VCafe

It’s been a while since I’ve been so underwhelmed & aggravated that a spot warranted a 1 star review. My $ 9 shrimp lettuce roll dish took over 25 minutes to arrive. Probably because the waiter was bullshitting with the other waiters and manager at the pass rather than bringing the food to the table. Have you ever seen three waiters and the manager all standing around on their phones in the middle of lunch service before? Well, that’s what goes on here.
I won’t rage too much against the ridiculous prices because it’s to be expected in Tribeca. But these humongous shrimp lettuce wraps came out and I was seriously puzzled on how to attack them. They are enormous, but structurally flawed. Only one flimsy lettuce leaf encased an egg-​roll sized portion of noodle, carrot and shrimp filling inside. This leaf is wrapped around the mass of filling fruit-​roll-​up-​style; meaning the ends are left open for everything to fall out. And only another flimsy piece of cucumber is wrapped around the middle to keep it all together, secured by a toothpick. Don’t take out this toothpick or your food will fall apart in a mess. It’s too big to dip into the accompanying sauce so that needs to be scooped out with your chopsticks and sort of smeared onto this faulty lettuce-​roll-​up. When I say «shrimp» I do mean singular shrimp. This HUGE roll consisted of exactly ONE shrimp sliced into paper thin portions to stick out on both ends. The middle was only noodle and veggies.
When it was past the 35 minute mark and my phở still hadn’t arrived, I looked up to see my waiter suddenly realize I was the ONLY ONE left in the restaurant (because the rest of the lunch crowd had finished and left) and he signaled for them to START MAKING THE SOUP. He came around to clear the table next to me, and that’s the only time I had a chance to tell to bring my check. I was done.
I’ve had bad service in my restaurant history, but the clear disinterest by the entire waitstaff and management here is staggeringly off-​putting. To be fair, I paid for my drink, shrimp roll, and even that wayward soup that they insisted on bringing out in a To Go bag with my check. I could have raised a fuss about it and made them take it off my bill, but I had enough and was ready to get out of there.
There are LOTS of restaurants on this block. SKIP VCafe and head to Chinatown if you really want to get your Vietnamese fix. Better food, service and prices will be found elsewhere.

Not a bad spot but definitely doesn’t come close to the Viet restaurants in Chinatown in both price and taste. Considering it’s one of the few Viet restaurants in the area, it’s not bad. Popular spot for lunch and plenty of seating. We ordered the phở beef noodle and bahn mi. They mixed up our pork bahn mi and gave us vegetarian instead. We decided to just try the vegetarian. It’s good with nicely toasted baguette and fresh ingredients. But I still prefer pork (would have been nice if we actually got it)! The noodle soup was just okay… the broth isn’t too flavorful and there was a lot of cloves used in the broth. Overall, it’s a quick substitute but I still prefer my down and dirty Chinatown spots.

This was JUST what we needed. After an awesome tour of the Woolworth building we were walking up Greenwich looking for somewhere to eat. VCafe stuck out for us as something potentially light and fresh and tasty, and it did not disappoint.
We both had Vietnamese iced coffees, which were perfect for this gorgeous spring day, like the best caffeinated chocolate milk.
Then I had the noodle bowl with spring rolls – SO GOOD, fresh and clean flavors, just the right amount of funk, I gobbled up every last bite. My boyfriend had the grilled pork noodle bowl which was a yummy combo of sweetly seasoned pork, yummy noodles, and fresh veggies, along with that delightful fishy sauce. He ate every bite, too.
We agreed, couldn’t have been happier with our choice of places to eat.

Very disappointed with the dinner I had here. Service was friendly but harried and distracted. Got my appetizer wrong first time around. Took a while to correct it. Finally got the veggie summer rolls and blah. Bland and dry and crumbly. My main course was the coconut noodle soup with chicken. Yuck. Broth was thin and had an odd tanginess to it. Chicken was nondescript. The noodles stuck together in a huge clump. It was not good. My woman had a similarly disappointing experience with her food.
So I didn’t like it here very much. But to be honest, I’m not upset with the restaurant. It’s you Unilocalers who disappoint me. WTF is with all the great reviews? You people need to get out more. Or stop eating at PF Chang’s or wherever the hell it is you ate in your little town before you moved to the big city. You mislead me and it pisses me off. You all owe me a beer. Now.

I soooo wanted to like this place; the neighborhood needs more Thai, Vietnamese, etc. But I didn’t like it. The waiter hurriedly took our order and of course got it wrong. (Summer rolls. Spring rolls. Whatever.) We finally got our crispy vegetarian spring rolls and they weren’t good. How do you mess up fried spring rolls? Well, let’s start with a lackluster dipping sauce, which is what makes a spring roll. And the veggies were bland.
Now onto the entrees. The coconut soup? Come on fellow Unilocalers! If you like this version, you need to get out more. It was flavorless. The shrimp noodle bowl was boring. The shrimp lacked any flavor and was over grilled. The rest was just plain noodles and some raw veggies.
Let’s review what we have so far: bland food. Shall we move on to service? (See above about spring roll.). Water glasses went empty, server was rarely seen and our dishes were never cleared.
Other than all that, it was great.

I couldn’t eat the fried crispy spring rolls (too exotic tasting for me), but I really liked the chicken noodle soup from this place. Not so much for the taste (as I don’t eat chicken soup unless I have a cold), but soon after I had it, I felt much better from my cold.
It tastes really bland, clean, smoothing and healing. I liked the rice noodles and the cilantro heavy broth and the chicken breast pieces too. It just tasted really clean and fresh and comforting.
I would recommend their broth and noodle dishes. I can’t recommend the other dishes unless you are a real fan of Vietnamese food. I only ordered for the chicken soup and ordered the spring rolls to hit the delivery minimum, but on the soup this place delivered. Delivery was really quick too.
Update: I did order again a few days later for the chicken noodle soup, which I have been downing in vats it feels like to fight off my cold. This time to hit the delivery minimum, I ordered the lettuce wrapped beef rolls. I would highly recommend ordering these in lieu of the fried crispy spring rolls which I couldn’t even eat. The lettuce wrapped rolls are fresh, clean and simple (literally, it was marinated beef with fresh rice noodles, fresh veggies and with a cucumber belt). You get two and they are fairly large so I had one and my dog enjoyed the other one. I am a fan of the rice noodles they offer here in their dishes. It just contributes for a clean taste without the tackiness and sogginess that often accompanies any sort of soup or broth with regular rice in it. Dare I say I think Vietnamese food is growing on me (or at least, anything they do not fry).

This is a great place for casual lunches with office friends. The lunch prices are super reasonable. I usually order the grilled chicken rice bowl, which comes with daikon carrots, cucumbers, cilantro, mint, and fish sauce on the side. The portions are generous, and you will leave full, even without an appetizer or dessert.
They have a full bar, but I’ve never had any alcohol here so I can’t really speak to it. Service is good though I frequently have to flag someone for a refill on my drinks/​water. The food, however, is good enough to sway this review to 4 stars.

Clearly one of the most underrated restaurants in the city. Every Friday night when we don’t have reservations, we end up here.
To start with, this place has a really good ambience with seating at comfortable distance from the next table. The food is simple and really good. I always get the coconut noodle soup with chicken or the chicken fried rice. I’ve eaten here at least a dozen times and the quality has been really consistent.
I would highly recommend the green tea crêpe cake for desserts. They source this from «Lady M» which is known for the best crêpe cakes in the city.
To sum it up, I would highly recommend going to this place for casual outings, where all you want is good good and great service.

Omg the duck. I just came for dinner rather than take out. Amazing drinks, staff and duck!

Coming from the hinterlands of New York (i.e., Upstate), where decent dining options can be hard to come by, I probably had higher expectations of VCafe than I should have. I figured that any restaurant in NYC that can stay in business in such a competitive market and have an average rating of 3.5 stars, must be pretty solid. Boy was I wrong.
Ever since my favorite banh mi place shut down in Rochester about 1.5 years ago, I’ve gone into banh mi withdrawal. I was hoping that VCafe would satisfy those cravings, but this was not the case.
The banh mi that I ordered had some taste, but was mostly quite bland. The bread was kind of dry; the chicken was verrry dry and flavorless (I wouldn’t be surprised if the meat was days old or more).
I also ordered a chicken noodle bowl. It was also bland upon bland. After adding the sauce, I could barely taste any flavor. This was partly due to the fact that the noodles had not been drained (i.e., they were still wet, which diluted the flavor of the sauce/​dish).
Lastly — and this could have been an honest mistake — when I paid for my meal with cash, I was given several $ 1 bills back. One of the bills — hidden between the other $ 1 bills — was nearly completely torn (i.e., completely unusable). Unfortunately, I only discovered this upon getting back to my place.
Needless to say, as much as I wanted to like this place, I left very disappointed. My sense is is that the quality of the food was so half-a$$ed, that it was like no one cared. Given how many other Vietnamese dining options there are in NYC, I would not come back.

This is my go-​to Phở spot on the lower west side — the staff is friendly and everything is simple and fresh. It’s in a less busy section of Tribeca, so it’s nice to stop in after you’ve gone for a walk through the nearby streets. Perfect for a quiet afternoon.

Came here for a business meeting at the end of the lunch rush. The service was quick and friendly. I had the Vietnamese steak frites. The beef was tender. It is kind of a stir fry style versus traditional steak frites but the sauce is flavorful and the fries are nice. I’d like to go back and try more dishes.

Three words: Tres Leces Cake. The rest of the order was delicious too.

Why was VCafe empty at 7PM on a Friday night? Y’all trippin’.
Place is good for any purpose: lunch, a date, stopping at the bar to wait for a friend.
I second the best hot sauce comment below: they could sell that stuff by the bottle!
The beef in the pad thai was a little tough, but serves me right for ordering it with beef, I s’pose.

TriBeCa Vietnamese has some pretty good food. The phở bo was nicely done and the grilled chicken noodle bowl was flavorful as well. The lemongrass beef skewers were good too. The inside is very nice but has very cramped communal bench like seating. Service, however is on the snotty side and prices are rather high. The food is good but service was not.

Viet is one of my year round favorite lunch places, largely due to the fantastic coconut noodle phở bowl.
Summer, winter, spring or fall — I can honestly enjoy the coconut noodle shrimp soup all year round.
That being said the menu certainly keeps Tribeca prices and depending on what you order that can leave you wanting a bit more. specifically the charred beef noodle bowls for $ 13, the quality and taste of which you can find easily for half the price in chinatown.
If you dont mind the $$ range then my follow
Up favoritie menu items are: vietnamese coffee (iced or hot), shrimp summer rolls and veggie crab cakes :).

I have been here around 2 times since it is so close to work.
I’m going to be honest, this place pretty pricey especially since with a 10 minute walk you can get something for half the price. However, the food is decent and satisfies my cravings for vietnamese food and service is pretty standard.
Be sure to try the sausage fried rice and the roast pork dumpling soup (its like phở, roast pork, dumplings all in one and it is great).
i will probably be a regular to this place for lack of better places to try nearby.

3.5 stars for the food, 1 star for the delivery service.
There’s not much good Vietnamese food around Tribeca, and VCafe is usually a solid choice. The food is your standard Vietnamese fare, a bit too Westernized and pricey for my tastes. If i had to choose, I’d go with the Sweet Sausage Fried Rice with a side of the summer rolls for a nice balanced meal. If you’re looking for something soupy and you like the taste of Laksa (curry-​based soup noodles), I’d recommend the Coconut Noodle Soup.
Here are my issues with this place, which has nothing to do with the food. I ordered delivery here earlier and experienced nightmarish customer service. I waited an hour for my food and it still had not come so I called to confirm the order, in which they assured me someone would be there in 10 minutes. I waited another 20 minutes and no one came, so I called again and they assured me again he was coming. I waited ANOTHER 20 minutes and call again in which the guy on the other end is like let me put you on the phone to the delivery guys. I talk to the delivery guy who said he never got my order but he will begin putting in my order now. So an hour and 40 minutes later, they now begin to make my food? Also, why am I calling you to make sure that you deliver an order? Inexcusable.

VCafe might be the next casualty in the restaurant and retail landscape of the neighborhood, along the lines of the demise of Harrison, Ivy Bistro and Trattoria Cinque, to name a few. However, one can only hope that business is brisk enough to cover the cost of the grand space that VCafe occupies on Greenwich Street.
The space is lofty, and the menu is extensive. And the place is never crowded … or even fully occupied. The crispy spring rolls, stuffed with mung beans and tofu among other ingredients, is a great way to kick off your meal. And the chili tofu is sure to please on a cold, wintry evening. The salads and sides, including the hand-​cut fries, are average at best.
VCafe is a worthy occupant that one hopes continues to exist. If you are in the neighborhood, give them a try – highly recommended for a casual, reasonably-​priced meal.

Eating my Shrimp Salad was the most interesting experience. It started out terribly bland; with every forkful I was pondering why in the world I’d paid $ 20 (added bokchoy and tofu) for this very small and tasteless meal. But then about ¹⁄₃ through the flavor suddenly ramped up and I literally gaped down into my bowl for a good thirty seconds trying to figure out what had changed. Whatever secret ingredient it contained wasn’t making itself known to me, so I started eating again with renewed vigor. And then about ²⁄₃ through IT GOT EVEN BETTER. It was like a flavor packet had exploded in my mouth! The remaining mixture of various veggies and tofu looked humble indeed, but it did not taste that way at all, and I finished the rest of the bowl in utter amazement and vowed to come back.
Ok but seriously — the shrimp salad looks very, very ordinary when you first get it, actually like something you could toss together yourself with a couple of carrots and whatnot, but the incredible combination of sauces helps make it really delicious. It’s also deceptively small! By the end I was immensely full, but something else I loved about this salad was, as obvious as it sounds, how healthy and natural it was, so I didn’t feel weighted down at all despite all the food. That sentence probably has entirely too many clauses. A star off only because it’s exorbitantly expensive compared to other Viet places, even though I know it’s reasonable in Tribeca terms, but will definitely be back in the future, even if just to eat the shrimp salad again.