Vietnamese flavors shine at Pho Momma, one of Sacramento’s newest Michelin picks

Cooking has been part of My Le’s life from an early age.

The youngest of seven siblings, Le was in front of the stove as a child, preparing dinners for her three older brothers and parents after her sisters left for college.

“(My mom) just gave me all the ingredients and she said, ‘make it work,’” Le said. “As a kid, you can imagine, it was fun. I wasn’t intimidated.”

Le said teaching herself how to cook sharpened her palate and developed an almost instinctual understanding of how a meal’s components fit together, which brought her restaurant, Pho Momma, praise in the California Michelin Guide earlier this month.

“I really think that Michelin saw what I was trying to do here,” she said. “I think (the Michelin Guide inspector) saw the quality behind the food, and also the consistency. If (they’re) really good, (they) felt the love that I put into the food here.”

Le developed all the recipes for her restaurant, and she even cooks and rolls everything by hand.

“I don’t change hands here, it’s always me,” she said.

Pho Momma’s signature titular dish requires a “very intense technique” to achieve its exemplary quality, according to Le. The crystal-clear, flavor-dense broth — either chicken or beef — is prepared over multiple days of simmering pounds of meat low and slow, creating a highly concentrated, rich umami profile.

Despite her intimate understanding of what makes good food and her strict pho broth regimen, Le always puts her customers’ taste preferences above all.

“There’s no right or wrong way of eating a bowl,” she said. “If somebody likes it extremely sour ... give them all their lime.”

“They want their bowl in a specific way. Once they get it, it’ll stick in their brain (and) their stomach.”

As Le’s customers gained trust in her cooking, she began adding plated entrees dubbed Momma’s Specials to the menu, including silky chili oil pork wontons (eight for $9 or 12 for $12) and juicy fried chicken wings with salt-and-pepper seasoning or a garlicky fish sauce, on a bed of steamed white rice (six for $16).

Huge 10-piece spring rolls and a litany of crispy fried appetizers round out Pho Momma’s offerings. With so many items to choose from, Le introduced a miniature single-serving size pho, allowing for dim sum-style family dining around a variety of dishes.

Most of the dishes on Pho Momma’s menu don’t hail from Le’s childhood experimentation, rather she took inspiration from restaurants she has visited on her travels to Southern California, San Francisco and Las Vegas, adding a personal touch to create recipes she is proud to serve.

“I kind of take in flavors (from other eateries), and I make it more like how I would eat it,” Le said. “I think that when I translate that into meals and appetizers for my customers, they end up enjoying it too, so I really trust my palate.”

Le is the only American-born member of her family. In 1982, her father, who fought in the Vietnam War, captained a tugboat with 30 passengers fleeing central Vietnam amid the country’s post-war reconstruction, stopping briefly in Hong Kong before continuing to California.

He was able to bring his wife and their six children to the U.S. soon after, settling in Stockton. Their youngest daughter was born the next year. Now he is in his 70s, and Le said he’s not slowing down, still climbing 40-foot ladders to trim tree branches.

“I get my work ethic from my father,” she said.

Not only does Le constantly work on menu offerings and cooks meals in the restaurant, she also serves her food to customers directly and makes personal connections with her regular diners.

Pho Momma is the second restaurant Le and her husband, Tuan, have opened together. Their first venture didn’t pan out after opening in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Le swore off owning a restaurant until Tuan encouraged her not to keep her cooking talents at home, where she would make elaborate meals for their three daughters daily.

The new restaurant, named for Le herself, opened in October 2022. Within 45 days, a line of customers out the door would form each morning before Le was even able to flip the “Open” sign, she said.

“All of my thanks are to my customers,” she said. “There’s so much trust they put into me to sit down and try all this stuff they’ve never had before in their life.”

Le said she feels a great sense of honor and pride to represent Sacramento’s Vietnamese food scene on the Michelin stage and to introduce the community to her culinary heritage.

“Who would’ve thought the American-born girl could cook pho?” she said.

Pho Momma

Address: 9555 Folsom Blvd., Suite A, in Sacramento’s La Riviera neighborhood

Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Wednesday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday

Website: phomomma.com

Phone number: 916-898-2192

Vegetarian options: Vegan and vegetarian spring rolls and appetizers

Drinks: Wide selection of boba drinks with milk tea, Vietnamese coffee, iced tea, coconut cream, frozen shakes; fountain drinks available

Outdoor seating: None

This story was originally published May 31, 2025 at 5:00 AM.

Camila Pedrosa

The Sacramento Bee

Camila Pedrosa is the California Diversions Reporter at The Sacramento Bee. She previously worked on The Bee’s service journalism team and was a summer reporting intern for The Bee in 2024. She graduated from Arizona State University with a master’s degree in mass communication.