Mai Tea Vietnamese Cuisine — Restaurant in Charlottesville

I travel very often for works from Atlanta to Charlottesville VA. And on my way to C'Ville VA, I have also dined at many Vietnamese restaurants on my ways, South Carolina, North Carolina, Wytheville WV, Charlottesville, Washington DC, etc. but this place is absolutely the best of the best out there as AUTHENTIC !

Honestly I am a very picky eater on authentic Vietnamese foods (I left Vietnam at the age of 26, so I can say that I should know how a good Authentic "Phở" should taste like, and the beef noddle soup "Phở" is one of my favorites.

The main reason that I voted BEST for this restaurant is how they prepare the ingredients & slow cooking the beef bones in a special pot imported directly from Vietnam. The slow cooking method (24 to 48 hours) allows the broth to extract all good stuff from the bones, "marrow", out to the soup.

I ordered a bowl of special "Phở" with slides of medium rare meat and also with a perfectly cooked ox tail. It would be almost impossible to find any noodle soup restaurant serving ox tail Phở in the South & North East, even in the West California Little Saigon!). One of the big bonus point is the broth is so hot & flavorful when brought out to your table, it was like still boiling in your bowl ! But if you want your steaks to be medium rare or rare, then ask the server not to pour the hot broth directly onto the meats so it will not overcooked ! The broth is clear, smell great, that I haven't eaten a perfect bowl of Pho for a very long time :-)!

Now If you want to compare this restaurant to other restaurants (not many though) such as "Nguyen Kitchen" in the C'Ville area, they should be ashamed on what they have been serving there in terms of authentic Vietnamese foods. As I can't find any restaurant in the area serving noodle soup, I kept coming back to dine at their place every time I go to C'Ville area, the latest time is in late March, and that is my biggest mistake & disappointment ever :-(, I left with more than half of my bowl not being eaten :-(, it lacks a rich & distinctive flavor of a broth cooking by beef bones, very bland & tasteless, and not hot at all ??? Common, that is the least that I would expect a bowl of noddle soup to be hot ! Pho 3 Pho is another restaurant in the area, even worse than Nguyen Kitchen for me to say !

Well I definitely will come back to the Mai Tea restaurant on my next trips, and all I hope for is the owner should be very proud on all of this, and I hope that they should not change a thing on their recipe, customer knows on what they want and if they like it keep it that way ! I am sure to try on other dishes next time and would be able to write reviews on those as I know that their Grand Openings are not far away into the summer...

I almost don’t want to write a review because I’m afraid of how busy my new favorite pho spot might become 😅 this was undeniably the best pho I’ve ever had! All the ingredients seemed simple and fresh, exactly how I anticipate my pho to be. What stood out to me in particular with that this ABUNDANT portion of protein had plenty collagen - making for a silky texture and rich and savory flavor (plus, why not glow while you eat!?) that only got better as I ate. I also got a natural fruit tea (I chose guava, yum!), sweetened with honey. I love that you can choose your sweetened intensity (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) - I went with regular and it was plenty sweet! I also topped mine off with lychee and I that was the perfect combo! I didn’t catch their names unfortunately but the owners, who also served as the front and back end staff, were warm and hospitable. Before I even finished, I was already anticipating coming back! I hope everyone gives Mai Tea Vietnamese a try. It’s in a perfect location - right on the back of the mall between Melting Pot and C&O. For me it couldn’t be a more convenient location. Best of luck to...

My partner and I decided to stop by Mai Tea since we were in town to look at UVA. The owner and his wife were very nice and made sure our milk teas were to our liking. It isn’t pictured here, but I got the Black Milk Tea with 25% sweet and almond milk and it was perfect.

Their banh xeo was also delicious— it was soft and crunchy at the same time which is hard to find anywhere and I haven’t been able to tackle that texture in my own home. Their P4 Pho was also really good. It has a lighter broth which is nice if you don’t want it to feel heavy on your stomach. Their banh mi (P1) is also very flavorful. I’m a bit biased as I love when my banh mi’s come with a bunch of mayonnaise, but if you don’t like mayonnaise as much, their banh mi’s would be perfect for you.

Parking is a bit tricky and you would have to find parking on the street or around the vicinity, but if you’re in town, you...