To1980 - Vietnamese Street Food — Restaurant in Dusseldorf

2-Star Review: Café 1980, Düsseldorf

Café 1980 was a letdown. The tofu in the Buddha bowl was all over the place—too firm in some bites, too soft in others—and the sauce was nothing more than a generic, overly sweet sticky soy sauce. The veggies? Just two lettuce leaves. While technically edible, we couldn’t even bring ourselves to finish it.

For a place with so much hype, the food lacked authenticity and creativity. It felt like another uninspired Vietnamese fusion spot in Germany, but without the bold, delicious flavors that make Vietnamese food special. The service was poor, and while the shop was packed, I can only assume it was an off night—or maybe just not for us.

Eating here felt like how the interned Japanese must have felt at Manzanar—given just enough food to call it a meal but without any real care or thought put into it. The experience reminded me of descriptions of meals there, like Dole fruit syrup poured over rice as a “treat.”

I’ll give them two stars for offering vegan and vegetarian options, but €65 for three appetizers and two entrées was way too steep for the quality. To top it off, the waiter hinting at a bigger tip—seemingly just because we’re American—wasn’t a great look. Sadly, I wouldn’t...

Good - The restaurant is nicely decorated and well-located. I had phở nam vang which was tasty and pretty authentic. Will recommend this dish to every one.

Things to improve - My partner had The king of xào which I will not recommend. The dish is overpriced for the ratio of meat to vegetables served. The dish came along with quite too much sauce, but really a small portion of rice. In the end, you pay 20 euros but may still go hungry when the rice is finished and the sauce is too salty to eat alone. There are better and cheaper choices than this dish I believe.

I will not recommend my appetizer either, which was bánh tôm hồ Tây. It was quite a poor representation of fried sweet potato served with exactly one tiny shrimp per portion. This is funny as the name of the dish is literally 'West lake shrimp cake' (yep we call lots of things cake in Vnese) in Vnese translation. I think this should rather be called "fried sweet potato". Pretty expensive, around 6 euros, for just two portions of mainly sweet potato.

Overall, I enjoyed my phở and believe there are other good dishes that I haven't tried here. But my first experience here was quite overpriced and most dishes were not up to the price they were...

The smells are delicious the second you walk in! Thankfully lucked out on a table for 4 without booking on a Thursday night approx 7:45pm. Chairs slightly uncomfortable, decor a little kitsch. Menus delightfully had English translations. Non-alcoholic drinks (mocktails) seemed very thin and watered down, sadly, and for that price were a bit regrettable. However, the food was just sublime; excellent and flavourful starters followed by big fresh servings and generous meat portions. Definitely come hungry. All the service was very prompt, but only until the dishes were cleared away. We sat around for half an hour being ignored until we flagged someone down to ask about dessert then were left alone again so we stood up to go pay at the till. We thought we had seen another table pay at their table so we don’t know their payment arrangement. We left about 9:15 thinking we would love to come back for more of the food. Definitely recommend despite...