While some of our favorites — Pho 79, Pho 95, Pho 888 — utilize the number system for naming their restaurants, not every great pho joint sports digits; Pho Duy and Pho Le are also among our top picks. And then there’s Pho Belmarasia, a family-owned operation in Lakewood that takes its moniker from the Belmar development just across the street. Other than the somewhat whimsical name, there’s not much that physically distinguishes Belmarasia from other pho houses. The sign outside depicts a bowl with steam rising to form the diacritical mark over the “o” in “pho,” letting hungry passersby know what to expect. The exterior of the building is clad in beige stucco while the interior holds a familiar combination of cherrywood-finished furniture, granite counters and bar tops, brushed-aluminum accents, and upholstery and carpeting in patterns that surely came from the sale-price section of a home-improvement superstore. But study the menu, and you’ll discover specialties and uncommon dishes that push Belmarasia a few rungs above much of the competition.

The signature rolls at Pho Belmarasia are a tribute to a famous Vietnamese restaurant in Orange County, California.
Mark Antonation
After an appetizer, you could fall back on your favorite pho combo. All the usual meats are here — rare steak, brisket, flank, meatballs, tendon and tripe — and the kitchen also offers chicken, seafood and vegetarian pho. But in the interest of exploring other possibilities, check out the chef’s special soups first. There you’ll find a few other traditional bowls, from pork-heavy bun bo Hue to hu tieu nam vang bobbing with quail eggs, whole shrimp and barbecued pork.
But the soup that caught my eye was bun rieu, a dish traditionally made with freshwater crabs that are ground into a paste and used to flavor the broth and add a little something extra to soft pork meatballs. Far from the Mekong Delta, where the dish originated and where freshwater crabs are common, Belmarasia likely uses a canned crab paste to enrich its meatballs, which are soft and porous and can be broken up with your soup spoon to help spread the flavor throughout the broth. The bun rieu here also comes with stewed tomato halves (very traditional), cubes of cooked pork blood, fried tofu in spongy chunks that soak up the broth, and meaty pieces of pork rib. A side dish arrives heaped with shredded cabbage and banana blossom, bean sprouts, lime, jalapeño, cilantro, Vietnamese mint and shiso (the big, velvety leaves that are green on one side and purple on the other).

Pho Belmarasia doesn't look much different than many other Vietnamese restaurants, even if it lacks the numerical name.
Mark Antonation
Beyond noodle soups, Belmarasia offers multi-person hot pots that come in small ($27) and large ($35 to $39). Options include frog, spicy seafood, goat or catfish, all of which come with heaps of greens, herbs and root vegetables that you add to the simmering pot of broth brought to your table. For a one-person alternative, the clay-pot braised fish gives a rustic taste of Vietnamese country cooking.
Sure, you can do pho by the numbers, heading straight for the nearest noodle house for your fix, but Belmar is an easy destination for most west-side residents. And a stop at Pho Belmarasia means a chance to dive deep into a bowl of something different and delicious.