What’s the Deal With All the Bo Bun in Paris?

If you spend any time in Paris at all, you’ll soon start to notice bo bun, a dish of cold rice vermicelli noodles topped with stir-fried lemongrass beef, on menus all across town. Of southern Vietnamese origin, it has long been a menu staple at the city’s Vietnamese restaurants, and more recently it's been showing up at Cambodian, Laotian, Thai, Chinese, and French eateries as well.

The rice noodles are served in a bowl with fresh lettuce, cucumbers, mint, cilantro, bean sprouts, pickled carrots, crushed roasted peanuts, and lemongrass-marinated sliced beef that is stir-fried with onions just before serving. The dish is then dressed with nước chấm (a mixture of fish sauce, sugar, lemon, garlic, and chiles), and everything is mixed together tableside. It’s also exceedingly normal—in Paris, anyway—to top your bowl with fried pork spring rolls (chả giò in Vietnamese, nems in French).

Christine Doublet, assistant editor at Le Fooding, says that while bo bun has been familiar to Parisians for a decade now, it really catapulted into popular culture about five years ago. (You’d be hard-pressed to find a place in Vietnam that refers to this dish like the French do, though. There, it’s known as either bún bò, bún bò xào, or bún thịt bò xào. How the French ended up reversing the word order is something many of us would like to know.)

The recent emergence of "fancier" bo bun restaurants—places like Le Petit Cambodge, I Love Bo Bun, Paris Hanoï, and James Bún, located in neighborhoods not traditionally known for their Vietnamese cuisine—has helped usher the dish into the mainstream, although there are even better places to find a bowl of bo bun in Paris, such as in the city’s Chinatown districts.

Although bún bò xào is a classic Vietnamese dish, the beef version isn’t quite as sought after in Vietnam as it is in France. "Bún bò xào is still a common dish today in Vietnam, but a more favored option is bún thịt nướng, or cold vermicelli noodles with grilled pork," says Saigon-based filmmaker Bao Nguyen.

Vietnamese food has a long history in Paris. While mass emigration from Vietnam to the United States began after the fall of Saigon in 1975, the first waves of Vietnamese immigration to France started over a hundred years ago, following French colonization in the 19th century. During the colonial period, the French introduced ingredients such as carrots, tomatoes, onions, baguettes, and coffee to Vietnam; they also introduced the widespread consumption of beef. Unsurprisingly, Vietnamese "fusion" dishes like bánh mì, which incorporate French ingredients and techniques, remain particularly suited to the French palate. Bo bun, with its intoxicating mix of salty-sweet-sour, does too. It’s flexible and filling, yet still has the allure of a light, crunchy salad. No wonder le tout Paris adores it.

Where to get Bo Bun

Deana Saukam

Bo Bun at Pho Tai

Song Heng: This tiny eatery, located in a vibrant Chinese enclave in the Upper Marais known as Little Wenzhou, serves some of the best bo bun and pho—the only two items on the menu—in the city. Expect lines out the door. 3 Rue Volta, +33 1 42 78 31 70

Pho Tai: Name-checked by Alain Ducasse as one of his favorite restaurants in Paris. What more do you need to know? 13 Rue Philibert-Lucot, + 33 1 45 85 97 36

Tricotin: A busy establishment in the heart of Paris’s largest Chinatown, it specializes in dim sum, roasted duck, and shrimp wonton noodle soup, but also offers a satisfying bowl of bo bun. 15 Avenue de Choisy, +33 1 45 84 74 44

Pho Banh Cuon 14: Another notoriously popular Vietnamese eatery serving excellent pho and bánh cuốn (steamed rice crepes with minced pork) in addition to bo bun. You’ll know you’ve arrived when you see the long line stretching down the block. 129 Avenue de Choisy, +33 01 45 83 61 15