Pho Filet 2

Judging by the brusque, borderline hostile customer service at Pho Filet 2, no one will be glad you showed up here (or at the original locale in South El Monte, for that matter), but you can look past that when the soup is this amazing. Their phở bac, the original Northern version of the oft elaborate soup, pares everything down to the essentials: An aromatic, soulful broth that gets its depth from long-simmered bones; slightly softer, wide, flat noodles; and instead of a mishmash of beef cuts, simple strips of beef—in this case, cloud-like, crumbling slips of rich filet mignon. The final, exquisitely simple result is adorned with a smattering of herbs, has an ideal scallion-to-soup ratio and includes thin slivers of ginger that ultimately illuminate a perfect beef sunset in a bowl.