The Vietnamese noodles person's alternative to pho is BBH. Other than trying a famous version in Hue itself and making an excellent version from Luke Nguyen, most of my BBH has been from Victoria Street's Co Do. Footscray's equivalent is supposedly Dong Ba who also advertises their specialisation in BBH.
Interestingly they only serve only BBH dish - I suppose you could call this traditional rather than bastardised. This version includes pig blood and cartilage which many would probably not order. For $10 the medium bowl is ample for my appetite. The broth is actually very sweet, perhaps a marker of MSG? It takes a good addition of the sate lemongrass & chilli sauce and a bit of requested fresh chilli to bring some heat and a squeeze of lemon to bring out the complexity. The meat quality is very good and tender.
For some reason they were out of che ba mau and all combinations of these. I settled for basil seeds and grass jelly in coconut milk which was a fine alternative.
I think I like Co Do better. But I definitely like Luke Nguyen's recipe even more.