Suwon Vietnamese lunch: ₩12,000 beef bibim rice noodles, Madam Hao

These days I sometimes crave clean, light Vietnamese food like pho or bun cha~ So this time my husband and I visited Madam Hao, a Vietnamese restaurant near Ajou University in Suwon.

What does Madam Hao look like, and where do you park?

Madam Hao is a Vietnamese restaurant near Ajou University in Suwon, and we parked at a nearby public parking lot and walked over. The exterior already gives off a strong Vietnamese vibe, so I was excited even before going in!! I especially loved the wood-tone interior, which gave a warm, exotic feeling!

Below are the interior photos. Like I said above, isn't the store's interior so nice? This wood-tone style really suits Vietnamese food.

Madam Hao's menu and how tablet ordering works

Below is Madam Hao's menu. We picked beef bibim rice noodles and bun cha! You can order easily using the pad below :) I already love Vietnamese food, so I was really excited this day too!! I especially love bun cha, and seeing other tables around us eating a lot of bun cha only got me more excited.

There's also a Naver review event going on, so if you visit Madam Hao, try it out!! You get 2 cha gio (Vietnamese fried spring rolls) free.

Ta-da, all our food arrived. Lunch was a bit late that day so I was even hungrier than usual!! But of course I couldn't skip the photo:) The plating was so pretty that I took my photos before starting to eat💖

Beef bibim rice noodles, ₩12,000

The first dish is beef bibim rice noodles, ₩12,000. The sauce for the beef bibim rice noodles came separately, and pouring it all in and mixing brought all the flavors together nicely. It's packed with vegetables so it felt healthy and tasted great too~ Also, eating the beef and vegetables together made for a pretty filling portion!! And if you look at the photo, there are peanuts on top — I picked them out one by one with my chopsticks and they were so nutty and delicious!!

Since it's bibim rice noodles, gotta mix it well!! I stirred hard with my chopsticks to get the meat, veggies, and sauce all mixed together!! With the weather so hot lately, I've really been craving these mixed noodle dishes -!

Bun cha, ₩13,000: noodles and meat in a bamboo basket

The second dish is bun cha, ₩13,000. We also ordered bun cha, which really has that Vietnamese feel!! Here at Madam Hao, the noodles and meat come in a bamboo basket, kept separate — it looks pretty and also means the ingredients don't get mixed up while eating, so you can eat cleanly. The moment the bun cha arrived, I was like 'gotta take a photo of this' and snapped away haha.

Vietnamese bun cha comes with thin noodles and meat served together, and you dip the noodles and meat into a sweet-and-sour sauce and eat them with vegetables~ Especially the sauce is a total kicker, so I always dunk my ingredients completely into the sauce haha. It really does seem like bun cha tastes best when you dip a bunch of ingredients into the sauce all at once!! Dipping the meat, veggies, and noodles into the sauce here at Madam Hao was so delicious🫶

Is Madam Hao worth a lunch near Ajou University? Final verdict

Overall, the dishes we tried at Madam Hao this time were full of vegetables, and you get to eat meat and noodles together, making for a satisfying but not heavy meal~!! I'd especially recommend it to anyone who loves dishes with that authentic Vietnamese feel, like bun cha!! From the exterior to the interior, the Vietnamese atmosphere really came through, so it genuinely felt like being in Vietnam, and it was a great date spot too~ The portions were decent while the prices stayed reasonable, so being able to have a satisfying meal at a fair price was a real plus. I think I'll remember Madam Hao near Ajou University as a great date-restaurant option in Suwon!! You should all give it a visit too:)