Viet Mama Cafe — Restaurant in Vancouver

Viet Mama Cafe is the place to be if you want some Vietnamese food that is super delicious and made with love and care! Although there are many other Vietnamese restaurants around in this area, Viet Mama Cafe is definitely a place that everyone must try. The menu may be small but all these dishes are crafted with utmost care and anything you order packs a flavour explosion! Viet Mama Cafe is one of those places where you can enjoy eating the food knowing that it's healthier than its competitors and made with fresh and carefully considered ingredients.

The special beef noodle has the most flavourful broth and is jam-packed with delicious ingredients (the flank steak melts like butter in your mouth). I definitely recommend the crab meat noodle with fish cakes, this entree is chock-full of delicious fish cakes, real crab meat (also melts like butter in your mouth), tofu and veggies. The spring rolls are amazing. The spring rolls have a unique flat shape that appear to hold more filling than the regular roll shape. Also, the spring rolls have real crab meat in them (enough said). The clear dumplings are a great appetizer to try as you can really taste the infusion of the banana leaf flavour intermingling with the savoury pork and shrimp filling.

An important note is the service. The service is wonderful at Viet Mama Cafe. All the servers are friendly and attentive! Not to mention, you will also receive your food at a good pace after ordering it. If you have the pleasure of meeting the owner, she is an amazing person who prides on the quality of her food and using the freshest and best ingredients and makes sure to check in with every customer to make sure they are having a...

Something that seems to have picked up more steam in the Vancouver food scene lately is bánh cuốn. Similar to Chinese rice rolls, bánh cuốn rice sheets tend to be much thinner and more delicate. I decided to try the ones at Viet Mama Cafe on Victoria Drive as I’ve been hearing good things about this place.

In addition to the Bánh Cuốn Nhan ($14.95), I wound up ordering their Salad Rolls ($6.95 for 2pc) and Spring Rolls ($7.95 for 2pc). While I found the salad roll to be a bit standard, the unusually flat spring rolls was a stunner with a good crisp on the deep-fried rice wrapper which encased the generous amount of pork, shrimp, crab and veggie filling.

Of course, the main event here is the meat rice rolls which has a pork/shrimp filling that’s sprinkled with fried shallots and served with Vietnamese ham (in addition to meat balls which come separated in a container of sauce).

This is the first time I’ve tried bánh cuốn and I have to admit that I really liked the lightness of this dish. Definitely pair this with their crispy spring rolls for some textural contrast.

Update: Sep 2023 - Finally got to dine in-person. Beef Carpaccio / Bò Tái Chanh - good flavour and loved the onions with the slices of beef. Meat Rice Roll / Bánh Cuốn Nhân Deep Fried Fish Cakes / Chả Cá Thì Là - plump and bouncy. Butter Garlic Chicken Wings / Cánh Gà Bơ Tỏi - served with sweet...

I was about to write a positive review about the ban cuon here, but considering the dish I was served today came with hair layered through the rice sheets, instead I must strongly recommend that you do not eat here. Even the pickled onions / side of veggies had hair in it. Absolutely disgusting. We cancelled our whole order and will not be returning.

Ironically, the sign outside of Viet Mama says that if you don’t eat here, you’ll both starve. But let this be a warning that if you do attempt to eat there, you may leave hungry and with a ruined appetite. That is, unless you like your food with strange hair as the secret ingredient.

EDIT: In response to the owner’s reply, allow me to clarify that I didn’t walk out on the tab without notice. Since the servers did not offer us a quality check, I brought the second hairy dish back to the servers and pointed out how there were hairs literally swimming in the pickled onions. The servers were as grossed out as I was, and understood why I cancelled our whole order and left.

A couple tips to the owner, 1) check in with your staff for facts before replying with wrong assumptions, and 2) redirect your energy into correcting the dirty dishes coming out of your kitchen. Amidst a global pandemic that is only getting worse, finding traces of your staffs DNA in 2 out of 2 dishes served is...