Banh Mi Tres Bon – Bone Marrow Pho and Savoury Mini Crepes
Nowadays, most of the restaurants on my “to-eat list” comes from my Instagram feed. It ranges from super hyped up restaurants to little mom and pop shops that my friends and family encounter. Everything comes through the feed. 🙂 Recently I came across a couple of pho and banh mi pictures taken from Banh Mi Tres Bon.
Banh Mi Tres Bon is located inside the new Walmart Supercenter plaza in Richmond. It’s a teeny tiny restaurant with one long communal table, 2 x two seaters, a bench, and a couple of sofa chairs to chill.
Right when you enter, your eyes will immediately dart towards the glass case proudly displaying beautifully designed macarons. I’m not sure if they make them in-house but if they do that’s pretty impressive.
It’s a pay, then get seated type of restaurant. The menu is on the wall and they only serve a few things. Banh mi’s, pho, and various appys.
I found the Vietnamese Style Fresh Soymilk (Hot/$3) very interesting so I ordered it to try. The lady serving me said they only select the best soy beans and they make their soy milk fresh in-house. The drink was fantastic steaming hot and it was slightly sweetened with hints of pandan flavour coming through. I would highly recommend this.
They only have one version of Pho ($11) and it comes with an adorable little basket boat/man carrying the traditional sides of bean sprouts, lime, and thai basil.
One cannot eat a bowl of pho without doing the #noodlepull. Amiright? 😀
Overall, I found the broth to be lacking in flavour compared to Cafe Mai Mai. Though it was very flavourful, I *think* (keyword is ‘think’) they use MSG because my body usually reacts to MSG and it didn’t feel all that great after drinking the broth. Having said that, what sets this pho apart is that their pho has a giant piece of marrow inside where you can eat the meat around it and suck on the fat inside (I just realized that sounds really gross..). Either way, it’s pretty unique and I for one really like bone marrow so I really enjoyed it. Heh heh..
Queen B and I shared the Savoury Mini Crepes 7 pcs ($6) in addition to the pho and it came on a hot iron skillet still bubbling from the oil.
You’re supposed to pour the fish sauce on each individual crepe and when you do, it’ll splatter everywhere so make sure to cover yourself!
The savoury crepes were delicious and tasted like little bunches of joy. In addition to the crepe batter, it had green onion, fried garlic, shallows, and a little shrimp inside.
All in all, I think Banh Mi Tres Bon is a pretty unique addition to the Richmond food scene. I visited two times in two days because I enjoyed the food and you can tell the owners here put their heart and soul into this business. In the future I can even imagine myself just coming here to work and answer emails while drinking a cup of their fresh hot soymilk. 🙂 Hm.. I hope they have Wifi.
Service Rating: 5/5
Food Rating: 4/5
Price: $-$$
Overall Rating: 4/5
Happy Eating!
