Caphe Banh Mi — Restaurant in Alexandria

Best Vietnamese in Old Town Alexandria! It might even be the best Vietnamese I've had in the Alexandria area! The restaurant is VERY small, so if you are coming with a large party (6 or more), be prepared to sit separately or wait a VER Y long time to be accommodated with a table. I always come with my boyfriend or alone, so I never run into this issue, but I've witnessed countless times, this being the case. Not the restaurant's fault at all, they're just so good and always packed.

My favorite dish to get is the Vermicelli - in Vietnamese, it's the Bun. My favorite is the Grilled Pork (slices of grilled pork shoulder w. vegan imperial roll; for an extra dollar or two, you can sub the vegan imperial roll with a regular roll which has meat inside - depending on my mood, I'll opt for this). All of the vermicelli bowls are served with pickled daikon and carrot, shredded lettuce, mint, Thai basil, cucumber and crushed peanuts with the Viet dressing (fish sauce). This hits the spot for me every time. I love this particular bowl because the pork is grilled to absolute perfection, and the dressing over the various ingredients in the dish somehow tie in together so nicely.

If I am sick, hungover, freezing cold, or simply just in the mood for soup, their chicken pho is my go-to. My boyfriend tends to do the custom pho, which he'll include the meatball, eye of round, and brisket. We also almost always start with the imperial roll appetizer and the summer rolls. If we're super hungry, we'll split the classic banh mi sandwich which also hits the spot every time. The baguettes are always fresh, soft, yet still crispy, the veggies and flavors of the pâtè and meat go so well together.

The restaurant also serves beer and wine, if I'm not mistaken. I've never ordered an alcoholic beverage from here. They also have chrysanthemum tea which is a favorite of ours, most fountain drinks, Vietnamese iced coffee and Thai tea.

We frequent Caphe Banh Mi so often, the staff always tries to sit us in a timely manner, and are always super attentive, warm and welcoming to us which is greatly appreciated. I honestly have nothing bad to say about this place, and I am so glad we live so...

On Christmas Eve, I decided to get lunch from Caphe Banh Mi and wanted to share my disappointing and a disgusting experience. We ordered banh mi sandwiches and found hair inside the sandwich. It was absolutely disgusting! Immediately, we reached out to the restaurant and they would refuse to talk and told me call later. When I finally spoke with the owner, she refused to acknowledge and correct the issue. Instead, she said the lady that made our food has blonde hair not black hair. Just so everyone is aware, that isn't true and the owner wouldn't even know who prepared our food because she wasn't at the restaurant on this day (she was at home per my conversation with her). The restaurant refused to believe there was hair in our food and implied we made it up. I have text message conversations with the owner, which is proof of her calling me a liar. I texted the picture to the owner as well but she refused to acknowledge her restaurant's fault regarding hair in our food and their rude behavior towards us over a $9 sandwich.

I'm posting this review so everyone is aware of the irresponsible owners/management of this restaurant. I would urge everyone to please thouroughly check your food if you still choose to order from here. I wouldn't want anyone to get contaminated food and then have to throw out the food with no resolution from the restaurant. I don't want anyone to receive food with hair or other types of contamination similar to the experience we received (especially during these troubling times with COVID-19). Our goal was to help the restaurant owner by informing her of this issue; instead, she blamed us and called me a liar. I just have one question for anyone who might think I've fabricated this story, why would I make up such a story for a $9 banh mi sandwich? If anything, I threw out the food, had to arrange another lunch meal, lost some money, and tried to help the restaurant by sharing my experience for which, unfortunately, there was no resolution. I really hope people that choose to order from here are extra cautious. Let's hope the restaurant doesn't continue their carelessness with food contamination and shows respect to...

This place was my favorite Vietnamese place to go to until yesterday, 10/21/21. The food was delicious, and the staff were polite and attentive. My family and I ate here almost every time we would go to Old Town, however yesterday my first and only interaction with the owner made it my last time I will EVER go to this restaurant. I ordered four sandwiches and unfortunately, one of the sandwiches had an unknown cloth material in it. I had to wait until the restaurant opened back up for their dinner hours in order to bring it to their attention. I called over the phone to speak with the manager to resolve the issue but was not able to and was told to bring my sandwich back for proof, even though I explained that I did not live in the area, and it was difficult for me to get back. The employee told me this was the only way to resolve my issue. As a result, my family sat in 30 minutes plus of rush hour traffic to bring this sandwich back. Once there, the employee told me he had to call the owner in order to issue a refund. The interaction went down from there. The owner had the employee repeat what he was saying on the phone to me and proceeded to insult my character stating I set them up. I NEVER had a restaurant be so insistent of me putting something in my food. I explained over and over again that it was already in the food and showed the picture I took as soon as I saw the material. Still, the owner proceeded to insult me stating I set them up and did not want to issue me a refund or offer to remake my sandwich. After approximately ten frustrating minutes of back and forth, I left out telling everyone in line and sitting in the patio to check their food to make sure there was nothing in it. My husband stayed behind with our baby to continue to wait for the refund. He came back to the car and stated the restaurant finally processed it by giving us cash. I will never be back, and I hope for three things: 1) if someone else goes through this, the restaurant will listen and not be disrespectful 2) offer to fix the issue and 3) apologize for their mistake. I will say thank you to Caphe for showing their...