Pho Akaushi

Years of drama over Pho Akaushi’s name and location have overshadowed one of the more interesting restaurants serving the increasingly famous Vietnamese beef noodle soup. The original Pho Akaushi started inside a supermarket, expanded out to a full restaurant, then opened multiple locations. After internal infighting and enough relocations that it’s hard to know who went where, former Pho Akaushi locations became Pho Redbo, Pho Kuroushi, and in the case of the Lake Forest location we visited, Pho King Way. There’s also at least one remaining Pho Akaushi in Santa Ana, which appears to be a continuation of the Lake Forest restaurant.

The core “innovation” was the introduction of Japanese-style American Wagyu beef into Vietnamese pho soup, a luxurious concept that might seem like overkill: High-end meat soaked in broth until its distinctive texture and flavor just blends into the rice noodles and onions. But once you try Pho Akaushi, it makes sense – it’s still pho, just with slightly softer and more intensely flavored beef. And the excessive fat that’s typical of Wagyu melts into the broth, amplifying its power.