Cafe Dang Anh — Restaurant in Vancouver

HIDDEN GEM!! This is absolutely, hands down a mega hole-in-the-wall pho place. It’s the first floor, sorta basement of a building. Super unassuming and honestly if I didn’t search for pho restaurants in the area I wouldn’t even know this existed! There was a constant stream of people coming in during 12:30-1:30pm on a Thursday; it was constant. A table would leave and someone would arrive, and sometimes there would be a wait to dine-in, which surprised me because this place is so unassuming but clearly the local Vietnamese community loves this place so heads up that lunch even on weekdays here gets busy!

We only ordered pho tai (rare beef noodles) and the pho broth is very clean and tasty. I was a little thirsty later in the evening. The beef used is flank steak but maybe it wasn’t cut along the grain because the steak/meat was rough and had too much chew. One star off for that, but the broth was delicious and sides came with basil, bean sprouts, chopped chili peppers and lime slices. I checked out the condiments and there were no chili oil but the other sauces were there (sriracha and hoisin).

Restaurant is small and has 6 tables, but the larger closer tables have a plastic screen divider for covid safety. Still it’s a small restaurant but the bathroom was clean (make sure you shut the door and lock it properly because the back entrance door opening/shutting changes the air pressure in the bathroom hallway and it inadvertently forced my bathroom door open while I was washing my hands because I didn’t close it harder (this is my bad not the resto’s fault!).

Overall I will be back to try their iced viet coffee (presented in to-go plastic cups with straws) next time, butter beef, and also to update my review to see if their rare beef pho tai meat is still rough/tough like this first time (I’m hoping it was just a bad day with cutting the meat improperly). I’ll update again after...

Food was under seasoned for us, we won’t be returning. But food feel home made and full of warmth! Nothing fancy but that’s not a bad thing either. I like the blood sausage and small intestine.

One thing to mention is that I tasted a lot of earthiness from the veggies (dirt taste). Not sure if veggies was washed that thoroughly or not. And some pieces definitely was not so fresh (wilting, turning pink)

Service was excellent, felt like home. Family run, very welcoming and friendly service! I liked their tea and it is nice that they asked if you want cold or hot tea!

Small place but people seem to come and goes pretty quickly. Seem like everyone know everyone there.

We ordered: Bun long mam tom - good blood sausage and small intestines. The rest of the organ were soft as well. Tofu was not freshly fried. The sauce need more punch!

Banh cuon cha lua - viet ham here tasted different. I like it a lot. Rice roll was thin and have a nice mouthfeel to it. The filling was lacking in portion tho. Again, sauce was not strong enough for me. From what I gathered, it was not made fresh each time.

Bun rieu cha ca - quite bland but have a good flavour base. This feel very homey, nice and clean flavour! We did...

I am giving it for 4.5, only because it is ‘Cash only’ other than that I would give the 5 stars on it. Taste* Hospitality * ( feel welcomed & kind that servers gave us the explanation of the menu ) Price*( reasonable) Location *

I had bowl of ‘Grilled Fish + Fresh-water Crab Rice noodle’ and ‘ Special Noodle Soup’. There is only one size option and the portion of it was just enough for me and my husband to share. We usually try out House Special when we go to Pho restaurant for the first time. But we had to try the ‘fish and crab cake one’ as we were recommended by a friend of us . Broth was flavorful. I liked the broath of Fish cake one as it contains dills and lemongrass in it and I added all of the veggies I was provided as well as chopped red papper. Special noodle suop noodle is a bit wider than I used to have. It was a thin and little bit thinker and rounded noodle in Fish cake one. Also there ate chopped tomatoes in the Fish cake noodle soup. It was a bit cold inside in the evening . Overall we are willing to go back to try out...