Bun Cha Cafe

I have no idea why people are so down on this place! It’s a small café with a simple Vietnamese menu. It’s one of the few that does a banh mi with tofu for vegetarians, which I get whenever I’m walking past. And I’m not sure about the meat pricing, but that is £4.60 takeaway, so about the same as a baguette from Pret, but with bread hot out of the oven. They have proper Japanese mayo and sriratcha sauce, plus coriander and veggies.
The regular staff is courteous and efficient, and I think this is a really lovely non-​chain option on what’s becoming a street of national restaurants.

I’ve probably bumped this up to 3 stars because it’s near my office and therefore handy for hot noodle/​cold day dilemmas. However if I travelled to eat here I’d be mighty disappointed.
Some things are good — spicy seafood phở has fat prawns and a spicy kick, and the noodle salads are filling and tasty. But the banh mi are ridiculously overpriced — the ‘special’ which has the pâté I love so much about banh mi is a whopping £6.50, nearly £8 if you eat in. The baguette isn’t as good as a sainsburys mini baguette and the fillings are meager. Today I tried a duck one and the meat was grisly. Avoid.
They’re not really a friendly bunch either. But when you need phở, you need phở.

Really unimpressed. Flavourless phở, mostly noodles without any herbs, or side of sprouts or chillis. Had to add a ton of Sriracha. I ordered the phở special with beef meatballs, rare beef, chicken and honey pork, but all the meat seemed precut and not flavourful. BYOB for wine, which was nice, but it’s CASH ONLY which isn’t printed anywhere on the menu, nor did she mention it when ordering. It’s 2015, spring for Square.

I was in the area for one night only waiting to fly out to Prague the next day. It was about 5 pm on a Saturday evening and I was cold, tired, and hungry after my flight from Miami. Vietnamese food always hits the spot. This is a very nice little restaurant that seems to serve the locals. I ordered beef phở and some amazing tofu spring rolls. Service was great, the spring rolls were incredible and the phở was pretty good.

Ergo, flavourless, just noodles, lettuce and unseasoned fatty and gristly pork in my noodle salad. Not fresh and overpriced for what it is. Where is the fresh mint and corriander? And the delicious fresh taste of Vietnamese food.
Give this place a miss unless you like bland food.

Ate here with a friend tonight. The meat tasted like it was frozen from a bag, the seasoning was terrible. When we got up to leave, even the table next to us had left their appetizers basically untouched and left. There are a range of delicious choices on Exmouth, and other great Vietnamese options nearby — avoid this place and do yourself a favor!

Not too sure what the previous review was all about but it was honestly not /​that/​bad? Then again, this review is solely based on their Saigon street noodles, so I can’t vouch for anything else.
It was just big enough to fill me and it tasted fine — it was a bit disappointing to see them microwave it this one time though (maybe because I went there just when they were switching from lunch to dinner?) All the other times I went I could see them preparing it fresh.

A big fat avoid! You know, there are times in life when you crave comfort food, and there’s nothing like Phở (or Ramen for that matter) to sort you out. So it was today: my gf had an op last week and today was her first day out of the house for a week; we saw the physio and afterwards hobbled down Exmouth Market looking for comfort food. Curried goat… mmm… maybe. Humous… mmm… maybe. Bento box… mmm… maybe. Phở, yes, the comfort food option, spot on! Except it was truly terrible. I’ll be bold and state that the stock tasted like it came from a cube (you know, those little phở cubes you can buy) — instant failure. No herbs, poor quality tasteless meat, and the noodles weren’t even that good. And we were charged 6.50 for the privilege. Steer well clear, even when the prospect of comfort food is drawing you close!