• Photo by Lynn Jones
• Pho Thien Long

Another hard fought battle with pretty much every Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian place in the county showing up as someone's favorite (along with a bunch of inexplicable votes for the band Blood Gnome). While Kyoto was a strong contender, Pho Thien Long once again took first place.

As the name implies, the classic North Vietnamese rice noodle soup, pho, is at the center of the menu -- it's available with beef, chicken or seafood, all in a savory broth with fresh basil, bean sprouts, lime wedges and slices of chili pepper on the side. An educated guess says that the additional Thai menu with its generous portions of pad thai put them over the top. The coconut prawns come highly reccomended. We should also mention that the same Vietnamese family has opened a sister restaurant, Pho Hoang, in Arcata. Even though it just opened, it garnered a fair number of votes.  

Pho Thien Long is at 615 F St., across from the Eureka Theater. It's open daily for lunch and dinner starting at noon.

The Breakdown: Pho Thien Long 20.7%, Kyoto 15.1%, Tomo 10.8%, Sushi Spot 7.6%, Annie’s Cambodian 6.9%. Category popularity: 10th.