Cái Mâm Bistro - Vietnamese Cuisine & Vegetarian

We were advised by our hotel to have dinner here. Unexpectedly, it was quite tasteful. The price is from 100.000 - 300.000. The restaurant is pretty small, but there were a lot of guests coming. Sometimes they served a slow little bit. We also came back the 2nd time to eat

The food was completely tasteless, and the meat had a rubbery texture that made it very unpleasant to eat. Honestly, we have no idea how this place has such high ratings — it feels like a tourist trap scam. The prices are far too high for the quality of the food and the level of service provided. I would also strongly advise avoiding the bathroom unless you want to risk gagging. On top of that, the whole place had a bad smell, which made the experience even worse. One particularly strange moment was when we tried to order the chicken soup and the waitress insisted that we shouldn’t get it because it wasn’t good. While her honesty was appreciated, it was also quite embarrassing for the restaurant and didn’t inspire much confidence in the rest of the menu. Definitely not recommended.

We came here upon recommendation by our hotel, as well as based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews on The Happy Cow app, as I am vegetarian and my friend is vegan. The food was quite pricey, and we expected something more than what we were given. My meat-eating friend ordered the bún chả and the bò lá lốt. The bún chả meat looked definitely unimpressive, and I would know because I am Vietnamese and know what good bún chả meat should look and smell like. My friend reported that the meat tastes just "fine" and quite dry. For over 200k VND, you would expect more than just "fine" and dry pork! Our vegan spring rolls were crispy and tasty enough, but there were no accompanying herbs or lettuce. When we asked for some, the waitress said that they didn't come any herbs, while the bò lá lốt and bún chả both came with fresh lettuce and herbs. It wouldn't have cost them anything to add the same thing to our dish, but this attitude speaks to a certain level of inflexibility that I find quite at odds with hospitable customer service. Our other veggie/vegan dishes were just fine, certainly nothing to write home about, and certainly not worth the money we paid for them. I don't usually like to leave negative reviews, but I felt compelled to do so after our visit because we simply couldn't understand how this place had so many glowing reviews. I understand paying more for food in such a touristy area as the Old Quarter, but the quality should at least do some of that price justice.

This local was suggested to us from our guide and the choice was really great! The atmosphere is quite relax despite the crazy city ;) and the food is well cooked, as well the service! We tried the soup and rice or rolls and everything was really good and tasty ! I highly recommend it!

came here upon the recommendation of our tour guide and because of the high review. the foods are 2 ⭐, definitely there are much better ones out there. some are ok like the spring roll and crispy pork belly. banh xeo is really underwhelming. it's very small for the price and there's very little ingredients. stewed beef is really salty. it's quite disappointing for the price. then they asked us to give google review before leaving which makes me understand where the high rating, people would feel more pressured to give 5 stars. I hope the management can discourage this practice and improve on the food taste and amount.