Bếp Quê — Restaurant in Garland

I have only dined at Bep Que for one time and it will definitely be my last time.

We had bun mam, bun dau mam tom, bo bia, hu tiu, ca phe sua, and nuoc mia.

I rate bun mam, bun dau, hu tiu 4/5, and ca phe sua and bo bia 2/5.

Bun mam 3.5/5 was alright but not anywhere near being good or exceptional, there were 3 shrimps in my bun mam but 2 were very good and quite fresh while the other 1 is pretty bad and spoiled.

Bun dau mam tom 3/5 - mam tom was diluted but it was still very salty, we werent provided with sugar until asked.

Bo bia 2/5 is mid at best, the sauce that goes with it doesnt tie the flavors together and it doesnt smell or taste peanut at all.

Ca phe sua da 2/5 needs much more condensed milk. It was pretty bitter, not that the coffee is strong, just bitter.

Regarding service, the place offers one of the most horrible service I’ve seen. Sorry. Waited 15 minutes for the menus then 15 minutes later to have our order taken, still no water. The servers repeatedly forgot our order. We ordered 2 bun mam, 1 is being brought out first then they forgot about the other one. we had to remind them once we had all the other dishes ordered and it was certain they forgot the other bun mam. We ordered 3 nuoc mia, one server only brought 1 nuoc mia out without lid, then cameback in to get the lid, then 2 other nuoc mia were brought out 10 minutes later. They forgot about the bo bia and we had to remind them too. When we asked for the water refill, the server had our bottle filled at the station then delivered it to another table and get some other table’s bottle filled and deliver to our table. And the water bottle was very dirty on the outside. Dont dine here if you are in a rush or only have 1 hour to eat because they will mess your order and be very slowly in servicing...

I’ve been coming to Bếp Quê at least once a week because their food is just so good. They seriously rock every dish. The best thing? Their canh bún. It’s so delicious that I’ve been eating it every single time for the past 3-4 months, nothing else just canh bún. You can add snails for only $2 more. Sometimes the snails are a bit small and chewy so I recommend asking them about it before you order. Most of the time they’re big and crunchy, so good! Next dish I recommend is the bún mắm. The bowl is huge and packed with toppings. It really makes me feel like I’m back in Vietnam. The shrimp is super fresh and the best part is the chả cá miếng. Their phá lấu is also really tasty, even though they don’t have many options—just small intestines and honeycomb tripe. I also tried their cơm gà, and the ginger dipping sauce is amazing. It comes with a poached egg in a small bowl of soup, and my husband loved it! I’m a picky eater and not every dish fits my taste but after trying half the menu, I have to say their food is solid.

The restaurant is also really nice to customers. The staff are friendly and helpful; they know what they’re doing and explain the dishes well so your first experience is even better since you know what to expect. The manager is great too. I once had an incident with another car in front of the restaurant, and they provided the CCTV footage so we had evidence for the insurance company.

Big thumbs up...

You know this is authentic when we struggled a bit with the menu. Thankfully we were assigned someone who spoke English and was amazing. We had someone with peanuts allergies and he went back to check if they could make an accommodation. He was amazing and patient with us. Best of all, no peanut allergy reaction.

We tried the spicy beef and cahn bun Oc and both had bold flavors. Make sure you add the shrimp paste that comes on the side. Both broths were sweet and savory and had an umami bomb. We added chilli to it and it took the soup to the next level.

The Bun Nem Nuong Cha Gio was very fresh and the sauces complimented the dish.

The menu has English descriptions for most of the dishes and Google translate can help there wasn’t pictures for each dish. However, I learned that next time is much better to look at all the dishes displayed in the TVs surrounding the dining room and point at the dish the looks the best.

We went for a late lunch in a Saturday and it was 1/4 - 1/2 full. Plenty of space and the A/C was set perfectly for a bowl of comforting...