Ca Mau Restaurant - San Jose

Bun bo hue - noodle soup from Central Vietnam

I stumbled upon this restaurant when I was browsing Yelp looking for inspiration. When we got there on Sunday afternoon, it was in full swing. There were a bunch of people waiting in the small waiting area. I saw a clipboard for the wait list and jotted my name down. The restaurant itself wasn't big but one wall was covered with mirror so it did help give the impression of wider than it was. The other wall was covered with a huge mural depicting Vietnamese girls in aodais (the traditional Vietnamese outfit).

The wait wasn't too bad- around fifteen minutes. Time passed by when we were people watching. The restaurant crews worked efficiently too. Once the table was available we were seated and handed the menus. I wanted to try their bun bo hue - it's a typical noodle soup from the Central Vietnam (Hue- hence the name). Hubby tried the noodle combination and asked for the soup to be served separately. We also ordered some egg rolls.

Our orders all came almost at the same time. The egg roll was served on bed of lettuce and basil leaves. The egg rolls looked like they were twice fried. Some part looked a bit too brown, but inside was still moist. My noodle soup used a round type of rice noodle (bun) with beef broth, slices of beef and chunks of tender tendon. The broth was also flavored with shrimp paste and chilli so there was a certain smell and spiciness to it.

Hubby's bowl of noodle looked yummy with the yellow noodle all at the bottom and covered up with squid, huge prawn, slices of pork and minced meat. His bowl of soup came with a mighty big piece of pork bone that has very tender meat around it. Yummy.

Ca Mau Restaurant
2847 South White Road # 110  San Jose, CA 95148
(408) 532-8989