While not particularly busy when I arrived around 12:30 on a Wednesday, by the time I left, the place was basically full, so they seem to be doing well. A whole lot more English heard than Spanish, it's clear it's become a place for expats to hang out. You order at the counter, pay, take your beverage with you, and then they'll shout out your name when your food is ready.
At lunchtime they have a special menu - your choice of one of the four soups on offer (chicken or beef pho, bun bo hue, or a Cambodian prawn), accompanied by a fried spring roll and either a soft drink or a half-pint of one of the more than a dozen on-tap craft beers they offer.
I went, on my first visit, solo, for a bun bo hue, a Vietnamese lemongrass broth stocked with beef and vermicelli noodles and accompanied by mint, cilantro, sliced chilies, beansprouts, slivers of raw onion, and lemon. It has a fairly mild kick in comparison to a real traditional one, but at least noticeable, and with the addition of the chilies (they serve it with jalapeños, I'd probably recommend going with the Peruvian ají limos, as a much closer flavor to the classics), and sriracha sauce, you can get a healthy glow going. Really, really good. 160 pesos.
On to a second visit with two friends. One went for the dish I had on the first visit. I was going to go for their chicken pho, but the broth wasn't ready yet, so I "settled" for the phnom penh soup - a tasty Cambodian prawn and pork broth with rice noodles, prawns, pork, and a moderate amount of spice. This time, on the table, in addition to sriracha, there was a homemade hot sauce that was a mix of chilies and garlic, and really, really good! 160 pesos.
The other friend ordered from one of the non-soup options, one of the bun, or noodle dishes. What's missing from the menu is that these are cold dishes, essentially cold noodle salads, and that wasn't at all what we were expecting, so on that front a bit disappointing. The staff seemed "shocked, shocked, I tell you" that the menu doesn't mention that these dishes are cold, and promised to look into it. Uh huh. This one, the bun thic nuong, contained slightly crisp cold rice noodles with a sweet lemongrass dressing, cilantro, beansprouts, vegetables, and a modicum of slivered pork. 150 pesos.
We were still a bit peckish, so we ordered a banh mi sandwich to split. I'd like to say it was worth the 35 minute wait to receive it, but it wasn't. It's a good sandwich, just not worth that long of a wait. And missing some of what, for me anyway, a banh mi is all about - in particular, paté, or pork belly, or sausage; and a baguette to serve it. Instead, it was a thin slice of slightly sweet barbecued pork, topped with some carrots, sweet pickled cucumber, cilantro, and green onion. And the bread was sort of a ciabatta that had been griddled to the point of being burnt on both top and bottom. While 90 pesos might not normally be bad for a sandwich, this one just didn't make the grade.
One really nice thing, for those who like it, coffee offered Vietnamese style, slow dripped into sweetened condensed milk. The coffee itself isn't all that, but by the time it's mixed with the milk, it works just fine. You can also get it without the milk, and in both versions hot or cold. 60 pesos. read more