Truc Lam

This place has excellent Vietnamese food. I always get some spring rolls and the Bun Rieu soup. It’s reasonably priced. If you like Vietnamese food this is the place for you.

We normally go with the Phở but this time we opted for non soup items. I chose Duck with Lemongrass and she did the Sauteed Shrimp with vegetables. We love this place, food is always great and the prices are really cheap.

My favorite Vietnamese Phở spot in the world! Try the BBQ pork spring rolls too. Don’t pay any attention to the dirty floors, if they spent more time cleaning the food wouldn’t taste SOOO good!

I came here because my go to Vietnamese restaurant was closed. The food is so delicious. The phở is great, not to sweet. The charbroiled pork is amazing, the Bahn mi was perfection!

The best phở in stl and quite possibly the best vietnamese food as well. The portions are nicely sized and the broth is a step up from most others in the area as well. The egg rolls and spring rolls are also superb.

Love love love this place! Everything I’ve had here has been good so far. I love that it’s family owned and ran.

The cute little restaurant takes its name Truc Lam from the word for ‘bamboo forest/​grove’. The interior décor, therefore, showcases different bamboo paintings on walls and ceiling. The tome of the menu contains nearly 100 dishes, filled with recognizable Vietnamese dishes, ranging from all types of rolls and salads to bahn mi sandwiches, seafood like sea bass and a range of phở noodle soups, rice platters and noodles.
The previous review stated that this place makes the best phở in STL, which is quite a claim, but the version here is certainly excellent. Less sweeter than the souther Vietnam phở soups, the broth here was appetizingly more salty with cleaner flavors. The starters were excellent too. The shrimp spring roll was generous with shrimp and fresh herbs, shredded pork skin, and came with a well-​seasoned dipping sauce. The beef banh mi had a crisp baguette crust, and filling of fresh flavored aromatic vegetables and marinated beef.
Food is first class and good value, flavors bringing the best out of each dish. Service prompt, efficient and friendly.

A (sort-​of) hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant that serves delicious food.
There is nothing fancy about the exterior or the interior of the restaurant. Back when I was still a WashU student, I’d have to drive almost 20 minutes to get to Truc Lam. Mai Lee and Phở Grand were closer to campus, but I was willing to drive an extra 5 – 10 minutes for Truc Lam’s phở. A bowl of Truc Lam beef phở will warm your heart (and make your hangover feel less terrible). The noodles have the perfect soft texture and the broth has a nicely balanced combination of spices. Truc Lam makes my second favorite bowl of phở in Saint Louis (obviously #1 goes to my mom).

Wonderful little whole in the wall Vietnamese place. If you like Vietnamese food, you must try it.

The soup was outstanding! Quaint little place to go with your love for a delicious food experience. We will definitely be back! If you are looking for authentic Vietnamese cuisine, give this place a try!

Hands down the best phở. I’m from the east coast and have had perhaps way too much phở, but this is the best phở of them all. It’s a hole in the wall and it’s a dying-​to-​go haven, especially on a rainy day. I usually get the grilled pork bahnmi and phở tai. Ugh. To die for. The owner is a really nice lady. She doesn’t say much but it’s one of the best service you will get. I highly recommend it. Tip: they do close on Wednesdays now (it used to be Tuesday’s before) so be careful when you are craving it and you find this place closed!

Truc Lam is in a bit of a rough neighborhood, but the food is awesome. It has the most delicious phở I have ever tasted– the broth is just amazing, so flavorful and nourishing! The spring rolls were delicious, too. My husband had his first banh mi and loved it, and also enjoyed the fried rice. We will definitely go back.

Pro: Great Great Phở! The Phở Dac Biet is one of my two go-​to dishes when I’m in the mood for Vietnamese food. Truc Lam has obviously been refining their strategy to near-​perfection. As for my second option, the Com Dac Biet is a nice way to have a meal stick to your ribs! Grilled pork, rice, egg and more pork? This meal should come with a coupon for a free nap. Also, try the spring rolls. No disappointments.
Con: Looking for ambiance? This may not be your option. Truc Lam is the restaurant equivalent of an ugly person with an amazing personality; judge it for what’s inside, not for what it looks like.
Bottom Line: Good food at a good price, even if the topical appeal isn’t there.

I thought their phở was a little salty and different but still very good! Their curry is also a good choice! Overall a good experience and I would come back. The French bread for the bahn mi needs some work tho… I have still yet to find a good place for bahn mi in stl.

TLDR: ⁴⁄₅; would Phở again.
I stopped by this place randomly this weekend after the Vietnamese restaurant that I originally wanted to go to was closed for a private event. I’m glad I did because now I will add this restaurant to my list when I’m craving Vietnamese food.
As soon as I walked in and was greeted by a pleasant lady and noticed the small, dimly lighted open area with old wooden tables, I knew great food was awaiting me.
Their menu is relatively large with various options that might leave you overwhelmed if you’re a newcomer, but my girlfriend and I had our minds set on what to get before coming in.
I ordered the Truc Lam Phở and my girlfriend ordered a pork vermicelli noodle dish (I forgot which one she ordered). We both also wanted to try their Banh Mi, so we ordered one of their pork Banh Mi’s.
The Banh Mi came out first and was a good size with fresh (toasted?) bread. The flavor was good and we both really enjoyed it, but I was still ready for the Phở.
The Phở was similar to the other Phở I’ve tried at the restaurants around St. Louis, but I did think that the soup base flavor was slightly better than usual. One negative about it is that the portion size seemed smaller than I’m accustomed to, especially the amount of meats.
I personally didn’t like my girlfriend’s pork vermicelli dish. It was just okay, but she orders that dish at multiple Vietnamese places and she seemed to enjoy it although she didn’t really comment that it was anything special.
The service here was great considering that it is run by a single lady. It got crowded towards the end when we were wanting to get our check and get out of there so that took a while, but it’s understandable.
I apologize for not posting pictures. I would have, but the place was dimly lit and the pictures would not have turned out great… Let’s be real though, it’s mostly because the food was really good and I ate it so fast that I forgot.

When I first got to this place, I was kinda shocked at the location it was in. It was in a pretty getto neighborhood, felt like my car might be broken into while I was eating. When I entered the restaurant, it was hot and non air conditioned. We ordered the Bamh Tuc Lam, Bun Bo Hae and some spring rolls. They were all delicious. I didn’t expect the food to be good, but to my surprise it was relatively good. The waitress did not say much, but seemed very kind. I would definitely order them for takeout unless you are into kinda the «rough around the edges» eating environment.

This place might look a little sketchy but their phở is AMAZING!!! I would literally drink it through a straw with no embarrassment after my meal. My bestie and I are obsessed with this place and it is literally b the b only place we go where we don’t talk to each other.

The women that run this place are always a joy. So nice and such attentive service. The place is very dated in the décor, but the prices are great and the food is fabulous.
Never been disappointed and happy to patronize this establishment many times to come.

The bun rieu is legit and the banh mi was better this time around. Also snuck a taste of the #40 (mi hoanh thanh) from my bf’s bowl and it was good.
[06/​14/​15]: I need more excuses to come here. Still the best place for Vietnamese food in STL, in my opinion. I just had a bowl of the bun bo Hue, and the broth was pure perfection. It was also SPICY, which I usually have to request specifically because restaurants tend to shy away from flavors its clientele can’t handle – this speaks volumes about who eats here at Truc Lam.
The only thing that could have made the bun bo Hue better was if there had been cubes of congealed pig’s blood, but I’m guessing there isn’t much supply or demand for that around here.

Probably the best phở in St. Louis. When I went in though, there was no a/​c. The multiple fans were on in the dining area. It really sucked because as all phở lovers know, the soup is unforgivably hot which adds to the temperature when you’re slurping your way bit by bit. I was sweating from the get go. The broth was rich, deep and full of flavor.
Add in your dollop of hoisin sauce and sriracha on the side and you are set for dipping the meats. Topping the spoon with the noodles and dipped meats begged to be devoured in one go… I tell you what though… That is one helluva spoonful of goodness! Every spoonful of that phở got better and better until the very end!
Think the only issue is with the amount of fixings. I thought there was not enough meats and other components. Stingy chef/​owner perhaps. Service was quick but I can see it bogging down pretty fast when it gets busy.