The Paper Bridge (Bún Chả Cầu Giấy)

I don't understand why this place is popular.

Food - The food was overpriced for the bland taste and small portions. I've eaten in Hanoi and this felt like an insult.

Atmosphere - The staff did nothing about the crying baby that could be heard throughout the entire restaurant for what seemed like 10 minutes.

Service - They're clearly understaffed and took 20 minutes to bring our receipt back after providing our credit card when we just wanted to go home at that point.

The restaurant clearly needs better management.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

Like being in northern Vietnam of Hanoi, this is the food you get to fall in love with. From the Bun Cha where Anthony Bourdain and President Obama had dinner you will find delicious food. Duck wrap and crab spring roll are starters and all is good. The servers are friendly and the em environments is lovely. Do check out some ester eggs on the walls for fun.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Top-notch atmosphere, service and food. Highly recommend reading all the food descriptions at the back of the menu. The cocktails were phenomenal as well!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

This is high end northern Vietnamese food so don’t expect cheap eats. Do not sleep on the lime snow. And get the bun cha! Their Dungeness crab spring roll is worth a try as well. I like their different takes on the pho noodles.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Pork Bun Cha, Dungeness Crab Spring Roll, Bun Cha Grilled Pork

We came to Portland from Seattle for 2 days, and we had lunch here for both days.

We had a 1 year old and a 3 years old and the place has been nothing but accommodating. The food is excellent. We tried 5 different dishes on both day and all of them were delicious. We would definitely return.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Pho Nam Dinh

I absolutely love how authentic and high quality the food is here. Their bun cha ha noi is unbeatable, and puts many of the Vietnamese restaurants in OC (FYI Vietnamese Food Mecca) to shame.

If you’re brave, try the bun dau mam tom for lunch on the weekend. It’s not for the faint of soul, but if you can get past the smell and organ meat, it is fantastic! I also love that they serve both of these dishes with all the authentic herbs that my family typically serves it with at home.

My husband also tried their pho. He loves the home made pho noodles, but the pho broth needs a little more depth and beef flavor, but still better than other pho restaurants around PDX. My only suggestion is for them to make the gio chao quay (fritter) more light and airy.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Really good spot for food. Pork rice cakes, carrot pickles, boiled peanuts, pho meat were all very tasty.

Our favorite dish was the pork rice cake and garlic 3 ways.

We'll have to get tea next time, it looks like a good place for tea.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Best meal I’ve had in a while . The service was so good . The skinny black guy was so so helpful and sweet . I ate all the little red chilis and they are fresh so so hot word of caution. This place is really special

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

--- drinks ---
Ca phe dua da ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
- needed to be mixed otherwise it was too sweet
- was a sipping drink for sure.

Hanoi mule ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- but it wasn't a mule it was totally a mojito

--- food ---
Ray muong ngam chua not ⭐⭐⭐
- pickled morning glory
- juicy
- a little too much for me

Grilled oysters ⭐⭐⭐
- wouldn't reorder
- it was a little too salty for me and I didn't love the texture

❤️Bun pho - bun Cha ha noi ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- you can make lettuce wraps or just eat it as a soup
- pork was so juicy and perfect
- didn't love the sausage
- but loved the pork belly enough that it was amazing
- loved the lettuce wraps

Food: 5

the sautéed water spinach was the hit of my first time visit. great vibe, totally cool setting and comfortable.

in many ways, it is like some of the new ethnic themed restaurants in portland, trying too hard. it has all the cultural details and sign posts to make you feel hip and back-street authentic. but what about the food?

its over priced and almost self conscious in its small portions, as if to signals the quality. it tries to incorporate the taste elements of the culture, but the items i had fall a bit short…almost bland. good for IG but its the mouth that counts. i most appreciated the garlic sharpness of the water spinach. well done, well priced, simple, ample portion - that tasted like back-alley street stand food !

the house made drinks and infusions are a need-to-try and unique. in some ways this place is a bar that has accompanying food and not vice-versa.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 4

Everything we ate was delicious. Decor was inviting and comfortable. Drinks were delish. the infused rice wine was strong but flavorful. I’m coming back for lunch and many more meals.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Dungeness Crab Spring Roll, Dungeonous Crab Rolls

Food and service were fantastic. It had hole I. The wall vibes and was very intimate. The cocktails were well crafted and used southeast Asian ingredients. The menu tells the story of the food very intricately. But most importantly food was delicious

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I've eaten in this restaurant twice. On the first visit, I was intrigued by the menu. Some of the dishes were pretty good, and the only weird hiccup involved a beverage. We ordered a cocktail from the "Blended" section which showed up on ice. I asked about it, and the server said, oh, the two drinks that are blended are these two, and pointed at the first two of seven blended drinks ... she offered to take it away and blend it, but due to timing considerations we declined.

This experience was still tasty and interesting enough to warrant a second visit. We made a reservation and returned last night with friends. The service was an embarrassment to the restaurant every step of the way. When we arrived, our friend already had a beer, as they beat us there by five minutes. Nobody approached to greet us or take a drink order for more than ten minutes. We had to ask to relocate, as our table, a reservation, was seated under a huge ceiling fan, in an intense wind tunnel. My friends wife said her eyes were watering it was so intense. My beer showed up after ten or so minutes, but my wifes cocktail order was lost, and we inquired with a runner about it after more than twenty minutes, since the staff was so scarce they were hard to flag down. We were seated right near the bar, so we could observe how flustered they were trying to figure out what happened to that ticket. The same runner returned with our drink. He was picking up a lot of slack, poor guy. The communication about food had the same vibe - no one appeared to look our way for ages, and when someone did come by, their manner was brusque and impatient. This is a large complicated menu which requires some thought and discussion. But the conversation was not conducted that way at all. The whole floor staff just seemed like they were in a hurry to ignore us and get out of there. After we ate some underwhelming food, featuring some overcooked rice noodles in a bland broth, and a few other items that were tasty, like the clams which were great, we paid our bill on a table overflowing with dirty dishes. The staff was clearing and wiping every other table without removing a single empty, dirty dish from ours.

There has been a lot of restaurant labor pool turnover here since covid, and it has never been more evident than on this visit. Lately after a good experience at a pdx restaurant, we always joke that we can't return because it will probably suck next time. That has never been more true than here.

I want to retain my optimism about restaurants, but it really sucks to spend fifty dollars per person on this kind of experience. It hurts other restaurants to fail this hard, since you've got us discussing on the way home how we can avoid wasting money like this for good, by improving our meal planning skills and never dining out. As former restaurant professionals and huge fans of the experience when it is done right, this kind of thing is honestly a bit depressing.

I'm tempted to wrap it up with some kind of vaguely agro sentiment like Get It Together Guys, but with the labor pool as I've experienced it on dozens of expensive occasions now throughout the region, I think it's a widespread social and cultural phenomenon, and it takes ingenious management and a super competitive budget to deliver a good experience consistently. Somebody at Paper Bridge wrote a cool menu which is highly intriguing to read, and some of the dishes come out tasty some of the time, but management here does not present guests with a well oiled hospitality machine - nowhere near.

I miss good restaurants.

Food: 2

Service: 1

My family and I had dinner here and the food was unique and delicious. Vegetarian frieny. The space is beautiful, very detail oriented. Kevin, our server was friendly, fast, and efficient. The owner even came out for a brief chat. She was so sweet and welcoming. Per the owner, the restaurant will have new specifial dishes this upcoming November. Definitely will come again!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Food was very tasty but definitely lacks being hot since they just brought it out and set it out on my table. Plus, it wasn't even busy. They had like 3 to 4 tables, if that. Service was mid at best, but the atmosphere makes this place for sure ?.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 2

Service: 3