I’ve been going to this outlet of Pho 75 for over twenty years, and have probably been several dozen times – I got my parents hooked on it, and to this day, my mom asks about going once a week or so (she always gets white meat chicken, and always asks for a fork (which they happily provide)).
Me, I get a large bowl of #1 (Tái, Nạm, Gầu, Gân, Sách, $6.45) which contains slices of eye-of-round steak, well-done flank, fat brisket, soft tendon, and bible tripe. It’s the Big Bubba, and will concentrate the broth the most towards the bottom of the bowl (since it’s the fattiest cuts).
There are degrees of consistency at most Phở houses, but Phở 75, at least the one in Langley Park, has been one of the most consistent over the years, and it has been consistently excellent (and was so again, the only drawback this time being the off-putting smell of insecticide (or whatever it was) at a table near the cash register area). Interestingly, I spotted a second Phở house across University Blvd., so competition has finally arrived.
As an aside, when my son was 3, Karen and I played a dirty trick on him at a Pho house (now closed) in Eden Center – we gave him his first lime wedge. He stuck his tongue on it, plastered his eyes shut and shuddered, put it down, and said, “yuck!” Well, we had a good chuckle, anyway.