Vietnamese restaurant in Suwon for crispy banh khot: Madam Hao

There are surprisingly lots of good-value, pretty full-spread places with great food around Ajou University in Suwon, but Madam Hao, newly opened in an alley, had so many customers every time I passed that I had to wonder about it. I already love Vietnamese noodle restaurants and go out for them often, yet this place felt fresh because it had some unusual menu items!

Maybe it is burnout, maybe it is blogger burnout lately—I felt some mysterious exhaustion where I was eating because I had to rather than because I wanted to... So here is my Madam Hao review, where a pretty full spread gave me a much-needed change of mood.

Getting to Madam Hao from Ajou University’s main gate

From Ajou University’s main gate, walk down toward the three-way intersection for about five minutes, then enter the alley between the Shinjeon Tteokbokki and Dongdaemun Yeopgi Tteokbokki signs.

At the end of the alley, turn your head right and there is also a well-known old-school hotteok shop in the area, where they knead the dough and make everything by hand. Save it for dessert, then walk about ten steps forward and suddenly it feels as if you have been transported to Vietnam!

About four cars can park beside the restaurant, but the spaces are rather tight, so I recommend parking on campus or at a nearby public lot.

Hanoi-style food and an open-air street-stall vibe

This newly opened spot serves Hanoi-style Vietnamese food, allows pets in carriers, and stays open until 3 a.m.

The folding doors were thrown wide open, giving it an open-air street-stall feel, and I heard the whole venue can be rented out too.

Further inside, the open kitchen looked clean, the owner seemed to be local, and there was plenty of room with four tables for four.

Madam Hao’s menu and table sauces

The menu is varied, but first, here are the signature items.

There is banh mi, Vietnamese fresh spring rolls, mango chicken salad, banh khot (mini Vietnamese rice cakes), and more.

There is also a Naver review event offering two free house-made cha gio (fried spring rolls).

Recommended signature-menu combination

Among the signature dishes, you can enjoy bun cha (charcoal-grilled pork with noodles), cha ca la vong (spiced grilled fish), and banh khot (crispy Vietnamese rice cakes) even more after checking the recommended way to eat them.

Complimentary bottled water and those irresistible little shrimp crackers—human kibble(?)—came out first. The table was set with chili sauce, hoisin sauce, and pickled garlic and onion.

Out of curiosity... I dipped a shrimp cracker in chili sauce, and its subtly sweet-salty flavor kept making me reach for more. It made me think of beer, haha.

A good-value bun cha and banh khot spread

For a good-value full spread near Ajou University in Suwon, this is what I ordered.

• Banh khot (6 pieces) ₩12,000
• Bun cha ₩13,000

I had not found a bun cha place around Suwon that made me think, this is it, even though it is one of my favorite dishes at Vietnamese noodle restaurants. But the moment I saw Madam Hao’s spread arranged so beautifully on plates inside a wooden basket...

I got even more curious about the name Madam Hao and wanted to dig in: charcoal-grilled pork with herbs, lettuce, nuoc mam sauce, rice noodles, and rice paper.

Generous bun cha with nicely springy noodles

The noodles were cooked with just the right springiness—not too firm and not mushy. Even after I took photos for quite a while, they loosened well in the sauce and stayed chewy.

To eat the bun cha, put a suitable amount of noodles on your plate, add charcoal-grilled pork, vegetables, and herbs, then pour over as much nuoc mam sauce as you like. If the sauce is too sour or sweet, you can ask for sugar or lemon.

The charcoal-grilled pork to pair with bun cha for lunch near Ajou University was generously portioned. I usually prefer lean meat, so it looked even more appetizing to me.

I cannot eat cilantro but I do eat herbs—an irony, haha. When I tried the herbs, lettuce, charcoal-grilled pork, and nuoc mam sauce together...

Charcoal aroma and sweet seasoning

The instant I tasted Madam Hao’s good-value bun cha, the sweet seasoning, rather like Korean pork bulgogi, worked so well with the chewy meat without any gaminess.

One bite with nuoc mam sauce and vegetables really conveyed it all at once: a portion, flavor, and value that Ajou University students would enjoy too.

Crispy banh khot, different from banh xeo

The banh khot I had been curious about before visiting Madam Hao looks similar to banh xeo, but banh xeo is a broad, thin pancake wrapped with bean sprouts and vegetables. Banh khot is cooked almost like it is fried in small round molds, usually topped with shrimp and dipped in sauce.

I also like cucumber and herbs, so their fragrance and crisp texture worked deliciously with the almost-fried banh khot.

Banh khot with a deeply crisp texture

It was my first time having banh khot at a Vietnamese noodle restaurant in Suwon, so I wondered what it would be like. It was cooked almost as if fried, but not oily at all—just crisp and light.

It was a fun, unusual and good-value dish to have near Ajou University: plenty of plump shrimp and that crisp texture made the mix of textures especially enjoyable.

The rice paper is not soaked in water, so it is firm at first. But once it meets the banh khot, vegetables, and sauce, it softens and comes together nicely.

Madam Hao made me think I had found a good Vietnamese noodle spot in Suwon. The banh khot ingredients were so generous that I loved making a fully loaded wrap with cucumber and herbs in rice paper.

Tips for making bun cha and banh khot even tastier

Wrap it in rice paper, then dip it—dip, dip—in the sweet chili sauce.

For lunch near Ajou University, adding the charcoal-grilled pork from the bun cha, fragrant herbs, and crunchy cucumber made a fully loaded wrap that was just perfect.

Honestly, I liked this bite even more than the rice-paper wrap... bun cha grilled pork, banh khot shrimp, cucumber, nuoc mam, and chili sauce all piled in together, haha.

Thankfully... my appetite came back! With rice noodles, nuoc mam sauce, chilies, bun cha grilled pork, and banh khot all tucked into a lettuce wrap—such a satisfying inhale!

My firsthand take on Madam Hao

Near Ajou University, Madam Hao is a place for good-value Hanoi-style noodles and Vietnamese dishes until 3 a.m., so you can comfortably enjoy both a meal and drinks. You may want to check out the good-value full spread in my clip video too.