Mint Leaf Vietnamese Restaurant

Went in just because I was curious about the place. I can say their pad thai noodles are pretty good.

I work nearby and sometimes I’d come here for lunch. They usually are super pack during lunch, food takes forever to come out even when it’s only phở (this should be fast). Service is actually good. As for the food, I really like their pad thai, tastes really good. However, phở and bun bo hue aren’t authentic. Phở ga (chicken) has more noodles than chicken. Their Vietnamese sandwich is also good and affordable, I’d recommend ordering that or pad thai over any other dishes.

We’ve been loving this place. Food is tasty and service is good. We had a couple of switcheroos when ordering takeout but no issues other than that. Our favorite items are the avocado imperial roll (to die for), Saigon vermicelli bowls, sizzling shaking beef, and of course, phở. Yay Mint Leaf!

Not my favorite bowl of phở but nice ambience. The service is prompt and prices are low ($ 9 regular bowl). I didn’t try the juices but they are a nice touch. A nice place for a lunch date especially with their lunch specials.

Their chicken phở is some of the tastiest phở I have ever had. I even ordered it to go once and it was just as tasty! Service could be a bit more friendlier and attentive, but the flavor of the broth makes up for that!

I really hate to let customer service affect my review of a restaurant, since the food is ultimately what I want to review, but when the service has an affect on my enjoyment of the food, I have to take it more into consideration.
My boyfriend and I ordered takeout from Mint Leaf last night since he’s rather under the weather and wasn’t up to going out for dinner. We were craving ramen but ramen isn’t very take-​out friendly (we couldn’t really even find a place that would do it), so phở it was.
We called and ordered and were told it would be 15 minutes. I waited a bit and drove over since it’s just a few minutes away from home. I was expecting to be early but I’d rather wait a few minutes than have the food waiting for me getting cold.
Well that happened anyway.
I got a diet coke to drink while I waited and paid. I then waited. And waited. There were a few tables seated and eating, mostly families with young children. While I was standing one pair came in and was seated. A few minutes after I paid, a takeout bag appeared near the register and an employee looked at the slip and then did nothing. I figured, oh, maybe someone else ordered takeout and that’s theirs — mine’s just coming soon.
I continued to wait and at around the 15-​minute mark (so bringing the total time to about a half hour), someone looked at that slip again and said, «This is yours.»
I was pretty livid. I asked for my diet coke to be topped off since I’d been waiting and I hurried home.
We both had to reheat our broth since it was somewhere between tepid and lukewarm at this point. It was nice that the broth was kept separate from the noodles and meat so nothing got soggy. It was hard to get my broth hot enough though to cook the raw steak.
Both of us did enjoy the flavors in our soups though. He got the Spicy Spiced Beef Noodle Soup — Bun Bo Hue (#27). I gave the broth a little taste and it wasn’t that spicy (I’m a spice baby so me saying it wasn’t that bad means it was not spicy at all. I got the Special Phở — Phở Dac Biet (#21) and it was nice. The flavors were very mild, which I loved since a lot of beef phở for me is way too salty. The meat also wasn’t crazy fatty which some is. Very easy to eat for a white-​as-​white-​can-​get white girl like me!
I also ordered the Prawn Spring Rolls — Goi Cuon Tom (#5) and was really underwhelmed. They attempted a sushi-​like presentation that just doesn’t work. I don’t want a «bite-​size» spring roll that’s open on both sides so everything falls into the peanut sauce. They were all stuck together by the wrappers so noodles and lettuce were falling out everywhere just when I was trying to pick them up out of the takeout container. There was no pork, only a meager amount of shrimp, and no veggies inside with the vermicelli besides plain lettuce — how boring. Lastly, the peanut sauce had decent flavor but was a pretty thin consistency and had no crushed peanuts on top which I like for crunch.
Overall, this was an okay dinner for an evening in with a sick S.O. But I probably won’t be back as there are many other phở places nearby.

Tucked away down the block from Berkeley Bowl, Mint Leaf is a cute little restaurant with personable employees, quick service, and of course, good food.
I recommend the Tofu or Chicken Banh Mi combo — the sandwich is packed full of tasty ingredients (not the type of tiny Banh Mi where you have to peel back all of the carrots to maybe find a few lone shredded pieces of meat) and comes with a crispy roll and a side of broth, all for under $ 10.
My wife also enjoys their chicken phở.

Love this place. Food is always on point especially the mint leaf rolls and lemongrass pork chop. Delicious and the staff are so attentive.

Very good, fresh veggie food. The garlic noodles had some good flavor. It’s encouraging to drink fresh juices during your meal. The curry flavored fresh rolls were delicious. We couldn’t taste much of the curry, but we love the peanut sauce and hoisin and sri racha so much, that we may have been drowning it out. The main thing we look for in rolls is freshness and these were great. J got a tofu noodle salad bowl and hungrily scarfed it down. The tofu was charred nicely and had a good flavor, even if one of the bits had a bit too much char — like crunching into bits of charcoal.
The menu was very veggie friendly though, and I’d like to try maybe four more of their dishes, the phở, and the banh mi.

Decent, clean Vietnamese place. My roommate and I ordered the vermicelli bowls and thought they were better than other places we’ve tried but pretty expensive for a Vietnamese restaurant. The server wasn’t too attentive and gave us a funny look when we asked for a side of peanut sauce but she wasn’t overtly rude either. Not sure if there is a parking lot — we got lucky and found parking right out front. I wouldn’t mind coming back if I’m craving Vietnamese food but, given the prices, I probably won’t be eating here too frequently.

This is a solid average Phở restaurant with a lot of cute qualities. Their soup broths are very simple and haven’t been simmering for hours but it’s clean tasting. The service has much to be desired but I have high hopes for these guys because the place is sweet.
— Mint Leaf has a smoothie menu and their Avocado Condensed Cream smoothie is good
— Hot tea is delicious and served in the cutest pots and cups
— Goi Guon rolls are decent but the servers had no idea what Nuoc Mum dipping sauce was (took 3 tries/​requests to get it)
— Lovely building with windows lining the road
— Won Ton soup comes in a kids bowl size
— Buon Bo Hue (spicy style soup based off of Hue Vietnam) very safe soup that doesn’t have the normal heat or exotic meats like normal but good for anyone trying it out. The noodles were right.
— Phở Special, an average dish
— Sweet Potato and Chicken Curry, delicious flavor but chicken needs to be way more tender
— Brown rice is more like red rice and good
— Service needs improvement. I would have liked to see our waters filled and hot tea refilled without asking (one waitress was eating with a full glass of water and we had to ask for more water). They weren’t terribly intuitive and should have checked to see if we wanted our smoothie to go before they put it in a glass container.
I hope I’m not being too harsh but I really like to see places like this rock the house and I feel like Mint Leaf can do way better than they did on this particular day.

I’d give no star if that’s an option.
We ordered spring rolls and found a stone in it that almost broke our tooth. The waitress took it away and all she told us is that the spring roll is not made in the restaurant. Not even a sorry?
Not asking them to take the spring roll off the check but seriously? That’s all you have to say?

Not bad. Good flavors all around. Just pricey. Like real pricey.
But if you can get over the sticker shock and convince yourself that you’re paying for ambiance or convenience or farm-​to-​table or some combination of the above, then you’ll be hard pressed to find a more solid bowl of phở around the area.
Soaring ceilings and bright light fills the beautiful space. Seriously, these guys did a really bang-​on job with the vibe.
It’s just… everything is pricey. Their juices are pricey (a large juice will cost about as much as a meal itself). All their dishes are $ 4 – 6 more than where you’d pay at any other Vietnamese restaurant. Even if the food isn’t half bad, it’s hard to recommend a place that is so-​damn-​moneys.

I had vermicelli noodle with pork and imperial rolls. It was pretty good.
The place wasn’t crowded (12:30 on Sat) and so that part was nice so that we could talk.
The portion was huge. I wish they reduce the portion/​price ($ 7.50 instead of $ 9) a bit because that dish is never good left-​over (gets so soggy with the sauce).

Mint Leaf is consistent. If I have a craving for one of their dishes I know it will give me the same satisfaction as it did the last time. I’ve been to this location on many occasions since my first review. Since then, I have established «go-​tos»: wonton soup and avocado delight smoothie. The wonton soup has a light clear broth, flavorful wontons, and fried garlic (I love this stuff!). The avocado smoothie — always the perfect sweetness, creamy, and refreshing. These items are also good to go and the noodles taste even better the next day.
And so — five stars all the way!

Mint Leaf is a «safe» place to eat. It’s not the best of what Viet food has to offer but it wasn’t terrible either.
For starters, we had the Imperial Roll and the spring roll. The spring roll was just okay. The Imperial Roll is the standard fried egg roll with fish sauce. The latter was our favorite of the two.
I ordered the Pad Thai «Spicy» dish. It was not as spicy as I hoped it would be. More like a mild. I srirachaed the heck out of my pad thai (yes, i verbified Sriracha sauce). With that said, it was pretty good pad thai for a Viet restaurant. I think even better than a lot of Thai restaurants. The noodles were soaked up with flavor and not soggy at all.
I think the best thing Mint Leaf has to offer here is their fruit/​blended drinks. They take forever to make and come to your table… like the waiter free climbed El Capitan… just kidding… but seriously, it did take a very long time. I don’t remember the name of my drink but it had apple and ginger in it. It was delicious, nutritious and refreshing! Get it if you like ginger

I like how parking is so convenient at this restaurant! It’s just right behind the restaurant and there’s wayy more than enough parking spots to not have to fight over or parallel park on the streets. If you’re like me an absolutely dislike downtown atmosphere because there’s too much pedestrian-​vehicle traffic conflict and parking is usually something you actually have to think about, come here. In terms of phở quality, it’s not great but not bad. Service really off here though.
As I walk in, there’s a huge «Please wait to be seated» sign by their juice bar and register. So I stand there, for minutes but really feels like hours. There’s plenty of open tables, and the lady manning the juice bar and the guy floating between waiting tables and manning the register both look lost and clueless. I know they notice me because they glance a couple times in my direction. They FINALLY seat me…
It’s nice they bring you ice water without even asking you, but I like my water without ice in it. Though I’m not the type of person to ask for a glass of water with no ice if ice water has already been brought over to me. I call the waiter over to order the #21 combo phở, which is basically the standard/​safe choice at any phở place.
Order came pretty quickly. The portion is relatively small, but considering it’s Berkeley, it’s not TOO bad for the price. There’s a ton of broth overload and because I drank most of the broth and consumed all the contents of my phở, I was actually pretty full and satisfied.
brisket was sliced nice and thin, and there was a good amount of it in there. It was just a little too rough for my taste. The broth was nice, hot, and balanced well in flavor. Phở noodles were cooked well. There actually wasn’t much of the tendon or tripe in my bowl though. strange.
The bill came out 8.99 and I prepared to pay with my credit card and they have a $ 10 minimum. The lady said «Oh $ 10 dollar minimum with card». I nodded and said ok and handed her the card thinking that it will come out to $ 10 with tip anyways. She look confused. then I felt confused «Next time ok? $ 10 minimum with card». Still confused. I realized that she wanted $ 10 minimum BEFORE tip. It was handled awkwardly. I actually don’t know what the norm is in terms of a minimum charge being before or after tip. so if anyone knows, please let me know. I’m actually kinda curious.

Clay Pot Paella is DELICIOUS! I love that they use coconut rice, it made it so tasty!
The Vietnamese Coffee is great!
Appetizers were sadly disappointing.
Phở was not great.
Service was horrible. Not enough water around the table and it took forever for refills. As well, they weren’t attentive whatsoever. Food came out very sporadic. Some main entrees came out before the appetizers. Prices seem a little overpriced.
3.5 stars

I’m so conflicted! Pretty good on the surface, but slightly lacking on substance.
After hearing some great things about Mint Leaf from one of my friends, I was excited to check them out when we dropped in for dinner. For one, I never even knew this place existed; maybe it’s because it was dark, but it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. For two, the photos of the restaurant and menu looked great — a nice, clean décor and an array of dishes that looked tasty, though, perhaps, not super authentic.
The restaurant as a whole feels unlike some Vietnamese places I’ve been to in the past. The décor and the restaurant (read: tables) are nice and clean, the workers were rather engaging, and some of the prices (unfortunately) seemed to trend a little on the high side ($ 5+ for banh mi?). However, the menu still looked pretty darn good. I was actually torn on a few different dishes until I took my friend’s recommendation and opted for a nice, hot bowl of PHO GA ($ 8.25).
Now, when he described the Phở Ga as «really hearty», he was right. The bowl was chock full of chicken… yet comparatively short on noodles, making nearly every bite very meaty (which, I realize, is not the worst thing). Plus, like with other versions I’ve had, it was nice how the soup wasn’t very oily and tasted rather light. However, the soup might have actually been a little too light. The seasoning/​flavor of the broth was really subtle and there wasn’t much body to it.
Considering how some of their other dishes sounded pretty decent (and given how much my friend likes this place), I wouldn’t be surprised if Mint Leaf is actually better than the impression my Phở Ga left me with. It certainly wasn’t bad, and it did satisfy my hunger… it just wasn’t all that amazing. Still, considering how close they are to my friend’s place, and how coming here beats having to drive over to any of the joints on International, I’d give Mint Leaf another shot. At some point.

It’s kind of tucked away but the place is really spacious with high ceilings and even has a juice bar! The owners are also really nice and welcoming.
I got the Saigon Vermicelli Bowl:
–choice of grilled chicken, beef, pork, or tofu topped with crispy imperial roll and peanuts on a bed of vermicelli noodles, sprouts, lettuce, mint, cucumber with traditional vinaigrette
I had to ask for additional vinaigrette because they gave me really little so I couldn’t really taste much): Without the extra vinaigrette, the noodles would have been a little too dry… but it was fine after! their portion size was pretty large though so I’d rather have that than a tiny portion with too much vinaigrette. It was a really light lunch. not too heavy so it was perfect!
I just really love the space and service here so 4 stars. The food was good but it wasn’t amazing. I’ve had better vermicelli bowls in San Jose but this is Berkeley so thumbs up. I do want to come back to try the phở though… and then I’ll review it again.