A meating of minds

It's not often that you find a menu that satisfies meat lovers and vegetarians, but Luga's PhoPho offers a selection of Vietnamese food fit for herbivores, with tofu or seitan substitutions for almost all its hearty meat dishes.

"All of our ingredients are fresh and the dishes are prepared to order," says manager and head chef, Jun Trinh, a Canadian who relocated to Beijing almost two years ago. Early to rise, he personally oversees the minimum eight hours of simmering required for each bowl of his signature noodle soup broth that's served daily.

"MSG is not a part of my culinary vocabulary," he frowns.