ItsAWrap Vietnamese Eatery — Restaurant in Morrisville

| Overview

Fresh & healthy Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwiches & vermicelli bowls Easy to order & customize on kiosk Relaxing & clean ambiance with nice outdoor area Fast & professional customer service $8 2-piece Bao Buns are tiny Pho noodle soups are small Something sticky on 1 of the tables

| Full Review

My girl & I went to ItsaWrap Vietnamese Eatery in Morrisville on a Wednesday lunch time, and our first dine-in experience here was pretty delightful. The kiosk made it easy for us to customize and select our orders.

This is more like a casual Vietnamese fast food than an authentic Vietnamese restaurant. It's more similar to Bee Banh Mi in Cary than Far East Pho with its more casual style and no-waiter service. ItsaWrap's inviting ambiance with its basket lights and minimalistic aesthetic reminded me of the serenity you can find in Vietnam's tropical nature. It also has a nice outdoor seating; and we saw other a small group of customers enjoying food there.

My girl ordered the Vermicelli Bowl with pork & I got the Banh Mi Sandwich with beef. We also got the $8 2-piece Bao Buns as our appetizers. As much as we wanted to include most of the available ingredients for the Vermicelli Bowl & Bang Mi -as shown on the kiosk or menu- there's a limit for how much you can add for no additional cost, and anything beyond that is extra, so this Vietnamese "fast food" spot is not cheap.

In fact, we wouldn't even consider buying pho noodle bowls here as they look small in the photos. Small but about the same price as thecbigger & better bowls you can get from an authentic Vietnamese restaurant.

Unsurprisingly, we got our orders fast, and our items were brought to our table instead of us having to pick them up from the counter (like most other casual spots of this caliber do), so we appreciated the professional customer service of ItsaWrap. Prior to receiving our food, we had to move to another table because we noticed that part of the surface of the table we initially went to was strangelt sticky.

The Banh Mi Sandwich was one of the best Banh Mi we've tried in the Triangle NC. Unlike the Banh Mi that we tried in Pho Far East, the bread of the sandwich here was not hard, and the fresh ingredients inside made every bite a delight. It's about $10 with the beef option; other types of meats cost less.

My girl also enjoyed her Vermecelli Bowl with the pork, and the fish sauce that came with it enhanced the flavor of the various ingredients inside the bowl. The pork pieces were tender, and the couple pieces of pork rolls included in the bowl tasted crispy-good.

The most disappointing item that we ordered was the 2-piece Bao Buns order, which we thought was not worth its $8 price. They were too small, and the ingredients inside weren't as good as the Bao Buns we've tried in other Asian restaurants. The buns here are definitely no match to Love Bao's larger & more Taiwanese-authentic buns; even the $3 buns in Hokkaido Ramen Bar in Morrisville were more satisfying than what we got here.

My girl was craving for coffee so she followed-up our food order with a $6 iced Vietnamese coffee, which was pre-made and ready to serve. She enjoyed this cold beverage; it wasn't too sweet like the one we tried in Bee Banh Mi.

Despite its pricey selections (for a casual eatery) and mediocre Bao Buns, we enjoyed our first visit in ItsaWrap; we loved the convenience of having healthy & fresh Vietnamese foods in a casual setting, relaxing ambiance, and good customer service. My girl said she'd like to return here for the Vermicelli Bowls, and I thought the Bahn Mi was worth devouring again.

| Overall...

It was my first time trying Vietnamese food at this place, and unfortunately, I was dissatisfied with both the quality of the food and the customer service. We ordered Pho, char siu pork buns, and Braised pork belly vermicelli noodle bowls. The buns were disappointingly thin and broke apart easily; I had expected them to be wrapped in thicker buns, as depicted in the menu. Additionally, the vermicelli noodle bowl, known as BUN THIT NUONG, should not be a make-your-own dish here. It lacks authenticity, as it misses essential ingredients like fish sauce cooked with coconut water and a touch of spice from chilies. Instead, it was served with sweet chili sauce, which is better suited for spring rolls.

This dish traditionally pairs grilled pork with Vietnamese vermicelli noodles, not chicken, shrimp, beef, or braised pork belly. The combination felt unacceptably mixed. I specifically ordered the vermicelli noodles, and it was disappointing that the true essence of the dish wasn't understood or properly served.

The braised pork belly was overwhelmingly fatty, leaving me no choice but to discard most of it, resulting in less pork in the bowl. When I asked the staff to change it to char siu pork, they mentioned needing the manager's approval, leading to a long wait, during which I finished my meal and left (as depicted in my last picture). I've decided I won't return.

While I appreciate the option to customize some dishes, there are certain traditional foods that shouldn't be altered. The prices here are considerably high for the quality offered. I'm confident there are better places for Pho out there. Unfortunately, I don't have any...

The food is really good, but they will put mayonnaise on the banh mi even if you don't select mayonnaise on the order page. I called into the restaurant and they advised that you should probably note "no mayonnaise" in the special requests box. This is fine and I will be doing it in the future, but considering that they have a lot of vegan options (tofu, mock meat) it kind of defeats the purpose to have an animal product added standard without the option to remove it or even alerting the customer that it is something that they need to make a note to remove. I do not eat animal products as a dietary restriction (not an ethical choice) so the addition of the mayonnaise- which is, again, not noted anywhere on the menu or order page- rendered the sandwich completely inedible for me. It was a waste of money that was made even worse because I know the food is otherwise really good.

When I called in to the restaurant to ask about it, I was told that it was probably a case of someone preparing the orders too fast, but they heavily recommended that I should add the "no mayonnaise" note in the special requests, which makes me think it's not the first time that this issue has come up. I think that it would be better (especially for people with food allergies, dietary restrictions, alternative diets, etc.) if there was any kind of notation on the menu that removing the mayonnaise HAS to be made as a...