Phuong Nam Restaurant

I was craving Banh Hoi (think rice noodle plate with rice paper for you to make your own spring rolls) so I decide to visit. The first thing I realized when I walk in was how loud it was. There was a party at the back of the restaurant with karaoke so it made me feel like I'm walking into a house party. That would be fine if expecting a house party. Ordering food made it a bit tricky because of it and my waiter didn't write our order down so there were a few conversations about clarifying our orders. It's a fairly new restaurant so I think the staff is still figuring the best way to approach customers service.When it came down to food, it was good and it came out in a reasonable time. Good Banh Hoi and the noodle plate is good. 4/5 on food.2/5 on service.

Food was great! Banh hỏi thịt bò nướng (7/10): really great seasoning! The nước mắm was a bit on the lighter sided but it really lets the seasoning of the meat shine through. It could use more scallion oil on the noodle mats, and a little more meat would've been nice to balance the amount of veggies served. Came with rice paper to wrap too! Cả phê trứng mỗi (10/10): DELICIOUS. Maybe my favorite egg coffee I've ever had. So rich and creamy and decadent. The waiters were a bit slow to come around, but they were really kind! Chatty people. Vibes of a great local Vietnamese restaurant! Cozy family-style place. Will be coming again soon!

After replacing Anh Hong, this place had a lot of pressure of fulfilling the standards. No two place are the same, and I think Phuong Nam has built their way up since the first time they opened!Its been my family's go to for some time and here is what we usually order:1) Bun Dau Mam Tom- great with a group and is super veggie friendly. Depending on the side you get, you get huge portions of veggies to do DIY spring rolls. Their pork is so yummy (the one with the green stuff on it)2) Vietnamese Coffee- their egg foam and ube one is so good. It's super trendy right now and we finally have a spot in Boston that does it!!3) Banh Beo- one of the few, if not only place that has these rice cakes in the bowl (super authentic)I also occasionally get the Banh Hoi, where you can also make your own spring roll and stuff it up however you want!The service is always amazing and everyone is super hardworking. I always try to recommend people to come here. It may not be so easy to order sometimes depending on who is there, but they try their best to accommodate for you so please be patient!!

A very decent spot since the closing of Anh Hong. The service can be spotty depending on who is working. Last time I came, I had a waitress that seemed to be very confused and was getting our orders wrong. Thankfully, the managers were very kind to us and fix it right away with no issue. The space is large and comfy as well. It didn't seem like the back section was open yet but there was plenty of space in the front area.As for food, so far so good! They had a rice pudding appetizer dish I've never tried before and I think I am now addicted, I will probably be getting it every time i visit from now on. It's soft and chewy and the savory seasonings on top was a great combo. I also had their 7 course beef meal (also my first time trying) and it was great! A large portion was more than enough for my group of 5. They provide plenty of vegetables and wraps and came to check in on us in case we had any questions. The butter beef and beef porridge were my favorites. Excited to come back and try other menu items!

Six of us came on a Saturday night and the food and service were not good. They completely missed someone's pho order even though the waiter repeated our orders. The other pho dishes came so we had to remind the staff. The owner apologized and stated that the staff did not write down the missing order. There was still a long wait even after reminding the staff, when pho should be quick. The last pho came after everyone was halfway done with their meal. It was also an extra large pho order and they gave a large.Banh xeo was ok. It looked crispy on the outside, but inside was not cooked enough where there was still some batter. The com suon was decent. I waited five minutes and then finally got up to ask the staff for nuoc mam/fish sauce and utensils for my com suon.It was not a busy night as there were 3-4 other tables occupied. There are a ton of better Vietnamese restaurants in the area, with better food and service.

Don't expect too much out of the service here. The food is pretty good. They have the best Bun Rieu in the Boston Area that I've tried; but still missing a little shrimp paste. The soft shelled crab dish was also really good. The banh xeo claimed to have whole shrimps, but I didn't see any in my batter. I paired all this with a yoghurt drink. If you don't like sour yoghurt drinks, it wouldn't be for you. They "have" parking in the back. Maybe I was unlucky, but it looks like their lot was full because some relatives or close friends were singing karaoke in the back. Good luck with street parking.

2 star because one of the staff was friendly, i honestly think they acquire this place with little to zero experience. I was hesitant on even going but my gf from out of town saw a tiktok post and wanted to try it so i caved. we had 2 small soup the banh beo and the banh hoi dac biet - it was mid; the portion was skimpy; and for that price point.. it was NOT worth it. the drink however was good, we got the salted seafoam coffee and the orange peach lemongrass tea. we spent alittle over 100$ we both agree to only come back for the drink and the food was not worth it. so.. we did came back and ordered the drink togo and when we order the same drink the girl had NO idea what we was talking about, we even showed her a picture of when we was there and what the drink look like. we ended up receiving a regular peach tea and a regular Vietnamese coffee. overall, never coming back.

Excellent family meals of hot and sour fish soup (canh chua) it's thick cut of the fish the way I like it . The caramel fish was flavorful . The frogs with lemongrass was amazing along with the egg coffee.

Not quite as good as the original Anh Hong that it replaced. As others have reported, yes service can be spotty although they are gracious enough to correct their mistakes instead of getting defensive or stonewalling when pointed out. This being Boston/New England, I generally have low expectations when going out for East Asian food, so I was fine with the place and will come back. Prices have not gone through the roof unlike some places, and on the whole it's still better than the truly god-awful "Vietnamese" pseudo stuff you find further out in the suburbs (even the near suburbs of Cambridge & Somerville). Stick to pho or rice plates and you'll be fine. I enjoyed my duck congee, first time to have that in Boston...perfect on a cold evening when not feeling particularly hungry. All in all they still have a pleasant home-ish ambience, and on Friday/Saturday nights if the back room is rented out for some sort of private events the cheesy VN music and party din are not as deafening or intrusive as at some other places (cough cough, Saigon Seafood down the street).

Bad service: we were the only ones in the restaurant and the waitress was rude and annoyed at our presence. What tipped us over were the cockroaches on the floor and wall. When one of the entrees came out there was a bug in it. We called the waitress over to show her the bugs and she smashed the bug on the side of the bowl and walked away. We told her we'd only pay for the spring rolls (lettuce was brown and soggy, mediocre meat taste), she asked if we wanted the entree with the bug in it in a to go box. No apologies or attempt to make it right. Didn't give us change, but we also didn't wait around. Would never recommend to anyone.