Cha Lua Deli — Restaurant in Portland

Quick In and Out Deli offers items made daily and refrigerated items. No dining in but they do have a high counter if you need to eat it there. I did it this time since I was hungry and on a quick lunch break and because my order, Bánh Bèo (small round and soft rice cake with a good amount of mung bean, dried shrimp paste, and sautéed scallions paired with drinkable homemade fish sauce) was so delicious. Bánh Bèo is one of the staples of Vietnamese street food! Their Bánh Bèo is way better than Phở Kim with flying colors! I'll say 4 out of 5 because the cake should have been a bit thinner. Otherwise, everything that came with it was spot on, tasty, and so yummy!

They offer a decent and solid quality of various Vietnamese snacks and street food you can't find elsewhere, such as bánh giò, bánh ít, sesame ball with mung bean, to name a few. There are limited entries with soup and noodles also made to order such as porridge, and fried rice among other things. They cater food as well with reasonable price. I ordered a few months ago a tray of shrimp spring rolls and clear noodle chick stir-fried; they were delicious, cheap, and in good quantity.

They do have Bánh Mì made to order. Vietnamese Ham is their specialty; they have various kinds of ham from regular to fried to delicacies such as snail-embedded!

Small family-owned! It gives you the feeling of ordering food from your grandma. You have to check it out if you want to see what kind of Vietnamese street...

A hall-in-the-wall hidden gem deli! It's located in a shabby neighborhood with a narrow, unwelcoming entrance, but we didn't feel unsafe in/around the store during the lunchtime on a Thursday.

Foods we got were all very tasty with some original flavor twists: Beef pho's ($12 for fairly decent size as of May '25) broth was peppery (with black peppers) in an awesome way. This may be one of the very best pho broth we've ever had (and we've tried pho at several dozen if not hundred locations across multiple states). Grilled pork banh mi sandwich ($5) was buttery in the rich, mouth-watering way. Fresh spring rolls ($5 for 2 good sized ones) were very refreshing with Thai basil, cilantro, cucumber, and lettuce (along with other usual ingredients). Lastly, pork pastry ($2 large palm size) had the filling reminiscent of the Japanese pork bun (Nikuman) that is not domineering yet quite flavorful - exactly the way we like.

Thank you so much for making & offering amazing foods and at such affordable prices. Great foods at great prices is the kind of place that is increasingly hard to find, yet exactly the place we so deeply crave for. Please keep up the fantastic work. We will...

Edit: The business offered to replace the sandwich. I was just visiting town so I was not able to come by and try it. Regardless, I’m grateful the business tried to make amends after I had a disappointing experience! The spring rolls were very good.

7/31 Devastating experience ordering to go here. Ordered a pork bahn me and fresh spring rolls. The spring rolls were delicious so I’m sorry to muddy their good name in this review, but when I got home I opened my sandwich and there was no meat in it. I even had a conversation with the employee working and took her recommendation to have the pork sandwich (a few more dollars). No one else was in the store so I can’t imagine this was a clerical issue. I would have just gone back but I had gotten the food around 3:30 and it turns out they closed at 4. They could have just told me they were out of pork for the day, I would have ordered something different. Anyway, very tragic. Had gotten excited for the sandwich and now am relegated to McDonald’s nuggets...