Ai Hues Bakery & Deli

I love Ai Hue! The food are delicious! Bun Bo hue is on point! And their deserts! Best Vietnamese desserts! Love love!

One of my favorite vietnamese places in the Twin Cities. Good selection of dishes, along with some take out baked goods

Regular costomer… the durian and mung bean drink is so good. And all of the soups are super delicious. I think this restaurant would have a lot more customers if it was easier to find. I have been going here for years and the quality hasn’t ever declined.

I had a lunch date with my dad at Ai Hues back in June. I chose the spot based on both Unilocal reviews and a recommendation from a friend that knows all the good spots on University. Like everyone else mentions, Ai Hues is hard to find, literally hidden behind another restaurant, and the entrance is in the back, off the alley.
Once we entered, I was pleasantly surprised by how much larger and cleaner it was than I was expecting. We also knew we’d made a good choice as we were the only non-​Asians in there the entire time. Based on other reviews I was expecting to have trouble finding a table, but they weren’t that busy. Our waitress was super nice and answered my dad’s questions. There was a bit of a language barrier with the woman that rang us up (you pay at the counter so don’t sit around forever waiting for someone to take your payment at the table), but she was very friendly and polite as well.
As for the food, I had a vermicelli bowl and I my dad had something with meat and rice. I can’t remember the exact details but we both enjoyed our meals very much. I also had an iced coffee of some sort that was pretty good. I wanted to check out the desserts, as I always liked picking something (s) from the table of mysterious styrofoam and plastic-​wrapped treats in holes-​in-​the-​walls like this in Seattle. Unfortunately there wasn’t much out on the table, but based on uploaded Unilocal photos I can see that they usually have a better/​larger dessert selection at Ai Hues. My dad wanted some cream puffs and was very excited about the fact that they injected the cream into the puffs while he watched. While waiting for the puffs to be creamed, I noticed the banh mi station near the register. I love me some banh mi so I would definitely like to come back here again to try a Vietnamese sandwich and hopefully get to try some desserts.

They had pork stuffed pastries that were meat clouds of heaven. Went for bahn mi and it was delicious; however there were no jalapeños whatsoever. It was takeout so I was disappointed to realize this when I had gotten back to my office to eat. I love spice! Will try again most definitely. The staff of was also wonderful and helpful with all the questions my group asked.

You can barely see this place from the street because the entrance is towards to the back. I went in for lunch one day because most Phở places on University suck these days. This place is a hole in the wall. It is small, so I don’t think it’s good if you have more than 6 – 8 people in your group.
Pros:
Good Phở!!!
Good Pastries
Good Service
Good Sandwiches
No white people (I’m not racist)…it just means that their taste is still geared towards Asians instead of trying to upscale like iPho, Mai Village, Ngon, & Hoa Bien.
Cons:
No big deal, but Credit Card payment only for orders over $ 10
Once in a while… Parking.

Ai Hue is one of my favorite places in the Twin Cities to get Vietnamese food (that is not my mother’s). Nowhere else can you get their mung bean durian smoothie — this is the best part of Ai Hue and tastes like Asia in a bag. If you’ve been to Southeast Asia, you know what I’m talking about. Drinks from carts in plastic bags with straws, while not the most environmentally friend, are practical and ubiquitous. This tastes just like that minus the bag. This is also the best place locally for fluffy banh bo (steamed rice cake) and pâté chaud (a French Vietnamese puff pastry full of pork and spices). The banh mi here is also great.
I used to think this was the best place to get phở too, but lately it has been too sweet… which is an issue that is trending in the Twin Cities… every time I find a decent phở place, it gradually becomes sweeter and less good. Sigh. They have a nice canh bun here (which I have never had anywhere else before). Even the things that aren’t great here are definitely decent. I highly recommend! I have heard it can get hectic during lunch and on the weekends, but somehow whenever I come it is fine and they treat me great. I think they appreciate that I can speak Viet to ‘em. A nice «chao» (hello) and cam on (thank you) will take you far even if you are not fluent. :)

The food is so-​so. However I wont be back due to things around the restaurant. The place is kind of creepy with Asian men smoking and sitting around outside the restaurant. They will stare at every of your steps. Wont be back due to my safety.

Egg noodle soup with meat filled wontons and roast pork, wow, was this good. You know you are in the right place when you are the only non Asian in the place, made me chuckle. The broth was so good and tasty, the pork nice and tender, the wontons were very good, I just couldn’t tell what sort of meat they were filled with. I got there at 11:40 am and the place filled up completely by the time I left. The location and the door situation is kinda weird. The place appears to be located in the parking lot of a Thai restaurant. The first door you see from the street said it was closed and the door was locked. I looked in and I could see people, then I saw another door, alley side??? I went around to that and it was open??? The Banh Mi sandwiches looked pretty good as well, can’t wait to try them.

I vote this place for best Vietnamese food in St Paul. It is kind of hard to find the place because it is hidden behind a Thai restaurant. I would suggest to drive slow when you are on University ave so you wouldn’t miss it.
The place is small inside and it always packed during the weekend. I usually stop by here to get their bbq pork bun mi (sandwich) and their awesome desserts. Sometimes they run out of bun mi so make sure you order ahead! I love their phở! Whenever I want phở in St Paul, it has to be this place! Usually I get headache eating phở but this place has a different taste to it. I know it sounds weird. Their desserts are great. My favorite one is with a bunch of sweet potatoes and tapioca inside. They are not too sweet for me. I highly recommend everyone to try it.
The staff speak Vietnamese and English. They are fast and friendly. I am not sure if it a family owned but they all seem to get along well. The bathroom is a little creepy. It is dark inside and they put hand soap in a shampoo bottle. I thought it was funny but hey whatever works.
Parking lot is free.

definition of hole in wall, entrance through the back alley and full of OGs, so you know its good. I grew up coming here all the time.
phở is pretty close to home!
*order the meat on side, you’ll get less fat in the broth*
lots of desserts to-​go

If you’re looking for a good ol’ homestyle cookin’, then you need to make your way to Ai Hue!
My parents have taken me and my siblings here to eat since we were in our early teens. Two of my go-​to items are the banh mi (sandwiches) and che (dessert). Their banh mi (sandwiches) are full of flavor and always satisfies my banh mi cravings. They always have an array of desserts to choose from. If I were to choose a personal favorite, it would be che dau xanh nuoc cot dua (Mung bean pudding with coconut cream). Sweet and a touch of saltiness, it’s honestly the perfect combination. Call me crazy, but I would choose this over ice cream any day.
This time, I got bun bo hue (Vietnamese spicy beef noodle soup). This elevated my tastebuds to another level. Seriously. It was SO delicious.
The reason why I’m giving this place 4 stars is due to the cleanliness. It’s a pretty big deal for me when it comes to cleanliness. I understand it’s a run-​down restaurant, but it’s questionable how often the chairs are cleaned and if the tables are wiped down enough. Don’t get me started on the bathroom. I literally walked into the bathroom, looked at the toilet, and left. It’s worse than a porta-​potty.
Consensus? Order take-​out. Enjoy their banh mi sandwiches and desserts (or bun bo hue if you can bear the cleanliness, or lack thereof). You won’t regret it!

This is by far, the best phở in the midwest. The bahn mi is also the best I’ve ever had — warm and flavorful. Closet thing to traditional Vietnamese.

Ai Hue has some seriously good Phở. I’ve had my fair share of Phở, and this one stands out! I don’t know about the rest of the food, mainly because I have literally no clue what any of it is and therefore play it safe with Phở, but I assume that stuff is pretty great as well!

What am I missing here? Why is this place getting 4 stars?
Phở broth was good but not raving 4 star good. It’s just like any other broth in the frog town phở shops. I knew I was going to have to go in with an open mind about this place due to it being a hole in the wall but as soon as I saw a strand of hair on the chopsticks, it was over for me. Yuck!

Ai Hue and I are still cool, but we ain’t as tight like last year. Things done changed…
While the phở is still my favorite in the TC, the quality of their specialty goodies, such as their banhs and desserts, don’t pack the flavor bomb noms like back-​in-​the-​day. My last couple visits were underwhelming, and this is even disregarding the zoo that occurs every weekend there. (When ya’ll going to figure that out?)
I’ll occasionally visit for their stellar soups, but I’m reluctant to eat Ai Hue’s various banhs or ches on the reg. Gah! It’s so sad for me to write this.
Still a fan.

I channeled my inner Anthony Bourdain as a bowl of jiggly tripe swirling among barely-​translucent noodles in a glistening, aromatic broth was placed before me. And it was good.
It was also cheap.
Highly recommended, despite the sparse atmosphere and chipped plates.

Wow.
I have been wanting to try Ai Hues for quite some time, but never had the chance… until now.
Our excitement and anticipation started as soon as we walked in and saw the interior — no frills. Love it. We sat ourselves down and were quickly greeted and given our menus. Amazing selection: everything we read sounded delicious. Unfortunately they were out of a couple of the appetizers we really wanted to try (steamed bun with meat and egg and the rice flour with shrimp… don’t remember their actual names), so we settled on good ol’ spring rolls. The manfriend got their phở, and I got their lovely soup that’s name I don’t remember (combo rice and egg noodle with shrimp, squid, ground pork, and bbq pork).
The spring rolls were nice! A bit more lettuce than either of us were used to, but still really tasty.
But that’s not important. What IS important is how awesome those bowls of deliciousness were! I’m not even really sure how to describe how good they were… let me just say this: if I was not out in public, I’d probably start blubbering words of love and adoration to my beautiful bowl of goodness, i.e. Anthony Bourdain (
).
Who’s a member of the clean bowl club? THIS girl.
Ai Hues, you’re my new favorite place for Vietnamese in the TC.

Please tell me there’s a secret Ai Hues in MKE and I just don’t know about it… yet.
Seriously though, this place is no-​frills… and I mean no frills even by no frills standards. But hot damn… the food. Fantastic. I’ve yet to encounter Vietnamese eats like these anywhere in Brew City.
Let’s get this out of the way first, shall we?
No-​fills means:
–squeezing past other patrons awkwardly
–dirty tables that have yet to be bussed dot the tight space
–a bathroom/​janitorial closet with soap contained in a giant repurposed shampoo dispenser
–etc, and so on and so forth
But like I said, it’s about the food which is, in a word, phenomenal. (Shouldn’t it always be about the food first, people?) While I profess to be adventurous and make good on that profession almost always, I’m honestly a touch wary of «mystery meats.» Here I’m referring to the tripe or pork or beef or duck hearts or whatever it may be in dishes where the protein itself and its origins aren’t necessarily made explicitly clear on the menu. Nothing’s much grosser to me than improperly cooked or overly fatty or poor quality meat, or some adventure meat that I’m not expecting and not wanting to eat. There is a time and place for adventure meats, and I like to be prepared, you guys.
When Jonathan T ordered us spring rolls, I was taken aback by what appeared to be a crab-​esque hunk of pink meat packed squarely against the delicious veggies and shrimp. «What’s all in this?» I ask, to which he replies, «Oh… that’s just pork.» I’m weirded out by pork prep/​quality at times so I eat around it at first, and find the quality of the other ingredients to be in good standing… so I bite, and of course it’s delicious. Spring rolls in my face and for the win. Lots of cilantro, fresh veggies, and killer peanut sauce rounds out the experience.
Then, JT steers me towards this Viet salad of sorts, though I found it to be more noodle-​y than salad-​y. This one had shrimp, noodles, and tons of veggies with a fish sauce «dressing» that had some serious ginger and vinegar flavors happening as well. Out-​freaking-​standing. Light, fresh, flavorful.
Wish I would’ve had a chance to try their phở and some of those desserts! Next time. Next time phở sho.
Some people don’t do well with the casual, dive-​y, hole-​in-​the-​wall, hidden gems, no frills-​type restaurants… call them what you will, but they’re not about anything other than the food. Sometimes the food sucks at these almost unkempt spots, but let’s be honest… how many mediocre meals have I had at totally over-​hyped places? (The answer is many.)
Fantastic, high-​quality and well-​prepared food doesn’t always mean molecular gastronomy and American (New) and an ambiance curated to impress and a fancy drink list. If you’re a food lover, food appreciator, food nerd, or dare I say… «foodie,» then you surely know how to discern what’s prepped well and done right regardless your surroundings. Five big stars for Ai Hues. Please open a location in MKE. I don’t care where, in what ‘hood, or how it looks… I just want to eat your food on the regular.

Hole-​in-​the-​wall.
It has amazing food and ran by very nice people. Why I didn’t give it 5 stars is two reasons: ambiance and service.
Give yourself time to get over these two things. If you do — you will enjoy the food.
I’ve been here countless times and it is by far the best overall Vietnamese food you can get in Minnesota.
I always get a cà phê sa đá which is perfectly made — strong, how I take my coffee. If you’re into trying other beverages, they have two, one homemade durian mung bean and the other I actually do not know the name, it’s also textured and has white chunks. I like textured foods and beverages, so I’ve tried both.
When I’m sick, I always get the congee with everything. Delicious! It’s the best porridge in the city, in my opinion.
Sometimes they have daily specials. My husband and I have had: phở, bun rieu, bun bo hue, bun mang vit, mi vit tim. We’ve had it all.
Just go with your instincts and order what you first think of. If you’re unsure — ask the waiters. They’re nice enough to help.
Don’t go during noon hours on the weekend, it’s going to be hectic! They close by 7pm so get in early if you want service.