Cafe Diem

I love their bun bo hue. It’s the best in the city by far. They have other dishes, but I never eat them because you really can’t get better than their bun. I go to Café Diem for the bun bo hue, Café Vinh Long for the banh mi, and Phở Ha Saigon for the phở. That’s just the best stuff in the city!

I came to café diem last Sunday with two friends to try their bun bo hue (my first). I was not disappointed.
Café diem is tucked away in a small corner of south Philly, close to all of the other Vietnamese restaurants but far enough that I’d never stumbled upon it by chance before. We got there at 12:30 and since the space is so small we figured there was no chance we’d get seats, but after waiting about 20 minutes they squeezed us in next to a young couple and their baby. A plus to the small size is that food comes out super quick.
We all got spicy bun bo hue, two of us with everything (pigs feet, tendon, and beef) and one with just beef. The small was more than enough for all of us (even the guy we were with) with tons of noodles and really generous portions of meat (couldn’t finish mine). The soup is spicy and meaty and amazing and the noodles and meat are great too. Whether you have or haven’t had bun bo hue you have to come here.

So here’s the best case scenario to get the best experience, please follow the following steps:
1. You drink a lot. Hit up at least three cocktail lounges, bars or whatever it is that floats your boat.
2. Go home at least 1AM… then sleep.
3. Wake up, head to this joint and order the large bun bo hue.
4. Repeat…
OMG, it’s the feeling of instant gratification and satisfaction… It’s the true definition of the best hang over cure.
It’s a small joint so the might have lines on weekends, and usually your server doesn’t speak English, so you would have to try your best and point out in the menu what you want.
Portions are very generous here, and very reasonably priced. It’s very small space and seats are limited. There’s a city parking lot right down the block, it’s a two hours free parking.
Next time when you have hangover or you just need something to comfort your soul, here’s the spot!

Very tight place & It is always busy. But it is definitely worth the try. Their menu is very limited. They specialize in bun bo hue & this is the best place for it! I seriously enjoy everything about this dish. The broth is extremely flavorful. Also try the da chanh (limeaid) it is pretty good with the bun bo hue.

One of the if not the best place for bùn bo hu. (besides my wife’s) The place is know for it. service is quick and friendly. Play is small so I suggest take out is better. I know they serve other things, I never try it. But bun bo hue is the only thing I get.

Love it, a vietnamese friend recommended.
small menu, a bit pricey, at least $ 10 a dish for a vietnamese dish is high, normally in New York it’s $ 8 per bowl the max, but hey if it’s great I wouldn’t mind.
Order the noodle with the pig feet, the spicy soup base of the bowl was great a subtle. There regular phở with beef is equally as good too if you can’t take the spice. Can’t wait to go back.

I haven’t dined here so my review is biased. I walked in to experience some summer rolls and phở and the menu was super tiny and so was the restaurant! I believe this place is known for their bon bo hue so I wouldn’t recommend coming here with a big group or coming to enjoy a plethora of Vietnamese soup. Cuisine is very limited

This is the best place to get Bun Bo Hue. It is on the top of my list when I think of «best of» places. I’ve had BBH at many other establishments but then they always make me crave the BBH from Café Diem at the end of the day.
The first time I came here I was excited because it’s hole-​in-​the-​wall and I wouldn’t have found this without local Vietnamese people showing me this place. They’ve only got about 5 tables in here and a very limited menu. I always get the BBH. And I always get the Large portion.
The price is cheap and the portions are very generous. They will make it spicy like it should be and you get a great amount of meats and noodles. They’ll use the pork foot which lets you know it’s legit. I don’t know how else to describe it but the broth is excellent, the noodles and meat are great.
This is delicious specifically for BBH. Gotta find street parking or in the crowded public lot, but it’s well worth it. I always eat here when I’m in Philly and craving BBH. Nowhere else has been able to match this taste.

The Bun Bo Hue is really the best I’ve had next to my momma’s. So flavorful but watch out for the MSG. It’s so good so the stomach ache that follows is worth it.

This is our go-​to place for excellent BBH. Nowhere else compares. If we’re craving it, we come straight here even though the drive is pretty far from where we live.
Service is very quick but the place is extremely small so the wait for tables will be long. However, that is during peak hour on the weekends. There is practically no wait after 2PM.

The best Bun Bo Hue in Philadelphia, fo sure. Why not 5 stars? The absence of key ingredients that typically go with a traditional bowl of Vietnamese Spicy Beef noodle soup removes the 5^th star.
Broth: excellent. Admittedly, they use monosodium glutamate (MSG) but there is an option to reduce the amount used (interesting). An option for extra spicy was chosen and boy, my throat felt that burning heat (a good thing).
Veggies: The lack of banana blossoms and purple mints was disappointing since that could really elevate the soup to another level.
Noodles: perfectly made, not too soft and just right.
Beef and toppings: The beef they used came out thinly sliced, which allowed the flavor to be infused into the meat and tenderize it thoroughly. They do pile on plenty of beef and luscious pieces of tendons, too! What kills me here was that there were no pork blood cubes. In addition, the pork feet, despite the smaller cut, were too tough to chew.
Overall, a thumbs up for BBH but I would forego the pig’s feet and ask for reduced or no MSG.

I come here just to get the Bun Bo Hue! This small establishment is always packed and sometimes you have to wait outside for seating.
I’ve had Bun Bo Hue at phở restaurants before and they just really taste like Phở with chili sauce added to it. The Bun Bo Hue here is really a totally different dish! It’s not just spicy phở with jelly noodles. I love the pork feet and the variety of other meats that are in the soup. I especially love the vietnamese coriander (rao ram) that’s served the usual sprout and basil garnishes. It really adds a totally new dimension to the flavor. The broth tends to be really greasy though and covered in a thick layer of oil. I normally don’t drink the broth. If you’re like one of those, «omg, I’m gonna go fat or clogged arteries from eating grease» type of person, I would strongly suggest you not come here. The amount of oil floating on top of this soup bothers me even. But alas, it’s just too damn good.
I also really love the iced tea they serve with every meal. So awesome and refreshing when you’re sweating your ass off from the soup.
The small is enough for me. I find the large size to be just more noodles which I get too full to finish. I haven’t tried the special version with the ham, although I had one of their ham platters before and did not like it much.
Carpool here or park in the shopping center at 6^th and Washington.

I work in a food supermarket in south Philly, and their owner comes to the market everyday to get the freshest meat and other food materials. I went to check out his restaurant today and I have to say their BBHs are definitely to die for! I wish they do delivery because I live so far away from it…

I’ve tried the BBH from vietnam café in Telford many times but finally was able to come here last weekend. The flavors in the soup are so intricate and bold, nicely spiced and a bit of a sour lemony kick to it. The white noodles were actually crispy, and the slices of beef were so tender, I’m not a big fan of meat at all and quite picky about it but when it’s good, I can devour it all. My only regret is that I didn’t get one to go!

We came here on a Sunday afternoon after reading reviews and recommendations from friends. I love Bun Bo Hue and find it hard to come by in many Viet restaurants. This place does it justice. We started with the banh cuon which was very tasty. The bun bo hue was very good. It was spicy yet not greasy and had all of the layers of flavor required for this complex dish.
The restaurant is small, only about 6 – 7 tables and parking is terrible. We took an Über from Center City for about 5 bucks.
Prices were a bit high, 11 dollars for a big bowl of soup and 4 bucks for iced coffees. I would highly recommend this place is you love bun Bo hue.

Café Diem on South 8^th Street, just north of Washington, may as well be located in Hue, the former royal capital of Vietnam. Its version of Bun Bo would certainly satisfy the tastebuds of the Emperor and his retinue.
I admit to limited exposure to this Rice Vermicelli Beef Noodle Soup, but now that I have had it a couple of times, how will I ever go back to regular noodle soup? It is so vastly superior to American slurp, that it is something of a cultural misnomer to label it «soup» at all. It is much, much better.
The Café is a small 8 table house that closes at 7 pm daily. My first attempt to enter was time barred because I arrived too late. This time I planned around closing, and arrived at 6:30 to an almost empty room. As I was solo, the hostess pointed to a deuce in the corner, which was perfect for a full view of the proceedings. I ordered the small bowl of BBH and a Salty Lemonade to offset the 102 °F broil on the street. That was gone in a flash. The soup arrived two minutes later, so overfull with Thin Sliced Beef, Rice Noodles, Cilantro, Mint and a chunk of Oxtail, that it was difficult to add the fresh Thai Basil, Coriander, Sprouts and Squeeze of Lime. I snapped off the smaller leaves, a handful of sprouts, and a full lime wedge, and managed to push everything into the hot broth with spoon and chopsticks. I think there was even a Banana Blossom on the plate that I tossed in. With the room created on the side plate, I extruded copious amounts of Hoisin and Sriracha for dipping the beef.
The final product was about the best «soup» I had ever eaten. Its Lemongrass base was dominant and strident. The undertone of Fermented Shrimp Sauce added a sour note to the spiciness that really played well together. Although I asked for «mild,» that only applied to how much Hot Chili Oil they put in at the end, because the other condiments were already in the pot. Finally, as I slowed down and reached the bottom of the bowl, the hint of sweetness came through. Definitely a spoonful of sugar to make this medicine go down.
This was a great liquid celebration. It cleared my sinuses and had me envisioning exotic nights in Hoi An and Da Nang.
I love Phở, but a well crafted Bun Bo is superior to that due to the many more ingredients, and the interplay of the four spice groups. It is easy to see why this was the sup of the royals.

Heard so much about their bun bo hue so I had to try.
Street parking only which is very hard to find. Might need to walk a block or two but this place is definitely worth trying. The restaurant is not that big since its a small mom and pop store.
They don’t have a lot on the menu but this is why their food is delicious because they put their time on making the broth which is on point. I got the bun bo hue less spicy since I’m a chicken to heat. My fiancé got their phở. The service was fast, My food was delicious with lots of meat, soup was spicy even if I told them not to make it too spicy so be mindful of their level of heat.
Overall their soup was very good. Something worth going back too.

Hands down… BEST BUN BO HUE I ever had in my life. I always really liked bun bo hue growing up and being in NY for the past few years, I really miss good quality viet food. I walked into it during my road trip and ordered a bowl. Phenomenal! It was spicy and rich and delicious! My non-​Viet friends who accompanied me tried my soup and loved it, too! It’s very hard to get viet soups on point so that it’s liked by both Viet and non-​Viets in my opinion. On our return trip to NY, we stopped by again and got ourselves another bowl each. I also got one for to-​go. Yeah, it’s that good.
Warning, the ladies room is SUPER TINY. It’s really made for petite people.

Drove all the way here from New York just for their Bo Bun Hue. Compared to all the places I’ve tried in New York. Bo Bun Hue from this place is the BEST!
Their Banh Cuon is very yummy also. You can taste the filling inside, and it’s not dry.
Definitely will be back for their Bun Bo Hue!

This is the real deal. I walk in and hear Vietnamese 80s dance music playing at a moderate sound level. I get the universal signal of sit wherever you’d like and I took a seat in the front. The waitress comes over with no menus, only her pad. I try my hardest to order in Vietnamese their special Bun Bo Hue but the questions about if I wanted everything started to get tricky. For some reason she switched to Mandarin which I am equally as bad at speaking. I tried switching to English with no avail. After an exchange of half broken Vietnamese and Mandarin, my order was ready to go, Bun Bo Hue the small size with everything, make it spicy… To drink, complementary iced green tea. I think.
You get a plate of basil and another herb Vietnamese coriander that I normally don’t see but appropriate for Bun Bo Hue, with bean sprouts and a lime. So far so good. They brought out a glass bowl of an almost perfect Bun Bo Hue, loaded with different cuts of pork and beef including a ridiculously tender slice of pig’s feet, cha lua (pork roll ham), soft beef tendon, and thin sliced beef brisket. The only thing missing are some pork blood cubes that would’ve made it slightly more authentic. The broth was extremely flavorful with fresh chilis adding to the right amount of heat and onions. You need to pull all the herbs from the stem and fold them into the broth. Also break up a handful of bean sprouts to add in for crunch. Then with a squeeze of lime; that’s the proper way to eat it and it’s so good.
Even though the language exchange was a little silly, the food speaks for itself and the people are very nice and accommodating. Definitely have to return.