Mi Li Cafe

We ended up here because Huong Restaurant on Morse was closed — and that hankering for Vietnamese food had to be satisfied.
I was ecstatic to see that they had bun bo hue on the menu — Huong did not serve it at the time — so that’s my order. My friend ordered his usual phở tai. He said it was decent. My bun bo hue was okay. The entire time we’re eating we couldn’t help comparing it to Huong — and Huong came out on top each time. Not to say this place isn’t good — it is good Vietnamese food. And they were definitely busy with the whole restaurant filled and people waiting in line.
The place looks and smells like the Vietnamese restaurants back east — and I’d definitely stop by again if Huong was closed or I’m in the area. I did read that the banh mi is highly recommended here so I might grab one to go next time I’m in the area.

I’m very impressed. I’ve been sick all week and Phở Ga is the only thing that’s sounded good, so I had to find some near me. Thankfully, Mili is the closest to my apartment because, wow! The broth is incredible and since I got takeout, everything was separate (no soggy noodles, and you can see the quality of the ingredients). I got the large, which was $ 8, and I got a lot. I’ll definitely be back soon!

I absolutely love this place. One of the best, and most underrated phos in the city. I usually sit at the bar while I eat and you can see how everything is very fresh.

I really like it when customers can see the cooks doing their thing in the kitchen. The long bar area allows for this. To me, it promotes accountability. This Vietnamese restaurant is in a strip plaza. Inside, plenty of tables. Several seats along the long serving bar. Simple décor. Definitely felt quaint.
I met Marlena L. here for a late Sunday lunch. She was craving bubble tea, I’d been wanting to try this place for years = you get the gist. The few servers that answered our questions about the different dishes were very pleasant. We were given plenty of time to decide on what we wanted to order. The pic for #24 looked so colorful and delectable, I couldn’t resist.
I’m gonna state now: This is probably the best Vietnamese food I’ve ever had. A breakdown of the fabulous plating: Perfectly cooked pork seasoned just right (easy to chew, NOT gristly or fatty). Pickled shredded carrot/​cabbage (not positive want the white shavings were from) cleansed the palette; Just the right amount of tart. The yellow steamed meat cake? Now that was pretty awesome. Fantastic showcase of Vietnam’s cultural norms. Clear, very thin noodles mixed with egg and minced meat (looked like minced chicken). When cooked the egg holds the other ingredients together. It was actually very tasty! Lightly dusted noodles round out the multiple tiny clumps. Not sure exactly, but the noodles tasted like they had been rolled in a bread crumb like substance. I forgot to ask. Don’t worry, the taste isn’t foul. These components all surrounded the wonderful soft-​yolk egg. This dish comes with a small bowl of steaming broth to give an even bigger burst of flavor!
Marlena’s BBQ Pork bowl was also phenomenal. The pork was supper tender and had great seasoning. The noodles in this dish were thicker and a bit skinnier than rice noodles. Also, opaque.
My Thai Iced Tea was a bit too sweet to start, but mellowed out as the ice melted. Loved the tapioca pearls. OH! I was able to taste a sip of Marlena’s Avocado Bubble Tea Slushy, and it was on another level. Don’t even try to imagine the taste of this mother fluffer. You can’t. Just trust me and go get one for yourself.
This dinner was memorable. Besides the excellent company, the food here is beyond honorable mention. I’m ready to go back tomorrow!

Big fan of phở myself, this restaurant got one of the best beef phở of Northern Ohio. They also have extra large size! Must try!

I am new to both Vietnamese food and to this particular restaurant. I recently stopped in and tried their phở and was thoroughly impressed. When I went in there were mostly Asians dining in the restaurant, which I took as a good sign. The food is quite authentic. The noodles in the phở were cooked perfectly and the broth was light and delicious. The staff were also exceedingly polite and the dining area is cozy and quiet.

I haven’t tried Phở at a whole lot of different places, but I know this is good. I like the rare steak, meatballs, or combo of both. The fresh greens on the side give it a nice clean taste. Phở really warms the soul on cold day and MiLi does it right. I haven’t ventured much away from Phở, but they do have quite a few other dishes, including Bhan Mi. Service is typically good, not great, but good. Décor is a little divey, but I kind of like it. Prices are cheap. Their bread is really good, it’s French style, great to dip in the Phở.

Banh mi was quite good – came out warm with all the standard ingredients and fillings. Bread was toasted crispy, and the grilled pork was very tasty. A bit bigger would’ve been nice, but can’t complain for $ 5. I also ordered an iced coffee, and I was able to see them make it through the whole process with the drip and condensed milk. It was quite strong, but I was somewhat sad that the cup wasn’t even full of coffee when more than half of it was ice cubes. Probably would go for one of the bubble teas next time.

This place is a total game changer! I had the Shrimp Phở and cant wait to go back to try the rest of the menu. I’m new to the Vietnamese food scene and am glad I found an authentic, extremely affordable, friendly local place to feed what will almost certainly become a nearly unmanageable addiction!

I wish I could give more than 5 stars. Over the last few years my wife and I have fallen deeper down the rabbits hole of Vietnamese cuisine. We have eaten at most, but probably not all, of the Vietnamese offerings in the Columbus area. There are a few that we still like and visit often but Mi Li, ohhh sweet Mi Li!!!
The Phở, both regular and Hue style, are perfect in every way. A bit of fat on the surface, fairly clear, complex with no one flavor overwhelming the other. As far as broth goes they are in the top 3 in Columbus, my favorite but the others are great too. The noodles, onion, beef, and all of the accouterments are of top quality.
The Banh Mi Thit Cha is AMAZING!!! This is the tipping point that puts them as my favorite in Columbus. This sandwich is will blow your mind. The owner makes everyone of them herself. The bread is hot and fresh, the pickled veggies are great, and the cold cuts are so flavorful. What sets these apart though is the homemade pâté, holy s@%t is it good. I know it has garlic in it but other than that I have intentionally not given it too much thought. I don’t want to even consider trying replicating it and ruin it.
The staff is courteous, efficient, and friendly. You may have to wait a bit for a sandwich while the owner skypes her family in Vietnam but it is worth the wait. My wife was away on business (Vietnam ironically) and the chef noticed I was eating alone and randomly brought me an order of egg rolls on the house and asked how I was.
If this was TLDR Get the Banh Mi Thit Cha and thank me later.

It pains me to write this review, it really does, but I need to get it out.
I came here on the recommendation of a credible dude. Had some time to spare, so I thought, hey girl, treat yoself to some authentic Vietnamese food. It’s been a while since I had some bun so I was getting pretty excited.
I drove 25 minutes out of the way for this. I walk in to a no-​frills café, and thought that’s good, no need to impress with looks or fancy-​ness. The place was also filled with Vietnamese people, which I also took as a good sign.
Since it was 90 degrees outside, I opted for a grilled pork and egg roll vermicelli, as well as a café sua da (iced coffee). I should have been concerned when, as soon as I headed back from the restroom, the food and coffee were being set on the table. I couldn’t have been gone for more than 2 minutes. RED FLAG #1.
So I start eating and decide to try out the egg rolls. Why did they taste like fried flour? If I wanted that, I would have gone to get myself a nice sweet donut. Please. This was not okay. I left the egg rolls neglected for the rest of my stay.
The pork looked more like beef. It was so dark, but I decided to be brave. The taste was fine, but do I really think they grilled that in the time it took me to relieve myself? I shudder at how long it had been cooked for. The chunks were also cut into huge pieces, which was unfamiliar to me. I like the small, bite sized pieces that most places I’ve been to offer.
I don’t have too much to say about the vermicelli and the veggies — it’s hard to mess that up.
My final complaint is about the iced coffee. I mean for real. Just buy the chicory coffee and give me that sweet condensed milk. It was far too dark, far too burnt, and disgusting. How can you pass that off as café sua da?
Overall, I am really sad that I paid $ 14 for a meal that was so sub par to any other Vietnamese food I have ever had. Perhaps I ordered the wrong things — my trusted recommender did say the banh mi and bun bo hue were good here. But will I come back to give Mi Li another chance? Methinks not. Unless you live close by or already have a good impression of this place, then I would not bother driving out of the way to come here. As much as I hate writing bad things about mom and pop shops, I just feel like this is not what a Vietnamese dining experience should be like.

So this is the thing. I like Vietnamese food a lot. But it occurred to me while enjoying this that I’ve never had bad Vietnamese food. Lucky or I just wouldn’t know the difference?
Either way we went to this place after we planned to go to Hoyo’s Kitchen but it was closed for Ramadan.
We got the pork spring rolls and the shrimp spring rolls. Both delicious. I ordered the combo plate with the meat patty, pork, rice and a few other things. Also good.
My only regret was, after reading the review on the wall, not trying the sandwiches. I really enjoy just falling into a place and discovering something new by accident and that’s what happened here.

This place is great, it is my go to for Phở. Been going for about 5 years. About 2 years ago one of the waiters suggested that I try the Bun Bo Hue, since then I haven’t ordered Phở ever again, it is definitely worth a try. It’s a lemongrass based broth with blood cubes, tendon, pork, and other goodies, I season mine with a bit of fish sauce, lime, & hot pepper oil sauce. It truly is delicious. My wife still orders the Phở and that is fantastic as well. Also try the summer rolls & the grilled pork sub, they are great as well. If you’re into Vietnamese food this place is worth a try.

Best Phở in town ! Small comfortable place, really good service been to several Phở places in town and there are some really good ones but this is my wife and My favorite!

I can’t say enough about how awesome this place is. I have constant cravings. The pork and shrimp vermicelli is sweet and savory. Enough sweet and salty notes to keep you wanting more. The phở has a rich broth with lots of goodness inside. I recommend this place for the phở and vermicelli dishes. You are able to adjust the heat if you like it spicy one day or mild the next. The service is great and the food is quick. Fast casual. Add a bubble smoothie to take home. Great flavors like avocado, cappacino, pineapple, mango, etc.

This is the type of place I go to often, but always forget to write a review. So, if all these other reviews haven’t convinced you, this really is the place to get a halfway decent Banh Mi in Columbus. And it’s the upper level of «halfway decent’ (meaning really quite delicious). The flavor of their sandwiches is quite consistent and I’ve never had a bad one. The bread is always crusty and the veggies fresh. I do find the location off-​putting and have had pretty bad service quite a few times; hence the fewer stars.

I came here because I was in the area and really craving an authentic Bahn Mi. I found this place on Unilocal so I gave it a try.
For $ 5, I had a great Bahn Mi. Warm fresh bread, perfectly spiced, tasty pork. I didn’t realize this place is primarily a sit-​down and I was hoping to get it to go. No worries, I just sat at the bar while they made my food and packaged it to go.
All I had was the sandwich, but it was fantastic. I would like to come back, sit down, and try some more food.

I was planning on bumping up my rating since this is my favorite place in the city to eat bun bo hue. However, I’ve noticed on my last couple visits that they’ve changed the ingredients. They’ve taken out a couple of my favorite parts: beef tendon and cubes of congealed pig blood. Maybe this is to make it more friendly to those new to trying the soup, but they have plenty of Vietnamese clientele so you’d think there’d at least be an option of keeping it more authentic. It still has plenty of meat and good flavor; it’s just more of a 3.5 star bowl rather than the 4 star bowl it used to be.

Wow! I’m sad I waited this long to go to Mi Li café! I wanted to try two things so I ate part of the banh mi with cooked pork and the phở with rare beef.
The service was fast and the food was so fresh! The bread and flavor combo with the banh mi was so balanced and delicious. I almost couldn’t stop eating it! (I only planned on eating half)
The phở was hot and had great flavor. The extra goodies were fresh and plentiful. They are also very generous on the portions!
I highly recommend Mi Li and look forward to going back… maybe as soon as tomorrow!!!

My favorite phở in Columbus thus far. Keep in mind, i’ve only been to Buckeye Phở and Lan Viet Market. There are still a couple of other places for me to try.
Prices are average. $ 8 gets your a large phở and $ 3 gets you an order of summer rolls (2 rolls). They have an extensive menu and pretty much offer the gamut of Vietnamese food, from phở, bun bo hue, bahn mi, to rice dishes.
I think the service at Mi LI is hit or miss. My waitress was very pleasant nice, but seemed a bit overwhelmed during a busy Saturday lunch. It also took awhile for the food to come out and for me to get the bill.
The phở broth has a depth of flavor without being overly salty or oily. The portions of protein and noodles are decent. They also don’t skimp on the condiments (sprouts, basil and culantro).
Besides the rich broth, I enjoyed the texture of the noodles. They were a little more al dente and firm than other phở restaurants. I liked it (no one wants soggy noodles). The summer rolls were fresh with big pieces of shrimp, but overall pretty average.
Anyways, i’ll be back to try their other menu items. I don’t really have a problem with the average service and décor. I’m pretty much here for the food and don’t expect smiles and kowtows.