Van's Vietnamese Restaurant

Always fantastic. I was very hungry - delicious soup and had enough to take home. One of my favorite places to eat in the Capital District. Also excellent - the half roasted chicken and the chicken salad - exceptional seasoning and flavors. Note: no separate checks for over 5 dining together. They do take credit cards.

Best tofu steak ever made, anywhere by anyone. Sadly, it's so big, I am not medically allowed to do more than have a corner of my companion's order. So..., ginger salmon is also amazing, as are the soups, summer rolls, and pretty much anything else I've tasted. And huge portions, modest prices. Just go already. (Make a reservation, just in case.)

I've been coming to Van's for the past 5+ years. Every time it does not disappoint. Real authentic Vietnamese cuisine and service is always fantastic.

Great dinner, we both had a great overall experience, definitely a new favorite. We ordered the summer rolls to start + main courses. I ordered the Grilled marinated lemongrass chicken and Jon ordered the Grilled pork with the noodles. We both had leftovers. Wine is inexpensive and affordable with your meal @ $6 a glass. The place was packed, with 15 out of the 20 tables filled and two waitresses + kitchen staff running around filling glasses and bussing tables.If you plan on visiting on a Saturday night, maybe call ahead because we arrived around 6 and it got super busy after us. Definitely a favorite restaurant for great Vietnamese.

One of the best pho’s in town.

Under the weather and it’s cold in NY. This pho was exactly what I needed. They don’t give you the wide selection of ingredients like the pho joints I’m used to, but the pho was so good that I forgot about them.

Decent Pho. Slow service, at least when I was there for lunch on a Saturday afternoon.

I went to Van's just after noon on a Tuesday. It was not crowded at all and service was extremely fast. There was only one other table there when we got there, but 4 more tables arrived while we were there. Everyone at my table ordered some pho, which came out less than 5 minutes after we had placed our order. The soup was very flavorful and rich. I'll definitely be going here again.

Delicious food! The shrimp summer roll and the peanut sauce was nice, the Pho Ga was mild and flavourful. The boneless crispy duck was a surprise..the outer layer of spice was superb! The Vietnamese Hot coffee with condensed milk is a must try..overall good service!

Great food. Had to wait long for our order to be taken after being seated. But the food came out quick and was really good.

I love this place but they really need to update the space. It wouldn't take much to add new lights and paint and maybe some room dividers to break up the space. The food was wonderful except my curry dish was a little to thick, like they had used thickener in it.

I usually not comment bad review. This restaurant have one of the best quality food but the women staff that works really horrible, always tips.Lady who has long black straight hair is so rude. I will never try again.

Great BBQ chicken with noodles

Pho soup is amazing.

They let homeless people come in off the street and beg at our table while we were eating, and there was one server for the entire restaurant. The atmosphere (tile floors, lighting too bright, poor quality chairs) feels like a school cafeteria.

Very nice pho place. We had the very authentic pho tai ( flank steak ) and Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk. The recipe tasted original except the replacement of bird eye chillies with jalapeños.

The food was delicious, but the service was terribly slow. We waited over an hour for our food and the waiter forgot our appetizer.

I usually try to go to a place multiple times to get different dishes before making reviews, but pho is like the cornerstone of Vietnamese cuisine. I went during lunch time and there were a busy number of people eating, with only 2 or 3 servers, but the servers were on top of everything. I ordered traditional pho with flank, brisket, and meatballs and the service was friendly and quick from start to finish, even though it was sort of busy. The food tastes great, and there was a lot of it, with bowls going for around $9-$14. They had everything I wanted to add on the side too. The place is spacious as well, so it won't ever feel crowded or like someone might bump into you. Recommended.

The half roasted chicken with rice, ginger, salad and nouc mam makes me weak in the knees. Pho is heavy with flavor, like a primordial soup for the soul. No frills, just seriously good comfort food.

Delicious and fresh, the duck in particular was exquisite, both the boneless and bone in

Generous portions + Quality Flavors + Consistency + Excellent Staff = 5 Stars. 👍

Delicious food. Authentic taste of Vietnam. Best in the Capital area.

Really good egg rolls and soup. Very friendly and efficient staff. Can't wait to try other dishes.

Food was absolutely fantastic, but service was very slow, 2 hours for simple dinner for 2 with an app. We weren't in a big rush tonight and will definitely return again - but not before a show!

Very good food. I always enjoy the food when I go to Van's. I've been going there since they were on Madison Ave. The decor leaves much to be desired but the food rarely disappoints.

Best Vietnam food you could get in capital district. The quality and service is great. Waitress are always asking for your satisfaction and will fix any problems for you.

Good pho and appetizers

Best pho in the upstate, the broth is flavorful. Unlimited condiments, and the meat was thick and tasty. The Thai tea was PERFECT.

We had a great lunch here. The Durian shake was great... if you are into Durian. The Vietnamese iced coffee was quite good as well. The vegetarian Pho soup was well flavored with fresh pepper, bean sprouts and basil and was plentiful. I feel that it can actually be somewhat difficult to make a large piece of tofu taste good but somehow their huge tofu steak was very good with a spicy peanut sauce, asparagus, cilantro, pickled daikon and carrot and tons noodles. The staff was very friendly and helpful, I even witnessed one chase down a customer who had forgotten his credit card.

Best crispy egg rolls in town!!!

Everything was so delicious. I am from Seattle and there are a lot of pho places there and when I moved to Albany I could not find one! But the staff was very nice and polite. The food was brought out promptly. My fiance and I loved everything about the restaurant and we will be back again soon.

Some of the best Vietnamese food in the Albany area, worth a visit

Van's is so amazing. Their ramen is THE BEST ramen I've ever had. The service was very good super friendly staff and very quick and attentive. Will be going again. If you stop in their try one of their smoothies. You will not regret it at all.

Great food. Carefully prepared.

Great food and atmosphere. Even their takeout is great!

Best pho in town

Great food and service as usual!

great beef pho 🍲😋

The best Vietnamese cuisine in Albany.

Amazing food, masterfully prepared by an attentive Vietnamese family.

I tried the crispy duck and it was really amazing and cooked perfectly. The spring rolls were also great. I can’t wait to go back and try more dishes.

I used to love this place, but service tonight was horrendous. It took over an hour to get our soups, a waitress didn't even check on us once, my friend got a wrong soup, they didn't give us any napkins, we were completely ignored the whole time... We're definitely not going back!

Will always stop for a great meal when we are in Albany. Vietnamese at it's best.

Wow. Very authentic broth! Came for an orientation at UAlbany and was tired of the lack of cultural diversity in cuisine. This place knocked it out of the park! Loved the pho and the pork chop was char grilled. Def coming back!

Van's has the best pho in Albany! They are very consistent and have very fast service every time I've gone. The pho is delicious on it's own, but they also have add ins included on the side (like, basil, bean sprouts, etc) so you can customize it. The flank steak is the best in my opinion, but the shrimp, chicken, and veggie options are also super yummy.

Well done Vietnam foods. We had few kinds of pho and vege dishes. Vege dish was very fresh and good. I like it! They put tofu in rice paper. Oxtail pho was really aresome. Deep broth make me happy.

Best French influenced cuisine by Vietnamese chef, Van, who has a long history in Albany! His mom opened the 1st in Albany Vietnamese place in a tiny brownstone on Madison over 25 yrs ago.Vans is a treasure & food is consistently excellent!¡!

Great food and wonderful atmosphere. Almost no wait time except maybe on the weekends. Highly recommend it.

I will pretty much eat anything, so don't take this review too seriously, but I think Van's makes food, especially the Pho, to compete with anywhere else. We went at 5PM on a Sunday and it was mostly empty. The credit card machine was down but they did their best to be accommodating. The waiter was a pleasure to talk with and answered all of our ignorant questions gracefully and actually seemed pleased we were there. The Pho itself was delightful and I have a hard time imagining the pickiest of eaters finding fault with it. Price was very fair, considering that one bowl is at least two meals for me, and the setting was bare but intimate and certainly didn't detract from our meal. Highly recommended if you're in the mood for some heart healing food.

very authentic vietnamese dishesaffordable pricepho has a deep flavorif you like vegetables you will love their tofu saladgrill chicken lacked some flavor but overall great place to visit if you feel for vietnamese food