Ineffable Cà Phê — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

Pho? Coffee? All in the same place? YES! I cannot rave about Ineffable Ca Phe enough. The food is excellent and authentic. The coffee is expertly brewed and prepared. The café experience is unique, inspired, and smart.

First, the food is authentic and excellent. I inhaled a delish pork banh mi. It was simple, yet delivered layers of flavor and texture not found in other sandwiches. A plethora of accoutrements are available to tinker with the flavor profile of any dish you order. Hoisin sauce, Thai chili sauce, and sesame oil are some of the extras available if you choose.

The Vietnamese coffee drinks I could tell are authentic and I regret not ordering one. Also, looking back I wish I ordered a tapioca pearl drink to take as dessert on the way out. However, the drip coffee I ordered was absolutely delish. I noticed that La Colombe beans are used, which I am not typically fond of. However, my coffee tasted absolutely amazing so it is clear that the Ineffable Ca Phe staff are expert coffee brewers. Way to go!

Finally, the cafe experience is unique, inspired, and smart. There is a printer available for printing over the WiFi. I've never seen that service offered, but can see how it would be useful for someone cramming for a test or working very hard under the watchful eye of strangers to meet a deadline. For the free spirits among us, there are a ton of random books around. The bright greens, light colors, and adequate lighting facilitate a relaxed but productive atmosphere. I'm sure in the warmer months the outside seating is a big hit. If I'm ever in Pittsburgh again I will go out of my way to get back to Ineffable Ca Phe to sample more of the menu and get...

Place is cool, breakfast sammy and coffee was tasty. Interesting layout. Definitely check this out.

I ordered a breakfast sandwich and a drip coffee, which cost me about $16. I thought it was a bit much, but the total didn't add up from the menu prices (which was about half that), so I was a bit confused and maybe a mistake was made. It is what it is, I didn't notice until later.

The other issue I had is that ALL of the booths were taken up by folks working with a laptop. Even though there weren't many people there, they were parked permanently in large booths with bags and laptops, hunkered down. Some booths had just one person drinking a coffee. As a result we would have had to sit in a lounge chair setting with the sandwich, so we took it to go. I'm not sure if there is a solution here, but it was an issue for the people behind us as well. They had a kid and circled twice for somewhere convenient to sit, yet they couldn't because a bunch of students were using the booths as workstations. Tough situation for the business, I realize :(. The students seemed to lack self-awareness about it. Not the businesses fault, but they have a printer and such so people can work there (and I think that's really cool). If you look at reviews on here, people are literally saying they come here to work, so I guess it's more of a coffee shop than a place to sit down and eat unless you are lucky to go before the students set up their workstations.

Overall I thought it was a cool place and I'd go back for takeaway to try it again. I wouldn't rely on being able to get a seat with all the people using it as a home...

Overall, I'd give this place a 4/5. It's a cozy coffee shop that happens to sell Vietnamese food like banh mi. My wife and I both started with the Vietnamese iced coffee (ca phe sua da) to drink while we waited for the food ordering to open (you can get banh mi starting at 11am). The French roast coffee used was pretty good, but not quite the same as what you'll find in Vietnam. Unfortunately, they don't give as much sweetened condensed milk as I would have liked because I tend to prefer my Vietnamese coffee on the sweeter side. It's nice that they actually give you the phin and cup with the coffee dripping on the condensed milk so you can experience how the coffee is made Vietnamese-style. Just be careful with handling the cup and phin when pouring the coffee over the ice as they can be quite hot. On to the banh mi - I really enjoyed the authentic banh mi bread which was cooked perfectly - not too hard/crunchy and not too soft/chewy. We had the marinated pork which had a nice flavor and the sandwich included all of the typical toppings (jalapenos, cilantro, and pickled veggies). In summary, this place is a good spot if you want to grab a coffee and study/do work but don't expect a full-blown restaurant. The banh mi is probably the best I've had so far in my limited experience in Pittsburgh and is very authentic. I only wish they had a pate and luncheon meat option like what you find in Vietnam, but I'm not sure people would order that here...