Thuy Nguyen Cafe — Restaurant in Arlington

DO. NOT. EAT. HERE.

As a fellow Asian-American, I strongly recommend you avoid this establishment if possible. Do not waste a second or dollar with this place.

First off, this place is horrendous and filthy. The interior is crusty, the tables haven't been cleaned off, and the floors were sticky. I believe I may have seen a cockroach on the floor as well.

Secondly, the service here is horrible and practically non-existent. There was a short, older Vietnamese lady who was our server that night (not sure if she's the owner?). To be blunt, she was extremely rude and did not accommodate to our one request. We had requested for a plate of lettuce on the side with our bun rieu. Much to our surprise and disappointment, this request was deemed to be unreasonable to our server. She told us that lettuce was only offered with specific dishes, and we would need to order "said" dishes if we wanted a side of lettuce. My dish contained lettuce, so they did have a supply of this in the back but they were too cheap to give it out. We didn't mind paying extra for it, but the server was set on not giving us any. Once the food had arrived, we did not see the server until the bill came. No refills were provided, and she did not bother to check in to see if we needed anything else. There is a section on the menu that states that a party of 6+ is automatically charged an 18% tip on the bill. However, I am unable to comprehend this charge given that the server did the absolute bare minimum and a terrible job.

Lastly, there is an additional 4% fee that is added to the bill if you pay with a credit card. There is nothing that will indicate this charge on the menu or outside of the restaurant. So this definitely caught us off guard. We definitely felt like we got scammed after leaving this establishment!

TL;DR - This restaurant is very below average, and I don't understand how this place has 4 stars on Google and Yelp. This restaurant is disgusting/dirty, service is horrendous, food was mid, automatic 18% tip is not deserved, and an additional 4% fee if you use a credit card (which I've never seen at a restaurant before). As I mentioned in the first paragraph, please do not waste your time...

This is officially my favorite Vietnamese spot…the food was very comforting and warmed me down to my core, and I suddenly felt homesick for something I’ve never known. I came with my family after my concert and ordered #28 and #11 (if I recall correctly). Being Haitian, walking in immediately reminded me of the Haitian spots I grew up eating at. So I just KNEW it would be authentic. The staff was very friendly and the two gentlemen that helped us were extremely kind. The spring rolls were juicy and fresh, and the peanut sauce was the best I’ve ever had. My mum got the beef pho (I think #2…?) and the ox tail was extremely tender and well seasoned. She didn’t like that the broth was slightly sweet but I loved it.

My tomato based soup deserves its own paragraph. The broth was not acidic like I expected, but instead, very rich with a brilliant and robust muted tomato flavor. There were snails, tomatoes, green onions, tofu, and this cake type thing. I’m imagining that it was a crab and shrimp meatball . I’d never had one before and it was packed with a deep, beautiful seafood flavor. The noodles were perfectly chewy and adding the fish sauce and some chili oil elevated the whole dish. There’s so many people I want to take here, we will...

There are gazillions pho places now but if you are looking for great authentic regional (central, southern-central) Vietnamese cuisine, I would dare say this is one of those hidden gems tucked away in a drab looking strip mall. For soups (not the standard "pho" and disclaimer they DON'T have pho, so you'll have to go elsewhere for that), the Bun Rieu Oc and the Mi Quang are great; but both of their banh beo (waterfern/rice cakes w/ toppings) takes the cake for me. They also have daily specials and are very reasonably price for the huge portion sizes.

My only gripes, as with many small family-ran Viet restaurants, are the service and decor are pretty lacking probably because they usually seem short-handed. I just want to warn people ahead of time so they can adjust their expectations. Though, the owner/staff are super personable and personally I can give a pass on things like that if I can tell that they are trying their best; and the food quality certainly...