Khai Hoan — Restaurant in Marseille

An extraordinary experience. The place was small, tight, very tight. Very little room to maneuver. It was full with locals, most of them knew each other. Mostly blue-collar workers. In the past, these would have been dock workers from the port, and now are private security guards or Amazon deliverymen. One customer was not even a customer: he came by motorcycle, removed his helmet, said hello, and the restaurant manager asked him if he wanted to eat, and he replied: "no, I just wanted to day hello", kissed her on the cheek and put his helmet back on. A little girl was asleep horizontal on two chairs, daughter of the restaurant madam. She calls men "papa" and women "mama". The show is impressive. A kinetic virtuoso performance, of chairs suddenly being lifted overhead and transported to another table. Impressively decorated desserts being moved aloft and served with gusto to awaiting customers, quenching their anticipation. A hole-in-the-wall. Literally. A two-people team, a chef and a waiter. And yet, inside, so much humanity. And the food is good. And inexpensive (an apologetic note was added to the menu that because of the soaring inflation of overall prices, ONE EURO was added to an already low price. Mon Dieu !! c'est la fin du Monde !). Go. And make sure the place is crowed and inhospitable. You will...

After checking the good reviews I decided to go. The first thing I ordered was the Goi Cuon (spring rolls in the transparent rice paper), which is a true Vietnamese gem, but they didn’t have it! To me that’s a crime. They also didn’t have the Vietnamese tea milk tea, sad! The food was okay, I ordered some pineapple on my plate and it tasted like canned pineapples, terrible. My husband got the pork with onions which very good, sadly my food was just ok. We ordered some appetizers which was supposed to be some mix of everything, but we received some rolls with 2 shrimp, and after 20 minutes the server came and said oh so sorry that’s not what you guys ordered, we were like huh? Very confused but we had already ate them, weird. I would go back but that time I’d know...

Ordered take-away summer rolls and beef and pork pho. Summer rolls were plump and fresh. Pho was okay but more on the savory side vs. a more complex and aromatic broth. Also would have helped if they separated the broth from the rest of the ingredients. The beef ended up being overly cooked as a result. Still tasted good however but not the best pho I’ve ever had. The host was very sweet and called everyone “mon frère” (young men seated at table), “maman” to an older lady. She called me “tom tom” for some reason, which I didn’t understand but found entertaining nevertheless. Good experience overall....