Cafe Bunn Mi

After returning to San Francisco, CA after a 1.5 week hiatus overseas, we decided to go to Cafe Bunn Mi for a quick bite on a Sunday morning per the recommendation of our friends Scott and Carmen.  Our diet overseas had consisted of a variety of foods, many of which were fried and heavier, so we were looking for some light, comfort food.  We walked into Cafe Bunn Mi soon after they had opened (November 4, 2012) so it wasn’t a problem to place our order, get seated, and get served our meals.  The menu was written on 4 chalkboards but was extensive enough to have a good variety of foods to cover the gamut of Vietnamese sandwiches, rice plates, noodles, and pho.

A lot of things on the menu looked tasty but we knew we could only eat a couple of dishes by ourselves.  In the end we ordered:

• Grilled Pork Saigon Noodles with Imperial Rolls
• Crab Noodle Soup Pho

There was a slight mixup of our order as a Chicken Noodle Soup Pho came out from the kitchen.  We realized soon after taking a picture of it, and then sent it back.  I had meant to ask the server if they were just going to toss it if they could just leave it for us to try but I was too slow . . . I blame it on the lack of sleep from spending the night at Newark International Airport, the early flight back to SF, and the lack of coffee!  It’s too bad we didn’t get to try any of it but it did look tasty.

The good thing with pho is that it doesn’t take too long to prepare so it wasn’t long after that the correct order of Crab Noodle Soup Pho came out.  From the picture below you might think that the crab noodle soup pho is a little spicy but that’s deceiving.  The fresh tomatoes used in the dish made the soup seem spicier than it really was.  There was also an ample amount of crab in the dish which was presented as an egg-crab mixture.  The scrambled egg-crab mix had the texture of the brains of the crabs.  Some people might not like that texture but I don’t mind it one bit – I’m usually the one clamoring for the crab heads!

The Grilled Pork Saigon Noodles with Imperial Rolls were great.  The rolls, stuffed with pork, carrots, taro and clear noodles, were fried perfectly and were nice and crispy.  There was also no oily feeling to the fried rolls which was great.  The pork was well made and not too dry.  The noodle bowl consisted of vermicelli noodles with pickled carrots and daikon topped with peanuts and green onions.  Once the noodle bowl was mixed together with the pork and accompanying homemade fish sauce it was simply time to just sample the delicious flavors and enjoy our meal.

All of the dishes tasted great and the meal definitely hit the spot.  The portion sizes were generous;  some of us even had some leftovers to take home for an afternoon snack.  I definitely recommend Cafe Bunn Mi and plan on hitting it up again in the future for more pho or to try their sandwiches.

Cafe Bunn Mi
417 Clement St
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 668-8908