Big Bites Vietnamese Eatery — Restaurant in Mountain View

This was my first time both at the restaurant and with eating Vietnamese cuisine.

I was out running errands yesterday (Thursday, 7/11) and decided to stop for a late lunch. I'm glad I did, too.

I guess because I was in between the lunch and dinner hours, there was no one else there, so I had my pick of tables. I will say there is plenty of seating inside and a few tables outside for al-fresco dining.

Stepping inside, you're greeted by a bright and open environment--and very clean. The menu seemed diverse to me, but I had no previous experience with this cuisine before. But they have appetizers, sandwiches (bahn mi (hope I spelled that correctly), which was what I chose), bowls (rice and noodle, I think), plus specialty drinks.

So, I decided to try the pulled-chicken bahn mi (sans the pate (don't know if that differs from pâté) that comes on all the bahn mi). It also comes with jalapeños, and I don't normally choose to imbibe. However, I decided to take a walk on the wild side and go for an authentic cultural experience (I don't mind spicier foods, but I generally opt for mild or medium dishes), and I never even noticed any spice or jalapeños seeds at all. So, if you don't care for hot foods, I think you should fare well with these sandwiches.

Oh, and I also want to point out that the French baguette was great, toasted to a perfect crispness for a pleasing crunch.

With my bahn mi, I had a chai lychee iced tea and...wow! This was GOOD! VERY refreshing. The lychee syrup was a bit sweet, but it balanced out my sandwich well. They also have a chai passion fruit iced tea, and I'm eager to return to try it. I'm more of a tea person than coffee (though I do enjoy coffee), and the lychee really hit the spot. On hot days, I can see sitting outside in the shade or by the pool with a tall pitcher of it and being perfectly contented. It was good.

The reason I gave my first visit a four-star rating (instead of five) was because of the "music" playing overhead. Call me an old fogey or what have you, but I don't enjoy hip hop (or however that music is classified). The girls singing sound ill, as if they're in pain--NOT melodic--and the guys rapping were dropping f-bombs and "sh"-ing here and there, and, well, that just doesn't make for a nice dining environment, especially if I'd had kids with me. (Eating food while one is talking about sh**ting, regardless of the context, doesn't conjure up palatable images.)

That said, that was my only complaint. It doesn't stop me from wanting to return, but it might be a shocker for some people, especially those with kids. (Note: As this was my first visit, I have no clue if this is the music played all the time or just the preference of the person working that day.)

But I'll end on a high note and not on a complaint: The people, who work there, were very nice. And, though they were busy getting together a LARGE to-go order (I think they cater), I didn't have to wait long for my food.

I give Big...

Note: this is the brick and mortar store for "Plant-Based Vegan Vietnamese" restaurant, as well as "Big Bites Vietnamese Eatery". They have two separate menus on GrubHub and PBVV is shown as in the Safeway on Google Maps but is not really there.

As you can see by the aforementioned note we were all confused when we got here as to whether or not this was the right place. My wife ordered food from GrubHub here earlier in the week and she enjoyed the food, so we decided to go back so that I could try for myself.

We each ordered a bowl of Veggie Pho, apparently you can order Faux Chicken Pho off the Plant Based Vegan Vietnamese menu, but it is not on the in-store menu. We also ordered veggie egg rolls and shrimp toast as an appetizer. The food came out quickly and was served with a small paper plate of basil, bean sprouts, limes, and three slices of jalapeño.

Egg roll review: crisp outside, mushy inside, standard sweet and sour sauce. Came fresh from the fryer, the crispy outside was the only plus to this dish and didn't carry it very far. Flavor was ok, a bit lacking, too many cellophane noodles making the insides too soft. Generously 2 out of 5 stars.

Shrimp Toast: also delivered fresh from the fryer, very crispy outside, but just tasted like frying oil. Dipped in the green ranch(?) tasted better, but did nothing to cut through the greasiness. 1 out of 5 stars.

Veggie Pho: broth was actually ok. I prefer regular beef broth, but for a veggie broth it was ok. Plenty of noodles, but too many big chunks of horse carrot! I found myself just eating bite after bite of hunks of carrot that it dominated and took over the flavor of the entire dish and really ruined the bowl of noodles. 2 out of 5 very generously given.

All in all the food was not very good and the prices were equivalent to any other Pho house in San Jose, around $15 for a bowl of lack luster noodles, plus more for tasteless fried food. Based on the variety of other Vegan cuisine in the area I would recommend going somewhere else for vegan cuisine. If you are going for Vietnamese food keep driving till you're in San Jose to...

I and my co-worker ate lunch here today. Here’s what we thought.

The Pros - Clean space Friendly staff Quick service Tasty food

The Cons - Too expensive Small portions Thai iced tea was awful

The food is good, but the portions are really small. My bahn mi sandwich was much SMALLER than a sandwich I could have gotten at any other sandwich place (For $7 bucks at Subway I can get a larger sandwich, chips and a drink! ), and cost me $15! The Thai iced tea was awful, (You shouldn’t use a store bought chai mix to make it. Yuck!) and again, overpriced for what it was.

Pay attention owners, and no, I don’t want you to bother commenting, (As it means nothing and no one is impressed, I'm not going to "call" you as you have asked other reviewers to do.) You could be using that energy to improve your business instead. Be a cut above, fix your portions, fix your Thai iced tea, stop price gouging people, it isn’t...