Little BÚN THEATER - Vietnamese Noodle Shop — Restaurant in Antwerp

After 1.5h driving for both me and a friend, we arrived at Antwerpen specially for the pho bo in this restaurant. We went there with high expectation. However, the experiment was rather disappointing: The service: not good, the waiter (or owner) saw us skipped the appetite and went directly for the pho bo, she directly turned to the not very happy face and insisted that it has to be a large size pho bo as the medium size is definitely not enough. So we went for the advice and it turned out the large size bowl is bigger than my face and full of noodles.

The taste: most famous pho bo was extremely salty for me, lots of mint taste, lots of soy beans, for an Asian who loves noodle, it is just beef noodle and the tasty is way to salty, I had 3L of water after dinner. The deep fried coconut ball is just too much sugar sweet - not nature fresh taste.

The atmosphere is ok, restaurant is small (~13 seats) and full of customers at 5:45pm. But I think this is just a commercial / business strategy because sometimes the more people wait, the better they think the restaurant is.

The price: as said in #1, the waitress (or owner) recommended a big size pho bo to me (42kg, skinny) because it is 4 euros more expensive. So I think the place is just about money. It is pricey from my taste: 5 euros for a drink, ~10 euros for an entry. Price for pho bo has been raised from 12 to 14 euros for a medium size and 18 euros for a large size (beef noodle). A coconut ball desert is 6 euros for a small portion.

It's a disappointing experience. This place is all about money. Will not choose to go there again!

PS: we only got 1 tiny plate of fried stuff (free) for 2 people as opening after we ordered (which I don't like the taste anyways), maybe the owner was not happy that we skipped appetite although it was a meal costed 47 euros (for vietnamese street food: 1 glass of tea, 2 bowls of salty beef noodles and 1 sugar sweet...

This Vietnamese restaurant is really a little gem just outside the shopping area of Antwerp. Owners Huibrecht & Hoa are running the place with flair and using the family recipes of Hoa, they take Vietnamese street food to a new level. Traditional Vietnamese flavours but with a modern twist. Everything is fresh and homemade with a daily changes in the menu.

The restaurant has just over 15 seats (?) which makes it very cozy and personal. While Huibrecht is cooking up a storm in the kitchen, Hoa is the perfect host.

My favourite dish was definitely the BBQ Clams with a fish-sauce vinaigrette and a big bowl of fresh pho. If you are planning to go for dinner, make a reservation to be sure you (and your friends) have a seat. It is not possible to make reservations...

Overpriced and not good food! As an Vietnamese myself, I can only give this restaurant 1 star. I ordered one “pho Bo” and one “noodles salad with fried pork loempia”.

They were the most expensive versions of all Vietnamese food I have been eating in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. The taste is 50% different than authentic version and there are not much in our bowls, only 4-5 pieces of meat for pho bo and 3 small loempia cut in smaller pieces for the salad, drink( homemade tea) is tasteless.

I know how to cook Vietnamese food too, so I can truly tell the difference. Not...