Café Vietnam Truck Makes Flavorful Stops Across the Valley

The food truck frenzy that started in 2008 with Kogi BBQ has faded a bit in the past few years. Still, from time to time we see an entrepreneur roll out a flavorful, personal concept. Café Vietnam is one of them. This brand new Vietnamese food truck from a Sherman Oaks-based couple uses organic ingredients. Good Vietnamese food is hard to come by in the Valley, and the bright orange Café Vietnam truck—frequently parked along the Boulevard—is serving some of the area’s best versions.

Café Vietnam’s menu revolves around banh mi and rice bowls, with fillings like chicken meatballs and tomato stew. However, you should start with two dishes that food truck creator Jen Nguyen misses most from her childhood in Nha Trang, a beach town in central Vietnam. Egg banh mi is a sandwich starring fluffy eggs scrambled with garlic and shallots, served on a crusty baguette sourced from a Northridge bakery and piled with traditional accompaniments like cilantro, sliced cucumber, punchy pickled daikon, pickled carrot, spicy red jalapeño and soy sauce.

The truck’s hearty braised pork belly bowl is another direct hit, featuring meaty pork chunks slow-cooked with organic garlic, shallots, fresh peppercorns and coconut milk that fall apart at the touch of a fork. Each order comes in a plastic bowl atop organic white rice with cilantro, sliced cucumber, pickled vegetables, red jalapeño and soy sauce.

Café Vietnam is a “side hustle” for both Jen and partner/boyfriend Christian Ev. She works as director of data science for a publicly traded company, and Christian is a filmmaker who is working on a film in Indonesia featuring famed soccer star Ronaldo.

Check Café Vietnam’s Instagram feed each morning to see where they plan to park that day.