Bun Soho

*very dishonest and rude waiter with an attitude.
*he expects a 20% tip, even with a party of four pple.
*we gave him tips in cash, he slams down the check tray in front of us and demands more.
*Meanwhile, he took $ 5 from our tips before he threw our money back at us.
*humiliated us as if we didn’t want to pay or give him tips, when we clearly OVERpaid.
*no apologies given by waiter or manager.
*food was mediocre but we were okay with it. The service, however, was unacceptable.

Sadly this restaurant has closed.
Service wasn’t that great
Location hidden
But the food. Delicious!

Went few weeks ago on a Wed night with a groupon. There was no rush or queue and got to pick up my table. I actually wanted to do a takeout, however they don’ t do takeouts with groupons.
Ordered the Tiger Shrimp — must have, nice flavorful, mildly spicy. Also got the SoHo wings which had decent flavor and on sweeter side. Being a big panna-​cotta fan, I had to try theirs and was good with different flavor, I guess Pandan panna-​cotta something.
The ambiance is nice with oriental taste and surprisingly were playing some Bollywood music. Overall a decent place to go if in the hood or for a date dinner since its quite (not sure if it gets loud on weekend).

This is probably the nicest Vietnamese restaurant in the area and yes it’s pricier and the food is not as good. I rather go to a regular and cheaper Vietnamese restaurant.
We had:
1. Spring rolls — Wouldn’t say it’s the best. I had better.
2. Seafood noodle — There are better seafood noodle soup in the area.
3. Bun shrimp & pork belly — This dish is very good.

The bit on the coupon that says «plus dessert»? That means you weren’t supposed to charge me. Boo.
The food was very bland — the vege rolls were less tasty than other NY Vietnamese salad rolls and Thai summer rolls I’ve had. The bun vegetable dish wasn’t flavorful enough and there was too little tofu and mushroom to the noodles. Better prices elsewhere.
Maybe I should have nibbled on the hovering fruit flies that crawled into my drink when I was done. Mmm, crunchy goodness.
On the plus side, I like the option of table or booth. The colorful lights and décor are cheerful. The waiter was very friendly.

Excellent, fresh and refined Vietnamese food that reminds one that the French colonized that land and left a heavy culinary imprint on the cuisine. I’m sorry, People of Vietnam, I’m sure it was very unpleasant to BE colonized but on the upside, your food is now very very yummy, and when done with a particularly refined hand, as at Bun Soho, it’s downright excellent. Putting Berkshire pork belly in shrimp rolls is a marvelous idea, and I’ll eat cardboard with that dipping sauce. My duck confit was rich, complex, and topped with a perfectly fried sunny-​side up egg. The sweet and sour fish was filled with big fresh chunks of fish and a perfect balance of those flavors.

mediocre, don’t bother…
the pictures look better than the real thing… i was so disappointed, i should’ve just eaten the pictures instead… we ordered some things with pork. like the pork ribs. it was so FATTY! i couldn’t finish it. i ate one n that’s it, i didn’t want a heart attack… maybe we should’ve went with beef ribs…
Also, the small plates r SMALL n they’re not cheap either… meh idk i would just go else where if i were you.
service was passable, not super great tho. décor is ok. everything is just ok… the price was somewhat nasty.

If I could I would give this place a negative 5. I’m not one to really write reviews but I really felt that after my experience others need to be warned.
After a day in Soho, my boyfriend and I purchased a deal through Groupon to have an early dinner since we love eating Vietnamese. Not only were we treated absolutely terrible by the waiter «Tony» from the moment we sat down but he told my boyfriend to «Shut up or you won’t get the Groupon Deal» when he asked why he was being so rude.
To make matters worse, my boyfriend ate the frog legs meal which must of been spoiled or rotten because by the time we got home my boyfriend was doubled over in pain and remained that way for the next 5 days. His doctor said it was the worst case of hives/​allergic reaction he has ever seen. (I swear, I’d post a picture if I knew how)
Do not go here if you want good quality food and service and want to simply enjoy a good meal.

Over priced and mediocre.
I’m a bit of a vietnamese food snob since I grew up eating it.
The food here isn’t terrible. It’s just mediocre.
Their spring rolls are $ 6…rather overpriced for 1 spring roll sliced into four pieces.
The thick slice of pork belly and jumbo prawn isn’t enough to warrant a price of $ 6 for one spring roll.
What makes their bun mediocre?
–bland fish sauce
–iceberg lettuce
–not enough herbs
–barely pickled carrots

A short review of their phở: 2 stars on the phở-​ness, 3 stars for the broth. The saving grace is a broth which had a hearty anise flavor. However, Bun is not a «phở» restaurant, they prep your soup for you, adding the basil and bean sprouts. The noodles were overcooked making a soggy noodle cake on the bottom of my bowl, and they present you with a tiny bowl of sriracha and hoisin, just enough to feel like Im under communist rule where all condiments are ReGuLaTeD!
I say gimme a squirt bottle and Viva la Revolution!

A very nice looking, stylish restaurant that is seriously pricey. The portions for the entrees are basically appetizer sized during dinner time. My date and I ordered 3 entrees (tiger prawns, duck confit, and I think a pork dish) and 2 bowls of white rice and we were still hungry afterwards. Only the duck confit was decent. We also didn’t appreciate the server being unfriendly. There was us and one other table being occupied since it was 6pm on a weekday. There are much better restuarants in the area so walk by this one and pick something else.

This place is impeccable.
The interior is nicely decorated with lots of artistic photos to look at while you sit. The food itself is amazing in both its presentation and quality. I had the Hangar’s Steak with apples, Asian mustard greens and mints which was a surprisingly delicious combination. My boyfriend had the Duck Confit which he really enjoyed. Overrall we had a very nice time here.
The only negative aspect is that the neighborhood it’s in is a bit crowded for my taste. It’s definitely worth visiting this gem of a restaurant though!

Price: $ 10-​ish/​dish
Highlight: Pictures of EACH dish on the back of the menu. Fantastic!
So I’m not a connoisseur of Vietnamese but will add that I have been searching for a place comparable to the flavor, consistency and general amazingness of Miss Saigon in Poughkeepsie circa 2002.
After a long day in Soho, we decided to go in here for dinner after passing by on our way to another Vietnamese place. By the the time we sat the tiredness took over and there was no moving.
The tiredness was responsible for us staying though they had no shrimp phở — which my friend was yapping about through HnM, Zara and in the fitting room at Express. The tiredness took us through flavorless salmon something appetizer, not good seafood phở and not good pork thing around sugarcane which was more like bacon fat wrapped around the sugarcane.
You know when you keep trying things in the hopes that something will redeem your meal — the highlight was the side of rice which had bits of pork in it. Thats all I have to give you and believe me I wanted to give you mooooooore.

One rainy Thursday evening, I came here with my girlfriends to catch up over some dinner. The place was easily missed, but then it might’ve been my fault since I get lost a lot.
Four of us were hungry so we’ve decided to do an 11 course meal. For drinks, we’ve gotten the watermelon smoothie, which was pretty refreshing, but too foamy.
We’ve ordered the shrimp roll, lobster salad, butter frog legs, tiger shrimp, rocket roll, diver scallops, pork ribs, mini cakes, king crab roll, soho wings, crispy salmon and filet mignon. Most of the dishes were okay. The most memorable dishes to my palette was the butter frog legs. The frog legs were pretty decent size and the buttery garlicky taste was amazing. The other dish that I liked a lot was the pork ribs, which was wrapped around a sugarcane stick slathered with a honey mustard glaze. The pork ribs were really soft and the sugarcane gave texture to every bite.
*Warning — this is when things went down the drain*
We were having a great time catching up then came the bill, which we’ve had a voucher for. We were originally going to pay credit, but the waiter said they don’t accept credit here.* So we’ve paid in cash. Then the waiter gotten nasty with us because he felt he deserved a 20% tip, which we didn’t give him. He slammed the plate that held the check down onto our table, which startled us. He didn’t ask us why he wasn’t given a better tip, he started to cause a scene at the restaurant. We tried to explain to him, but he kept raising his voice and yelling at us for giving him a shabby tip, when he should’ve deserved 20%. And he gave us back the cash we had paid our bill with and demanded that we make up the difference by adding more cash, so he can get his 20%.
We picked up the cash and counted and it was shorted $ 5. We know how much we had put down total, but when he gave us back our money it was $ 5 short. We asked him to come over and asked why it was short and he said we’ve shorted him in the first place. Then he went on saying we accused him taking the $ 5 and again he raised his voice. And by this time other patrons at the restaurant were all eyes on us. The waiter then kept saying that the 3 years he’s worked at this place, no one has ever shorted him tip or gave him less than what he deserves. He went on and said «it’s okay, it’s okay if you don’t give me 20%,» as if we were being cheap or something, when we weren’t. We had tried talking to him nicely and he caused a scene and when we asked him why $ 5 was shorted he gotten really defensive and counter argued that we shorted him in return and accused him of taking our money. Despite him denying that he took the $ 5, we still each threw in a couple of dollars and walked out.
I want to give this place a better rating and I honestly want to like this place, but with service like that I know I will never return again.

Bun was such a hidden restaurant! I came here late night for drinks and the bartender was super nice and generous. Their fried shrimp chips are amazing; they are a must try. I haven’t got a chance to try their food yet but I got a coupon to return!
Can’t wait!

My family and I came to this place because we have a groupon of $ 120 value for this place. We figured it was a good deal since we purchased it for $ 60 only. Unfortunately, we felt like it doesn’t even worth $ 20 considered how horrible the food is at the place.
For starters, we had the 2 salmon rolls, beef cubed salad, and the tuna roll. The portion of salmon roll and tuna rolls were way too little. The beef cubed were way overcooked.
For entrees: We had the lamb, filet mignon, bun hanger steak, sweet and sour fish and the baby back ribs. 4 out of the 5 entrees we ordered were not good. The S&S fish had too much battered and way too sweet. The baby back ribs came in with 4 pieces only (nothing special). Filet mignon and the hanger steaks were overcooked like everything else. The lamb is the only one dish here that wasn’t that bad but nothing special at all.
Overall, this place charged way too much considering the portions. Everything here is either deep fried w/​S&S sauce. We tasted nothing but sugar and soya sauce. There are just way too many close by vietnamese restaurant for the price this place is charging. There isn’t any dish that stand out in the place that i can recommend period. The only positive feedback is the service. That is the reason why I gave this place a 1 star.

On Valentine’s Day I took my girlfriend to Bun Soho after turning to my trusty Unilocal app. I decided to run a search for «valentines day dinner» and up came Bun Soho. The cool new reservation feature on the app got me set up pretty quick.
We arrived around 7:30 and were promptly seated. At that time the restaurant was still pretty empty. We were seated at a table in a little alcove in the front of the restaurant. There were some nice floral and bamboo arrangements behind our table but the proximity to the door made it a little chilly.
For appetizers we ordered the King Crab Roll, the Pork Papaya Salad and the Mini Cakes. We were expecting the King Crab Roll to be like a sushi roll. Instead it was actually like the viet style spring rolls. They were served with lettuce and fish sauce. They were actually pretty good. Next came the Pork Papaya Salad with chunks of delicious pork belly. This was also very good. Next was the Mini Cakes. This one was actually a miss. The «cakes» had the texture of soggy bread. They were absolutely a dish we could have done without.
For our main courses, my girlfriend ordered the Bun Hanger Steak and I had the Soho Filet Mignon. I found it a bit odd that they didn’t ask how we wanted our steaks cooked. The Bun Hanger Steak was just okay at best. One thing I’ve learned about hanger steaks is that due to the lack of fat, the only way to make it good is to cook it rare. Unfortunately the steak came grilled to what seemed to be well done, making it rather dry. The noodles and veggies weren’t to great either. My Soho Filet Mignon was slightly better. Given that this cut of beef is naturally fatty, my steak wasn’t dry even though it came out medium-​well done (btw I eat all my steaks rare). It also came with a fried sunny side up egg.
I heard from several people in the office that the food at Bun Soho is nothing spectacular. It is however good on décor as the place is rather romantic. I should have listened because it appeared that the décor was the only thing that really wow-​ed me here.
Overall Ratings
King Crab Rolls: ⁸⁄₁₀
Pork Papaya Salad: ⁷⁄₁₀
Mini Cakes: ²⁄₁₀
Bun Hanger Steak: ⁴⁄₁₀
Soho Filet Mignon: ⁷⁄₁₀
⁵⁶⁄₁₀₀

I actually came down here because there were a couple of gallery openings in Soho & Nolita that I wanted to checkout. I had planned to go to Thai Angel, but it looked kinda dingy from the outside, and Bun looked a lot nicer. So we decided to get our bun on!
Turns out it was a pleasant surprise. If you haven’t tried Vietnamese Bun, you’re missing out. It’s a light noodle dish with vegetables, and your choice of meats, seafood, fish, shrimp or tofu. This place is definitely as good as Saigon Grill, but smaller and homier. It has the layout of a diner, but somehow is small and cozy enough to be a date spot.
The funniest thing I thought about this place was that each booth is equipped with a little video screen. But it’s not even showing advertisements as you might expect, but is rotating a slideshow of the menu items! Classic!

We all sampled the eight course lunch special for $ 13.88 — we were all stuffed and happy. Funny thing is that the same menu is $ 19.88 during dinner hours, so hit it during lunchtime.
3.5 STARS: King Crab Roll, Phở Beef, Soho Shrimp
3.0 STARS: Baby Lamp, Nem of Lamb, Soho Wings
2.5 STARS: Beef Salad, Pork Rib
The food was slightly greasy and didn’t have a lot of flavor. Overall, it filled my stomach and I liked the sampling of 8 different items.

First of all do not walk into this restaurant expecting to get authentic Vietnamese food.
The exterior of the restaurant looks run down and the interior is nicely decorated. This restaurant tries to take Vietnamese dishes and put their own take on it. For a restaurant called «Bun,» rice noodles, I expected more unique dishes centered around bun.
Although the flavors were pretty good, the dishes are small and overly priced. It was a nice try but it didn’t quite hit a home run.