B&D Authentic Viet Cuisine: Modern Vietnamese restaurant in Burnaby
B&D is a newish Vietnamese restaurant located in Burnaby that opened its doors April of 2022. I’ve come here twice – once to check it out and a second time to try their special promotion of a crab pho. This review is based on a combined experience of both times throughout the last year.
Interior
The interior of B&D has a nice bright and airy feeling – there’s a lot of natural light. The dรฉcor and style is light wood with modern elements, which is actually really nice compared to the regular neighbourhood pho spots that have a more traditional/casual look and feel.
They also serve you with fancy traditional teacups which I thought was a nice touch.
Food and drinks
Here is everything we’ve tried at B&D – reminder that I usually round prices up or down to the dollar value.
Viet coffee with condensed milk ($6)
Kelvin orders the viet coffee with condensed milk – a classic beverage choice at any Vietnamese restaurant. It always comes separately like this – a glass with ice and a drip for the coffee with a layer of condensed milk at the bottom. We thought the drip lid itself was quite cute because it was branded B&D.
Overall, exactly what we expected – a nice cold and strong viet coffee.
Mini B&D spring rolls ($7)
My mom always said you’ll know if a Vietnamese restaurant will fail or succeed by checking out their spring rolls. B&D’s spring rolls use ground pork, taro, carrot, jicama, wood-ear fungus, and vermicelli, served with fish sauce.
The spring rolls are fried well and are tasty, but I was still a little disappointed in how small they are, even though on the menu they did list it as “mini” spring rolls. For $7, a little pricey for the portions.
Papaya salad ($11)
The papaya salads I’ve had in Thailand almost ended me because they were always SO spicy, but the papaya salad at B&D was not that spicy and I could actually eat it.
On the plate is a pretty big mountain of shredded papaya, pickles, shallot, Viet herbs, and prawns, served with fish sauce. The prawns are actually sliced in half so there isn’t as much shrimp as it looks. Aside from that, I found the papaya salad to be light and refreshing.
Betel beef skewers ($6 for 2)
There are a variety of skewers you can get for $6 (each order comes with 2 skewers) but we think the betel beef one is the most unique. They come in trios of 3 on each skewer and are Vietnamese grilled beef wrapped in betel leaves. They have a hint of smoky flavour and the leaf has kind of a sharp or peppery/bitter taste.
Our Vietnamese friend says these taste very similar to the ones his mom makes at home so + points for authenticity!
Coconut rice cake ($15)
To share, we also order the coconut rice cakes, which have just the prettiest and cutest presentation! These are sizzling coconut rice cakes filled with prawns, green onions and you eat them with some fresh herbs and the fish oil dipping sauce.
B&D special pho ($15)
There are mostly 4 phos to choose from on the menu, and this is their signature beef pho. The broth is simmered for 18 hours and served with rare beef sirloin, flank, tripe, tendon, and beef balls. You can choose between regular or extra-fatty for the broth, but our friend who ordered this chose regular.
Generally speaking, it is a decent bowl of pho. Portion sizes do lean towards slightly bigger/more than your average pho123.
Beef stew pho ($15)
I love Viet beef stew but I find that not every place has it or makes it well. B&D’s bo kho uses simmered beef shank broth that’s been simmered for 12 hours, carrots, and pho noodles. I usually prefer to eat my beef stew with a side of bread but in this case, I had to have it with noodles.
Again, large portion size so I couldn’t finish all the noodles, but the stew is not bad. Carrots are soft and the beef is tender.
Braised duck noodle ($20)
Kelvin ordered the braised duck noodle as it was something we’ve never seen at a Viet restaurant before. They make limited quantities every day so it may not always be available. The duck leg is braised for 6 hours, served in a fresh coconut broth, shitake mushroom, sher-li-hon, red date, and goji berry, with egg noodles.
We found this dish to be a little strange actually lol. We felt it tasted kind of medicinal because of the goji berry and it is a little sweet. It also tasted more Chinese to us (we are Chinese). Overall, wouldn’t order it again and the duck leg was a little difficult to eat.
B&D special chicken rice ($17)
They actually don’t have many vermicelli options (only grilled pork), but I wanted to try the chicken once so I got the special chicken rice. it comes with a crispy chicken leg with chicken rice, served with house veggie and fish sauce. Presentation was homey and colourful – the chicken was pretty good and it’s not fried/battered too thickly. A decent portion for one person.
Special crab soup ($24)
The special crab soup winter special promo was the reason why we came to B&D a second time. We saw videos of it on Instagram and it looked really good.
The pork bone broth is simmered for 7 hours with crab meat. They add house tapioca into the noodle with rice flour noodles, sliced pork hock and a whole deep fried soft shell crab. It is garnished with some cilantro, green onion and fried garlic.
Now visually, it looks great and we were super excited to eat it. The crab is soft shell so you can eat the whole thing – the first bite was delicious as it is fried well. After that though, we were kind of disappointed in this 7 hour pork and crab broth as it wasn’t that flavourful. And aside from the soft shell crab and 2 slices if pork hock, there is nothing else except the noodles. The noodles were also unique – a little chewy and see through. But mostly, I think it was the broth that disappointed us as it wasn’t full of crab umami.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: โญโญโญ
I am a little on the fence for B&D. On one hand, they have a really nice aesthetic and modern twists on traditional dishes. They also have some really nice unique dishes you can’t find at your regular pho spot like the duck noodles, the coconut rice cakes and the beef betel skewers.
On the other hand, I find that their 6-8 hour simmered broth lacks a bit of a punch in flavour – especially the crab pho. We were disappointed in the broth and it was also a hefty price of $24. For crab pho, I think the nearby Bun Rieu Phuong Nam offers a much more competitive cua phuong nam, which is their special crab soup with vermicelli (tomato based).
Recommended: Read about one of our favourite spots for crab pho at Bun Rieu Phuong Nam in Burnaby.
Since B&D is slightly more expensive than your neighbourhood pho(insert whatever number), we were expecting a much higher quality, but aside from uniqueness of dishes, quality doesn’t seem that far off from your regular $11-13 pho.
I think you should check out B&D because they are trying to serve different and modern Vietnamese food and make it more upscale. They also serve alcoholic beverages so it’s overall just a very different vibe from the more casual pho eateries (maybe a nice idea for a date). But if you’re looking for a quick and easy hearty bowl of pho, maybe stick to your neighbourhood pho 123.
Sincerely, Loewe