Nhà hàng Chay Bồ Đề Tâm — Restaurant in Chau Doc City

I’m the daughter of this vegetarian restaurant (I live in Saigon and rarely come home).

I’m writing this review to reply to the previous 2 reviews who said that my family’s restaurant is a tourist scam. First and foremost, what you claimed is not true.

Originally we did not have an English menu. But we have tour groups coming to dine at our restaurant and they required an English menu. The tour group (with mostly Western diners) requires bigger serving food portions as well as fresh fruit for desert. That explains the price difference between the Vietnamese and English menu. My mom and our family cannot speak English, so they thought it’d be more convenient and easier for our non-Vietnamese diners to read the English menu. They are by no meant to scam tourists. From this day, I asked my mom to change all the prices of the English menu to the same as Vietnamese menu to avoid similar misunderstanding to occur that might damage our reputation.

To those 2 guests who left 1-star reviews: I’m sorry that you misunderstood about the situation. But you did not even dine in that day right? You came in, you saw the menu and you left thinking the place tried to scam you.Then you came to Google and wrote a 1-star review. This restaurant is a family business (my mom is the cook, the helpers are family members) and we take a lot of pride in what we do. We are honest people who run the place with lots of hard work. If you get to see my mom’s cooking, you will understand how much she loves and appreciates her customers. My mom was so hurt by your feedback. Trust me we will not do any shameful things to put a stain on our reputation for a few thousand Vietnam Dong.

To others who love my mom’s food, please accept my most sincere appreciation for your...

Was so confused after visiting this restaurant, I ordered using their vietnamese menu, I pointed to everything I wanted in the vietnamese menu as I know my orders in Vietnamese, then at the cash, they were trying to charge me more.. trying to explain it every way they could, showing me the much smaller and mixed up English menu prices that are different, when I used the vietnamese menu, but it all makes sense now seeing the reviews.

I understand sometimes it happens to have to stand my ground a little to avoid scams, but in this case they made me wait by the cash for about 15 minutes as we were going back and forth, the staff and owner kept going to the kitchen and coming out again to a point where I was getting really uncomfortable and sketch. Finally they allowed me to pay the price in the menu I used. My mom just wanted a light meal so she got an avocado salad, but a situation like this is something I really want to avoid in future restaurants...

I’ve eaten here twice, in 2023 and in 2025. When I returned to Chau Doc I looked forward to eating here again. The negative reviews make no sense to me. Two years ago ordering was a little difficult but the owner was very friendly and when I got my food it was memorable and simply delicious, rice, boiled vegetables and a rich sauce. This time I got fried noodles which came with a bunch of crunchy vegetables and a perfect sauce, and a pitcher of iced tea. Total cost, 40k, less than 2 US dollars. Was it as cheap as street food? No. But the setting is worth it. Regular chairs and a table overlooking the Hau River in a large cool space, relaxed and comfortable service. It was quiet and felt very Buddhist to me. I’ve eaten in a lot of places here, overpriced ones, good sit down restaurants frequented by locals, and bargain basement street stalls. I can sit happily on little chairs sucking exhaust and dust. This place is gem....