Vietnam Bistro

I’m super sad that this place is closed. They had the best Viet pancake around, and I would put their Phở Ga up against anyone’s, any day. If anyone finds out that they’ve moved somewhere else, or opened up shop under a new name, please post here. Every time we went, everyone was always very nice.

I’d just leave a tip, but apparently I can’t do that if a restaurant is reported as «CLOSED.»
This place ISN’T closed. I just stopped by and grabbed a new menu today. I ate here once a long time ago, and had a very nice bowl of phở with everything in it. If I remembered it better, I’d offer a more detailed review. I did love the interior and I would go back — which is why I’m glad this place is NOT closed.
Today is 5÷16÷13, and I just stopped there earlier today. They also do delivery.

closed

As I walked into the restaurant with it’s mahogany furnishings, clean layout, and freshly painted walls, and polite waitress, I knew the phở would be bad. Usually the dumpier the place, the better the phở. Not a stereotype, just an observation. I was right. The goi cuon, spring rolls were delicious and huge. At $ 4.90 they easily served 4. My Phở was meh at best. Bland broth, stingy on the meat, and the noodles arrived cumped together which is a sure sign that they have been sitting in the bowls for a while before broth is poured over them. The ice coffee came premixed.
My service was very pleasant and the restaurant is clean and pretty but not authentic vietnamese. If you crave phở, I suggest go somewhere else.

I’m a regular at Vietnam Bistro.
I’m no phở expert, but Vietnam Bistro makes a darn tasty one. Even my kids order it.
My fav, the stir fry noodles with beef. be sure to order it with the wide rice noodles, done crispy.
If you’ve ever seen bizarre foods with Andrew Zimmern, you’ve probably seen him attempt to eat a durian. I’ve never seen durian on a menu anywhere else but here. They make a durian smoothie here. Darn disgusting. Tasted like bad onions and smelly socks. But, you’ve got to try it just to say you have.

Unilocal has the name of this place incorrect. Its called Phở Pasteur and its food type is Vietnamese Bistro. Anyway, I have had a lot of vietnamese food including downtown Chicago. I can assure you this place is the best there is! Awesome food and service. Their menu selections are not huge like you would expect but there are plenty of choices. And they cover every food type. The food is served quickly and piping hot. The flavor is hard to even describe. Its just fantastic. The atmosphere of the place is good as well. The service is super friendly and helpful. I have not had every item on the menu but I cant wait to work on achiving that. Give this place a shot, you will be glad you did.

The two times that I’ve been here, business is slow. I don’t know if maybe I come at non typical hours but it’s something I’ve noticed.
Today’s bowl of phở is a little sub-​par. The noodles were undercooked and the beef flanks were tiny small. What I thought was WEIRD is the vegetable dish came with two tiny pieces of lettuce. Jalapenos, bean sprouts and a lemon wedge, ok yea that’s expected. Where’s my basil leaves and ngo gai? (yes I know not all Vietnamese restaurants serve ngo gai… but you’d know it’s completely legit when they do!) but cmon, seriously… where are my basil leaves?
Although I’m Chinese, my parents were born in Vietnam so I am pretty damn familiar with the Vietnamese culture. If I can walk in there, order my meal with sinh to sau rieng (Durian shake) in Vietnamese… there’s no way you could try to pass basil leaves for two small pieces of lettuce and try to fool this girl.
Their durian shake the first visit was great. Boba was soft and the texture was good. Today’s durian was seriously like ¼ durian and ¾ water and ice. I definitely felt jipped. Boba was yellow, hardened, and stuck to each other.
Unfortunately today’s visit wasn’t great but I was starving for some phở and there’s not one near where I live. I’ll probably come back and try again (third time the charm?)

4.99 Phở Tuesdays! (And that’s all day Tuesday!) It’s only for the Beef or Chicken Phở, but I’m a sucker for Beef Phở so this deal is alright with me! The restaurant is very clean, minimal décor but kind of sleek with the dark wood table and chairs and big windows. There was hardly anyone there when we arrived at 7, but it quickly filled up. Families, groups of friends, solo diners – nice place for good dinner. Service is nice, but as it filled up, the two lone ladies were very harried but they hustled around, still smiling, still checking on folks.
The Phở is pretty basic. I chose the Beef Phở but didn’t specify what kind of beef I wanted so there was beef tendon, beef meatball, flank and brisket. Next time I would opt for just brisket as that was definitely the most tender cut. The broth was good, a tad too sweet for me, but still rich and fragrant. The noodles were good, I think a little too soft, but still OK. Served with lime, basil leaves, bean sprouts and sliced fresh jalapeño on the side.
I think what I liked most were the fresh spring rolls and fried egg rolls. The Spring rolls were much longer than what I’ve seen in other restaurants, and these just contained pork, mint, rice noodles and lettuce. They were still tasty and well-​wrapped (didn’t fall apart), next time I just have to remember to ask for pork AND shrimp. The fried egg rolls were really good – very crispy, not greasy, filled with ground pork and veggies served with a sweet dipping sauce and pickled carrots.
Bubble drinks – I got a blended Thai Iced tea to go and the hubs got a strawberry pineapple smoothie to go. Both were very good, well made and super tasty. The only drawback? The boba/​tapioca pearls. They were yellow (which shouldn’t matter because i know tapioca pearls can come in different colors – but they looked like kernals of corn and I couldn’t get that out of my head.) And they were too big for the super fat bubble tea straws they gave us. A minor thing so that’s why I’m keeping it at 4 stars. Next time, I’ll just opt for the tea without tapioca.

douche bag middle aged business men whose bellies are pouring over their woven leather belts were talking about T&A much too loudly.
food took fo-​eva and was mediocre. we will not be returning.

Nothing stood out. The Phở was typical. I found it odd that there was no basil served with the additives for the soup.
The meat was very tough and chewy.
I would agree with Paul S. The time frame in which we were served seemed a little bit on the long side for this type of food.

I love this place, great food, great price, the owner Victoria is a very nice lady! We called in and reserved a party of 30 just one hour before we arrived! Yes I made a call and they arranged everything for our big group, very impressive of their service and their food still be able to handle it really well! 5 stars is must!
I love their rice plate, very good and for sure I will go there again and host a big party there!

Vietnamese food isn’t something that I can say I’ve experienced a lot of, but as someone who is always up for something new, this place earned a shot on the «to try» list.
The menu has an almost overwhelming number of choices. While Phở is the main draw for most people they have a host of other non-​soup options. I opted for a chicken and rice special with an avocado smoothie.
The meal was served in about 20 minutes, which seemed to be a long time considering there were only two other couples in the place during my visit there.
When the meal arrived there was a massive helping of rice with a fair amount of chicken and some unidentified vegetables on top. The sauce they used was fairly tasty, if on the salty side. Look out hypertension! As for the chicken, I like it well cooked, but it was almost completely dried up. The chef should have pulled it 5 minutes earlier.
As for the smoothie, it was excellent with tapioca on the bottom of the glass. Tasty and an unexpected flavor!
The girl that served me didn’t wait on my table that often and considering they weren’t busy, didn’t appear to be overly attentive. Combined with the fact that she never smiled, I gave her an appropriately meager tip.
Hint: Hospitality means making your place welcome.
I feel that this place might have potential and will probably give it another shot just to experience more of what Vietnam flavors are out there.

The more I come here, the more I like this place. I’m not impressed with any of their dishes, but I have not been horrified either. The good thing about that is I am not eating the same thing during every visit. It’s great that they are open late during the week (10p) where most restaurants in the area are closed at 9p. They offer a variety of items on their menu so there should be something for everyone — fish, rice, noodles, vegetarian, etc.
There are lots of seating available as it is a big restaurant, but I have never seen the place full. The service is pretty good, but can be slow on certain nights.
Spring Roll — 2 large spring rolls served with a delicious peanut sauce for $ 4.5.
PHO — $ 8 for a large bowl. Pretty decent for not being their specialty.
Chicken Garden — $ 12 A simple chicken dish that comes with bok choy, carrots, broccoli, onions, and pea pods.

I came here a few years ago with my family, at that point, I believe the restaurant just opened. The food was pretty decent.
I just came to this place again recently craving some traditional Phở for lunch. I came here with a few friends. We were greeted by the hostess, she was extremely friendly. Then our waiter came to take our orders. He was not the most friendly person. He seemed very anxious and upset that our table wanted separate checks.
After we ordered our drinks, it took a while for our waiter to bring them back. We then ordered our meals. I came here for some Phở, unfortunately, the waiter told me that they ran out of Phở. How is that possible!!! (that’s what’s in my head). It’s is a simple soup & noodles meal. Waiter proceeded to tell me that they ran out of Phở because of the Phở special from Tues. afternoon. I was quite upset about that, because they should’ve prepared for the next day. It wasn’t just a one day special, it was a weekly special.
Anyway, instead of their Phở, I ordered an order of Fresh Spring Rolls and their seafood noodle soup. It was decent. The bowl was HUGE. And their Spring Rolls was extremely delicious and large. I always try Fresh Spring Rolls everywhere I go if they offer it. I do have to say they might have the best spring rolls I have tasted around the suburbs.
I also tasted my friend’s honeydew & mango smoothie. That was heaven in the mouth. I recommend getting their boba tea.
With all that said… they gained a few stars here and there from the quality of food, but lost a few stars from the slow service I got. The waiter never checked up on us, and he was extremely confused when trying to calculate our bills. He just seemed like he was frustrated at us.
My favorite things to get here are:
— Phở
— Spring Rolls
— Boba Tea

The food was OK, but not exceptional, and service was really inconsistent, and I was frustrated by trying to order several items off the menu only to find out they were sold out. I know it was a holiday weekend when I visited, but that seems like poor planning by the management.

So glad I finally tried this place out! My usual Vietnamese Phở spot is closed on Mondays, so this was a great alternative to get my Phở fix. My Mom and brother took me here for my birthday and we had such a great time.
The atmosphere was very welcoming. Our waitress was super friendly, and recommended some great dishes since it was our first time there. We got the Egg rolls to start. They tasted amazing, but you only get 3, so make sure you order enough for the table. Our dinner consisted of Lemongrass Beef (beware, veryyy spicy, but veryyy good), Beef Noodles, and a large bowl of Steak Phở. Everything was delicious. They also surprised me with a little birthday dessert – Flan! Soo yum.
The only thing I wasn’t crazy about are the portion sizes compared to the prices. However, it wasn’t anything to be too concerned about because we ended up being full, and took home some leftovers in the end. Needless to say, I will definitely be coming back here on other days of the week, not just on Monday nights :)

Heh. You know what happens when phở meets French cooking? You get a restaurant that’s damn near impossible to review.
The Vietnam Bistro has been around for at least a couple years now, and my wife and I have eaten there 2 – 3 times. The food hasn’t changed, but that doesn’t make it any easier to review. (The subtitle of the restaurant is «phở pasteur», and their menu says that they’re cooking Vietnamese with traditional French techniques. Umm… okay.)
In any event… my wife had the North Central Combo phở, while I decided to mix things up and get the pineapple delight (a beef dish). For appetizers, we had the West Lake Steamed Rolls.
The steamed rolls were… interesting. Some guidance (any guidance) from the server would have been nice, because there was a couple things that looked like spam on the plate, with the steamed rolls covered in… something that resembled heavily carmelized onions. The rolls tasted like a wet dumpling, but fortunately there was a dipping sauce that helped out a bit.
One thing’s for sure… I don’t think I’ve ever had such a wide variety of textures and flavors on an appetizer plate in my life.
The pineapple delight was nothing special, but I got a lot of it, it was fresh and they served it inside a pineapple half. For whatever reason I think they use both ground beef and beef strips for the beef, but that didn’t deter me too much.
The phở seems to be their go-​to dish, because the complexity of the broth was almost as good as Urban Belly. Fantastic. I’ll have to sample more phở before I make a final decision about this place.
My main concern is that the servers don’t really help us understand what’s going on with our plates, because it sure feels like the chef is aiming way, way over our heads. That’s fine, but I’d like someone to bring it down to my level. From what I was able to observe, that’s not really happening right now.
The Vietnamese iced coffee was excellent. Few people know how I feel about sweetened condensed milk, but the more, the merrier.
I’ll update this review once I know more about Vietnamese cooking. :-D

This place has so much potential but just seems to fall short on getting it all together. I have been here twice now and have to agree that the service and food have had major issue both times.
First off I want to say that for the most part I don’t let the service get to me unless the food was equally as bad. This time I feel like the service indirectly effected the food. The first time the server was ok except for the fact that I enjoy my phở on the clientele side and she managed to never refill my glass of water leaving me to sweat it out. The second time our server said she was new and I was like ok here we go… I requested no liver in my phở and somehow my order came out missing pretty much everything in it except for some chicken that I’m not sure was even supposed to be in it. It was good but not what I ordered and I have a feeling it was just the chicken phở.
As for the food, minus the server issues, it was good and fresh tasting. We have tried the normal phở, spicy lemongrass, and I guess the chicken phở. We have also tried the fresh spring rolls and chicken lettuce wraps. The phở have all been hot and cleanly flavored but nothing that I haven’t gotten for much cheaper down the street. I will say the peanut sauce for the spring rolls was very good. The chicken wraps were gummy and really not good at all.
I will have to say that once again the little hole in the wall place wins again. If you are in the mood for a good bowl of phở with all the fixings check out Phở Ha that’s down the street. Its a couple bucks cheaper and the banh mi is awesome.

The restaurant itself is pretty clean and well organized. Lighting is good and there is plenty of parking in this strip mall location.
The food here is ok. I’ve had 2 friends on different occasions get sick from the Phở. I had their summer noodles last time and I didn’t think it was good value for $ 9. This time my friend and I shared their lemongrass chicken and stir fried noodles & beef. The lemongrass flavor was good, but it was too gingery and the spices on the chicken were clumpy. The noodles and beef seemed good based on the ingredients but it just tasted ok. There are other places further away that I would go to than come back here.

Service and décor is top notch but the food is just ok. Did enjoy the Ginger chicken but would rather stick to my fave place in Wheaton — Luong Loi.
Visited: 12÷19÷09