Cafe Viet

This place is such a cool little place. The spring rolls are the bomb and the beef lemon grass is great. Service and quality is next to none. 4 start only because it’s a little crammed but everything makes up for it.

We ordered the beef rice noodle soup, galangal fish, fresh rice paper rolls and a viet drip coffee with condensed milk.
The beef rice noodle soup is lacking in flavour and the noodles were thick and too chewy, not what im used to for a good bowl of vietnamese phở. but thankfully this was the only disappointing part of the meal (aside from smaller portions).
I wanted bigger and more fresh vietnamese paper rolls on that plate because they were so delicious then again i’ve never really tasted one that isn’t delicious lol. i have an extreme soft spot for them… i could eat them by the dozen… for breakfast lunch and tea: P
my dining partner had the finger and there was so much flavour packed into that fish, the only way to make that dish better would be to make the serving bigger! haha
I dont know about you guys but… condensed milk makes everything and anything better… especially coffee because coffee is already so good on its own… omg heavenly…
Would i come back here… um. probably not. I think i’ll still stick to the vietnamese cheap eats restaurants haha OTAHUHU HERE I COME!

Great place for a weekday celebration meal. Really popular and busy little neighbourhood must book in order to get a table.
Started with Bang Bang prawns and while they are an unusual green colour they taste amazing and traditional rice paper rolls with dipping sauces that push the entrée from ho. hum… to something tasty and morish…
The mains were a slight let down with others in my group making better choices. I ordered the Galangal Fish but was hard pressed to point out any actual galangal flavours.
While the rest of my group groaned and made room for desert, I stuck to the impressive coffee and condensed milk that I remembered loving while travelling in Vietnam.

A-​mazing! Warm, embracing atmosphere from the time we walked in until the time we left. The food was outstanding. Generous in portions, rich in flavour without being over the top. Service efficient, but subtle. Prices were reasonable given portion sizes and «bang» for buck. Fish Gagalan superb, Bang Bang prawns and spring rolls all outstanding selections. Will definitely be back here.

My group of 12 dined here on Thursday night, my 2^nd visit. I love the décor that makes you feel like you are sitting in a alley but with some warmth.
The squid was average, no presentation and a little oily. All the rolls were nice. For my main I ordered the lemon grass beef which came to me nearly cold, I liked the spring rolls it came with but the salad could have been dressed.
The Banana and coconut donuts with chocolate dipping sauce I had was great and a generous portion.
A negative is when a few of the group asked for coffee and were told had run out of milk but the shop down the road was open and no one was prepared to go down and fetch some — not the best service. The service of getting drinks was slow. My first time here was better than the 2^nd.
Pity they stuffed up the bill at the end and lost one of my groups receipts and expecting me to pay for her. But on my investigations and proving it was their mistake they were happy for me to leave and they would get back to me if they found they were right. I have not heard from them.

Disappointing revisit to Café Viet tonight, I just didn’t enjoy the food apart from the banana coconut doughnuts for dessert with a chocolate dipping sauce. Overall, it was greasy and missing the vibrant, fresh Vietnamese flavours in both the entrée (net spring rolls) and main (crispy rice flour crêpe). There were orders at the end of the meal for hot chocolates and coffee, but they’d run out of milk (if it was my restaurant, I’d be popping down to the dairy to get a bottle). Not sure I’ll be back.

Café Viet squeezed us in to an already full Friday evening. The owner, Darren, kindly called me when a table became available for us. We were whiling away time at a local bar beforehand.
What We Ate:
Mini rice cakes
Sesame beef rolls
Net spring rolls
Soft shell crab salad
Grilled kaffir lime chicken
Chicken and mango salad
Verdict:
Unbelievably good.
We all gave it 10 out of 10. I have taken a number of friends to eat at Café Viet and each one has really enjoyed the food. The wine list offers good choice too.

I stepped into Café Viet with my dining companion who simply loves vietnamese food. He was super excited about this place and couldn’t keep his eyes off the menu.
We started with Fresh rice paper rolls w prawn & braised pork (12). This was delicious and refreshing, but I felt the rice paper was a little tough to bite. Then came the Bang Bang prawns (12), deep fried with green rice. I loved how huge and crispy they were. You soon get a bit sick of the «deep fried» part though.
Our mains were Grilled lemongrass pork (22) and a Beef rice noodle soup (15). There were so many various thing on my pork plate which included pork steak, meatballs, rice vermicelli, salad and prawn crackers. This was fantastic as I am a fan of trying out different things at once! Pork was tender and salad accompanied it perfectly. The vermicelli here is too thin so that it forms like a soft blanket which was interesting. However, meatball was too salty even with the rice vermicelli. I tried a spoonful of the noodle soup but did not enjoy the strong spice/​herb flavour.
We decided to share the Viet coffee (4.5) with ice as it was an evening. Coffee was dripped into a glass which had a sweetened condensed milk. The flavour was quite different. Very new. It was almost like an liquor with not so strong coffee taste. I wasn’t sure if I like it or not.

I decided to try this place after reading the good and recent reviews but it was a very disappointing dinner. I travelled in Vietnam for three weeks last February, eating street food or in small restaurants everyday single day and I can assure you that Viet Café is light years away from the authentic, flavourful and fresh Vietnamese cuisine. The fresh spring rolls, Gi cun, were bland and stuffed with 80% noodles, obviously less expensive than fresh herbs and shrimps. The Phở Bo suffered from the same errors… way too much noodles and a serious lack of fresh herbs (thai basil, spearmint, cilantro…). Vietnamese is all about fresh herbs and chunky vegetables… and this place definitely missed that point. No doubt their profits must be tremendous using so much cheap noodles instead of fresh and pricey ingredients. The only good thing we enjoyed were the smoothies… So go there for a drink but certainly not for the food.

Good prices, great service and some good food. We had the squid for an entrée which was a very generous serving & looked great but tasted only average. The highlight was the lemon chicken, highly recommend! Also had the beef salad, not too bad.

I think I may just have found my new favourite Vietnamese restaurant in Auckland. Café Viet has been open for about 5 months now and after discovering it on Unilocal,I decided to pick up some take outs from there last night.
We ordered:
— Bang Bang prawns — crumbed and deliciously crispy on the outside yet juicy and tender on the inside. The coconut dressing was a bit too sweet but we would order them again sans dressing.
— The crispy spring rolls with nuoc nam dressing — the best spring rolls i’ve had in Auckland. The diced meat (pork and prawn) was given the usual treatment — wrapped in spring roll paper and deep fried — but was gave these bad boys their point of difference was that they were wrapped in fresh paper with crunchy carrot, lettuce — a spring roll in a spring roll. GENIUS.
— Lemongrass Chicken — beautifully fragrant and tender. It was served with cold vermicelli and a crunchy, fresh salad. A must order dish in my opinion.
— Pork Claypot — the only dish we weren’t sold on. Unfortunately they had not rendered any of the fat off the pork belly and we found the sauce to be a little too sweet. It came with a decent serving of rice and salad though, which was a nice touch.
Looking forward to going back for a lunch date and trying their Phở Bo. Although, judging by how busy it was when I picked up take outs, i’ll be make sure I make a booking before I do!

Hello, Kiwis! This is what Vietnamese food is supposed to be!
Café Viet dethrones Take it Out as my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Auckland. Menu selections are authentic. Food beautifully presented and reminded us of the Bobby Chinn restaurant in Hanoi.
FOOD:
*Fried squid — Perfectly cooked, soft, light and airy. Generous portion size.
Fried spring rolls — Wrapper was perfect — not too thin or thick. Not greasy. Authentic pork and carrot filling.
*Grilled beef watercress salad — Presentation was impressive. Great balance of texture and flavors. The beef was tender and flavorful.
Pork rice vermicelli — Presented in a clever deconstructed style on a plate, and not the usual overflowing bowl. Generous portions of rice vermicelli, salad (shredded cabbage and carrots, mung bean sprouts, etc), and 2 styles of meat (meatballs and slices).
Pork claypot — Pork belly, egg, side of rice and salad. This was dish was a bit too greasy and missing depth to the sauce.
* Must-​try dishes
General impression: Food full of flavor and fresh ingredients. Loved it! Next time, we will try dessert and break our rule of not eating phở unless we’re in a phở restaurant.
SERVICE: We went during non-​peak hours and had the restaurant to ourselves. Service was attentive without being intrusive. Our selections came out quickly.
AMBIANCE: Casual and relaxed interior. Bar to side when you walk in. Small window in wall to peek into kitchen. Tables facing front windows get view of traffic. Not a lot of foot traffic passing by for people watching. Since we went during non-​peak hours, we felt at ease with our toddler. No high chair available, so probably not infant/​toddler friendly when busy… though I’m not certain.
PRICE: Reasonable. Don’t expect cheap quick ethnic food pricing (or food).
LOCATION: Due to the traffic pattern, Café Viet is easy to miss and potentially a hassle to pull in or out of the parking lot. This location is not ideal (traffic, blah area) and has seen a high rate of restaurant turnovers over the years. Café Viet belongs in a much nicer area with foot traffic!