Cafe V

I was here for the Venezuelan pop up menu and it was delicious! I was looking forward to Phở but I gave it a chance and was not disappointed! Café V is awesome

Very dead when I arrived around 8:30, but I wanted phở so I decided to give it a go. The waitress was extremely friendly and the place is clean and has a cool ambience. Ended up pretty full with people by the time i left.
I got the spicy phở and it came out in a timely manner and was awesome. Brisket, pork, and chicken in lemongrass broth. Giant bowl for $ 9.50.
I will be back again!

Amazing food, amazing owner, amazing place. Now they can serve hard alcohol! If you don’t know, now you know.

Keep up the good work with your phở!
My friend and I came here for phở because I read on Unilocal that theirs does not contain MSG. I LOVE phở but hate the dry-​mouth feeling following a big savory dose of MSG. No thanks, MSG!
I got the beef phở, and my friend got the combination phở that came with chicken, beef, and seafood. Both soups were excellent. No dry-​mouth afterward!
Service was courteous, albeit slow. Make sure you budget at least an hour for dinner here. (Weekday)
Interior is clean, decorated and modern, suitable for a date with your honey or with friends.

Tried their tofu fresh spring rolls and WOW! I’m not usually a spring roll fan but these were SO GOOD! I loved the crunch of these crunchy tendon like roots they put in there. I like the spin they do on their food. The light colored dipping sauce (not peanut sauce) also really went well with it! There was a new server and she was very nice, efficient, speedy but didn’t seem rushed serving about a dozen people. Sadly the fryer wasn’t working so we didn’t get our usual jalepeno poppers but were not disappointed when we ate the fresh rolls. They ran out of the vegetarian broth so beef broth was substituted instead which is totally understandable when the veggie broth is THE BEST BROTH I’ve tasted anywhere. Seriously and without msg? Quite astounding feat if you ask me. I hope they bring back the special that one night that I got the corn beef bahn mi sandwich. Wow. Yummers. Delicious IPA on tap… it was a new one that we haven’t tried. Smelled and tasted like a hoppy, very happy hoppy distant cousin of it… MJ. lol Now, spring rolls, poppers and vegetarian soups are a must for me when I go here! YUM in my TUM!

I had the greatest time ever here!!! Fish tacos? Now here’s the thing I am a fisherman and I’ve eaten a few fish in my day.(Fish forgive me.) So I asked my friend who is a regular «What is this… Halibut» I went through a couple more choices, choices that were light, solid and delish (not to mention costly). And he comes back with Catfish! I was floored. By far the best catfish I have ever had. Duck fries, egg roll, Delish… My wife and Son are over there right now!

Came here for dinner a few days ago after having driven by it multiple times. Overall impression is that while it is not bad, there are definitely some areas for improvement and little to put it above its competition. It is a Vietnamese Fusion place with pretty modern, bold décor and nice paintings on the wall.
When we entered it took a few minutes to be greeted even though there were only 5 – 6 customers in the restaurant and they were all already seated. Other than that our server was extremely friendly and helpful. I wish they had more than one person working out front though as that lead to some slow service at points (not just for us but some other patrons in the restaurant).
The Duck fries were good and they come with a nice sauce. The Phở was very bland. It seemed like the flavor of the soups just came from whatever ingredients were in it as opposed to the broth.

An absolute delight. Food was beyond impressive, and the staff made me feel like I was Hilary Clinton. If I lived closer I’d be here daily. The dishwasher even came out and asked how our meal was and if he could wash our dishes. If you have the pleasure to dine here, do it. Awesome!

Stumbled upon this gem after a day of shopping in Berkeley. Friendly and knowledgable staff and absolutely stellar food. Five stars goes out to this fabulous Berkeley joint! =)

What?! I don’t understand this place. My sister, her boyfriend and I came to this place on a Friday night, and there were 3 other tables seated eating their dinner. Based on the good reviews on Unilocal,I expected this to be a good place to get phở! :(I was wrong…
First off, when we entered the restaurant, no one was out on the floor, so we walked up to the bar area and waited for someone to pop out of the kitchen. A cook saw us through the window of the doors separating the bar and the kitchen, but didn’t acknowledge us or let the waiter, who was in the back with him, know that we were waiting there. Finally, after 10 minutes the waiter comes out, is surprised we are there, and apologizes and has us choose our own seats. Alright, fine. Time to redeem yourself, Café V! I hope your food is good! … :(
If you think this is going to be a authentic phở place, you will be disappointed. We all wanted phở since it was a cold night out… and all the broths from the soups we ordered was bland, undersalted, and tasted like there was too much anise added to it. It was very underwhelming. Noodles were a bit overcooked. I got the chicken phở, and there weren’t very many pieces of chicken in it. Though the portions are big, I don’t think I would go here again because I feel like I wasted tummy space on not so good phở. I’m still waiting for a good phở place to make its way over to Berkeley… until then, I’ll stick to going somewhere in Oakland.

— The phở soups were pretty flat in terms of flavor. All we really tasted was the rice noodle (which unfortunately has no flavor) since the broth just had no depth or seasoning at all.
— The duck fat fries came out decent, but were probably sitting too long since they weren’t crunchy at all.
— The imperial rolls tasted like they were just store bought
Overall, really nothing special about this place.

Stopped by for a quick lunch and ordered the beef phở and a beer. Phở was good, beer was good, and the place has a cool nightclub vibe. 5 stars for the great service — they opened up a half hour early for me and the food still came quickly.

This place had a cool atmosphere, seemed like it was more of a bar than a phở place. I got the chicken phở which was MSG free. Honestly, I love eating healthy but phở without MSG I just can’t do. There’s not enough flavor and it just doesn’t taste the same. The chicken in the phở however was delicious! The white meat was very tender and I think they charred the edges of it too. They give you a pretty large amount of it which makes up for the high cost of the phở. Overall, if I did come back here, I don’t think would get the phở. They did have some other good looking dishes on the menu that I’d like to try.

I wanted to love this place when I came here for dinner last week to try it out but I was disappointed. It was a weekday and it was empty with only 2 other tables.
The good:
–friendly server but he was by himself
–nice décor with awesome artwork on the walls
–space is not too small and has a TV and small bar seating
–no MSG used
The bad:
–it was not busy at all but the food took forever to get out
–food that I ordered was just okay, nothing spectaular. My dishes were the beef carpaccio — different flavor than I imagined, king phở — no flavor, and duck fat fries — average
–high prices
–the place feels more like a bar and not a restaurant with the bright lighting and some of the decoration
–no cocktails — I asked
Hope that this place gets better because it is in my area and I would to give it another chance.

Let’s start with the good: the place is exceedingly well-​decorated and fun. The airbrushed artworks demonstrate enough thought and skill to avoid being tacky and the whole clean, young, fresh chinatown aesthetic is working well. I pass it most days and generally see a decent enough crowd. The staff is friendly and the furniture is as comfortable as it is clean and attractive.
The problem here is the food. How it tastes, and what you pay for it.
I’m going to be blunt: the food is bland, poorly cut, and poorly cooked.
— The portions are too large, even for phở, and the flavors are off.
— The broth is too dark, yet lacks flavor. I’m pretty sure it’s just packaged broth from the grocer. There was nothing reminiscent oxtail or ginger, the two very-​distinctive notes that make phở phở.
— The meat is consistently in that range of cooking-​through that is more than «well-​done» but not yet «shred-​it-​with-​a-​fork.» The result is that the meat is tough, chewy, bland.
— There isn’t much of meat in any dish
— The cuts are rough which does not work for how little it’s cooked. You can make cartilage soft and even tender if you cook it right. This wasn’t. I was afraid I was going to lose a tooth.
At $ 8.50, the cheapest option is already very expensive for phở. When it’s chicken and not beef, when there’s very little of the chicken, when you have to pay $ 0.50 extra to make it spicy, as well as all the flaws listed above, this price is absurd.
In the end the oversized serving of broth and noodles just make me feel guilty about not finishing it. The apps are the same story — no flavor, more filler than I want to eat, with a small amount of badly-​prepped meat that cannot justify the cost.
In all, the dishes should be 10% smaller, 20% cheaper, and 100% better-​prepared. At risk of sound narrow-​minded, I sorta wonder if phở, being a comfort food, is one of those things that has to be made by people who grew up eating it at home. I wouldn’t trust most asians to make good mac and cheese, and these non-​asian kids really don’t make good phở.
If you don’t really care much about a few extra dollars or bland food and want to go somewhere chill with chopsticks, line up! If you on’t care about decorations and want a good vietnamese dinner, go to any of the many others in the east bay.

Tried their late night snacks menu a couple of weeks ago, it was fantastic!
The staff is wonderful, incredibly personable and charming and very helpful with suggestions. I hope this place gets more attention in the late weekend nights because if you are at the bars at Acme or the Mis-​lo and you need snacks, this is right in that area. You don’t have to settle for drive through fast-​food, promise!
The jalapeño popper egg rolls were amazee.

I want to like Café V since it’s in my neighborhood and it’s the only Vietnamese place within walking distance. However, there’s just no excuse for a salad with wilted greens. Their chicken banh mi was okay, but I would have preferred the barbecue pork. They were sold out though! I also ordered a Thai iced tea that never came.
Our server was very cordial. He apologized when he took longer to return to refill our glasses of water. At that point there was no reason to ask for my Thai iced tea since we wanted to get out of there. Please turn it around, Café V. I want good Vietnamese food in my neighborhood!

Vietnamese bar food has been used to describe this place, and I would have to agree, this is a fairly accurate assessment. The atmosphere was a little off if you’re just going for dinner and not drinks (which is what we were doing), as you basically feel like you’re sitting in a well lit bar. Probably a much better place if you’re doing both.
Their Vietnamese styled appetizers were good and came out fast, but we had to wait a while for the rest of our meal. The reports of an understaffed kitchen I would have to concur with.
I had the bahn mi, which was tasty, but not really done in a classic style (no french bread) which is my favorite part. At $ 9 it was also a little bit pricey compared to what you can get elsewhere.
Still, the service was friendly and the food was good. Would return if in the area, and wanted a drink this time.

Phở with no MSG…
Those need to be separated into a category on their own because they lack the flavor and rich meaty depth that is found in regular phở. I’ve been to a handful of places that serves no MSG phở. and they is a similar tendency: Super bland. Imagine taking rice noodles and putting them into a bowl of hot water and adding a little salt. That’s what it tastes like.
However, I also understand that to some people, this is a preferable alternative to waking up with «bloated face syndrome» the next morning.
So if you’re looking for great phở, don’t come here. If you are desperately craving phở but are allergic to monosodium glutamate, then I guess you gotta come here.
Otherwise, this place is clean enough and offers a unique juxtaposition of Vietnamese cuisine combined with a dive bar.

Came back to try the pork belly sandwich. It really is as good as people say it is. Also found out you can ask for tendon in the «phở filet». I asked for tripe too but they didn’t have any. For some reason the broth tasted better today. Maybe because there was tendon in it. Lol. I know that has no bearing on the soup flavor. Still, it had a full-​body flavor that is really growing on me. I think after having my brain fried by an MSG-​laden phở at another restaurant, I appreciate café V’s msg-​free policy. Yay for healthier broths that don’t sacrifice flavor.
Found my neighborhood go-​to phở shop. (Along with Mint Leaf. They will always have a special place in my heart.)