Bun Mam Ha Tien

“ My absolutely favorite place whenever I craze for authentic Vietnamese Bún Mắm aka Fermented Fish Soup (#1 on the menu). In fact, I only order Bún Mắm when I come here and Bun Mam Ha Tien has the best Bún Mắm in San Jose, in my opinion. Starting with their portion. I ordered a small bowl but it filled me up! The portion was so generous and filled to the brims with delicious roasted porks, 2 full-size fish fillets, squid slices, 2 with-head-on jumbo shrimps, eggplant pieces and lots of garlic chives which I love. The soup has the right balance of sweetness from all the seafood goodies and the saltiness from the fermented fish. I drank my soup clean LOL. If you're not Vietnamese, the smell of the fermented fish may repulse you. However, I encourage you to give it a try as Bún Mắm here is as authentic as what you can get from Vietnam. The service was quick and attentive. As soon as I walked in, the server noticed me and let me choose the seat I wanted. Order was taken quickly and my food came out steaming hot within the next 3-5 minutes. The store is small yet cozy. They have 4 booths which can accommodate up to 4 people per booth. The other 7 tables are spaciously arranged. The store looks neat and tidy to me. I came around 11:30am on a Friday and it was not crowded at all. There were a few customers there but the noise level was minimal and I had a pleasant time. Highly recommend! ”

“ Small store, 11 tables, 44 seats. Can get pretty humid on a jot and crowded day. I've been here twice and both times, and I've only seen women running the store. They were really nice, especially to my little one. They have high chairs and was gracious enough to bring us small pair of scissors and little bowl so I could portion out a small bite for my infant. If you're here for the fermented shrimp paste fish, be prepared to be visited by flies. They love that stuff. What we really came here for was for Simply Boba thats part of this restaurant. But I'll leave that for another review. ”

“ Despite the prominent signs for boba tea, this is actually a family-owned restaurant whose main dish is a Vietnamese fish noodle soup called Bún Mắm. It is made with round spaghetti-like rice noodles, pork, fish, squid, shrimp, eggplant, pieces of tender fish mixed with multiple types of fermented fish paste. It is also served with lime and many fresh herbs and vegetables such as slivers of banana blossom, bean sprouts, lettuce and mint. I mostly order the #2 Bún Nươc Lèo Sóc Trăng, which is a plain fish and pork noodle soup without fermented fish paste that comes with a fried shrimp cake on the side. The broth is delicious and flavorful. I sometimes crave it when I'm not feeling well like chicken noodle soup. The service is on point and especially good if you speak Viet. It is a clean modern dining room with glossy white tables and colorful chairs. That said, the menus have English and this is a good experience for non-Viet people who want to try something other than pho. This place should really be more popular considering how good the food is. It's often half empty while other nearby restaurants are bustling. The boba signs and online description are confusing; from the outside you can't tell if it's a boba tea shop or a restaurant. In my opinion, they should split off the boba tea completely so that they can focus completely on marketing the Bún Mắm restaurant because it is a great dish that more people should know about. ”