Bánh Mì Très Bon Richmond — Restaurant in Richmond

Holy Moly, $24 for a Bun Bo Hue. 26% more than the next most expensive, knocking it out of the water and taking the title as "The Most Expensive Bun Bo Hue in GVA". It also costs 50% more than next door Thai Son but 50% less in quantity. That is some feat! The owner must be laughing all the way to the bank.

I learn something new every day. When is a Bun Bo Hue not a Bun Bo Hue?

When: it's not spicy, NOT ONE BIT!! it has chicken meat in it. First bite, I thought, "WOW! Slow cooked chicken. Nice!" Closer inspection....meh, it's just meatball except it isn't shaped like a ball; it's shaped like a chunk of shredded meat but texture of a meatball. it has no pig knuckle, not even a pig knuckle fillet It doesn't taste anything like a BBH it's half the quantity of a typical BBH size with very little noodles and very few meat (2 chicken chunks and 2 tiny beef brisket fillets).

I honestly do not find its taste anything special. In fact, BMTB's BBH has got to be the worst BBH I've ever tasted. I kid you not. It doesn't taste bad. It just nothing to write home about. And it lacks the distinct BBH herb taste. An old Chinese saying "掛羊頭賣狗肉" or "displaying sheep head but selling dog meat." Selling BBH but not BBH.

In other news....

CAUTION TO ALL POTENTIAL VICTIMS: The $14 "Grill Beef Bánh Mì" has super-hot jalapeno pepper inside. The description for Grill Beef Bánh Mì doesn't mention any jalapeno. You have to look at the fine print, the description of "Bánh Mì" at the top of the page to find it. Other restaurants would have a tiny japapeno icon beside it. Nope, not here! It would seem all their Bánh Mì have jalapeno inside here. Careful, folks!

My wife, who couldn't handle the tiniest bit of spicyness, burst into tears when she took her first bite. Instead, she ate my Bun Bo Hue, which should be spicy, but it's not. And I ate her Bánh Mì, which is expected not to be spicy but it is. This place...🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♂️

The $9 "Signature Mini Shrimp Spring Roll" is delicious but only has 8 pieces. That means it's $1 a piece for a spring roll that is the size of a cocktail sausage or baby wurst. LOL! BTW, it's not spring roll; it resembles more to shrimp tempura or deep-fried shrimp. Another case of "displaying sheep head but selling dog meat."

On a Wednesday afternoon, 2 other tables people were already eating. We placed our orders at 2:06pm, and the BBH arrived 19 minutes later. So, yes, I concur with other reviewers, it could take a long time for food to arrive.

The debit/credit card terminal minimum tip selection is 18%. Gold-diggers!!

This place really cracks me up!

This explains why "Thai Son" next door is...

The food here is well made. It is delicious and my family and I are never disappointed with the food itself. After tasting the beef pho here, it is the only thing I have ever ordered as it is the best I have ever had. This is largely due to a piece of bone marrow that is included and lends a richness to the soup. We came here so often we were on first name basis with a number of the staff.

For take-out I would always order 2 x beef pho and every single time they do not provide the bone marrow. It confuses me because I would always tell the waiter or waitress over the phone to make a note to please add the bone marrow. I cannot believe that this would be due to incompetence as it has happened 4 times on the same order. When I pulled out my order of noodles and discovered they had missed the bone marrow again for the 4th time, I took everything back for a refund without eating a bite. The manager apologized and assured me that the kitchen staff knows that they are supposed to include bone marrow in the beef pho. I told her that this felt personal after so many screw ups and that we really felt unwanted as customers. She again blamed it on the incompetence of her kitchen staff, but I highly suspected that it was because she had told them to never put those bone marrow parts in for take out orders in an attempt to save a few bucks. I am not sure if she understands that if she advertises on her menu that the beef pho comes with bone marrow and tenderloin that that needs to be delivered to the customers regardless if it’s a dine-in or take-out, otherwise it’s a scam. After having my take-out orders wrongly put together on 4 separate occasions, I am left to conclude that their manager or staff had some sort of psychotic personal disdain for me. I’m not sure why as I tipped on all my sit-down visits. Some times I would even tip on the take-outs.

I have managed a restaurant in Victoria for over 15 years, and have never screwed up a customer’s order 4 times. Word of advice to the manager as a fellow restaurant owner, when you screw up something, don’t say to your customers “I don’t know what to do, do you want a discount next time or something?” No matter how small the mistake I’ll always ensure that my staff say “please enjoy your next meal for free as amends for our mistake and we will ensure it won’t happen again.” It’s important to have this level of customer service because I understand that I have a livelihood because of my local repeat customers. Don’t worry about it this time, as we can take a hint. We are not welcomed and we will not...

This is a difficult experience to rate and I'm hopeful that the situation is a one off. We will likely not choose to dine here again.

This restaurant has a lot going for it and a loyal following as reflected in the reviews here. The decor and menu are best described as upscale. There are modern takes on classic Vietnamese dishes and the treatment preserves traditional flavor, yet gives a new twist for the diner. The decor is reminiscent of a french cafe and would be right at home in the classic hotels located in district one in Saigon. Everything was clean and well maintained in the front service area.

As has been said, the service is good; but lacks precision. Our soups came out separated by more than a few minutes (even though they were the same dish). This causes one of the diners to start ahead of the other and throws the rhythm of the meal out of sync. I noticed other tables had similar service patterns. Awareness was also limited, as we had to call for the waitress twice.

The food is where our experience was derailed. Presentation was lovely. However, portions were small. The pho broth lacked flavor and we found it a little too salty. Also disappointing was the rice noodles which had a very starchy texture, revealing they had not been adequately prepared prior to being added to the broth. However, we were most put off by discovering a live cut-worm in the basil leaves of one dish. We certainly understand this is always a risk when handling the fresh ingredients required in Vietnamese food. We also understand this is not a common occurrence at this restaurant. At the same time, our meal was ruined as we started to question if other cut-worms may infest the dish and remain unseen.

When we identified the problem to the waitress, she apologized and took appropriate corrective measures. She allowed us to cancel the rolls we had ordered and struck the one dish from our bill. She seemed very surprised by the situation, which is a good indication this was an isolated instance.

It's difficult to rate this experience; but considering the pace of service, small portion sizes, starchy rice noodles, and poor flavor of the pho broth, the appropriate rating is three stars. I will assume the problem in the fresh basil was just something that got past their prep processes and quality control.

We will try other Vietnamese restaurants and pass on returning to Banh...