New Camau Restaurant

New Camau is a 5 minute drive from work so its a staple in my lunch rotation. I usually try to get there by 11:30, any later and parking in the small lot is difficult and the restaurant usually fills right around noon.
My normal staple is an XL #7 Bun Bo Hue, spicy, tangy, flavorful soup with pork, brisket, tendon, blood cake, substitute the bun noodle with phở noodle, simply delicious. (I feel like swapping out to the thinner noodle increases my chances of returning to work without 20 splatter dots on my shirt from slurping.) But today, due to it being hot outside, I opted for a vermicelli bowl.
I ordered a Bun bowl with Grilled Shrimp and BBQ pork, added egg rolls as well for $.75. The bowl was the same size as a soup noodle bowl and filled to the brim. There was a chopped romaine on the bottom, but it was still mostly noodles, pickled veggies, and meat.
I poured in the side bowl of sweet fish sauce and dug in. The food was cool, light, and refreshing, perfect for lunch in the summer. I also added a lot of the dark chili paste to my bowl. New Camau has 3 hot sauces on each table, Sriracha, a bright red chili paste like Sambal Olek, and the dark chili paste which also tastes like it has some fermented beans or dried shimp in it. I’m not really sure what all its made of, I just know its delicious and packed with umami. Anyways I digress.
The food at New Camau is always on point. The service is minimal, but still very friendly. All deserving of 5 stars. The only reason I took away a star is due to the cleanliness of the restaurant. The floors are dirty, the tables are given a cursory wipe with a wet rag between seatings, and the bathroom is… well lets just say I prefer to drive back to work before visiting the little boys room. Even then, the food will always have me coming back.

I love their bun bo hue. I also love their variety of foods ranging from com to phở to bun. I am so glad that I live less than 2 minutes away, because my Asian side can always be satisfied. Oh man, I definitely love their durian smoothie.

Everything has gone down hill with the new ownership. Quality of food, service and cleanliness of the place. To top it off, my hubby and I left the restaurant and immediately drove back because he had left his glasses on the table… I’d say within 10 minutes, the glasses were gone and all the workers denied they saw them which is a piece of crap. Avoid at all costs. Where is my middle finger emoji when I need it!!!

I came here with friends. It was really busy and we had a long wait. That was before we were hunting for parking in the lot that is wholly inadequate for the restaurants and 7 – 11. We ended up street parking.
It took a while after we were seated before our order was taken. Our dishes came out one at a time over a period of 15 – 20 minutes. We had five people in our group and by the time the last person received their dish, the first person was almost done eating.
We did not get our ice water until we were about to leave, there just didn’t seem to be enough people working to cover the traffic in the restaurant.
I had the beef stew with egg noodle and it was OK. Nothing special and a bit on the bland side.
I am not sure I will return to the restaurant anytime soon.

This is a very off the beaten path Vietnamese restaurant. Probably the definition of hole in the wall. It is tucked away behind some gas stations.
The staff also spoke like 0 English. This is the first Vietnamese restaurant I’ve been to where the staff really couldn’t speak English. I was quite amazed. It’s best if you can just point to what you want or just bring someone who knows how to speak Vietnamese.
I got a regular phở soup. It was pretty bland as is. I put in oyster sauce and some chili sauce. I think this is the mark of not so good phở if you have to put sauces in the soup.
I will probably not be back anytime soon given the location, the blandness of the phở, and the lack of English skills here.

I used to live around this area, and it was difficult to find decent food close by, especially since my go-​to of Chipotle was no longer a viable option. New Camau has above average food and was really convenient for me. I also liked their avocado smoothies.

Bun bo hue is just okay even thought it is pricey compared at other restaurants. Service is very bad. They didn’t show hospitality and looked at me in an unfriendly way. Not saying a word after I paid the bill. Will never come back again.

Second time comes…
I think this place is great for Bun Bo Hue

Awesome, been twice in 3 days and going back soon. Authentic+ large portions+good chili oil+ Vietnamese eggrolls= the bomb! Don’t judge book by its cover the bun is the real deal too

The service is ok… I ordered bun bo hue. It tasted very good but some how I get very thirsty.
Be careful paying your bill, we have five ppl, orders 5 dishes. It end up $ 62 dollars. My husband was the one went to pay the bill. He was kind of surprised that it cost that much? He repeated the price to her… I heard the lady speak in Vietnamese with the other worker «forget it, just charge this much. When I heard that, I got up and see what is going on… And then she pretend to count the order and said 52
All these time, they though we don’t understand Vietnamese .
Not so honest!!!

Came here for a Bun dish during lunch hour. Line was out the door and I didn’t have much time. Went to the register and got it to go.
Pro: satisfying amount of shrimp/​pork — taste was good
Con: lacked cucumber and needed more carrots
I’ll come back

It’s inconsistent, the bowls are fresh and hot some days and cold and bland on other days.
Quality is not up to par for me… Yet my friends still like this place…
Listen to me, do NOT eat Vietnamese food unless you’re in ESSJ and maybe Milptas…

Pretty average phở place to me. I looked on Unilocal to find a phở place near our work for my coworkers to try.
The establishment is really small. The tables were very close together, which made for a very claustrophobic meal. I ordered the phở tai and my coworkers ordered the phở ga and bun bo hue with a substitute of the ramen-​looking noodles (not sure what it’s called) as well as chicken. I was a little flustered trying to order my coworker’s bbh because the waitress looked super frustrated that I wasn’t just asking for the bbh to come as is and she could barely speak English. I could see how she would be annoyed, but please don’t show it so profusely to your customers. When I got the phở, the broth tasted cinnamon-​y or I can’t really describe the taste honestly, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea. They were a little stingy on the meat as well :(I’m not sure if I would come back.

Originally had plans to go out to lunch. My now supervisor wanted to treat me but one thing after another came up at work so we decided on take-​out which defeated the purpose. Our purpose was to eat bun bo hue also known as: BBH and we all know that BBH cannot be eaten anywhere else besides at home or restaurant.
He ordered the chow mein.
I ordered the bun bo.
The total for both came up to nearly $ 23. That is expensive in my eyes. When I got back to the office, we sat outside to eat. We couldn’t eat in peace because he had 3 phone calls and I had 4 phone calls w/​in the 15 minute duration of our meal.
We have a demanding albeit great customer.
Anyway.
My entrée was subpar. It is something I would never order again from this place. It was refreshing to eat the cold rice vermicelli when it was scorching out but I think that if and when we go back, I will order the BBH and stick to what they are known for.
I learned that the other location in San Jose has changed ownership. Perhaps a taste test should be next on my to-​do list. I think having a fair comparison between 2 bowls of BBH is in order.
Oh my. yummy!

I tried BBH7… not good. Too oily. The meat are not cut properly with fats all over the meat. The soup is mixed with some chili oil. I m not coming back here unfortunately.
Parking was horrible and the place was like a market. so noisy I had to talk on top of my lungs. Dissapointing

Inconspicuously located next to a 7 – 11 and a overpriced Shell gas station is arguably the best Vietnamese restaurant in Santa Clara.
They have an expansive menu but I always order either the Phở with Filet mignon or Hu Tieu. I’m sure everything on the menu is tasty, but just these two items on the menu do the job for me.
Hieu Tiu Nam Vang
if you have not had it before, your taste buds are in luck! It is served with a bunch of seafood and assorted meats, lots of sauces for flavor, on top of both egg and rice noodles. Order this with soup on the side. Half rice/​egg noodle, and extra sauce! This dish is legit!
Phở with Filet mignon —
beef is extremely tender and flavorful, the noodles are soft yet still chewy, and the soup has a nice subtle broth taste. hoàn ho!
Besides the food, I also want to talk about the owners of this mom & pop shop; both extremely friendly people who seem like they are enjoying life and just want to serve great food while watching their favorite sport teams on TV (the TV is always on a sports channel as «pop» is a huge bay area sports fan). And even though the shop is a little hidden and hard to find, they do not go out of their way to do advertisements or coupons to attract business. In fact, their business is quite good, yet not too crowded, I can always come here knowing that I will be immediately seated and anything I order will be fantastic and consistently of the same great quality.
This is one of my go-​to places to eat when I just want good food. It is a solid 4-​star restaurant, but I think the laid back friendly small-​town atmosphere it gives off should bump it to a 5.
Average price of the dishes are ~$ 10. They also accept credit card for bills over $ 10.

My first experience with this restaurant, my parentals picked me up a chicken phở soup to go and brought it over to the hospital after I gave birth. I had never done phở to go before as I always enjoyed my phở in the restaurant but I was pleasantly surprised. They didn’t scrimp on the fixings and had included everything in my to go right down to the siracha and hoisin sauce packets. Even after an hour of picking it up, the soup was still hot and I was surprised at how delicious and moist the chicken bits were. Beef phở is my choice of phở but this chicken phở was really tasty
Went back for another to go order: filet mignon and oxtail phở soup. The server who was taking our order was very pushy. He asked us what we wanted and we told him we needed a minute. He literally turned around, pivoted on his heels and asked us if we were ready. Um… How about a few minutes? He sat there breathing down our shoulders tapping his pen on his order sheet while we frantically tried to decipher the phonetic grammar on the menu.
What I swallowed:
OXTAIL AND FILET MIGNON PHO: The soup was decent and I had one oxtail total in my soup. I guess considering the price ($ 9) I shouldn’t have expected it to be loaded with oxtail but nevertheless TWO wouldn’t have been considered scrimpy. The broth was OK. I think between the chicken phở and this one, the chicken phở was a bit more tasty.
If you can get passed the rude service, this place is decent. The Canadian prefers spicy beef stew and he couldn’t find it being rushed to order so I don’t think we’ll be coming back anytime soon.

We live in Santa Clara near the stadium, and the promise of all the development surrounding the stadium has yet to come to fruition. Sadly, that means that good eats around here are few and far between, in my opinion.
We were looking for something simply and quick near home, and found New Camau. Not generally the kind of place we get excited about… tucked away in the corner of a very small, nondescript strip mall.
The restaurant itself is very modestly sized and decorated, but the menu is the exact opposite… there are easily more than 100 individual menu items and it’s all text. No pictures.
My fiancée had her typical phở with flank steak and I had a special rice plate. She said her phở was good and my rice plate was like a smörgåsbord on a plate. Most of the things on the plate were pretty good and it was a large portion.
Prices are in line with most normal Vietnamese places. Parking lot is small but again it’s a tiny strip mall that is not usually crowded anyway.
We’ll be adding this to our regular rotation going forward when we are hungry but don’t want to travel far.

So i didnt go for heir specialty. Just wasnt in the mood. But their Phở Dac Biet with all the different meats was pretty solid. However the sides of pork chop, grilled beef with onion and grilled pork were the stars. I should have just gotten a bunch of those. The parking outside is crazy as you get everyone weirdo and their mom that hits ⁷⁄₁₁. Folks are friendly and at 1.15 it’s an easy in and out

Still one of my favorite place for a quick lunch in Santa Clara when I’m craving Viet food. It’s a hole in the wall so don’t expect much.
The staff are hardworking and there can be a bit of a language barrier… but the delicious & comforting food makes up for it! The Combo dry noodles with soup on the side hits the spot for me every time! Comes with pork, shrimp, crab claws, & squid, drizzled with a yummy sauce. Their fresh spring rolls are very good as well. If you’re looking for a quick Viet fix in the area– this is the spot.
And don’t forget to stop by the 7 – 11 next door to grab a lottery ticket & scratcher. It might just be your lucky day! =)