The Dish Behind the TÁI CLUB
Paper-thin slices of fresh, marbled beef, laid over the noodles raw and cooked in seconds by boiling 18-hour bone broth. This is how Saigon eats phở, and how we've served it since day one.
How Phở Tái Works
Three moments, photographed in our Grote Street kitchen during a real service.
Fresh beef, sliced so thin the marbling shows through, draped over the noodles by hand. No pan. No grill.
Beef balls, chả, onion: every bowl built to order and lined up while the broth pots roll at a boil.
Boiling 18-hour bone broth hits the beef and cooks it in seconds, leaving it pink, tender and ready by your first bite.
Phở Thố Đá or Bún Bò Huế Thố Đá with rare beef: each bowl is an entry in the TÁI CLUB monthly draw. One number drawn at noon on the last Sunday, and the winner takes home this month's present.
Beyond the bowl
Love the red coin but curious what rare beef tastes like without the broth? Our Gỏi Bò Tái Chanh guide covers the citrus-cured side of tái — thin beef, shredded green apple and nước chấm, made to share before your phở arrives.
THE SET
If you want the stone bowl with a little more of the table around it — two chả giò, three fried wontons, and cà phê đá or nước dừa — the Stone Bowl Set puts it together for $39. Same boiling granite bowl, same 18-hour broth, same red-coin ritual when you order tái.
If you finish the noodles and still have a good centimetre of 18-hour broth left, order a $4 giò quẩy — the golden fried dough stick Southern tables tear and dunk while the soup is still hot. One stick, made for the bowl.
FAQ
After the red-coin bowl, finish cold: chè thái ($10) is coconut milk, jelly and tropical fruit over crushed ice — land softer with chè khúc bạch, the Vietnamese panna cotta glass — or go traditional with sâm bổ lượng, the longan herbal iced drink.
Want every cut in one bowl instead of tái alone? Phở Đặc Biệt is the combination option — rare, brisket, meatball, tendon and tripe — still Small $20 / Large $22 on the classic bowl.
Tái means rare in Vietnamese. Phở tái is beef phở topped with paper-thin fresh beef that's cooked to rare by the boiling broth poured over it in the bowl.
Yes — by your bowl. Boiling 18-hour broth is ladled over the raw slices and gently cooks them in seconds. Pink, tender, cooked through by your first mouthful. Prefer it fully done? Ask for phở chín (well-done brisket) instead.
$20 small, $22 large, or $25 for the signature stone bowl Phở Thố Đá. Classic bowls: order online for pickup. The stone bowl is dine-in only — it's heated before serving — so come see us at 65 Grote Street, Adelaide.
Our monthly lucky draw: every stone bowl with tái comes with a numbered ticket, one winner drawn at noon on the last Sunday of the month. All the details here.
Same 18-hour broth, different bowl. Classic Phở Tái arrives in a regular bowl with the red coin of raw beef gently cooking in the hot broth. Phở Thố Đá comes in a heated stone bowl, so the beef sizzles the moment broth hits — it's dine-in only at our Grote Street shop in Adelaide's Chinatown.