Xe Lua

This restaurant was recommend by a coworker who was born and raised in vietnam. He said this was the closest he could find to what he had at home so I had to try. While this is my first time having phở I can’t compare to others but it was absolutely delicious. Can’t wait to go back and try their other specialities. The server was also great. He took the time to explain dishes and show us how to eat them correctly. He gave suggestions on the real Vietnamese way to eat them.

Less than $ 10 for a very generous portion of bbq pork with lettuce over vermicelli? Yes please! This was such a hearty and delicious lunch. The bbq pork was so tender and so filled with flavor. With some of the fish sauce on top, every bite was just simply salty heaven. The lettuce and vermicelli are pretty plain in flavor but complemented the bbq pork perfectly. Despite the huge portion, I actually found this to not be too overwhelming for lunch. I was able to continue sitting for the rest of the afternoon at work without falling into a food coma. Would definitely recommend!

Ordered the bo luc lac for $ 15 on seamless and the portion was really small for the price, which doesn’t even come with rice or noodles. Not worth it. Came with iceberg lettuce, which seems strange.

Good and cheap, what more can you ask for? Service is attentive and quick. The food is consistently very good.
The pork chop over rice with shredded pork and steamed egg combined with chopped pork is really excellent. This is my go to dish whenever we come here. The lemonade is a nice accompaniment to the meal.
I like the crispy quail. it is nice way to start a meal with an appetizer, and again, very reasonably priced. We are repeat customers.

Chinatown can be tricky with regards to finding the right balance of atmosphere and food, especially if I am making the dining choice on behalf of my friends. Very few places in the neighborhood get super high marks for both, it’s mostly mutually exclusive. Xe Lua looks better than the rest of the Vietnamese joints around, but that’s where taking pride in the place you chose for dinner ends.
Service is nice, or at least, not un-​nice. I enjoyed my tea. Food was blah. The phở was lackluster and a hideous color grey — no depth of deep brown color, let alone flavor. The banh cuon, which are kind of hard to find in NY so I was excited, were totally wrong on the ratio of heavy pork to minuscule mushroom. The bun was a globby mess of noodles. The proteins all around were well cooked — pork chop, the meet on the bun, the quality of the top eye in the phở.
You can do much better for that holy grail of style & substance at Phở Bang and other nearby establishments.

The interior was so cute! It reminded me of a beach-​like theme. The hostess was extremely friendly, did his job quite well. The menu was full of good options. First time I ever tried frog legs and they were delicious! I think the cost of items were at decent pricing. Although I gotta say, the bathrooms though, were quite disgusting.

3.5 stars
Came here to pick up dinner for work. Out of all the Viet restaurants in Chinatown (and there are a lot of them), I would say this one is definitely the most upscale. It’s not like your typical Chinatown restaurant where the diners are constantly shouting over each other amidst a disharmonious cacophony. Rather, you are greeted by peaceful music and a tranquil ambience from the moment you walk in. The décor is magnificent, with dim lighting and fancy photos adorned everywhere. Service was average but definitely better than your typical Chinatown fare. My only gripe is my uncertainty of the authenticity of this place. They place a large menu outside the store with many American phrases on it and it does seem like they have a fair amount of American/​non-​Asian customers. However, I am not Vietnamese so obviously I can’t confirm this notion of mine haha.
So I got the Beef cubes over rice and I found it to be pretty tasty. I really liked the sauce that the beef cubes were marinated in and I felt it blended with the rice very well, especially the onions and peppers. The beef cubes were the perfect texture, not too mushy but not too chewy either. They also give you a tiny container of sriracha sauce that I feel really gave the dish a nice spicy kick to it.
Overall, I would say that this place is slightly better than the other Viet restaurants in Chinatown, mainly because of the décor. Food wise, I didn’t get to try the phở here so I can’t make a fair comparison. However, the beef cubes over rice were delicious! I would say this is a pretty solid restaurant to get your Viet fix in Chinatown!

I just had my first good poop in weeks! I credit Xe Lua and good convo!

great for seamless in fidi. Simple viet food.

Really delicious food for reasonable price. Tried summer roll, spring roll, vegetarian rice noodle soup and chicken with rice. Everything was relish and super fast.
Good for vegetarians!

The restaurant took me back to my days of traveling in and around Vietnam back in the ‘90s. Friendly, attentive wait staff. It’s definitely on my «go back to» list, the next time I’m in The Big Apple!

Haven’t had Vietnamese food in a long time and dropped by to pick-​up takeout because I had a craving for dinner and was in the area. Place is clean with lots of seating.
Had the vermicelli noodles with BBQ pork and eggrolls. The greens need more mint and the amount of pork is half of what I expected, however it’s tender and not too much of the fatty pieces. Overall pretty good, but portion is to the amount of a tasting than a meal. Maybe I’ll come back but there are other Vietnamese places in the area that I will try first before then.

Ph & Gi Đu Đ can’t never go wrong with that :) plus they are very attentive and always pouring water for you without asking to refill ^^

My boyfriend and I haven’t been here since the first few months of dating which was about four years ago. We recently decided to come here for dinner after work since we were both craving for Vietnamese food.
The staff and ownership definitely changed because everyone looked new and different. The staff are pretty friendly and accommodating. The menus are the same, but the food was slightly mediocre.
We ordered the following —
Vietnamese Spring Rolls — This is a must have whenever we have Vietnamese food! The spring rolls are skinnier than your typical Vietnamese spring rolls and this is the only restaurant that has Vietnamese spring rolls that taste differently and feel differently. I was actually never a HUGE fan of these.
Crispy Calamari with avocado purée/​peanut sauce — I was really craving crispy/​fried calamari so that’s why we ordered it. The crispy calamari wasn’t as crispy as I had hoped. It lacked seasoning.
The presentation is the same as I remembered except for an odd green sauce that wasn’t mentioned on the menu. I asked the server what the green sauce was and they didn’t know and asked one of the hostess/​managers and she said it was a mango purée (why was it green?). After she got confirmation from a chef, she told us it was avocado purée and kindly told her that my boyfriend is highly allergic to avocado, so she replaced it with a peanut sauce (the one you would use for a summer roll) instead.
Phở Xe Lua — My boyfriend ordered his usual and he said the soup/​broth wasn’t as good as it used to be.
Barbecue beef with lettuce and bun — This was my entrée/​dinner. The beef was cooked to just the right texture with a bit of sweetness to it. I have had this dish at other restaurants before, but they all taste pretty similar.
The service is on point, but the food was not as good as we remembered four years ago. The quality feels like it’s missing a few touches. The chances of us being back will be probably 40−50%.

The Vietnamese food at Xe Lua is not as good as it used to be. It was actually blah. ²⁄₅ stars.
But oh my, the DESSERT!!! ⁵⁄₅ stars!!!
Just for the one dessert I love at Xe Lua, I would award 5 stars. It is a shaved ice dessert. It is purely for their one dessert that brings me in here, it’s called Treasure Hunt! If it was not for this dessert, I would never eat at Xe Lua. The flavor is just awesome, to me, for a shaved ice dessert. I have had shaved ices here and there in NYC but this place happens to have the best. Can I tell you what is in it… no just multiple colored cubes of stuff. Not sure! Doesn’t matter, I love it! See my picture of their wonderful dessert called Treasure Hunt! Dang, I would like one now!

Despite the bad reviews for this place, I still went and I on the other hand thought this olace was great. Came at about 7:45pm and place was not crowded at all, but as a group of 4 we were seated in the back. Despite this, the waitresses were still very attentive. Food for four came out to about 9 – 10 $ (incl. tax&tip)each which was very cheap and filling.
What was exceptional about this place is the phở xe lua (#21) it comes with 2 – 3 pieces of beef balls as well, have yet to see it at other places. The soup here is seasoned well, add some lime/​lemon juice and you are good to go! The portions were definitely big (but I eat a lot so it was just right). This place can get crowded later at night. Located on Mulberry street, there are other Vietnamese places as well, but I think Xe Lua does it just right.
The vietnamese spring rolls were really crispy, just the way I like it.

I tried Phở Xe Lua (House special)$ 7.5+tax.
It came with decent amount of noodle and herbs, beef.
Not that big as the staff explained me.
2 pieces of half beef ball and thin slice of beef, and some tiny beef trips was not enough… and broth was too salty compared to other phở I’ve tried before.
It’s still good, but I will choose another Vietnamese restaurant next time I come to Chinatown.

Great phở place. Ordered for like 8 of us for delivery and it was fast. Poor delivery guy though, it came in a massive bag. Soup is flavorful and I did not get a hangover from it. Noodles were… ehhh phở. Hard to mess that part up. Could give a bit more meat, but that’s okay.
I think it’s hard to give a 5 star for Phở but this place is pretty close. Maybe if I actually go there and eat it would have been a 5. I’ll update this if I do. Pretty affordable, and will definitely order again.

Seamless opens up a whole other world, one where a place too far from the office is sudden an option for a late night. I could see the day dragging on, so I convinced a colleague pre-​ordering dinner would help keep our spirits from flagging as we headed into the evening.
Determined to break out of a bun/​phở/​banh mi rut, I went with the shaking beef, a Vietnamese classic that I’d only had one or two times before. My colleague went with the fried noodles, a safer choice on a typically lengthy Vietnamese takeout menu.
The food arrived relatively quickly, with a side order of perfectly component spring rolls. There was so much that we were able to give a couple of heaping scoops to a third colleague who unexpectedly had to stay behind.
The shaking beef was several steps above Chinese takeout, and traveled better than that trio of Vietnamese classics. We successfully made it through the evening and finished our work — helped by Xe Lua.

This place knows how to do phở right. My friends and I usually come here whenever we’re close to Chinatown and want a good, quick meal.
We always like to start with the Muc Chien Don (Crispy Squid) before getting our phở. I really think the key to a great phở is having a solid broth and Xe Lua’s broth definitely does not disappoint. I’m not a huge fan of their brisket, as it can be a tad bit dry, so I usually just get the Phở Bo Vien (Rice Noodle Soup with Beef Balls). Yum.
Sometimes I order the Che 3 Mau (Rainbow Iced Cold Drink with Green Bean, Red Bean + Coconut Milk), which is also quite good. There is a huge selection of drinks along with food, so there is something for everyone.
Also love their menu categories – Bo (Where is the Beef), Ga (Chicken Little), Heo (Porky), etc. Definitely always gets a chuckle out of me.

Sehr leckere vietnamesische Gerichte. Alles schmackhaft und frisch. Eigentlich ein ganz guter Laden hier im touristischen Teil von Chinatown. Vorsicht aber bei der Rechnung: hier versucht man ein «gratuity» draufzuschlagen das ist nicht korrekt! Erst nachdem wir darauf aufmerksam machten, wurden promt die 4,50 $ wieder von der Rechnung gestrichen
Das sieht schon sehr nach Nepp Versuch aus !

Vor zwei Jahren dort gewesen. Angeblich die beste Phở-​Suppe in NYC. Ich kann nur sagen die ist wirklich genial. Wenn ich mal wieder dort bin, werde ich definitiv hingehen. Ich schwärme immer noch.
Ambiente ist ein typisches Restaurant in Chinatown. Nichts besonderes, allerdings sauber.