects, bringing pho with them. Hanoi's first proper pho shop appeared in the 1920s. In 1939, government restrictions on beef sales on certain days gave rise to chicken pho (pho ga). After Vietnam's partition in 1954, northerners who moved south brought pho to Saigon and developed the southern style -- adding bean sprouts, Thai basil, and chili.

In 2024, Hanoi-style pho was formally listed as a Vietnamese national intangible cultural heritage. The government is now preparing an application for UNESCO World Intangible Cultural Heritage status. If approved, pho would join the ranks of Korean kimchi and Japanese washoku.

The Idea Started at a Ramen Museum in Yokohama

Museum director Le Nhat Thanh says the idea came to him at the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum in Japan.

That museum opened in 1994. Its basement floor recreates a 1958 Tokyo streetscape, lined with ramen shops from different parts of Japan. Visitors pay a small admission fee (JPY 450, about USD 3) and then choose which shop to eat at. Over three decades, it has become one of Yokohama's top tourist draws.

"Pho is at least as well known internationally as ramen," Le Nhat Thanh said. "It has been named one of the world's best soups multiple times. But we never had a dedicated space to present its culture and history."

The two museums take different business approaches. Yokohama's ramen museum runs like a food court: cheap admission, revenue from dining and merchandise. The Ho Chi Minh City pho museum sells a bundled experience at a significantly higher price point.

Which model works better? That will take time to tell once the opening buzz fades.

Practical Information

Address: 211 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Ben Thanh Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City (about 5 minutes on foot from Ben Thanh metro station)

Hours: daily 08:00-21:00, open during Tet

Tickets:
Full experience (guided tour + pho): VND 750,000 adults, VND 500,000 children
A la carte pho: VND 125,000 to 260,000

Website: phomuseum.com

Sources: Pho Museum, VnExpress, Tuoi Tre, Vietcetera