Cafe LaVie Vietnamese — Restaurant in Florida

Vietnamese food is one of my favorite cuisines. I could eat a banh mi every day. So completely satisfying. I researched Cafe Lavie when I was down visiting my dad in Boca Raton. This place is a MUST! Fantastic food with incredibly nice owners! From the bread to the vegetables to the perfectly juicy grilled pork. PERFECTION! I also tried a small bowl of pho. And that was also just terrific. I read some of the other reviews and some had issues with slow service. Whatever. Great food takes extra time to prepare and this place should not be missed. You can tell that they put a lot of effort into their food. The pho broth was so flavorful. Nice and relaxed decor inside. I'd be here all the time if I lived in Boca. Best banh mi I have ever had and I have had LOTS of them. Do yourself a favor and try this place. You will be hooked. Can't...

This is one of the few restaurants of this cuisine in Boca Raton. As a self proclaimed pho lover and connoisseur, I find myself having to try a bowl whenever and whenever I can. With that being said, it’s probably blasphemous that I’m eating this bowl with zucchini noodles, but I wasn’t in the mood for all the carbs this evening. Not to mention, I find it a more rare and pleasant offering. The combo bowl consists of varied meats including a piece of oxtail, albeit very small. The broth, which of course is most important, was just too salty. It did have a nice beef flavor, but not as aromatic as I like and the overpowering saltiness just took over the dish for me. The beef itself was above average and mostly tender. I would have like a bit more ot a serving at almost $20 for the bowl. Overall a nice visit, with a possible return to try...

Cafe LaVie Vietnamese
5030 Champion Blvd., Suite D8, Boca Raton
Ordered shut: Sept. 5
Why: 13 violations (four high-priority), including:
 • About 40 rodent droppings in the kitchen “on top of ware-washing machine,” inside “bin containing wrapped single-service items on cook line” and “on ground on cook line,” as well as “on ground at front counter in front of ice machine.”

 • About 37 live flies “at front counter in dining room not landing” and in the kitchen “landing on clean wares on cook line,” “hovering at prep table holding slicer on cook line,” and “hovering and landing on walls/boxes at kitchen entrance.”
 • “Raw chicken stored above cooked broths in reach-in freezer.”
 • “Broths prepared and frozen not redated when held at refrigeration temperatures again.”
 • “Objectionable odors in ware washing/dry storage areas of the...