Don Café

Thus place sucks. They post on their door that they open until 9. We knew that they close at nine and our intention was not to keep them there until past their closing time. I worked in a restaurant. I know it is not nice when people walk in a minute before the place closes, but we walkwd in at 8:05 and they are already washing the floors, putting chairs up etc. Why the heck don’t you close at 8 and then take care of the cleaning. It is annoying when you are eating and people are putting chairs up and cleaning the place. Come on! The bathrooms are disgusting too. Maybe you should have the employees clean the bathrooms more often. Oh. and cash only. what the heck. you are in the 21^st century. Pleople use cards nowadays. Will not be going back to this place ever again. Stay away! There are many better places

Without a doubt, Don Café has one of the best banh mi’s in all of Houston! The bread is always perfectly crispy. Their spread is so fatty, but sooo tasty. The char grilled pork in the Banh Mi Thit Nuong is always delicious and on point!
I also really like the rice dishes here. My favorite is the Com Ga Nuong (chicken with rice). The perfectly grilled chicken is complemented by fresh vegetables and delicious fish sauce.
The interior of the restaurant is pretty old, but still pleasant. In addition, the dishes always come out super quickly and perfect. I am surprised that they don’t have more locations. If it was close to my house, I would be here everyday!

For a quick and reliable service I come here for lunch. The bánh mì’s are a solid gem at this establishment. Keep in mind you need cash, and if you don’t have cash go get some because you’ll keep coming back.

Had the beef sandwich and it was ok, I came here because someone said they had the best sandwich but I give it a B-​. I had better. Also the place kinda smells, so don’t wear your nice clothes. cash only like most Asian places, lol.

Staff are rude rude rude! The sandwiches are not even great, I said hello as soon as I walked in to one of the workers and she gave
Me a real mean look, and the main lady who attends the customers behind the counter can hardly speak English and yells at you. Go to B-​10 it’s much better and they are a lot nicer!

Ever wondered what it feels like to bite into a brick? Come here and find out, maybe you’ll even earn yourself a couple bucks from the tooth fairy! Don Café has by far the most egregious bread toasting practices I’ve seen in any banh mi shop in Houston — it’s so overtoasted you can’t even eat it.
I have no clue how this place is so popular — the lines are always insanely long. And even if they’re churning out sandwiches lightning fast in their assembly line, it could still take 15 – 20 minutes to get one banh mi thit nuong because the 3 people ahead of you ordered like 10 sandwiches each, and your order got lost in all the disorganized mess.
Besides the bread, the fillings in the sandwich here are pretty good. The BBQ pork comes in very large pieces that are thick, tender, and sweet. Well seasoned but not too much smokey flavor. Some of the better BBQ pork in town for sure. I think it’s most comparable to Les Givral’s BBQ pork, but they make it slightly more flavorful. The veggies are decent — fresh enough — but there’s always a massive load of carrots in the sandwich.
And finally the signature of this shop (besides the atrocious bread) — the extremely generous slathering of rich butter mayo. It makes everything very tasty, but could be a bit excessive, which is kind of an odd problem. Usually banh mi shops spread too little mayo. Still pretty good overall, but I prefer the Viet mayo from other places.
I don’t think you’ll find a good banh mi on this side of Bellaire Blvd. B10 makes almost the exact same banh mi next door, but with better bread and worse fillings. I suggest driving past Beltway 8 and hitting up Alpha Bakery, Thim Hing, or Nguyen Ngo. Each of these places have better bread, better mayo, and better or same quality of meat.

Banh mi was pretty good here, didn’t get a chance to compare to other Houston Banh mi shops but I did enjoy this! The Vietnamese coffee was really good, small but worth it. The discount was but 5 get 1 free and the price per banh mi was very responsible. We ended up ordering 6 and saving it for the day after and it was still good. I would stop by again before heading home to Dallas! Please note this is a cash only location.

Pork banh mi is on point! The meat isn’t too dry, perfectly tender. Maybe it’s the mayo recipe that makes it taste delicious… all I know is I’ll be coming back for more! Fairly priced as well.

Banh mi — the bread is really good, the butter spread is okay, they always put a large chunk of jalepeno in the middle (seems kinda random that they don’t slice it up); from what I tried here’s my order from favorite to least:
beef bbq, dac biet, pork bbq, pâté, chicken bbq (really dry), meatball (meatball was yuck)
I really like how fast they are with the food here! Ca phe sua da is really good too.

I’ve been coming here for years and the food is always good… Cheap No service here but no one cares… I’m from alief and I don’t think this is cool

My parents raved about this place when I asked where they go for Vietnamese sandwiches!
Pros:
–Open on holidays, even Christmas
–I highly recommend the BBQ chicken sandwich and the Bo Luc Lac (shaken beef)
–the bread is slathered with French butter which makes it absolutely divine!
–buy 5 sandwiches and get one free! Everything on the menu is reasonably priced to begin with.
–our waiter was very kind, and asked if we wanted the remaining desserts that were left because they were just about to run out.
Cons:
–the man who answered my phone call was quite rude after I asked if they were open on Christmas Day.
— bathrooms aren’t very clean.
–don’t expect your sandwich to be ready in a jiffy; they are always busy.
Tip:
–if you want flaky and fresh tasting bread, eat it right away. If you order the sandwich to go and let it sit in the plastic bag for awhile, the sandwich bread will get chewy. It’s best to eat bread warm, anyway!

The best Vietnamese restaurant in Houston. Try the #1 — pork sandwich. Oh! The bread is delicious. Over 10 years going to this place.
Simply Amazing!

Dons café is the place to go for banh mi in Houston. They stuff it with meat! Their meatball sandwich is one of the best I’ve had!

Sandwiches are decent with healthy amounts of meat and mayo. However, it felt under-​seasoned as a whole. Also the there were only pickled carrots and no daikon. There was also no inclusion of cilantro. Peppers were sliced way too thick and you only got one piece so that only one end of the sandwich got any spice. However, with all that being said, the sandwich still tasted good. It could be better.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been here, and I have tried their other dishes before too. The sandwiches are just not what they used to be. I got myself a combination sandwich and was completely disappointed. The meat was not fresh and the sandwich lacked any real flavor. I recommend sticking to their shredded chicken or bbq pork sandwiches. Nothing here really stood out for me to return. I also wish they accepted credit cards like their Stafford location. The only time to come here is on Wednesday when Nguyen Ngo down the street is closed.

I love the banh mi here! This is definitely my go to place! I love that you can ask for vegetables on the side if you’re taking it to go because honestly, who loves a soggy banh mi!!!
I will say if you’re just wanting to pick up some banh mi– CALL AHEAD!!! At least 10 – 15 minutes ahead because they are always busy! Don’t think you can show up, order, and get your banh mi in 2 minutes. They’re just that busy!

From a friend’s recommendation, I got the grilled pork banh mi today. For just $ 3.50 it was a great deal. I went in around 11am, where there was not many people so I only waited 5 minutes.
I need to come back and give it another chance because I found the banh mi hard to chew. I finished the whole thing of course, but my jaw hurt after from the chewy bread and meat. The grilled pork was delicious, but halfway to being a jerky. If this is survival of the fittest, I need to work on my jaw muscles bc everyone else who gets Don’s seems to love it. Maybe I came at a bad time and the meat is not as fresh. The flavor was awesome– but I had to eat about ¹⁄₃ of the banh mi to really get the full flavor with cucumber, carrots, cilantro, and jalapeño. Again, I will have to come another time to give it more chances.
Parking is really spacious because it’s in a big plaza, and it’s very easy to find. This place is good for big parties or just pick ups. There were many foods on display that I didn’t get to try that I will have to get next time. Particularly eyeing the shrimp spring rolls I saw on the counter.

Everytime we have a catering event at Rice, Don Café is our to-​go place for banh mi even though the famous Givirl is so much closer, because Don has a buy-​5-​get-​1 deal. Even if you aren’t planning to eat six banh mi, you shouldn’t miss out one of Houston’s best banh mi that is also extraordinarily cheap!
Located in the center «shack» of Diho Plaza, Don’s is a classic Vietnamese café in Houston Chinatown. Like with other Vietnamese cafes, Don has phở, iced coffee, and banh mi. However, the banh mi — each costing only $ 3 — is the true star.
Don’s banh mi selection is huge and includes vegetarian options like tofu so you won’t have to worry when you are bringing your picky friends. Of course, the main highlight is the charboiled pork, which was juicy and flavorful. The best part? Each banh mi is stuffed with these delicious pork! I love meat and I love when my sandwich is stuffed with that much meat.
The catch at least for credit card savvy folks like me is that the restaurant is cash only, which can be messy if you are ordering a large catering. However if you are buying what you can eat, you don’t have to worry about spending too much cash in this great deal!
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tl;dr version:
1) Classic Vietnamese café in Chinatown
2) Cheap, stuffed banh mi with many options
3) Cash only

I order the special banh mi and it is great. I also ordered the phở combination and it is wonderful as well. I think they have the best banh mi sandwiches this side of Bellaire. My other favorite is Vietnam palabano.

I was finally able to visit this place after hearing my boyfriend’s family rep the sandwiches here. I came in an hour or so before closing but still had such a good experience.
The restaurant is like any other Vietnamese hole in the wall: there’s not much décor or anything, you come to eat, not look around! The service was questionable but I feel like that about almost every place I’ve been to in Bellaire. We got the chicken and regular pork sandwiches; I tried both and both were delicious! But I have to say that the chicken one is probably better than the pork bahn mi. We also had these sticky rice/​red bean deserts that were so good! Basically the Vietnamese version of rice pudding, haha. I definitely would love to come back, as I’m a sucker for bahn mi sandwiches! :)

Service, well there was not any this past Sunday. My mom and me actually served my family drinks with ice. We also grabbed straws, and searched for napkins. Finally, someone showed up and took our order. We never saw him again. Another person dropped off our order and we asked him for extra plates or something to share our sandwiches. We never saw him again either. The sandwiches were okay stuffed well and probably would have tasted slightly better had we had actually had someone wait on us.
Then in the middle of our meal, a lady behind the counter started yelling and ranting on and on with the employees as though no one was in the restaurant. Makes you wonder how loud she is when the restaurant is empty.
I also ordered a chicken soup which is not on the menu. That was decent also.
Parking is extremely difficult during lunch and dinner. We arrived during lunch hour and had to drive around to find an available spot. When we walked in and grabbed a 8 seat table, an employee asked if we were really going to sit there. Then quickly asked how many? We said there are 6 of us.
Then he grabbed a dripping towel and wiped the counter down, though he did not dry it off. We never saw again either. We ended having to dry the table ourselves.

My boyfriend & I were looking for a cheap dinner, so we decided to come to Don’s (also came about an hour before closing). The place still had a bunch of people inside! We were asked to be seated promptly, and our order was taken pretty quick. We decided to split Bo Luc Lac & BBQ Pork Banh Mi with a fried egg. These were pretty filling (for me, at least haha) and came out to only about $ 15!
Bo Luc Lac: 4.5÷5, this is probably one of the best one’s I’ve had that has been consistently good. You can choose white rice or fried rice with $ 1 extra. Their steak is marinated well and not extremely chewy.
BBQ Pork Banh Mi with egg: 4.5÷5. Definitely get the egg! It’s $ 1 extra, but worth it. It definitely will satisfy your banh mi craving, if you came with one.
Don’s is the definition of fast food, without that nasty «ugh, fast food,» feeling.

The banh mi never fails here. The bread has just the right crispness and freshness, cilantro/​carrots/​jalapeño are fresh as well. They give you plenty of meat in the banh mi.
I wanted to try something different so ordered the shrimp and pork udon soup. The udon noodles are thick and clear which appears to be homemade rather than from a package. The shrimp/​pork balls tasted fresh. The soup only had one thin slice of pork hock. I’m not really into it but I still think another slice or two would suffice. The soup didn’t taste like it was all MSG like most other restaurants so that’s a plus. Would order again.

I been going to Don’s Café for many years. The reason I come back is because:
1.) Food taste good
2.) Reasonably price
3.) Fast Service
4.) Reasonably Clean
5.) Friendly staff
If there was a McDonalds for Vietnamese sandwiches, this place would be it.