Ha V L Reviews

The menu. Two selected soups a day of the 14 soups none are vegetarian or just fish. Of the Ba minh, one was fish, sardines. Tasty but you could see the little backbones of all the sardines and there was a ton of them very "meaty" sandwich. The broths are mostly pork, chicken and no beef. So I wanted turmeric noodles and I missed it by one day. Had chicken pho instead. Good, but not the best I have ever had, not much if any anise in the broth and no cilantro on the plate with greens and bean sprouts. No appetizers, no tofu.

What a cute place, packed and moving bodies in and out like crazy. They make a Pho of the day, and when it's gone it's gone. Get in early to get some. The broth is multi layered and fabulous. Food is great--the Banh mi was so good. Best I have had. Got the iced coffee too, love these things. So good. Prices are great--go and eat Pho--it will make you happy and full.

Family run business out of a tiny, out of the way strip mall. 2 different soups every day, they sell out usually by noon. Go early. Do like the locals do and have your soup for breakfast. Skip the Bahn Mi. They are good and cheap, but the soup is the reason to come. Monday, it's Shrimpcake or Crabflake noodle soup. Tuesday-Closed Wednesday- Chicken Curry Soup or one of my favorites, Peppery Pork Ball Noodle soup Thursday--Snail Noodle or a light and delicious Shredded chicken with shredded fried eggs, Friday another favorite in Pnompneh Noodle soup or Chicken Pho Saturday-Bun Bo Hue or Peppery Pork Ball Sunday- Northern Pho or another fave, Tumeric Noodles with shrimp cake, pork rib, meatloaf peanuts,and sesame rice cracker. There are no weak days to come here. Everything is homemade with care and made consistently with a mother's touch. Great coffee and mango smoothies. Am a long time customer and come here at least once a week and have found no better soup variety and quality in the city. And there is some very good Pho out there, but this ain't Pho.

Ha continues to hold the crown for Vietnamese soup offerings in Portland. Their Mi Quang (Tumeric Noodle Soup) is some of the best I've ever had (US or abroad). Honestly, ever dish served here is delicious and consistent. The service is always friendly, even when the are packed, with a hr-long wait (not unusual). Get here early (they open at 8am), before the made-fresh-daily soup offerings run out.

Sometimes the only way to chase down the POrtland rainy blues is wwith a warm and welcoming bowl of steaming noodle soup. You have to look carefully to find this gem, tucked as it is into the Wing Ming mini-mall complex just north of the also-wonderful FuBon supermarket on SE 82nd Avenue in Portland. Pull into the small parking lot and find a spot if you're lucky, and make sure you get to HA & VL before noon, because that is when the soups-of-the-day run out. HA & VL is a little Vietnamese cafe, named after the initials of the owners,done up in cheerful chartreuse and terracotta colors, but it is the smell of savory cooking that one notices upon entry to the 9 tables that are usually full by those in the know. The reason? Each day, this little kitchen puts out two specialty soups that are complex and various. For example, Wednesday offers up the choices of either (or both) a velvety chicken curry soup with round Hoi An style noodles or spicy pork ball soup choice. These are not your average pho, with a thin beef broth and some slices of meat floating on top. The soups are complete meals in themselves, often with a number of strange and wonderful ingredients. Some soups are more aggressive and challenging, like Thursday's popular snail cake soup in a tomato broth with ginger sauce or Fridays or Friday's Cambodian-style seafood soup with bitter liver slices. But both those days also offer the more accessible chicken "pho ga" in two different styles for the less adventurous. Sunday is my favorite day to visit (but go early because it is also a big family day), when HA & VL offers both a traditional beef soup that sings in a broth laced with anise and cinnamon, or my personal favorite, a bright yellow turmeric-laced chowder laced with shrimp and slices of pork belly with all the trimmings. If seafood chowder is your thing, head over on Mondays for either a crab flake or shrimp cake soup, both delicious. The iced coffee (ca phe sua da) and the split-baguette sandwiches (banh mi) are also superb. Closed Tuesdays

Went in and tried the turmeric flat noodle soup on Sunday. It was really good and would go back for it. Tried the meat ball banh mi sandwich, it was ok, I like more veggies in my banh mi. It barely had any. Place is popular for pho soup so definitely order pho when you go. They have different special pho depending on the day.

Peter, the owner, recently returned from a 6 week vacation in Vietnam. Considering HA VL makes the best Vietnamese soups in Portland, this was a crisis for customers who have a habit. At last the drought is over! Arrive early, as they regularly run out of the daily-made offerings, often before 1pm. Most times, there is a wait, but it's completely worth it!

Ha VL remains the undefeated champ of the Viet food scene in Portland. Their menu offerings are fresh and change daily. Come early though, because when they run out, they run out. Today I chose the Bahn Cahn Cua (Crabcake Noodle Soup). Having recently returned from Vietnam, I can say that their Bahn Cahn Cua is just as good, if not better than the ones I had in Saigon. Their recipes are authentic and they don't use too much sugar or MSG. The smoothies are also fresh and very delicious. Try the avocado , if they haven't ran out. 2nd best is the mango.

This noodle joint does not disappoint. We ate at both places - Ha VL and Rose VL. Both have rotating noodle soup choices everyday and are extremely authentic. Small bowl but so so tasty.

A few things to know. Two soup choices per day. They are all good, but seldom strictly Pho. Monday Shrimp or Crab, Wed-Chicken Curry or Pepper Pork Ball soup, Thurs-Snail or Shredded Chicken Fri-Pnompenh or Chicken PHo Sat-Beef Pho or Pepper Pork Ball Sun- Bun Bo Hue or Tumeric Noodle. Don't flinch at the seeming unusual choices. Every day's soup is made with loving care from the charming and friendly owner. Great staff. Nothing fancy here. Plastic chairs, brightly lit, but neat as a pin and the quality at HA and VL is unsurpassed. This is truly a place where chefs go to eat. Something to remember, tho. Viet noodle soup is traditionally a morning meal, so if you dilly-dally and roll in at noon, they may well be out of the soup you desire. Make it here in the morning. 5 Stars. One of Portland'd best restaurants.

Went on Sunday, so had Mi Quang, a Central Vietnamese soup. Good flavor and a lot of ingredients. My son had the Pho Bac, also flavorful. The place is small inside, but quicker if you go alone or with 2 people. We only waited 20 minutes for a table for 4.

First, take the poor reviews with a huge grain of salt. ORDER THE SOUP, for goodness sake. That's what they are known for, not the Bahn Mi. Two different soups every day. It's NOT a Pho joint, so please don't whine about their "limited selection". It's two different and delicious soups, different every day. No, not a vegetarian-friendly place, so don't take shots at them for what they do and what they do is a fantastic soup, crafted from scratch, with care every day. You'll find soups you cannot find anywhere else in the city - or state. Look up their Facebook page to see what's on that particular day. Mom and Dad run the equally great Rose VL and their son, Peter, runs this older location. Both are outstanding, I have been coming here for years and consider it perhaps Portland's greatest culinary treasure.

I've never had a bad meal at Ha VL, but the Mi Quang soup from North Vietnam, served on Sundays, is the best soup in Portland. Get there early, because they often run out by noon. They only make a set amount and when it's gone, you'll have to wait a week to get it again. Unless you happen by the nearby Rose VL Deli, run by the original owners of Ha VL, who came back from retirement to run their own shop.

Wanted some Vietnam food and this was recommended in on of the local magazines. We were not disappointed. It was hidden in a strip mall, do not try and walk from Portland downtown, and has two specials a day. We started with a ban mi and then moved onto the specials - one each. I had the one with frog meatballs in it which was tasty but very different. The place is a local place so do not expect high dining, hipster cool, but worth the journey for the food. It is only open in the day time and i think maybe closed one day a week - they have a sister restaurant round the corner open only in the evenings.

alway amazing and a great value. service has always been personal and professional. they never disappoint and bet I've eaten there with family more than 30 times

1)Local, very local. Hide in a strip mall. 2)This small joint runs by a family. Father, daughters and grandma. you won't go wrong with this one. 3)Everyday they have two specials. Two Soups choices per day. 4)Banh Mi are served daily. Their sandwiches are so good, you have to try them all. 5)One special is a must - Meat ball on the plate with french baguette. Drooling.

Very nice find! Ha VL serves both pho & banh mi, and both are excellent. Wait stage are efficient, helpful & personable. Highly recommended.

The restaurant is somewhat hidden from the street. Once found, parking was a matter of luck. The small hole-in-the-wall store-front restaurant serves two kinds of imaginative soups, that changes daily, as well as an array of bahn mi. The restaurant boasts that only fresh ingredients are used. On the day we went for a late lunch, all the bahn mi were sold and only the soups were available. One pho soup consisted of sliced pork, fired tofu, tomatoes, and meatballs infused with snails. The second pho soup consisted of shredded chicken and egg. We dumped our side dishes of mixed bean spouts, chopped lettuce, and shredded basil into our soups. Side condiments of fish sauce and various hot sauces sat on the table. Certainly, the pho soups could not be confused by soup made with rich beef broth and the luxuriously long flat narrow noodles. The noodles in both soups were unconventionally and unexpectedly cut into 2-inch lengths. Long noodles are associated in many Asian cultures with long life. The broth was adequate; it was okay. The mishmash of soup components was okay. Next time when we look for traditional beef pho, we’ll go elsewhere.

We didn't try the soups that other reviewers wrote about. Maybe that's what we should have done. But we wanted to get sandwiches to go. Prices were average for banh mi. But the sandwiches were scrawny in comparison to other vietnamese sandwich stores. This was not good value. Not only that, but the wait for them to make the sandwiches was longer than expected, around 10min. or so. Which would've been ok had these been the best sandwiches ever but they were far from it.

This place is located in a little Vietnamese village outside of downtown Portland. There are some many shops there. This place prides itself on a couple of specials every day that usually run out is not snatched before noon. We had the special pork soup. Delicious. The noodles to this soup was not the typical vermicilli, but a soft white pasta-like noodle. Still good. Had a glass of strong Viet coffee and condensed milk. Cheap and delicious. We had to cab it out to the restaurant (cost more than our lunch there!). Friendly owner. The waitress spoke very little English. Come early or they will be sold out!

Arrived before noon and they already were out of all sandwiches. Only had soup to offer -- no other food. Only had 2 types of soup to offer. That is a fairly lousy selection for a restaurant. The soup was fine -- flavorful and chock full of unidentifiable meats as to be expected. But neither of the soups was the type of soup we wanted. Bought 4 bowls of $10 soup for my family, and we ate 40%. Not high value. Will not return. Don't understand all the rave reviews on this site and Yelp.

Went here because I heard they had good Bahn Mi and I was disappointed. I am sure their noodle soup is good but I did not try it. I live around the corner from Bahn Mi Nam Loc and I probably wont go back unfortunately.