Bé-Em Asian Kitchen — Restaurant in Charlotte

9/3/23 update.

Today I got to Be-Em at 3:30pm. A gentleman greeted me as I was ordering and said the chef left early so they couldn’t make my food. Very unprofessional.

Possibly my new favorite Pho spot in Charlotte. The broth is thick, rich, & aromatic. These folks definitely 100% boil their own bone broth from scratch & don’t use a mix like some other PHO spots.

The broth has a nice shimmer from bone marrow fats & proteins as they boil brisket, beef ribs, & oxtails. If you get the beef rib it does come with two bones. I don’t remember if it came with one or two oxtails. Big portion however you look at it.

I also got the chicken egg rolls and ginger dressing salad. The ginger dressing was home made and fantastic. The egg rolls were very meaty and delicious. They gave me a crazy amount of sweet chili sauce for the egg rolls, felt kind a wasteful.

The oxtail pho is great. Use a spoon or knife to get the meat off the oxtail. The beef rib was also delicious but was a bit harder to get off the bone. At first I tried picking it up and eating off the bone then decided to scrape all the meat off with a knife. Very delicious.

They give a generous garnish plate with cilantro, blue basil, bean sprouts, jalapeño slices.

The oxalis came with a normal plastic/ceramic spoon, the beef rib came with a shallow metal pho spoon, I don’t know if the metal spoon was to scrape meat off or what but I would have preferred the non-metal spoon.

If you made it this far I will address the atmosphere, staff, and ordering. The atmosphere feels like every fast casual Korean restaurant Ive been in for bubble waffles & Korean hot dogs on a stick, i.e. a big green fake vine/plant covered wall you can take selfies with I guess. There is no ordering staff, just two big touch screens at the counter surrounded with table number tags, drink cups, etc.

The 1st trip I ordered off the touch screen, it was fast and intuitive. I figured out you can just grab a number go sit down and order off the website too. An older couple was there and was totally lost on the self ordering. An employee did come out and assist them. If you need help basically just step a foot or two behind the order counter into the kitchen area and say I need help. Everyone so far was super sweet and eager to help.

Don’t listen to the Vegans leaving negative reviews.

On the pictures, Disclaimer: I brought my own reaper chilies from my garden, Be-Em pho did not supply them.

Update. Confirmed the Oxtail Pho comes with one bone about 2 inch thick and 4 inch wide. The beef rib...

After reading one of my other pho reviews of other pho places I'm Charlotte I've really been contemplating one question: What is the quintessential American pho experience.

Now, personally, I prefer the tight, small, let's say "quaint" vietnamese places preferably with a bunch of dudes outside smoking and/or playing cards. There has to be some kind of gambling machine nearby. The music is vietnamese. that kind of stuff.

Be-em has truly nailed it. Heart mind and body. There's no host, no server to seat you, you walk in and order from a nice big tablet. Take your time. Read through it all. It's touchscreen so it's very intuitive. I love it. Really feels like more restaurants need to follow exactly Be-ems lead.

For the heart, this place is beautifully decorated with high ceiling and just it's a while vibe you gotta check out. For the mind, there are these laminated papers that have the story behind the restaurants name and frankly it almost brought a tear to my eye, really soothes the soul to see hard work pay off and be so real. For the body, well ultimately this is why every one eats, the pho was great! Definitely a google maps 5 star. I will now include what I call my "graduated pho scale" which is the most critical lens with which I grade wherein a 10 is essentially michelin star so-to-speak. This pho gets a 7 which is very good. The broth for me was a little salty but the meat was excellent. That reminds me I gotta rant about this meat cuz it was really really good. The pho got a 6 but the meat elevated it to a 7 for sure.

You can really taste how they pride themselves on the meat I loved how the brisket had a smokey quality and I've never gotten more meatballs served to me in a pho "special" although I don't think it came with tendon or tripe. That said, this is probably the best experience for first time pho tryers and for kids! They have lots of Boba tea options and pho is only a little bit of the menu there are lots to try!

Overall experience was a 10/10 this isn't just a restaurant it is a total hang out spot like get a drink with your friends and chill super cool...

We did the unthinkable.

WE BOOKED BE-EM ASIAN KITCHEN's restaurant for our entire rehearsal dinner space the day before our wedding!

My wife & I were trying SO hard to find an accommodating space for a Rehearsal Dinner. We knew we REALLY wanted good Vietnamese food. Then we stumbled across Bé Èm Asian Kitchen. I reached out, scheduled a face-to-face meeting with chi Loan (owner) and she was soooo accommodating. First thing’s first, we wanted to ensure a few things: The restaurant would accommodate a large number of guests The look and feel would fit the modern vibe we’re going for. The food should TASTE good. The venue would be within budget. I love honesty and chi Loan told me straight up she’s never received an inquiry like mine where I’m wanting to use her restaurant as a space for our Rehearsal Dinner. Interestingly enough, I told her that “We’ll figure it out together!”. We bounced ideas off of each other (which is so key, it was definitely a collaborative effort). The big collaborative idea was the Pho Bar (Pho Tai Nam station). We decided to order from their catering menu: Pho Tai Nam Station ALOT of wings Hibachi trays (catering style) Steak Shrimp Vegan Tofu Fried rice Steamed rice Ultimate Asian Charcuterie Board (Wings, Wonton bites, Dumplings, Eggrolls, Edamame, Kimchi fries, Bar Buns, etc). Fruit Tray (inclusive of a Fruit Wedding Cake that Chi Loan came up with all on her own!) Sangria Bowl Fruit Tea The one thing I’ll always appreciate and remember is how chi Loan kept telling us, “Don’t worry about us, we got everything handled, leave the stress to us. Just worry about your day and enjoy”. She and her team took on all the stress of prepping a Pho Bar that they’ve never done before, created a whole new BEAUTIFUL Wedding Sign that we didn’t even expect, and supplied microphones and speakers for speeches. Bé Èm Asian Kitchen (Chi Loan and her team) went OVER AND BEYOND for our Rehearsal Dinner. The Customer Service and Food are on par...