Review Bo 7 Mon Thanh Tam - Sydney

The place is a bistro inside a pub. I have always been very skeptica of pub food but oh boy, I’ve been missing out. This place is truly a hidden gem. Delicious authentic Vietnamese food. The owner is super friendly and they surey know how to cook Vietnamese food. Don’t bother trying any other Vietnamese restaurant. This is my go to place for Vietnamese food from now on. I have tried several different dished and all of them exceeded my expectation and trust me when I say this, you wont be disappointed. I’m a Vietnamese so I do know what good Vietnamese food tastes like.

This is BY FAR, 100%, the best Vietnamese restaurant in CBD! I came here with Vietnamese friends who know this place, how lucky of me because had I not I’d probably never find this place. From the exterior it looks like a regular TAB+bar, but it’s actually operated by a smiley friendly Vietnamese uncle. The pho I ordered tasted divine, so many layers of flavour, most generous portion and ridiculously cheap price considering the quality. I am really happy I found this hidden gem, and I cannot recommend it enough to everyone.

Bo 7 Mon Thanh Tam is a quality Vietnamese restaurant that has been in Business for over thirty years. It has operated out of Surry Hills, Market City and has now taken up residence in the nearby Mount Batten Hotel Situated on George Street in Haymarket. This restaurant is now on our list of recommended Pub meals. Bo 7 is run by the friendly owner Phil who has great passion for the food that hits the table and takes pride in providing the best of service. Not only is the food good, it is reasonably priced. We shared a range of dishes to start including the stuffed chicken wings with crispy skin and a tasty chicken mince stuffing. The bo la lot - bo nuong, and the bo la lot nuong than both with charcoal beef in betel leaf was a flavour explosion and the latter added to a lettuce leaf cup with fresh mint and bean sprouts which added freshness of the salad and textue through the crisp lettuce cups and bean sprouts. The spring rolls did not last long at all. All of these dishes were served with a dipping sauce to further enhance the flavour. The shredded chicken salad a good healthy option. Came out nicely plated with large house made rice crackers and the salad with a well balaced dressing. All elements combing to give each bite a nice balance of flavour. We love bun bo hue a spicy Viet noodle soup. This was not too spicy, it was super tasty with the broth doing plenty of time. The portion was quite large with plenty of beef and noodles, defenitely one for the hungry. The Mountbatten is your typical pub with beer on tap, plus your usual including wine. However they have a trump card in Bo 7 which serves up quality vietnamese food at a great price.

Best banh xeo in Sydney. Great portions, exceptionally tasty, friendly service, hands down best Vietnamese outside of Cabramatta.

Delicious!! A must Viet food venue. Fresh crunchy ingredients. So flavorsome. Its has pub and TAB Facilities too. Make a bet and have a beer

Delicious must-try spicy beef noodle soup. All their foods are very good for price as well as the portion is quite big. I found that this place is the closest resemblance to authentic Vietnamese food compared to other restaurants in sydney. The guy owner is very friendly and the food comes quick. Recommend to try other dishes if you’re not into spicy food: bo la lot (grilled beef wrapped in betel leaves), broken rice with combination (grilled pork chops, pork skin and meat loaf). They also have pub-style food such as chicken schnitzel, steak, bolognese, fish n chips at a good price too.

Delicious pho dac biet (special combination pho) at a reasonable price. Friendly staff and a very casual atmosphere.

Best Vietnamese food i've ever had! Plus super friendly owner and staff made our day :)

Really yummy food, probably some of the best value for money in the city, restaurant owner very kind, don’t be put off that it is in a pub, probably more comfortable than most restaurants!

Pho Broth was well developed with lots of flavour. Best soup you will get in the city that is similar to what you will get in Cabramatta. Reasonable price. A hidden gem.

This restaurant is located inside of a pub. Uncle at cashier is really nice & friendly to everyone even you’re pretty drunk. <br/>I felt it was little bit late till my beef noodle pho came up but I’m still rating 5 star with the uncle’s personality and quality of food. My pho was really nice and top of eating this place is, you can get a discount ticket for a glass of beer, wine or soft drink at bar as well.

I like the rolls and dipping sauce, but the noodles is a little bit too plain. Also my friend ordered a fish which was not finely cooked and tasted too sweet.

Love Vietnamese pancake especially when it’s done really crispy 😋 was introduced to this Vietnamese restaurant inside a pub by hubby’s boss which sells this, so nice! The Beef Pho was quite too, one of their lunch specials, very good price

Great little place inside a pub. Manager is vegetarian so carnivores and vegetarians both welcomed.<br/><br/>Ask for the vegetarian menu. And some of the carne dishes can be changed to veg ingredients.<br/><br/>I'm having lemongrass beef noodles vegetarian and my partner is having lemongrass beef noodles with real meat. The close one is the veg.<br/><br/>Normal pub drinks and old Oz atmosphere.<br/>

It's not easy to find good pho in the city, and I'd personally venture off to Merrickville to have some "ok" pho. I was quite surprised how delicious this pho was. I'd highly recommend it to anyone wanting to get their pho fix.<br/><br/>Note: the hotel is a bit dark, but don't let that out you off - just take a seat outside.

‘Hidden Gem’ No. 2? Well, Bò 7 Món Thanh Tâm only partially meets our criteria for a ‘Hidden Gem’ (off the beaten track, easy to miss, largely untested, yet possesses glowing reviews). Yes it’s kind of hidden away, as you’ll have to be looking for it to find it inside the Mountbatten Hotel. But it is located in a prime location on George St in that cluster of Viet restaurants, and being in the Zomato ‘Cheap eats’ collection, I’m presuming that it is already relatively well known. So really, B7MTT (all the locals call it that…..jokes, jokes) can only be deemed as a ‘Hidden Gem’ because we’d walked past the Mountbatten plenty of times and never knew that there was this highly-rated restaurant just there waiting for us. <br/><br/>The Mountbatten Hotel was really easy to find, on the cnr of George St and Ultimo Rd, and as soon as you’ve pulled open the doors of the Hotel, you know you’re at the right place as you can already smell the usual Vietnamese restaurant smells i.e. the fish sauce, mint, and bean sprouts. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was an unusual and poky set-up with dining tables all crowded in near the ordering station, the hotel’s foyer kind of turned into a make-shift restaurant. We squeezed our way past tables to reach the ordering station, and after grabbing a menu we tried to make ourselves as small as possible as there wasn’t much room to  stand as you reviewed the menu before making your order at the ordering station and paid for your meal. By the time we made our decision and made to order, I initially thought that our service girl was already annoyed with us as she had to squeeze past us on several occasions already when we were reviewing the menu and she seemed a little flustered when taking our order during the lunch rush, and it felt busy as the majority of tables were taken and the patrons were a jovial loudish bunch.  <br/><br/>We ended up deciding on my Viet fav, the ‘Noodle Salad’ (which basically meant Vermicelli) with Spring Rolls and Charcoal Pork, my wife had the Tamarind Flounder, and for good measure (and a good bench-mark dish for comparison) we ordered a serving of handmade rice paper rolls to share (although they called them ‘summer rolls’).<br/><br/>We took a recently cleared table (it’s not a large space) near the invisible border of where the Vietnamese restaurant seating ended, before the pub’s seating started. As we waited, we took in our surroundings to understand the set-up. With space being a premium in the city, I’m thinking that the foyer of the Mountbatten hotel was maximised, thus the foyer has been utilised as a front of shop Vietnamese restaurant while the back portion remained the pubs. Thus diners who had come for Viet, shared a space with the pub crowd, therefore there was no need for music as the sounds coming from the TVs showing horse races and the rugby blended with the usual pub cheer and banter, which created the atmosphere for diners.   <br/><br/>The wait for our food wasn’t long, however our food did come out a dish at a time (spaced out by at least 5 mins per dish) and I really did try to be a gentleman, I really did. I resisted as long as I could, not wanting to dig into my food until my wife’s dish arrived. But I was weak, and what started off as just mixing my sauce into my noodles turned into a desperate need to offer my wife a try of the spring roll, as it was too too hard to resist as they had used puff pastry rather than the usual pastry to make the rolls so that the golden brown pastry was all blistered and flaky. So trying a mouthful of spring roll each (as soon as I heard my wife crunch into hers, I knew it was safe for me to tuck into mine) and that first bite into the uber crispy spring roll and tasting the moist and flavoursome filling, we knew we had found a Gem of a restaurant in B7MTT! And once we had swallowed our spring rolls, we started to eye off the charcoal pork….. The pork was tender and had a really smoky charcoal flavour to it, thus it was really cooked properly, not just charcoal by name. Easily 10/10!<br/><br/>Next up was the fresh summer rolls. I do like to try most things first without sauce, to get a taste of the natural flavours before it gets masked by the stronger tasting sauce. Although the ingredients (prawn, chicken, vermicelli, bean sprouts, mint, and rice paper) were all really fresh but it definitely needed the hoisin/chilli/peanut dipping sauce to complete the package, the sauce was delish and we broke the double-dip rule, oh, we so smashed the rule, I was dipping my last roll after every bite. Mmmmmm.  <br/><br/>And when my wife’s flounder finally arrived, it was well worth the wait. A whole entire fish at least 25cm long was served up, it was battered and deep fried to a crisp, then coated in a thick layer of Tamarind sauce. It was steaming when my wife cut into it and it was simply bloody delicious! Crispy outer layer, a flavoursome sauce which was both sweet and sour, and the fish was good, perhaps a little dry but with the sauce it wasn’t an issue. And to make the fish into a meal, it was served with a large bowl of steamed jasmine rice and a salad on the side (baby spinach leaves and pickled carrot shreds). <br/><br/>The owner was great, and I have to call this out. When we were waiting for our meal, our service girl had brought out our cutlery (chopsticks and spoons), but when it came time to eat the whole fish it was evident that chopsticks and spoon alone wasn’t going to ‘cut-it’ (literally and metaphorically). The owner must of seen my wife struggle with trying to cut the fish with the spoon so unbidden he brought over knife and fork. And later in the meal when he saw me rubbing my fingers together as I had gotten sauce on them and I was running out of clean corners on my napkin, he appeared from nowhere and gave us more napkins. BTW, napkin test was a 4, but with the top up, it took them to a 5! I really don’t think there are many restaurants where the service staff (let alone the boss) would watch their customers enjoy their meals, looking out for opportunities to up-lift their dining experience. And it was these little touches which remains in the mind of customers and what brings people back. So I think that was worth really calling out and praising that level of customer service/attention to detail.<br/><br/>However table water wasn’t provided, but I don’t think it was their fault. It looked like the restaurant side looked after the food aspect (including the pub menu), while the bar further back into the hotel looked after everyone’s drinks needs, so it wasn’t on B7MTT to be providing us with table water. When we looked around to see what others had to drink, the Viet restaurant patrons had bottled waters in front of them, while the pub patrons all had beers. And being cheap Asians who don’t pay for water at restaurants, we opted to just rough it without fluids so I had to admit I was pretty thirsty by the time we had finished our meals. But it was a novel concept, to have beer with your Viet meal. I’ll have to try that next time when I come back.<br/><br/>Our end verdict, 5.0! Although the setting was a little strange, but the food was so good that it compensated for its venue. The ingredients used for our meals were the freshest in recent memory for Viet, and the flavours were also the best I can recall from Viet food (even better than Mint in Burwood and that has been our long time benchmark). And the owner’s attention to our needs (almost like a parent) was the final touch to an otherwise flawless experience. So we’ll definitely be back as this place is a real Gem! And the only down side I can see with raving on about this place, is that I’m sure the next time we come back, there will be a substantial wait for a table.

4.5/5 <br/>When people say 'Vietnamese food' in Sydney, immediately I would say 'go to Bankstown, Cabramatta, Marrickville (Northern cuisine)'. In these places, you are guaranteed to find affordable, authentic, and top-notch Viet food. In other areas, while you can still find Vietnamese dining, but they are either: cheap but not very nice, nice but pricey, or completely fusion so you ask yourself rhetorically "what is this?"<br/><br/>Bo 7 Mon (7 beef course) Thanh Tam was moved from the Market City food court to the Mountbatten Hotel near Chinatown. I never tried out the food from here in the old days because of the majority of Viet dining with poor quality in CBD. The first visit I tried spicy beef noodles (bun bo Hue): ridiculously tender beef and rich broth, even better than Gia Hoi (the famous place for bun bo). Since their speciality is beef, next visit I tried pho which was delicious. My partner tried crispy chicken with tomato rice, the chicken was as nice as Tan Viet's crispy chicken (another surprise for us!). During subsequent visits, we tried combination charcoal beef with vermicelli, fresh herbs, and rice paper rolls; which were just so good.. the beef melted in our mouth. Our favourite chargrill beef is the one wrapped in betel leaves (bo la lot). Then the most recent visit we had broken rice (com tam) and duck noodles soup with the bamboo shoot (bun mang vit) which were satisfying. Each item on the menu is simple but made to perfection. The fact that the owner is so hospitable and caring towards his customers makes our experience even better. Paying affordable bills with this superb food quality in the CBD, I don't know where else could offer something like this. I urge you to come here and try out for yourself.

Great food with good prices. Especially caramel fish in clay pot and sour fish soup. $34 set menu for 2 is always our favorite. Yummmm!!! We didn’t have to wait long for our food to arrive too.

Wow! What a pleasant surprise. It's tucked in between TAB and a pub but don't let that deter you from coming in! The owner was super friendly and the food was some of the best Vietnamese food I've ever eaten! So much good food for such great value, definitely coming back many more times. A must-go!

Honestly, the best service ever!! The owner was so sweet and kind, it just made me want to go back over and over again. Food is at a fantastic price point and will make you full. They also have a wide variety of dishes so there will be something for everyone. There is also a separate vegetarian menu, of which most are vegan, and they were delicious! The mock meat used was of quite high quality as it was very tasty, and this is saying something as I'm not a fan of a lot of mock meats. Definitely head on over for cheap, tasty food with generous servings!

Bo 7 Mon Thanh Tam, the most famous seven delights of beef, is back in Haymarket inside the Mountbatten Hotel. I'll have a schooner of New with me pho, thanks. Bo 7 Mon Thanh Tam was until a few months ago located on Level 3 of Market City food court. The closure of that space meant some stalls stayed and moved downstairs to Level 1, and other have moved on or simply closed. We had a beaming smile when we saw this Vietnamese stall had moved inside the pub just a block away.

This is honestly some of the best Vietnamese we have tried. The venue (in the middle of a pub with TAB) can be a little off putting but stay for the food! Each and every dish we ordered was delicious and we enjoyed speaking to the owner who has been serving up Vietnamese food since 1986. <br/><br/>For starters we had the fried spring rolls and grilled charcoal and betel beef wrapped in lettuce. These were full of flavour and left us feeling excited for the mains. If you like rare beef you must try the lemon beef salad a refreshing and unique dish that came recommended. The lemongrass beef noodle salad was fantastic value at $12.50 and is more than enough for one person. <br/><br/>A great little find for lunch or dinner - trust us you will love the food!

Bo 7 Mon Thanh Tam is a quality Vietnamese restaurant that has been in Business for over thirty years. It has operated out of Surry Hills, Market City and has now taken up residence in the nearby Mount Batten Hotel Situated on George Street in Haymarket. This restaurant is now on our list of recommended Pub meals. Bo 7 is run by the friendly owner Phil who has great passion for the food that hits the table and takes pride in providing the best of service. <br/><br/>Not only is the food good, it is reasonably priced. We shared a range of dishes to start including the stuffed chicken wings with crispy skin and a tasty chicken mince stuffing. The bo la lot - bo nuong, and the bo la lot nuong than both with charcoal beef in betel leaf was a flavour explosion and the latter added to a lettuce leaf cup with fresh mint and bean sprouts which added freshness of the salad and textue through the crisp lettuce cups and bean sprouts. The spring rolls did not last long at all, we devoured them quickly. All of these dishes were served with a dipping sauce to further enhance the flavour.<br/><br/>The shredded chicken salad a good healthy option. Came out nicely plated with large house made rice crackers and the salad with a well balaced dressing. All elements combing to give each bite a nice balance of flavour. We love bun bo hue a spicy Viet noodle soup. This was not too spicy, it was super tasty with the broth doing plenty of time. The portion was quite large with plenty of beef and noodles, defenitely one for the hungry.<br/><br/>The Mountbatten is your typical pub with beer on tap, plus your usual including wine. However they have a trump card in Bo 7 which serves up quality vietnamese food at a great price.

Very good food here pho is great so are the salads as well as very clean. Great Vietnamese coffee I often come here on my trips to Chinatown

Had a mad pho craving that I could squeeze in 30mins and had no choice but to try food court food. Luckily it wasn't horrible, it was actually decent though average.<br/>They didn't have fresh chilli, which was a disappointment and had pickled chilli instead which was interesting. Pho came out less than two minutes which helped.<br/>Service of the staff were efficient. They understood English (big plus!!!).<br/><br/>Not bad, I wouldn't mind returning here if I had to.

Fairly decent Pho, but excellent crispy skin chicken. The deep fried and pre cooked stuff seems too oily and not very authentic to me. Friendly service and the only choice for Vietnamese in Market City.

Good pho , soup is nice and taste authentic! The quality of ingredientsbis an average but the soup can make it up for sure. Instead of the tranditional beef pho, port noodle soup with abit of spic is recommended too!

Owner Phuoc Hoang is a veteran with a career stretching over two decades all around Sydney. Noodlies first met him at his buzzing Crown Street restaurant in Darlinghurst, followed him to Bankstown and Canley Heights. <br/><br/>They offer three choices and rice at the bain-marie, but skip that, everything is fantastic on the a-la-carte, especially Vietnamese pancake, broken rice and bo luc lac. Noodlies rates this as the best pho in the CBD (below), gulp it down with Vietnamese drip coffee.

Ordered beef pho and noticed there was very little basil and no bean sprouts when I went to collect my food at the counter. I enquired about it and was simply told they ran out, with no apology or attempted remedy. They should have said so when I was ordering as I would have ordered something else. Bad experience.

LeeLoo’s favourite Vietnamese dish is the popular broken rice with pork chop. Now, it’s not usually available from food courts as it’s typically served at Vietnamese restaurants/diners so when LeeLoo saw this menu item at the Market City food court, her eyes lit up.

The setup here is a little different to most places I’ve been, as it’s in a food court. You have to load up on your hoisin and chili before leaving the counter! The broth was sweet with a nice flavour, the beef was not predominant. I ordered bo tai but the meat was quite grey, even at the beginning, and was already sitting under the broth. There were fewer noodles in the bowl than I’m used to and the ka phe is not on par with anywhere in Vietnam (not enough condensed milk!) but was decent. I found the second half of the bowl pretty difficult to get through as the flavour got a little “same same”. Still, overall a decent pho that is worth the trip, and the set ($11 for that and the ka phe) was good value. View Larger Map Tagged: Haymarket , ka phe , market city , Pho , Sydney

Tucked away in the basement of Bar Hunter is one of the better options for decent Vietnamese around the financial district area. Compared to the popular Malay Chinese next door, there is a lot more seating options available, although the restaurant is becoming increasingly popular so it's probably best to avoid the peak 12.30-1.30pm lunch hour slot. The lunch time $10 meal sets are excellent value and today we tried the Beef Noodle Soup set which comes with two fried wontons, beef noodle soup ($9 by itself) and one drink. The soup was flavoursome, clean and the perfect remedy for the cold Sydney weather. We also ordered the steamed Chicken with Noodle which was on their monthly special menu ($9.50). The chicken is moist and tender, and comes in a generous serving size. The vermicelli noodle soup seems slightly bland compared to the beef noodle soup, but nonetheless warms you up and doesn't leave you thirsty afterwards. Overall a cheap, fast and decent meal in the city. Fried wontons Be

...this broth was so good. It was broth that I actually wanted to drink. And if I wasn't so terribly full I would have drunk it all. So yes, try this.

y far, our Favorite Vietnamese place for Bun Bo. AUD 10 and you get a soft drink, a main course and 2 fried dumplings.

Options for decent Vietnamese around the Hunter Street area is pretty limited so it's good to see this place gaining popularity over the months I've been casually visiting. Sometimes during peak lunch times it gets so popular I can't get even get seat (which isn't good for me), and there's a lot of seating available compared to Malay Chinese next door. I've discovered another favourite of Fried spring rolls ($6, 4 pieces) which reminds me of the ones at Pasteur which you wrap in lettuce with fresh mint. The new special of Steamed chicken rice ($8.50) is pretty moist and tender as hoped and comes with soup and

a Vietnamese restaurant I reckon is one of the better ones in this neck of the woods.  

Not the rest I reviewed!!. Just to ammend my terrible mistake: the amazing vietnamese rest I reviewed in my previous post is Pho TK next to Thaikee IGA in haymarket!<br/><br/><br/>-----20 Nov, 2014-----<br/><br/>Best hidden gem in Chinatown!. Walked in for a late lunch to this Vietnamese rest and had a great surprise! The serving is generous, service is fast and the menu has many options for people that do not like pho or soups (great for lunch with colleagues). I ordered Bum Mam and will be having it many times more!

Not bad. I think the best way to rate Vietnamese places is there broken rice combination and spring rolls and pho. <br/>I can only eat so much so it was the first too. <br/>The spring rolls were ordered so its not in the window area and the tasted nice. MY broken rice though missed something, the pork paddie cake which i love which is a shame.<br/>Still its a decent enough place to have Vietnamese food at

The 80's/90's music was hilarious. Beef pho was good, however service was not great. This is an underground bar with a viet rest attached. Nothing fancy but edible and cheap

This restaurant has the greatest specials board and menu. Where can u get quail for $4.50, that is a steal and mega tasty, these Vietnamese fresh summer rolls and prawn/bead curd skins are a tasty delight too, the menu I will leave out as u can all see them on the web site, Bon appetite . Cheers John