Intentional. There are lots of them, and also many that count on the ”foe” pronunciation, like Pho Real.

Deliberate.

Yeah, I think it's deliberate too.

It’s a poor plan when customers will not want to utter the name of your restaurant. So deliberate but poor taste. We did giggle when we saw Kung Food in San Diego years ago.

Agree, lissam, but as I said very few people in this area would know how to pronounce it properly. And it is likely either a joke or a slap in the face to American insularity.

Perhaps they're counting on that--the appeal to youngsters who know how to pronounce pho and are glad to be in on the joke, and classic American to call a businesss "king" for the muggles. As I said in Colleen's thread, noodle house Hung Far Low, in Portland OR, thrived for nearly 100 years, and their sign is a protected historical artifact. That name refers to flowers in Chinese, but I knew a lot of guys who had their matchbooks in their pockets.

There are a bunch of Pho King Good restaurants throughout the US.... too bad nobody trademarked it. Lots of variations on royal names for vietnamese noodle restaurants, I wonder why?

Gooster, Pho King Good is even funnier than Pho King!

I'd like to think the entire Pho King business was started as a joke, knowing only 1 American in a thousand would know how to properly pronounce Phu. Around here I'd bet it's closer to 1 in 5000.

I'd guess it's 1 in 30 here,... An area search lists Pho King, Pho Show and Pho Gyu.

FOAS, surely just coincidence on that one. Unless his picture is hanging inside the place.

Yeah it was a joke!

A Pho King joke! 😂😂😂😉😉😉

I'm thinking in the urban west coast, the percentage of people who know the real pronunciation exceeds 10%, maybe as high as 1 in 4. Some are like 20+ years in business with similar name variations....