Ngon Cafe Vancouver — Restaurant in Vancouver

Disclaimer: my choices as a vegetarian are rather limited at this restaurant, so my review is not the most reliable. That aside, here's what I thought.

It was good! The one option I had for both banhmi and salad roll is just the vegetarian option. This place offers vegan meat in both of these items, which is not uncommon in general these days, but it's also not something that is available at all banhmi places, and definitely not a common feature in many Vietnamese restaurants. Ergo, this stood out to me. Both items were flavourful and customized to my liking (non spicy, no cilantro; I know I know, that is not the most traditional of choices). The bun itself wasn't the best I've ever had, but I didn't mind it too much. This place also offers a bunch of drinks and desserts on their menu. I've only tried one drink, which is their layered coffee drink and it was not great, but also not terrible (I'm sorry I can't stop using this Chernobyl reference). To be fair it was good Vietnamese coffee, but the extra "layers" did not make it anything special, it was just like any other Vietnamese coffee I've had at any other place. I'd be down to go back and try their other dessert/drink options though, as they had quite a few.

The tl;dr version of this is that I enjoyed the place, and wouldn't mind going back.

P.S. (an extra bit of detail) Something worth mentioning is that this place is only a few shops down from another banhmi place, and that place you can accumulate points (like buy 10 get 1 free kinda thing, I forget the exact details), as well as get 15% off with online pickup orders. So while I do enjoy this place, I admittedly always get a second banhmi next door just for the sake of getting a better bang for my buck. That is not to take away from the quality of Ngon, because overall taste it is the better option in comparison.

P.P.S. I just looked online right now at Ngon's website and it appears they now also have a discount for online orders--10% off. Just an FYI for those thinking about trying the place out, might as well order ahead for...

Not a terrible place. I don't have a huge complaint, but a handful of minor ones.

The menu is very unclear regarding the drinks, and the server wasn't exactly great at clarifying.

I came in asking if they had Vietemese Egg Coffee, and understood when the answer was no. The staff member suggested the Salted Cream Coffee. Since it was offered as an alternative I assumed (which I'll admit, I shouldn't have) that it was very similar. So I was expecting a small cup of hot coffee, with a salted cream on top.

This is not what their Salted Cream Coffee is. Their Salted Cream Coffee is an iced coffee, with the Salted cream on top. For the record, this was not a bad item. If you like iced coffee you would enjoy it.

I do not.

The staff did offer to get me something else, which is why I'm not giving a bad review but an average. I didn't take it because I didn't want it to go to waste. And from what I understood, there wasn't a hot version of it at all. I bring this up not as a complaint but as feedback to have the menu more clear.

The fact the Salted Cream Coffee is iced was not listed on their menu. If it was I could have made an informed decision about what I wanted. Or the staff could have clarified with me that I wanted a hot or cold drink. I do not think the staff did anything wrong. They were courteous enough to offer to fix the misunderstanding. However, there is room for improvement.

The wait time, looking back at my receipt, is reasonable. It took only a few minutes to get my coffee, and a total of 10 to get my Bahn Mi. Said Bahn Mi was alright. Nothing out of this world but enjoyable.

I'm giving 3 stars as it was an average expirence. Mistakes were made, but reasonable steps were taken to correct it. Food was good but not...

I believe competition is SO strong between Obanhmi and Ngon. I used to walk past by and compare prices between the two. Besty said Ngon is better than Obanhmi so I had to try if her verdict was right.

I got #1 Ngon sandwich ($7.50) with Coco Coffee ($6.50) with 10% off via Yelp check in. 10% discount is also offered by online orders as well. Waiting time wasn’t long. I was quite shocked to see the size of my food. Banhmi subs were bigger than most places. Even bigger than Banhmi Saigon in my personal opinion. It was loaded with veggies and meat. Baguette was fresh and crispy. Because half- sized Banhmi was huge (4 inches long I guess) I only ate half of my sandwich.

Coco Coffee was pretty good. It was just as similar as Coconut Coffee from Cong Ca Phe in Vietnam. The drink itself also had a chocolatey flavour so it was like coconut mocha slush. I get so obsessed with Coconut Coffee after travelling Vietnam it was unforgettable. Coco Coffee is a must try! Besty also recommended Duri Duri which I don’t feel tempted to try. I’m sure others love it if they like durian.

I heard all subs are pretty good except for Veggie Banhmi. Forgot to mention, homemade Mayo (in my Banhmi) was so creamy and tasty, too. I may become indecisive next time since there are 3 Vietnamese restaurants on this block including Cafe Xu He. Just that 2 places sell Banhmi and drinks. Service was great. I was able to get paper bag to take...