Eden Center

I absolutely love this place! It has the best collection of Vietnamese restaurants on the east coast. Unfortunately, I don’t come here very often, as it does take me more than half an hour to drive here, and I try to avoid VA as much as possible. But when I do come here, I consider it a tremendous treat, kind of like going to Disneyland. Not only do I have trouble deciding where to eat, because there are so many restaurants, but I also buy in bulk all the desserts, treats, and other takeaway meals I can get.
As for parking and safety, I have never experienced any of the things that others have complained about. I always park as far away as possible in the huge parking lot, and walk to every store to browse.

I’ve been coming here for as long as I can remember. The restaurants are good and so is the food/​grocery shopping. If you want anything Vietnamese, you’ll have to give this place a visit. The parking is a nightmare, the place is always crowded and many Vietnamese people are rude but really, the delicious food is worth all the trouble.

A magical place! I got out of my car and for a moment had a bad feeling in my gut because I forgot my Passport. Then I remembered that I was in fact NOT in a foreign country. It’s that kind of place, the kind that makes you think that you’re overseas. A culinary adventure awaits you here. I just closed my eyes, pointed, spun around, opened my eyes, and ate at the place I was pointing at. I did that three times, and had three excellent meals. Folks, you can’t go wrong here!

I love coming here when Im hunkering for some vietnamese food. My favorite places to visit are Huong Viet, Song Que and Bamboo. I am definitely a creature of habit. Usually when I go I order che from Bamboo, one thats more fruity and jackfruit, grapefruit candy, and spicy beef jerky from Song que.
If you’re in the area, you must visit!

This isn’t Chinatown. This is VietnamTown. All your Vietnamese needs are all located here. There’s tofu, bubble tea, ton of bakery goods, awesome Vietnamese entrees, grocery store, music, and much more!!! I wish Austin had one at least this big with super awesome homemade food and what not! I love this center!!!

Just about one of my favorite places to spend an afternoon.
I love Eden Center.
From the moment you step out of your car (or wander into the parking lot from the nearby Metro station), you’re enveloped in wafts of delicious aromas from all the various Vietnamese eateries. Don’t be discouraged by the walk from Metro or the challenge of finding an open parking space on the weekends (weekdays it’s not bad), there’s more than enough wonderful discoveries to be had here.
I’ve been coming here for years and still finding new and wonderful things to try. I’m about as far from «being asian» as you can get — so don’t let culture and language hold you back. Just dive right in and poke around.
Favorites include: Nhu Lan Sandwich Shop, Huong Viet Restaurant, Song Long Deli (though it predecessor Song Que was better), Good Fortune Supermarket, Thanh Son Tofu (Che choui — a banana & tapioca dessert — represents the sum total of Vietnamese I can speak), and no trip is complete without sticking my head into New World Gifts to pick out a happy cat or pikachu or some other little trinket.

I love this place! I used to only come for the bubble teas but then I expanded my catalog and try new things! Everything is so inexpensive here and authentic! Most of us usually stick to what we are used to but if you step outside the box you’ll end up like how I did. enjoying this old gem!

Absolutely the place to go if you’re around in the area looking for snacks to buy and ingest. In terms of Vietnamese food, this is the best places to go. Lots of choices, including breads, pastries, bubble tea, banh mi (Vietnamese hoagies), and so much more. Also might be good to have some cash on hand as some of the places don’t take card unless you hit a certain minimum (usually $ 10 or more).

I don’t think I will ever be back to this place. The parking is ridiculous and the rudeness is very upfront and not shy around this place. My little girl and I wanted to try something new and different from what we normally see. We just moved here to the DC area from Rapid City SD, so this is for sure a change of scenery. I noticed the Eden Center a few times driving around the area and I really was excited about trying this place out! I have never had Vietnamese food so I was willing to try something new (which is way out of character for me).
My daughter and I walked around the whole center never once did I see something that would be appealing to walk into… I was thinking cheap flea market while I was walking around. I’ve read a few reviews saying there are plenty of places around the area that serve awesome
Vietnamese food, I will just do that next time. This review is mostly for ppl who are pretty new to the area and think it would be pretty cool to walk around this area… Don’t do it! Not impressed!

WOW, I was mind-​blown. All your Vietnamese yummies all in one place. It was kind of overwhelming actually. I’ve never seen that many Vietnamese shops all in one place. If you’re looking for your Banh Mi fix, boba tea, or any Vietnamese dishes, stop here if you happen to be in the D.C. area.

Ya’ll heard of Chinatown? Well, welcome to Eden Center: Vietnamtown. Every corner you turn, you WILL hear Vietnamese people chattering the day away. It brings back lovely and not so lovely memories of my trips to Vietnam. Eden Center offers everything Vietnamese, from authentic phở to ao dai (traditional Vietnamese gowns). What I saw: Lee’s Bakery (they sell banh mi, which are delicious Vietnamese sandwiches). Craving something sweet? Head over to Bambu (they sell Vietnamese jelly desserts in bubble tea cups. just slurp your dessert in five minutes and BAM, you’re done!). Craving something smelly? They’ve got bun mam (stink fish sauce paste soup), try it, I dare you (it tastes delicious… to me). ^.^ My point is, whatever you’re craving, Eden Center has it all, in one convenient place!

Bánh Ta Deli
Best Bánh mi sandwiches ever!!! So yummy with their homemade butter spread, melts in your mouth!!! Got the Roti chicken to go, best Roti chicken I’ve ever tasted!

Get your phở, banh mi, and bubble tea fix here.
Eden Center has a plethora of Vietnamese restaurants, bakeries, jewelry stores, video stores, cafes, etc. Parking is rough. Finding a spot can be difficult. Traffic in and out of here is especially rough during weekends. Being raised in VA, my family always brought me here. Whenever out of town family come to visit, this is usually on the priority list of places to bring them.
Some of my favorite spots to visit are: Huong Viet Restaurant, Hai Duong, Bambu Desserts & Drinks, Les Baguettes, Thanh Son Tofu, Nhu Lan Sandwich Shop, Rice Paper, and Cho-​Cu Saigon.
P. S. Song Que I miss you. You put out quality stuff!

Need your vietnamese fix? This is the place. All things Vietnamese located in a shopping center in Falls Church, VA. Numerous stores selling bubble tea, phở, banh mi sandwiches and desserts. Parking can be crucial on weekends but nothing out of the ordinary. Prices are pretty comparable to each other.

Eden Center AKA Little Vietnam AKA unofficial Vietnamese capital of Virginia. This place really does remind me of the typical Vietnamese communities in Garden Grove and Westminster in SoCal where I grew up.
This place is absolutely crazy on the weekends. Almost all Viet stereotypes are confirmed in this shopping center: terrible/​crazy drivers, some shops calculating totals in their heads, and good cheap food! Parking lot space is okay. it could definitely use more spots but it’s not impossible to find a spot on the weekends. There are about 10 phở places here and they serve your basic Vietnamese dishes; a couple of dvd and entertainment places, several boba/​speciality dessert/​bakery places which are my favorite. I have no idea what their names are but the best places to get Che is the one about 6 doors down from Huong Viet to your left.
You can also find non food things such as house hold decorations and several jewelry stores. I think there are two locations where they have mini malls inside of eden center wtih these small shops. They also just opened the new Good Fortune grocery store this past weekend that place was insane. It’s about the size of a Food Lion and their produce section is very extensive. If you want to avoid the crowds, I suggest going on a weekday.

I don’t see a separate listing for the «Eden Center Kitchen» so I’m reviewing that particular restaurant here. We picked it because it appeared to be one of the two cleanest, best looking places to eat one evening.
The menu prices were typically in the range of $ 11-​$ 15, and the amount of food for the money varied quite a bit from dish to dish. I did not like my chicken and noodles with a thick, strangely flavored sauce. I picked the dish explicitly because «fish balls» were not listed under the description like they were in others (not knowing what a fish ball was exactly,) but I’m pretty sure the gross spherical items on my plate were indeed fish balls. My fiancé had fried ramen covered with fish balls and other seafood, and the same gross sauce I had.
Another dining companion, who had spent time living in Vietnam, had phở, and was also unimpressed. The service was also really bad. Our server was unfamiliar with alcoholic beverage offerings, and when it came time to split our tab in 2, we felt sure it was going to come back wrong. And it did. But, having paper checks and just literally a dollar amount handed to us on a ripped off piece of paper, we felt powerless even after adding up our menu items. So we just paid it. Unhappily.
Never again for Eden Center Kitchen. Maybe we’ll try another restaurant here with better luck.

It’s interesting how Eden Center itself is rated higher than most of the stores. I guess this is really a good example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
All in all, there is a big parking lot, but it does get pretty full so that people can work and shop here. Access from DC is pretty convenient (~20 minutes) but it also is about a 20 minute walk from the nearest metro (I haven’t tried but might one day when I get a serious craving for Vietnamese food).

I live down the street from Eden Center and I’ve been going here for over 20 years. I dine or get carry-​out from here once or twice a week. To get here via public transit, you have a couple of options.
Pro-​tip #1: Before getting on the metro, make sure you have cash, as a lot of the shops are cash-​only or have a minimum of $ 10 – 15 for credit cards. A few metro stations have CapitalOne ATMs (Metro Center, Ballston, West Falls Church, off the top of my head). EFC will not have a ATM. (UPDATE: There are now a few ATMs at Eden Center, though they kind of look shady.)
Pro-​tip #2: $ 30 – 45 will cover a meal for two with tax and tip. The average cost of an entrée is about $ 8 – 9, with $ 15 for the restaurant’s specialty entrees. $ 60 will give you the luxury of buying treats for the trip home. Banh mi or bubble tea typically costs $ 3.50−4. Nearly all the delis have a «buy 5 get 1 free» promo on banh mi and certain goods such as banh bao, fried spring rolls, and baguettes. Some businesses that accept credit cards usually have a $ 10 – 15 minimum.
Pro-​tip #3: Beware of bad drivers. You know the «Auntie Reverse Parking» video that was on Tosh.0? Yeah, it’s true. All of it. Don’t bother coming in on Sundays or Chinese New Year, because you won’t find parking. If you find a parking spot, you need to be aggressive the other drivers won’t be courteous. Find a spot first and got your turn signal on? The other driver WILL turn into your spot, and they won’t care. Also, the parking lot itself is crappy. They have resurfaced it somewhat this year but it’s still lumpy/​bumpy and there are cracks and holes, so be cautious when driving.
Pro-​tip #4: Sometimes there is no method to the madness when it comes to queuing up for food at the more popular bakeries/​delis. Just know that some businesses like Thanh Son Tofu and Bambu are the most popular. If you’re in any of these establishments and there is no line, immediately (immediately!) go and order, even if you don’t know what you want, because I guarantee that in 5 minutes, a group of 10 – 15 people will rush through the door and it will descend into chaos.
Pro-​tip #5: The public bathrooms are not that clean. They have three — one in each wing. I would advise using the restaurant’s restrooms, if they have any. From my experience, the restroom at Viet Taste (now Spicy) was the cleanest. (UPDATE: Spicy is now closed.)
Pro-​tip #6: Miscellaneous stuff — most of the area is now non-​smoking, but for many years people used to smoke inside. You may catch whiff of cigarette smoke every now and then, mostly from the bars and cafes. Also, they have sidewalk vendors who can be very persistent. Once, I had a woman try to haggle me to buy her lychees. I only had $ 5, and she wanted it for $ 10. I kept telling her in Vietnamese I didn’t have money, and she got pissed off when she realized I was telling the truth. Another woman hung onto my arm and tried to get me to go to this car in the lot where another woman was selling her baked goods. I think this depends on whether you’re alone or if you look Vietnamese.
Getting to Eden Center:
1. Get off at East Falls Church Metro (Orange or Silver Line). Once out of the station, make a right, passing the cab stands and Kiss ‘n Ride. Just keep walking down the street about 1 mile, and you’ll see it on your right. It’ll take about 20 minutes. You’re going to pass a Planet Fitness sign on your right, and you’ll see the back parking lot for Eden Center. But if you keep walking a bit, you’ll see the stores and shops. On a summer’s day, this might feel like forever, but you can reward yourself with a bubble tea smoothie.
2. You can hail a cab instead of walking. There are only 3 cabs at the station’s cab stand at any given time.
3. The 26A bus in the direction of Annandale-​NVCC travels down the street. It is the only bus route and seems to come every 60 – 70 minutes. It only runs on weekdays. You can hail it from EFC, or there is a bus stop about half-​way down the street, next to a park. If I’m able to hail the bus, I usually get off by the Oakwood Apartment complex and walk the rest of the way to my house, but there is a stop right up by Good Fortune Supermarket. WMATA’s and Next Bus’ mobile site is also helpful for planning. Just remember you have to be on the opposite side of the street to go back to EFC, unless you want to continue to Culmore or Annandale.
4. If walking at night, be very careful as there are NO street lights on the sidewalks by the center. Also, breathe through your mouth. The garbage stench is not too bad most days but some nights it’s really ripe.
Hopefully this will demystify the «Eden Center is inaccessible by metro» stigma. Don’t let a 20-​minute walk prevent you from experiencing some of the best Vietnamese food in the area!

Hahahah, someone wrote, «…why isn’t this DC’s Chinatown?» Because it’s Vietnamese and not Chinese –_​– LOL
If you’re hankering for some Vietnamese cuisine, then this is the place to be. It’s a grove of restaurants, shops, and bakeries. Finding ethnic-​centric shopping centers like this around MD, VA, DC are hard to find these days. DC’s Chinatown hardly deserves that title compared to NY’s or San Fran’s Chinatown. Wheaton, MD is more like a Chinatown with more Chinese restaurants clustered together, however, shops and bakeries are absent.
Eden is by far the best place to visit for anything Vietnamese-​related.
Please note: Park in the rear of the center to save yourself a migraine.

Eden is one of the best place for great food. From the history of the location is this.
This location use to have a Ames Department store, Mom and pop pizza store, Carvel Ice cream store and a grocery store I can’t remember. Good year tires store in the miidl of the center.
Here my review.
This location is great. After the discount store close I still come back to the restaurant. After china town change over to American town. I started in coming here for great Chinese food. I mean real real.
Every thing about this location I enjoy for the food and culture. The public restroom is dirty out dated. I’m not going to look in the kitchen. Is clean from table view. But getting behind the senses my close the place down. But the food make this area the best. I looking forward in coming back.