Bún Mắm Hà Tiên | Simply Boba — Restaurant in San Jose

Despite the prominent signs for boba tea, this is actually a family-owned restaurant whose main dish is a Vietnamese fish noodle soup called Bún Mắm. It is made with round spaghetti-like rice noodles, pork, fish, squid, shrimp, eggplant, pieces of tender fish mixed with multiple types of fermented fish paste. It is also served with lime and many fresh herbs and vegetables such as slivers of banana blossom, bean sprouts, lettuce and mint. I mostly order the #2 Bún Nươc Lèo Sóc Trăng, which is a plain fish and pork noodle soup without fermented fish paste that comes with a fried shrimp cake on the side. The broth is delicious and flavorful. I sometimes crave it when I’m not feeling well like chicken noodle soup.

The service is on point and especially good if you speak Viet. That said, the menus have English and this is a good experience for non-Viet people who want to try something other than pho. This place should really be more popular considering how good the food is. It’s often half empty while other nearby restaurants are bustling. The boba signs and online description are confusing; I can’t tell if it’s a boba tea shop or a restaurant. In my opinion, they should split off the boba tea completely so that they can focus completely on marketing the Bún Mắm restaurant because it is a great dish that more people...

My absolutely favorite place whenever I craze for authentic Vietnamese Bún Mắm aka Fermented Fish Soup (#1 on the menu). In fact, I only order Bún Mắm when I come here and Bun Mam Ha Tien has the best Bún Mắm in San Jose, in my opinion.

Starting with their portion. I ordered a small bowl but it filled me up! The portion was so generous and full of delicious roasted pork's, 2 full-size fish fillets, squid slices, 2 full with-head-on jumbo shrimps and lots of garlic chives which I love. The soup has the right balance of sweetness from all the seafood goodies and the saltiness from the fermented fish. I drank my soup clean LOL. If you're not Vietnamese, the smell of the fermented fish may repulse you. However, I encourage you to give it a try as Bún Mắm here is as authentic as what you can get from Vietnam.

The service is quick and attentive. As soon as I walked in, the server noticed me and let me choose the seat I wanted. Order was taken quickly and my food came out steaming hot within the next 3-5 minutes.

The store is small yet cozy. They have 4 booths which can accommodate to 4 people per booth. The other 7 tables are specious arranged. The store looks neat and tidy to me. I came around 11:30am on a Friday. There were a few customers there but the noice level is minimal and I had a pleasant time....

I can’t believe it took me this long to finally try the bun mam here! The broth was clean yet robust and flavorful and the portion was perfect. Everything was cooked perfectly from the noodles to the fish, shrimp, squid, and eggplant. Their veggie garnishes were also fresh. Bun mam is definitely a more bold and complex Vietnamese noodle soup so if you’re feeling adventurous enough to try it, I recommend ordering it from Bun Mam Ha Tien. And don’t forget to order a boba drink through their Simply Boba line with it too! They’re one of the few boba places besides Tastea that offers the large 32oz cups...