Cau Ut Kitchen — Restaurant in Duluth

I was recommended by friends to try a newly opened Vietnamese restaurant in town. I visited twice—once during the soft opening, which was extremely busy, and again a week later for takeout. I ordered a total of five different dishes:

Phở Tái Bò Viên – The flavor was underwhelming, and the broth portion was surprisingly small.

Cơm Thịt Nướng – This dish featured two types of meat: grilled sliced pork and a thin pork chop. Unfortunately, both were quite plain and dry. The pickled vegetables were submerged in sweet fish sauce, making them taste more like dưa món, which was an unusual choice.

Mixed Bánh Bèo, Bánh Lọc, Bánh Nậm Platter – This was the most disappointing dish. The portions were extremely small. Bánh bèo was too thin and overloaded with crouton toppings. Bánh lọc, which should have been slightly plump with pork and shrimp, was as thin as rice paper and lacked substance. Similarly, Bánh nậm was already thin, but after peeling off the banana leaf, it was barely anything there.

Bún Đậu Mắm Tôm – The quality was mediocre and far from authentic. The pricing was also significantly higher than average—while similar dishes typically cost around $16.99, this restaurant charged a staggering $33.99! The portion size did not justify the price, as it lacked chả cốm and instead included thin, frozen nem rán, three slices of boiled pork belly, a few pieces of fried tofu, salad, and noodles.

Bún Cá Nha Trang – The broth was bland and lacked depth. It contained a single piece of frozen tuna (not a fresh or fully sliced portion) and a few pieces of frozen fish cake.

Overall, I was disappointed after waiting a week to give this restaurant another chance. While I understand that personal taste varies, I believe a restaurant should maintain a reasonable standard of quality relative to its pricing. Unfortunately, that was not the case here.

I have attached some photos...

"Updates" I do appreciate the feedback from ownership, but please don't lie to me or make me feel like I'm stupid. I heard the group of "friends" ordered with the server. I can tell you exactly what they ordered as well. I love to support my people, but the day of; yall making me feel as if yall don't respect the patron hard earning money.

They’re still trying to figure out how to run the place. This place was highly recommended by a friend so we were super excited about the place. It was a little busy when we arrived on a Friday night but everyone got their food. We sat for a while and the owner had some friends coming so all their attention was on them. Before the server went to the friend’s table, my husband said something so they took our orders first. We ordered bánh bèo which was really good, sugar cane drinks was good as well; we also ordered the large nem nướng and as excited as I was… the nem nướng was not good at all.

The food was not even something worth mention. Please don’t open for business and all you service is your friends. How come we ordered way before their friends and all their food came out way before ours. My husband was nice about it but I was so irritated so I went to them and complained and all I got was my food is coming. My dad was born and raised in Nha Trang and their orange sauce is not it. A lot of reviews saying their sauce is bland but ours was super sweet. I was so confused by their food. They charged if you want noodles with your wraps? It doesn’t make sense but for $30+, you’ll get some veggies and some pork slices. Just save your money and don’t come here.

Until next...

Such a disappointment. We order 3 dishes and they were all horrible. Pho Tai bò VIÊN- the broth was so bad- my husband never put sauce in his soup but he have to put a bunch of sauce to even eat this. The broth came out cloudy- not clear like it should be. The Bò Viên meat ball was So Chewy and hard and dry??. Like it was frozen and left out for days. I never eat Pho with Bò Viên went wrong before. Even if the soup would be a hit or miss.

2.Banh Hoi Chào Tôm- the fish sauce is the main ingredient for this dish- if you don’t get it right the whole thing went wrong. And the fish sauce was so plain . The meat itself has no flavor what so ever- I was ao disappointed ☹️ because you usually cant gô wrong with this dish even if you don’t know how to cook. Just gotta make the fish sauce right.

GOi Cuốn Spring roll Nem Nướng- the sauce was so plain . Why 😭. I love this dish- the Orange sauce look so good but it is so PLAIN! I have to add Tuong den in it to make it taste a bit better. I couldn’t ask for fish sauce because I know it will taste too plain too.

Total was around $50 and not including tip yet. Price point to me is ok- but food wise- we were just hoping at lease 1 dish is ok but...