Bun Bo Hue Dong Ba 3

3246 NE 82nd Ave., 971-271-7525. Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday.

Don't be confused. You didn't miss Dong Ba 1 or 2. The other two restaurants in the chain—named after the famous marketplace in Hue, Vietnam, that pours the city's famed pork-beef-lemongrass soup like it's water from the tap— are located in Melbourne, Australia. But Dong Ba 3 is also among three unrelated bun bo Hue shops along 82nd Avenue. If Teo (page 36) is cleanly subdued, and the longtime Portland flagship BBH soupery in deep Southeast is riotously floral, Dong Ba 3 is the most dense with spice, a muscular take on bun bo Hue that pairs highly clarified broth with clean herbal flavors and heat to spare. But note that if you order in English, they'll omit the soup's trademark blood cubes when they set the bowl down—before sitting down with their young son to watch some seriously amazing Vietnamese game shows that involve playing Pictionary while running on a treadmill.

Check out Willamette Week's 2016 Cheap Eats guide here.

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