Pop Up Café

This place always slaps! Exceptional service with consistently fresh, delicious, and rich flavors. We've had almost everything on the menu so far with no notes. My partner and I are currently very much enjoying the special beef pho, the tofu bahn mi, and the lemongrass pork vermicelli 🤌 10/10

I tried two different banh mi from Pop Up. I didn’t love either. They were both messy, overfilled, and poorly constructed. The bread isn’t open, crusty, and flaky like I typically enjoy on a banh mi. It came soggy, a bit too dense, and not crusty or flaky enough. Both the chicken and the pork tasted like they had been sitting in a slow cooker for hours. Stringy, wet, and weirdly sweet. And the vegetables didn’t feel fresh. They felt like they’d maybe been preserved in a sugary liquid for some time, sapped of their flavors, and didn’t brighten up the sandwich like they’re supposed to. And frankly there’s just too much food stuffed into the bread. Don’t expect to eat this without getting meat juice, wilted cilantro, and slimy carrot all over your hands. If the meat and vegetables were fresh, they used a better bakery for their bread, and they put half of what they put in these sandwiches, I think they’d be better. But this is a soggy, dense, overly sweet, heavy sandwich with the wrong flavor profile. Maybe it’s a limitation of their kitchen, I don’t know. But I can’t recommend this place and am confused why it’s rated so highly when there are dozens of Vietnamese restaurants in the area, many of which offer what I think is a superior banh mi. I also think the name of this place is confusing, as I thought it was a ghost kitchen or something. I’m giving two stars for the food and an extra star for being generally quick, cheap, and pleasant.

Rarely leave reviews but this place really deserves it. I just got back from Vietnam and was craving some Vietnamese food. This place may have been better than 80% of the actual meals I had in Vietnam. The food was so fresh and tasty. All the ingredients were delicious and so clean with generous portions. I got the beef pho and the meat fell right off the bone. I also got the salmon salad and it was amazing. 10/10 will definitely be returning. Side note the Vietnamese salt coffee was also so so so good!!!!

Was on my way to get a slice of pizza but stopped by here instead. Wooooweeeee super tasty bbq pork rice platter. It had scallion oil! Pickles! A lot of tasty veggies, which you don’t see at sit-in viet places anymore (only meat and rice sometimes 😩) Super fresh wholesome and good. Will go out of my way to come back for sure.

Very tiny operation and be mindful they may be out of ingredients. But they are so genuine and nice and the banh mi was delicious! We took our food to eat in a little park nearby.