Ngoc Mai Restaurant, San Francisco, California, Vietnamese Restaurant Details

Food:

Unassuming exterior aside, delightful mum and pop restaurant that delivers the taste of home. Great service too

Food:

I came in for the bun rieu ($8) and left with the banh beo ($6) and banh bot loc ($8) to go. The bun rieu was not the typical kind that I was use to. Maybe it is more of a hue style (northern style). However, I still enjoyed the soup very much.

I only got the banh beo (water fern cake) and banh bot loc (clear shrimp pork dumpling wrapped in banana leaf) to go. I love those two Vietnamese dishes! They are usually hard to find in SF, but can be easily found in SJ. So, when I saw it on the menu. I just had to get it! Both were decent, but I've had better.

The service was superb. The girl who was serving me was super sweet. She was able to answer my question when I was totally confused about what was the difference between banh beo and banh bot loc.

Food:

*Now called Tuyet Mai

I have to admit that Tuyet Mai offers an impressive variety of Vietnamese dishes that I normally don't see at most Vietnamese restaurants. Craving my favorite Viet noodle soup, bun rieu, my boyfriend and I decided to grab lunch here.

Restaurant is located in the Tenderloins and is a hole-in-the-wall type of place. The door to the restaurant has peeling paint and is a little difficult to open. The restaurant reminds me of a typical nicer-than-average restaurant you would see in Vietnam. By American standards, the restaurant is pretty run down. The service was excellent and very attentive.

We both ordered bun rieu and shared an order of egg rolls. The egg rolls came out freshly fried and with plenty of fresh lettuce to wrap it in. I'm usually picky about the nuoc cham that Vietnamese restaurants offer. The nuoc cham that came with the egg rolls was delicious and tasted just like my family's recipe.

The bun rieu was underwhelming and bland in my opinion. I had to add fish sauce to add more flavor to my broth, which was disappointing since the broth is usually the best part. I enjoyed that the bun rieu comes with shrimp, crab, tofu, and pork blood, but I could have gone without the overcooked shrimp. There also was barely any crab, another disappointment. I would probably come back to try their banh xeo or banh beo, just out of curiousity.

Food:

Ngoc Mai is a tiny little hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant located in the heart of the Tenderloin. The neighborhood is a bit sketchy but they serve real flavorful authentic Vietnamese food, and not to mention, one of the best bowls of Bun Bo Hue in San Francisco. The broth was fragrant, had a nice balance of spices and was not overly oily.The family who runs this restaurant are super friendly. I think San Jose still tops the list of places serving Bun Bo Hue, but Ngoc Mai is a great option here in SF.

Food:

This is a true gem of a hole in the wall. Absolutely delicious Vietnamese food despite it's unassuming and almost ghetto exterior! Came highly recommended by my Vietnamese friends as well! My favorite dish here is the bun bo hue. It is very flavorful and comes with pig blood (you can ask them to put it on the side if eating congealed blood terrifies you, but honestly it just tastes like meaty jello). The lemongrass beef dry vermicelli noodles here is also amazing. Come with a friend so you can share both dishes!