Rise and Shine is Mai Tran’s unassuming bakery with treats like cakes and fresh taro buns. The banh mi features house-made bread and perhaps the most tender grilled pork in the area. Having recently moved from Shoreline to Edmonds, the new location has more tables and enables Tran to serve up several soup options delivered with her signature kind service.

Newly opened in the Haller Lake neighborhood, Lotus Pond is bringing quality Vietnamese food to the north side of Seattle. Bo la lot (charbroiled beef wrapped in betel leaves) are an ideal starter, especially when dipped in the accompanying pineapple-anchovy sauce. The menu includes a wide variety of noodle soups, including Hai Phong crab red noodle soup with wide red rice noodles, and the woven vermicelli plates come with intricate bundles of thin noodles along with an array of protein options like lemongrass beef and shrimp cakes.

For Seattle’s (and Bellevue’s) original upscale Vietnamese experience, diners need look no further than Eric and Sophie Banh’s Monsoon, a sibling restaurant to Ba Bar. Using finer ingredients sourced locally when possible, Monsoon blends traditional Vietnamese cuisine with Pacific Northwest innovation for food with a fine-dining flair. Drunken chicken, catfish clay pot, and banana cake for dessert are among the popular dishes. There are sometimes special feasting opportunities to enjoy Dungeness crab too.

With multiple locations throughout the city, Ba Bar is the place to fork over a few extra dollars for the finest bowl of pho in town. But the menu goes well beyond beef noodle soup. Bun bowls with vermicelli noodles are popular, as are slow-roasted rotisserie meats such as chicken, duck, and pork belly. Housemade pastries include macarons (available daily) and pandan cake (available Saturday, Sunday, and Monday) — perfect with a cup of strong, sweet, Vietnamese coffee.

Named for a Vietnamese province known for rice production, Dong Thap turns rice into fresh noodles that form the foundation of the menu, including soup noodles and dry bun bowls of vermicelli topped with meat, vegetables, and egg rolls. Diners can order pho with a choice of two noodles — one is a wide, flat version that is traditional in pho but hard to find locally. The noodles are soft and slippery, yet slightly chewy, and are also available to buy at the counter to cook at home.

Vietnam House shares the same parking lot as Tamarind Tree, though it attracts more of a Vietnamese clientele. This is a reliable spot for broken rice dishes, including one with a grilled pork chop, shrimp on sugar cane, deep-fried bean curd, and a fried egg. With more than 100 items, the menu may be a bit overwhelming. Note, though, that nearly every table orders bun mang vit (duck and bamboo vermicelli noodle soup). It’s available one hour after opening, and typically sells out before the end of the day.

Pho Bac Sup Shop shares a Little Saigon parking lot with currently closed sibling restaurant Pho Bac (they’re both owned by the same family, with the Pho Bac building shaped like a boat), but there’s a lot more on the menu than soup noodles. The pho tron (“dry pho”) is outstanding, and there are tasty bites like pho fries and twice-fried chicken wings with tamarind fish sauce glaze on the menu as well.

In a city full of pho, Pho So 1 puts the word right in its name and succeeds in making the beef noodle soup shine. No. 20 on the menu offers the widest variety of meat: rare beef, well-done flank, fatty flank, tendon, and tripe. If you can break free of the comforting pho grasp, the bun bo hue is also worth a try for its spicier, funkier broth.

Another standout at 12th and Jackson hits the mark with its intersection of quality and value. The grilled pork, perfectly caramelized, is a specialty, particularly as part of banh hoi thit nuong, where pork skewers accompany intricate bundles of thin rice noodles garnished with ground shrimp and scallion. The intriguing menu expands on weekends, when specials include duck noodle soup as well as congee served with blood sausage, pork tongue, liver, and ear.

This is the place to go for some of the best tofu in town. Here you’ll find large blocks of firm tofu, containers of plain or sweet soy milk, and tofu pudding with ginger syrup. There’s also a tofu bar with various flavors of fried tofu, including lemongrass-chili. And for those who can’t wait to eat, you can order a variety of banh mi sandwiches — including, of course, tofu.

This Columbia City pool hall with a sports bar feel is a popular hangout for some in the Vietnamese community, and the quality of its kitchen justifies a visit — either for takeout or for a fun dine-in experience. Noteworthy items include banh mi, bun (dry noodle bowls), and soups like bun bo hue, bun rieu (crabmeat with tofu and rice noodles), and bo kho (beef stew with noodles or bread). Bun mang vit (duck noodle soup with bamboo shoots) is especially popular here.

Ever since Anthony Bourdain made a stop here for an episode of “The Layover,” Rainier BBQ has been a popular destination for Vietnamese food on the south side of Seattle. Recommendations include hu tieu nam vang (glass noodle soup packed with proteins and herbs) shaking cube beef, and ong choy beef salad with its curly wisps of water spinach. The Rainier catfish is the head-turner for newcomers, as the deep-fried fish averages close to eight pounds each and overhang the platters as they come out of the kitchen with a sizzle.

At the south end of the Vietnamese “strip” along MLK, at the Othello Station light-rail stop, this humble hole-in-the-wall has a small number of tables waiting, a television typically blaring, and an owner likely whistling or singing. The sign outside says Bun Bo Hue, which is easily mistaken as the name of the restaurant — rather, it’s the signature dish and the one to order, with its gelatinous pork knuckle and earthy pork blood cakes.