Cilantro Vietnamese Bistro

The Phở is great, I recommend putting some sriracha on it though. Went with some friends, service was excellent, would go back again.

Cilantro’s phở and sate are both perfect soups to warm up to on a cold day.
Giant bowls filled with hot, fresh ingredients. If it doesn’t come spicy, make it so by adding Sriracha. There is enough in the bowl for two meals. And you can’t beat the price!

I’m giving Cilantro 4 stars just cuz I got my food to go. I’m sure once I eat at this super cute and clean restaurant, I’ll bump it up one more star.
I ordered the phở on a really cold day. I added some beef and shrimp and opted for the egg noodles. So delish! However, here’s the twist. If you take it to go, they’ll give you the beef raw and you’ll have to add it to the boiling beef broth at home. The server was kind enough to give me instructions on how to do it, which I appreciated. Luckily everything cooked well and I was able to add the extras like sprouts, cilantro and basil at home to my liking.
I also go the pork and shrimp roll = amazing! That delicious peanut sauce is where its at! I even added some to my phở :)
I can’t wait to go back and try more dishes soon!

Excellent food, Excellent service!
I love this place.

Cilantro is one of those rare Clifton establishments that I can leave feeling full but not absolutely disgusting. The restaurant itself is minimally decorated and designed, but when I have a steaming hot bowl of phở in front of me, I feel cozy and comfortable.

I always drive by this place, but I’ve never felt the need to stop by here and try it. Finally, we came by for lunch and it was pretty good! I was initially planning on ordering phở (which is my go-​to for Vietnamese cuisine), but they had so many other options that I ended up ordering a stir fry meal! I love that you can order everything to your liking, with different sauces, meat, noodles, veggies, etc. The portions are also very large! Definitely worth the price. I ordered beef, which was very tasty and cooked perfectly. My only complaint was that there wasn’t much meat and too much lettuce. It kind of ended up tasting like a salad, which wasn’t bad, but not what I had in mind when I ordered it. The restaurant was a lot nicer than I expected, with lots of seating and great service!

This review is actually breaking my heart.
The food was good the first two times I went; really great flavors, friendly staff, reasonable pricing.
However, the third time I went to Cilantro the mouse I saw scurry across the floor warranted a 1 star review.

Our group was new to Vietnamese food and our waitress was helpful in answering questions. Started with some soft and fried rolls, which were nice flavor and very fresh. But that was a mistake because the portions of phở and stir fry are huge! Phở had wonderful flavor and was brimming with veggies, as I added veggies to the meat. Trying to get more veggies into my diet, and felt it would be nice in the broth, which it was. I spiced it up and dug in, but could not finish it, even though it was so good. Hubby’s stir fry similar — he spiced it up, lots of options on table to do that, and also could not finish! We will be back. Will be hard not to get the phở again, but noodle bowls looked good too.
The amount of food for the price is amazing. Service was great and a nice atmosphere which was not too crowded, even on a Friday night. I think I might become a Vietnamese food regular!

Such a great surprise! I wasn’t expecting a nice, sit-​down restaurant, but it was terrific! Our service was great, and the food… I can’t even start to explain. Everything that my family and I ordered was superb! Prices are really good, especially for the serving sizes! (About 9 bucks, but definitely about 2 meals worth.) There is vegan/​vegetarian/​meat/​whateva you like. I am so happy that I decided to try Cilantro, because it is a GREAT Vietnamese restaurant for Cincy!

Servers are nice. I enjoy the appetizers more than the actual meal. Chefs special is always interesting. I recommend getting the shrimp bowl.

What does a Hawaiian born pregnant girl to do when she’s craving phở???
Duh, you make the husband drive from Indiana and into a college town in Ohio to find a phở place she Unilocaled.
I’m glad I found this place a few years ago. I needed phở, spring rolls, summer rolls, banh mi and a Vietnamese iced coffee!!! The food is cheap compared to Hawaii prices and the serving size is decent.
Find street parking or a paid parking garage. Parking can suck since it is a college town.
Will I be back? Most likely if I’m in the area and it’s cold out and I need phở in my life.

Cilantro is a decent phở spot in the UC campus area. I honestly like other phở in Cincinnati better. But, it can definitely hit the spot if you are in the area. I personally like the phở with the thinly sliced beef best, even though I recently tried the meatballs, which I had heard some people expound as their go-​to. You definitely get more meat with the meatballs, but I like the taste of the thinly sliced beef better. I have also enjoyed the sate, which I again recommend with the thin sliced beef.
I do think their salad rolls are good, and the dipping sauce for them is really tasty. They have a vegetarian option with tofu and one with shrimp. I’m not really a shrimp person, so went for the tofu, but my dining partner liked the shrimp! Just be aware you only get one per order.
Now, interestingly Cilantro does a fantastic dessert. Get the fried bananas, you will not be disappointed! I would go there for those, even if I didn’t like anything else there, they are that good.

Cincinnati Vietnamese food doesn’t really get much better than Cilantro. I’ve had it several times before and they’ve never disappointed me. The last time I went, I bought two banh mi sandwiches filled with pork and pickled carrots and that definitely solved the appetite I had. Everything from the phở to the sandwiches tastes so rich and wonderful; it’s one of the few places I’ll consider driving to Clifton for on a semi-​regular basis.
The staff are always friendly and attentive, fulfilling my orders as promptly as possible and as professional as they can be. I can call them and place an order and they’ll have it ready for me in 15 minutes max. When you’re starving and you want something delicious and healthy without breaking the bank, this is an extremely good option. It’s also really easy to get to in Clifton since it’s on the edge of the block where parking is usually a little tougher to negotiate. Simply parking down one of the side streets where it’s free and walking up to the storefront is easy, even at peak times.
I’m not a connoisseur of Vietnamese dishes, but I highly recommend this place if you’re interested in something better than a burger or pizza.

— Parking in Clifton was a pain, as always. (And the semester was already over!)
— Not a big place, but we didn’t have to wait for a table.
— Faint strange smell… but it faded over time.
— Husband ordered a spring roll (good) and phở with thinly sliced steak (liked it a lot).
— I ordered Hu Tieu, which was fine (but I liked Husband’s phở better).
— Portions were quite large, esp for the price.
Verdict: A solid option for Viet food, with good variety, and seems authentic. Lacks a wow factor, but we would come back.

Heads up; I haven’t had a full meal here yet.
But…I have tried it (off of other peoples plates a few times).
It’s a hot spot to go for to lunch, especially those who go to UC or work around that area. On top of that it is also quite healthy…(if you care about that stuff)
The service is always prompt and friendly and the food is served quickly. It’s always hot and fresh. I’ve only tried the Phở with chicken, no noodles, with veggies. The chicken is a leaner cut, which I prefer some others might not, and has a nice spice to the broth.
I always order jasmine tea while I am there because they have one of my favorite brands.
Sometimes you have to wait a second to sit down because the place has very limited seating, though they try to make the most out of it.

I honestly am not a fan of most Vietnamese restaurants around Cincinnati because it is very difficult to duplicate the authenticity of a Vietnamese meal cooked at home. but when I do want to go out for a Vietnamese meal, Cilantro is one of my few go-to’s.
I came in tonight for dinner and it was packed. Despite the large groups that came in before us, the food came out in a reasonable amount of time and the waitress had apologized in advance for any wait as well, which I really appreciated.
The food is pretty authentic here and I’d recommend the phở, hu tieu, or noodle bowls. They bave a few options for vegans that stray a little from typical Vietnamese cuisine, but they do a good job of keeping that authentic flavor and cooking style in them.
Overall, you really can’t go wrong in ordering anything here and the portions are huge for the small price you pay for! This place is delicious. phở real.

The spicy sate is great– have had it a few different ways. The spring rolls apps are amazing. And the porkabob as well.
The banh mi sandwich misses though. Maybe just spoiled from another downtown lunch spot. Not bad, but since I may be impartial I’ve decided to not let it affect my rating.
Also the Nutella dessert is amazeballs.

I was SPOILED by Cilantro, absolutely spoiled. I didn’t realize what I had until I moved and now I can’t find a phó spot that is as cheap, delicious, satisfying, OPEN ON MONDAYS, nearby, friendly, fast, consistent…*sobs uncontrollably when faced with another sandwich or burrito chain option*

Cilantro has been open in their new location for a while and it’s a big improvement visually, as well as space wise. Fortunately, neither the quality of the food nor the prices have suffered any. We’ve been to the new location several times and Cilantro never disappoints in both taste, portion size, service, or price.
On our last visit, we ordered for the BF a soft roll, phở, and a beer while I got bun and a soda. We also ordered 4 soft rolls to go (for dinner later that night) and still managed to spend under $ 30. Those are prices that can’t be beat!

This place will phở sure satisfy your craving.
Cilantro is one of those places I consistently drive by, but never go in to. Welp, with the polar vortex at the top of it’s game I decided to take a stab back by going to cilantro and ordered up some phở to warm me up. Cindy: 1 Polar Vortex: –10
See what I did there?
This is one of the cutest restaurants I have ever been in. And by cute I mean clean, concise, modern, and esthetically pleasing. We chose a light and airy table by the window and were greeted by a super friendly server who gave us the run down of the menu. The menu is only one two pages, but that is how a restaurant should be. Simple and executed well.
We ordered the traditional Phở with beef, the pork bahn mi, and a pork and shrimp roll to start. The crispy pork roll was excellent! It came with a very flavorful and balanced dipping sauce. The shrimp roll was a bit bland, but the peanut sauce was really great.
**WARNING** The phở comes out in a bowl the size of your head. Literally, it looked like a gigantic serving bowl you would use to dollop mashed potatoes out of at Thanksgiving. This thing is a BEAST. Definitely enough to split. The aroma coming out of this bowl is enough to provoke a tiny orgasm. Then you dive in for a bite and fireworks go off.
The textures combined with the flavor of the cilantro, beef, sprouts, jalapeños, lime, and srirracha is exhilarating and comforting all at the same time. I have no idea how this happens, but it is magical.
Plus it is dirt cheap. I got three meals out of this phở, and it was only $ 6.50 what a steal! I would definitely recommend checking out cilantro if you haven’t already especially for a soothing hot meal during this insane winter weather.