Rise and Shine is Mai Tran’s unassuming bakery in Edmonds where virtually everything is made in house, including the bread for the banh mi. Soup options like bun bo hue and northern-style pho feature long-cooked broths. There’s woven vermicelli noodles with pork belly bearing the crispiest crackle, and banh mi chao with mackerel or sardine makes for home-style breakfast all day long. Even the sweet treats like fresh taro buns and cakes come straight from the Rise and Shine ovens. Tran delivers everything with her signature kind service.

Lotus Pond has brought quality Vietnamese food to the under-the-radar Haller Lake neighborhood. 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.

Newly opened by the Roosevelt light rail station, Ong Lam Bistro transports diners to Vietnam with a street scene feel within an otherwise contemporary dining room. Here you’ll find the chef’s take on familiar Vietnamese dishes, all beautifully plated. The banh xeo is crisped up like a hard-shell taco, while pig ear slices and fried taro batons enhance the varied textures of the pickled lotus root salad. The bo ne’s tender beef proves that anytime is the right time for steak and eggs, while a sauce of fermented tofu spiked with chile makes duck breast with delicate egg noodles simply irresistible.

With multiple locations throughout the city, Ba Bar is the place to fork over a few extra dollars for one of the finest bowls 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. Ba Bar’s pastries include macarons and pandan cake — perfect with a cup of strong, sweet, Vietnamese coffee. (For Seattle’s original upscale Vietnamese experience, diners need look no further than Eric and Sophie Banh’s Monsoon, a sibling restaurant to Ba Bar, where drunken chicken, catfish clay pot, and banana cake for dessert are among the popular dishes.)

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. (Dong Thap will soon open a flagship location in Tukwila.)

Vietnam House shares the same parking lot as Tamarind Tree near 12th and Jackson, 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 sibling restaurant The Boat, which has earned acclaim for its garlicky fried chicken and pandan waffles. The main restaurant is probably most famous for its various forms of pho, but the pho tron (“dry pho”) is truly the gem. There are tasty bites like pho fries and twice-fried chicken wings with tamarind fish sauce glaze on the menu as well.

Huong Binh is a standout among the many restaurants at 12th and Jackson, hitting 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 menu expands on weekends, when specials include duck noodle soup as well as congee served with blood sausage, pork tongue, liver, and ear.

One of many good Vietnamese restaurants near Othello Station, Tony’s Bakery offers Vietnamese deli items, entree-and-rice boxes, and more. It even bakes its own bread for banh mi. While the dac biet (house special) banh mi is popular, insiders order banh mi ca xa ot, with battered and fried basa fish (a type of catfish) and a smear of garlic-chive aioli. Across the parking lot, Q Bakery also prepares delicious banh mi; its homemade bread is more crackly with a denser crumb.

Ever since Anthony Bourdain made a stop here for an episode of The Layover, Rainier BBQ has been a popular destination for Vietnamese food in South 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.