Mint & Basil

Autumn rolls are amazing! Definitely the favorite. The «sausage» was cooked perfectly and all the herbs and vegetables were very fresh. Also tried the spring rolls were had faux char siu and shrimp. Totally delightful. Really hit the spot for any vegans who miss spring rolls. Will surely be back for amazing Vietnamese vegan cuisine. Highly recommend!

Surprisingly good food, fresh ingredients and good service. Try one of their fresh wraps it’s good!

Dinner review
Autumn roll appetizer — nice crunchy crispy vegan sausages, looks good too
Combination vermicelli bowl — nice egg rolls, grilled pork looking things are good, looks & texture like meat
Malaysian Noodle in spicy sauce — lots of vege and well mixed in sweet spicy flavors.
We will back if we are hungry in the neighborhood. Feels good eating vegan.

This has easily become my favorite restaurant! I love how you can make anything vegan and majority of it is already vegetarian. My mom and I have been coming here once a week and we’re not at all ashamed. I’m planning on trying everything on the menu if possible lol.
Last night I had the eggplant and the spicy Thai tofu with my mom. Soooo good! Last week I tried out the Thai curry and the quang style noodles (mi quang, also super delicious). The week before that I had the autumn rolls (nem nuong) and the crispy chow fun noodles (phở ap chao… Sorry I’m horrible with my Vietnamese accent marks but you get the idea!!!)
The only thing is that service can get kind of slow at times but I understand — I work in the restaurant business too and sometimes you forget things or you might be backed up, you’re only human.

Our party of 8 was seated pretty quickly on a weekday lunch, but service was super slow. Seemed like they were trying really hard to get all our noodles out at the same time, which just meant everyone got delayed.
We got a bunch of winter rolls/​spring rolls for the table. Not bad, very leafy with good texture despite not being real meat. I wish the menu made it more clear that the meats they list are all vegan alternatives. So, Unilocal,heads up that ALL THE MEATS MENTIONED ARE VEGAN ALTERNATIVES.
I’m not a fan of fake meats, so I opted for the mushroom phở. Broth was savory, portion was big, but the soup could have used more veggies. The freshness of the mushrooms varied a lot — some of the buttons were definitely old (chewy texture and very bruised) but the king oysters were pretty good.
Ca phe sua da was tasty, but came pre-​mixed.
We ended up taking almost two hours for lunch that day, so perhaps consider breaking up into smaller parties if you’re in a big group. Plenty of surrounding customers sat and got their orders before we did.

Tons of vegetarian versions of Vietnamese dishes (and a few other SE Asian selections). All of the rolls I have tried have been quite good.

We tried the ginger chicken and the Thai curry with chicken. I was not super impressed by either of them. i think the Thai curry was okay – had the red curry taste to it but the ginger chicken was so tasteless and the ginger was over-​powering. I know it is supposed to be fake meat, but I have tried fake meat at another place and it was yummy!!! If I were a voracious meat-​eater that was maybe considering turning vegetarian by trying this fake meat, I would run the other way.
But to be fair, I only tried two things there, so I will go back to give some other things a try.
The service was okay – we had to ask for our ginger chicken since it did not come out at the same time as our Thai Curry (which came out super fast btw).

Amazing food! Came here with a group of 6, 5 meat-​eaters and 1 vegetarian. We all loved it. We ordered the lemongrass fish with side order of rice, bun thit nuong cha gio, spicy royal noodle (bun hue), and the crispy fried noodles. Very delicious.
I highly recommend the all seasons appetizer platter of you have a decent sized party. If not then get the eggrolls and the autumn rolls as an appetizer.
Overall happy with this place. When in doubt go with the customers favorites. Only bad part was service. Servers werent too great at taking orders but food came out quick.

I am not a vegetarian at all as i am a 100% meat eater. However, the food is here is great. I loved everything I had except for a couple of dishes. Also we tried to order duck porridge twice within two days and they still did not have any…
Bun bo Hue (Vegetarian): (⁴⁄₅) flavorful, lots of tofu and soy based meat product in the broth.
Spicy Mushroom noodle soup (⁵⁄₅) had tofu inside. this is my favorite.
Autumn roll (⁴⁄₅) interesting, actually tasted like pork. Pretty good.
Egg roll (⁴⁄₅) can be a little more fried but good
Mushroom porridge (⁵⁄₅) yum!
Stir fried eggplant (³⁄₅) meh… ok
Overall the food is pretty good and the place is clean. Service is decent sometimes questionable but very courteous and nice.

Came here for lunch just today. I love the ambiance– it has a cozy feel to it– with lots of green colors all over the place. It’s a new restaurant in the area so everything looked nice, updated, and altogether the restaurant was clean looking. We ordered the Rock and Roll beef, Crispy Chow Fun, and Mi Quang (yellow noodle), with fresh rolls as an appetizer. Everything was tasty. The beef was tender and flavorful with a good balance of salty, sweet, and sour notes. The Crispy Chow Fun was huge. It’s big enough for two people. It was nicely crisp, with fresh veges, tofu, shrimp, and sauce throughout. It was also tasty. The Mi Quang noodles were cooked al dente, also with good flavors and had a nice balance of taste with the crispy rice.
As far as service– our waiter was very nice and attentive to our needs. Food came out quickly and all tasted hot and fresh. Also, it’s kid friendly! They offer a kid’s menu!
I’ll definitely return back to Mint & Basil. Next time I’ll definitely try something else.

So delicious! Love the innovative vegetarian dishes, so good that I don’t even miss meat.
I’m personally a bit wary of soy protein «meats» because the texture is too chewy for my liking and well, it just doesn’t taste like real meat! Nevertheless, the dishes here were all really delicious and they also offer plenty of tofu-​based dishes.
I’ve tried:
(1) Clear Vermicelli Soup — YUMM. The broth hits the spot. It’s flavorful and the soup is packed with veggies and and tofu. Love the dried bean curd.
(2) Grilled Pork Vermicelli Bowl — a tad bit skimpy on the «pork», but they tasted like breaded nuggets! Probably some of the best fake pork I’ve had. The portion size was awesome, and the bowl was filled with soo much veggies.
(3) Rock n’ Roll Beef — this is their signature sauce and it is awesome! However, I really couldn’t stand the texture of the fake beef. It was suuper chewy, kinda like gum? Would probably not order any of the beef-​based dishes here again, but definitely recommend trying the same sauce on a different protein.
(4) Ginger phở — THE BROTH. AMAZING. And since it’s not a meat-​based broth, it’s not as oily as typical phở broth.
(5) Spring roll and tofu roll — not a huge fan of the rolls here. The rice paper is too thick, and there’s nothing really special about them.

Very fresh. Clean and friendly environment.
The menu selections are simple.
I feel lucky to have found this place on the way out of Santa Clara after a Niners game.

I came here for a Mommy-​Daughter lunch around Christmas time. I loved how the whole place was decorated and felt so nice and inviting! Some of the waiters had trouble with English, so do understand if they look at you funny or run back to the kitchen to find someone who can interact with you. We ordered:
Summer rolls: These were pretty giant, and very delicious. Filled with the vegetarian pork skin and a ton of veggies, the spring rolls were refreshing, crunchy, and went great with the sauce/​hot sauce.
Rice noodles with egg rolls and chicken: I forgot what the name of this was… Mint and Basil noodle bowl or something? No clue, but it was the first entrée on their menu. This was a heaping bowl of goodies! On top, there were the vegetarian pork skin, fried vegetarian chicken, and egg rolls with veggie filling. The rice noodles filled the middle, and the bottom was a beautiful abundance of fresh veggies and herbs. My mom loved this dish, and everything tasted quite nice. I wasn’t a fan of the fried chicken thing though, as it had a slightly-​too-​firm texture and I wasn’t sure what exactly it was trying to be.
Rotisserie chicken with salad: I was expecting it to look like a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store or Costco, but it was actually a saucy duck leg-​looking thing. I think they fried the outside (it was a bit chewy) and the sauce they drizzled on was sticky and overly salty. Flavor-​wise, it was fine though. The salad given to me was very fresh, and absolutely refreshing – I skipped the dressing.
Overall, this is a great addition to Milpitas, and I can see people wanting to explore the vegetarian world coming here, or even long time vegetarian regulars. The English speaking waitress that served us (the initial waiter sorta freaked out, poor thing) was an absolute sweetheart and made sure everything was fine multiple times. You rarely find someone so caring and dedicated to customer service. I’d definitely come here again to try more goodies on their menu – this is a place to watch out for!

I definitely did not regret ordering the All Seasons Sampler! We also ordered the Quang style noodles and the server warned us that it would be a lot of food for two people, we didn’t listen and followed our appetites intuition instead. He was right, it was a lot of food but it was all so good! We left with happy tummys and had some spring rolls leftover. We ate these later in the evening and they were still delicious. I will definitely be back to try more items on the menu.

Mint & Basil is the best vegan Phở and Asian restaurant in the east bay.
The entire restaurant is vegan or vegetarian so don’t be concerned about the meat sounding names on the menu. Everything is meatless and MSG free. This is aligned with their core values of love for animals and Buddhist respect for all life. Check out the signs and quotes in the restaurant. They are inspirational!
For appetizers, the winter rolls with jicama are super crunchy and fresh.
Although I’ve never tried the hot pots, they seem like fun ways to participate in cooking your meal at the table. It is hot so keep this away from little children on your table.
The ginger phở is very very good. There are slices of fresh healthy ginger mixed with tofu shaped like beef and ham. All the phở dishes come with a side of bean sprouts, sliced jalapeños and Thai basil. Feel free to put as much of this into the bowl as you like. Phở noodles are hard to eat with a spoon or chopsticks, but my dining companion informed me it is considered perfectly ok to slurp food in certain cultures. We aren’t used to that in American culture so I cut my noodles and avoiding slurping altogether. We enjoyed challenging each other to eat half a jalapeño by itself. Avoid that challenge unless you like your mouth to be one fire.
The ability to turn tofu into all different meat shapes is a clever trick. Some people have this false perception they need meat in their diet in order to get protein. Good news for them: there are plenty of non meat sources of protein! Watch Forks Over Knives to learn more. A plant based diet is a critical part of a healthy lifestyle. The data supporting this in the cardiovascular scientific community is quite compelling. Mint & Basil might have you reconsidering your compulsion to have meat at every meal. Unhealthy compulsions need careful scrutiny, especially given the soaring rates of obesity throughout the world.
Other main courses to consider are pad Thai, savory stir fried eggplant and Malaysian noodles. The latter being quite spicy!
The restaurant is clean and the lemon/​cucumber infused water is quite refreshing.
Only one snafu prevents me from giving it a perfect 5 star rating. We waited over 40 minutes to get our order as the owner forgot to put it in. He’s very social with all customers so I can appreciate he forgot. He was also apologetic. In the future we will be more vigilant to speak up if we haven’t been served in over 20 minutes. This is forgivable and I will definitely be eating at Mint & Basil again!

It’s hard to appreciate vegan/​vegetarian dishes when you’re a meat lover like me, but oohh this place almost made me forget about meat… almost. I’m very impressed as to how much flavor you can have while keeping things plant-​based.
I ordered their «Chicken» Lime Leaf Phở ($ 9) and the «chicken» was really tasty! This phở also came with thick noodles, enoki mushrooms, deep fried tofu and some other veggies. The broth was flavorful and it was filling. My friends had other phở dishes and both were pleased.
This place is worth praising & telling your friends about. The food is good, service is friendly and they’re clean (referring to both the restaurant and the food). Also, if you check-​in on Unilocal,you get 10% off your total bill!

This place is so good!
I got the Cali Phở — packed full of yummy veggies and tofu:
Bok Choy
Enoki mushrooms
Crimini Mushrooms
Bean sprouts
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Also, got their ridiculously good Mango soda (OMG).
Their food and service was totally impressive!
Super healthy and taste great!

Perhaps we ordered the wrong items but we were disappointed in this place and the misleading reviews. Yes it’s healthy but I don’t think the foods here gives this place 4 – 5 stars. Pretty good Vegeterian/​Vegan foods but not as good as regular Vietnamese foods.
The service was horrendous. The waiters were empathetic and explained that they were short-​staffed. However, we were still very angry for waiting at least 10 minutes to order then another 30 – 40 minutes for some poorly made soups. They tried to apologize but their poor service was unacceptable. We would submit a request for napkins, update on our foods, etc, and received NO response, until we followed up AGAIN.
We had the autumn rolls which were pretty good. The vegetarian meat tasted like real meat with tons of flavors. However, it still does not compare to Broddard’s or the other spring rolls we’ve had at Ben Tre. $ 6 for 2 rolls cut in halves; yes it’s pricey.
I had the Thai soup and my bf had the spicy noodle soup. I thought my Thai soup would be equivalent to Tom Yum but it tasted nothing like it. It was incredibly sweet and sour due to the pineapples. I hated my soup, the bean sprouts were old and soggy, and the imitation seafood tasted like plastic/​raw materials. WTF did I just eat?
My bf’s spicy noodle soup tasted more like Tom Yum and it was pretty spicy. The texture of the imitation beef was interesting to say the least…
Anyways, the food was disgusting and expensive. Perhaps we’re just hardcore carnivores and prefer to spend the same amount of $ on real Vietnamese food. I regretted not eating in Santa Clara and pushing my BF to eat somewhere closer to home.
Will not be back here, and for all of you who don’t even like healthy foods, don’t even bother trying this place.

The best vegetarian non– vegetarian dishes. Great for a non– meat eater. I love meat and was wondering what I was doing there, but one bite and I knew I did the right thing of trying the place.
The autumn roll is the best I have had — ever. Loved the surprise crunch. All the ingredients were extra fresh.
Thai binh curry– great flavors
Spicy noodles soup– I absolutely loved this. Delicious broth, great flavored meats, and fresh veggies. Wish they provided more noodles for the quantity of broth.
Sugarcane juice– fresh squeezed but I think they add some flavoring or sweetener. Totally takes away the flavor of fresh sugarcane. Skip for sure.
Coconut icecream– I am not a fan of coconut but I buckled to hubbys demands. I liked that it wasn’t very sweet but the strong coconut flavor didn’t work with me

I’ll be honest, when I heard it was vegan/​vegetarian, I told my friends I wasn’t hungry anymore. I’m the type of girl who needs to eat red meat at least once a week, or else I’ll end up eating a giant steak over the weekend. The restaurant is very modern on the inside and has a natural feel with the colors and décor — it definitely fits the name and feels «fresh» inside. The water had cucumber in it, which only added to the fresh ambiance. Even the waitress had on food service gloves the entire time, which made me feel like I was in a very clean restaurant.
After getting some recommendations from the waitress, who could clearly see that we were there for the first time, our table opted for the All Seasons Sampler, a sampler of all of their rolls. It was a perfect way for everyone at the table to get a bite of everything, and the presentation was lovely. Almost looked too good to eat! My favorite was probably autumn — whatever «meat» they had in there was delicious.
I went for the Combo Vermicelli, because it seemed to be pretty on point with my «usual» at any other Vietnamese restaurant on a hot summer night, so I wanted to use it for comparison. Again, the presentation was beautiful. Whatever «meat» they had on top was again delicious! If you hadn’t told me it was vegetarian, I would have thought that was straight up pork. It had the right amount of flavor. Although the texture was noticeably different, it wasn’t different in a bad way. In fact, in addition to the fact that the prices were definitely on par with other Vietnamese places, I think this place might have made a vegetarian out of me.