V Cafe

Walked in for some Viet smoothies and no one was at the counter. I waited at least 5 minutes or longer and could have easily shoplifted a lot of stuff, but instead walked next door to East Dumpling House for their bubble tea.

Had a #3 bahn mi. The experience was great. Looks like it’s a family owned and operated. The girl at the register was awesome too! I also spotted one of the County Council members eating there too!

Cool set up with apothecary style jars of sweets and snacks. My review is just based on what I ate — which wasn’t much. I ordered a tofu roll and it was good. It was $ 3.99 and came with two pieces. The tofu was cooked and sliced and they included spring onions shoots and lettuce along with the rice noodles. Definitely healthy, but tasty too! I would go back for that again. They had a tofu salad on the menu and I am curious if that’s any good.

This is the real deal and it’s the one woman cooking in a small, 6 table shop. And it’s good, really good. Favorite is the phở ga — white chicken with delicately seasoned broth.
There also a lot of assorted Vietnamese candies available and jerkey which they’ll let you try.

Regretfully agree with other bad reviews. They should rename the Bahn Mi to Butter Mi. I could barely taste anything else. And the Phở… I’ve eaten Phở at probably dozens of others places and honestly it all usually tastes roughly the same to me. Until I got here, it was flavorless and the eye of round was inedible. Feel bad because as others said, seems like good people running this place and hate to say anything bad about their business. Although I guess nice person does not equal good cook. Judging on food alone here.

Twas a moment né’er as dark as today. For shame. My coworker and I ventured ill-​like, famished and confused. The East we tried to find, but nay, we staggered in the darkness — ’til we could stagger no more, and thus ended the echos of our heavy footsteps.
We thought salvation was at last, yet we could have né’er been more wrong! O, why!
Translation: We were ridiculously hungry. Due to a momentary lapse of judgement, my coworker and I picked V Café instead of East Dumpling House. The horror, I tell you!
It’s safe to say V Café wins hands down for the worst phở in MoCo. Like others I really wanted to like this establishment. The waitress is nice and friendly. Still the worst phở in MoCo.
The food is incredibly unappetizing. The soup was the most stalest of stale (was I sipping week old broth?). The few pieces of meat that I did get was super rubbery. The noodles tasted like they were ready to grow mold any minute now. Thankfully the noodles were pretty non-​existent, too.
Their bowls come in regular, large, and extra large. My guess is the size really only affects the amount of broth you get. I got the large, and yeah, it was large. Largely broth.
Also, smoothies made with real fruit at over $ 5 is nothing spectacular. FOR SHAME, V Café. Phở Chi makes smoothies with real fruit at just $ 3.50, including the much loved avocado.

The banh mi are good. Avocado smoothie made w half an avocado is good. They are serving phở and noodle soups now but I haven’t been back to try it. Definitely will be checking it out
It’s a small little spot but it has a few outside table. The prices are fair and the foods good. Looking forward to eating phở here sometime soon.

Great service and great food. I had the tofu banh mi and summer roll with no pork. Everything was freshly made and had great flavor. The bread on the banh mi was warm and toasty. Bobby was very nice and gave me samples of all the crack seed and dried and pickled fruit that I wanted. I bought the candied grapefruit, which was the perfect mix of sour and sweet. The honeyed kumquat was also interesting. I will have to find an excuse to go to Rockville so I can come back.

Merely saying that this is one of the worst establishments I have ever been to is a gross understatement and a disservice to all who don’t want their taste buds assaulted.
The phở was an atrocity. The noodles came out pasty and the beef was dry and leathery. The broth reminded me of an Asian herbal clinic infused with medicinal «flavors» and a red ginseng tar-​like after-​taste. The vegetables and lemon were fresh, though.
The beef Banh Mi took me back to my childhood days standing in line at the school cafeteria while angry lunch ladies scooped out crumbly messes of beef and BBQ, which tasted more like egg cartons than Sloppy Joe’s. Again, the beef was dry and crumbly and the sauce was… well…saucy making it seem like I was swallowing thick pieces of lard and maple syrup.
The workers were very nice, but incompetent. Orders were delivered to the wrong table, bill calculations were done incorrectly, which made the overall experience that much worse. I can overlook all of those inadequacies, but the bottom line is that the quality of the food was just plain bad.
There are plenty of other phở restaurants that serve phở, Banh Mi and smoothies that are much better (ie Phở Nom Nom, Mr. Banh Mi). Save yourself the trouble and go to those places.

I’ve always relied on Unilocal to help make decisions on where and what to eat. For the first time in my life, Unilocal has never been so wrong.
Do not go here for ambience or food. I feel terrible for writing this because the restaurant employee was so polite during my visit. But wow, I can’t help how terrible their phở, marinated beef banh mi and avocado smoothie was.
I think i’ve made better banh mi and avocado smoothie in my own kitchen, and trust me, I am no professional chef. Don’t even mention the phở. sewage water. Actually no, sewage water would be a compliment.
I know that the concept displayed in their store is «healthy eating» but does that mean food should taste terrible?

After waiting for 3 weeks to finally taste their sugarcane juice, I took a small sip and I am hooked! It is sooooo refreshing and naturally sweet that I personally believe sugarcane juice is way better than coconut juice. Seriously.
Parking is free for 2 hours only. After that I believe you pay $ 4 and $ 2 increment there after. Make sure you bring your parking ticket so they can validate it for you.
I would definitely come back and try out their phở!

I came here yesterday and I really liked it! When I arrived, I was greeted nicely and was also offered to taste anything I wanted. I tried to look for some yummy jerky, but the employee also recommended me some which I ended up buying! Unfortunately you can only pay with credit card when your order is more than $ 10 and I only had the half, so I also got a mango and peach smoothie which was recommended to me again by the employee. It was sooo good and I’ve seen that they used fresh fruit!
I highly recommend this place!

To all who are reading the earlier posts, the Café now serves Phở and other dishes including large hot pots. This was my first time and I usually test a Vietnamese establishment with a Bahn Mi and just the Phở broth. Both were very good, I would have prefered a few more Jalapenos on my sandwich. That will be easy to remedy next time.
The selection of dried sweets and savories is impressive and I must agree with an earlier post. The grapefruit jellies are fantastic. I will be back soon for a large Phở a smoothie and a coffee. The owner was very accommodating and this new restaurant deserves your support.

(6÷20÷14) EDIT: The problem was solved (read below for the story). I went in to the shop the next time my buddy had to head out that way and we delved into their receipts and fished out the discrepancy. Simple mistake. They corrected it. And they still have badass smoothies. ;)
It pains me to leave a review this low. I sincerely enjoyed the smoothie I got there (lychee). Honestly one of the best I’ve ever had.
There are two things preventing me from giving this 5 stars.
1. The prices. At $ 5.50 a smoothie… it just isn’t worth it unless you’re splurging.
2. They didn’t exactly double-​charge my credit card because the number wasn’t exactly double nor was it two transactions. Instead, it seems like they just entered in a random number that was about $ 11 over the total + tip. Even if they added a zero to my tip, it wouldn’t make sense.
Either way, I contacted them when I noticed it on my bank statement and they took my name/​number/​transaction information down and promised to call me after contacting the manager. Still no word. I’ll try calling them back and pressing the issue because no business should let this stand, but if they cannot fix this, my review stays.
I’ll change it if they remedy the problem.
Beware though.

I so wanted to love this place because the customer service is so good. The girl manning V Café is so friendly and kept thanking me for going.
Unfortunately, the food was just not good. Overall, it was bland. For the price, 5 $ banh mi seemed fair as it was a heftier sub than other joints – very packed with veggies, thick bread. But… it wasn’t crispy at all (we even ate there immediately) and the meat was lacking in the grilled chicken. The chicken was pulled chicken rather than that crusted, grilled flavor you usually get. It actually tasted a lot like Chinese mayoji (sesame chicken). The pork was an unflavored meatball texture. And finally, the combination with the ham and pork was generous with thick pieces, but again left me craving flavor. Finally, too much butter in the sandwiches.
Sigh. It seems really hard to find a Vietnamese place around here that just has a balanced, well rounded and affordable banh mi.
Spring rolls were bland. It had just the pork and carrots in there. They were large though, so for the price it was like getting 3 regular sized egg rolls. I would recommend that you poke holes if carrying out, as the hot rolls are wrapped in saran on a styro plate. The summer roll (non-​fried) were nice and plump, and I actually enjoyed this. It had some nice thick pork belly slices in it and grilled shrimp.
The winner was the mango smoothie, made with fresh fruit. Its plentiful, but at $ 5.50 a drink, it is expensive. The thai tea is also $ 4.50… Yikes.
I may come back to get what we like to call pork dust– you know, the dry pork stuff you put on rice, as they have a huge selection of it including taiwanese pork. The interiors nice and you can get all kinds of dry meats. But the fresh food left me wanting much, much more flavor out of dinner.

Small Café with delicious all natural juices. Personally I had the sugar cane juice which was fresh squeezed. It was not something I ever had before and it was very refreshing.
There is an assortment of jerky and gourmet candy. All of it was excellent. The grape fruit candy is by far the best thing I ever tried.
Lastly you can order take out sandwiches and other Vietnamese style food. The Asian pork sandwich I ate was savory and had nice season to it.
Service could be a little faster but they are still new and I am sure they will get the hang out it soon.

This small shop is my go-​to when I need something yummy to munch on. They have delicious (if slightly pricey) drinks that include sugarcane drinks, smoothies, and iced tea. I got their sugarcane juice and it was very, very sweet. I just took it home and diluted it to make myself 4 cups of sugarcane juice. They also have a heavenly soursap smoothie that is milky with a hint of soursap.
As for their snacks, the only bad thing about their snacks is that I have trouble making it last more than a day. I love their dried kumquats– they have 3 types! They also have some vegetarian jerky which I thought was pretty unusual.
Finally, I’ve had their banh mi, and the tofu they use in the sandwich is perfectly seasoned. They went a bit light on the mayonnaise when I got it, but next time I’ll just ask for a little more sauce.

V Café is a tiny store that is packed with all kinds of goodies, while also selling drinks and Vietnamese appetizers and sandwiches.
Right when you enter you’ll notice a round table in the middle of the store that has jars of different jerkies (beef and squid) and dried items such as shredded pork and mushroom. Along the wall of V Café are jars and jars of fruit, candy, and baked goods. Many items are shipped from CA. Everything is reasonably priced and sold by the pound. Of course you can purchase as much or as little as you would like. They even offer the prepackaged as well. I love how you can sample anything in the store, that comes in the jars anyway. My favorites were the spicy beef jerky and salted tamarind (which reminds me of the ones from the PI). They had some interesting beef jerky flavors such as curry, fruit, and extra crispy.
I tried an Avocado smoothie for the first time here. Wow. For some reason I was expecting it to taste gross and leave a weird taste in my mouth. But it didn’t and I’m definitely a fan of the avocado smoothie. They used a real avocado in the smoothie, not powder. The owner explained that all their smoothies and juices are made with fresh fruit. I didn’t get the chance to try their Banh Mi or rolls, but I’m sure I will when I return. If you plan to eat your sandwich there, they do have one table for two.
Customer service was great. The owner and her kids were super friendly. They didn’t rush us as we grazed around the store and sampled items.
Parking could be somewhat of a hassle as its in the same plaza as East Dumpling House and The Woodside Deli.

Meh. I’ve experienced better is right. I was in Rockville Town Center yesterday and thought wow, there’s a new store banh mi store. However, in the same shopping center Phở n Rolls offers banh mi and smoothies too!
When I walked in it reminded me of an apothecary with all the containers. Wasn’t sure what to expect with all that. Dried goods with sandwiches and smoothies. a tad confused?
In any case, I tried their grilled beef banh mi and it wasn’t flavorful. I can’t quite put in my finger on what it is though. I may come back and try their smoothie next time.

Something Rockville badly needed ever since Aji Ichiban closed; a tasty selection of dried fruits and jerky! We stumbled upon this place by chance a couple nights ago, and though it was an hour and a half past closing the owners happily let us in and gave us plenty of samples. Try their banh mi – it’s a lot cheaper than you’ll find in the surrounding area! At some point they’d like to expand to include soups as well (they need to get around the usual bureaucracy first) — hope that’s soon!
Oh, and they’re vegetarian-​friendly!