A Vietnamese “7 Courses of Beef” <-- What is it & how do you eat it?

7 Courses of Beef <- – Say What??

How much?

$18- $20 bucks a person <- – for realls??

It’s true.

Check it out:

In Vietnamese, it’s called “Bo 7 Mon,” which literally translates to “7 courses of Beef”

Once you order, the dishes come out fast so let’s get started. If you’ve never had it before, it can be kinda confusing because you’ll get flavors you’ve never tasted and methods of eating you’ve never used. (FYI- it doesn’t all come out like a tasting menu, it just…all comes out).

If you’ve never had Vietnamese food, I should also mention this is only for the adventurous ones, the foodies, and the non-lazy ones.

Tip #1: Wash your hands! You’ll be using your hands more than your chopsticks (or forks- if you’re just as confused with those hand crampers like I am).

Below is what you’ll see for the first round of food.

1. Beef salad: slices of cooked beef, carrots, daikon, celery, onions, herbs & peanuts- all tossed in a lemon dressing
2. Plate of assorted veggies: bean sprouts, cucumbers, shredded carrots, mint, basil leaves
3. Dry Rice Paper: used for rolling all your ingredients together
4. Bowl of warm water for the rice paper
5. Beef Carpaccio: very thinly sliced raw beef
6. A small “Hot Pot”: this is filled with broth to dip and cook the raw beef (cooks in like 5 seconds)
7. Fish Sauce “Nuoc Mam”: this is the dipping sauce used for your entire meal

Here is an example of how you begin to roll all that stuff into the rice paper:

1. dip the rice paper into the bowl of warm water (think of it as the tortilla to a burrito)
2. take a piece of lettuce & put it on top of the rice paper (this will be the base for all your other ingredients)
3. put anything you like: carrots, cucumber, pieces of meat, etc
4. roll it up… like a burrito

Once you start finishing off round 1, they begin to bring another 4 courses of beef. You can either wrap these, or they can be eaten alone with the hand crampers or forks.

1. Beef meatball: So this literally comes in a big ball. It’s more of a steamed meatloaf with mushrooms, vermicelli noodles, and seasoning. You break it up and grab however much you want for your viet burrito. You can also eat it with the white crunchy circular chip thing (see above)
2. Grilled Beef Lemongrass: grilled beef rolls with onions and lemongrass inside (my fav!)
3. Grilled Beef Lot Leaf: grilled minced beef rolls wrapped in lot leaf (with peanuts inside)
4. Rolled Beef sausage: these are super juicy and flavorful (you probably wont be able to fit any other meat into your roll)

To conclude the meal, they bring out a beef congee (rice porridge). I usually have a sip of this to help wash everything down.

And because 7 courses of beef wasn’t enough, I had to order the large catfish too. Jk, kinda. Not really tho- I’m a fat kid at heart. If you ever come to this particular location in San Jose (Anh Hong Restaurant), you HAVE to try their catfish. The skin is perfectly crisp and the meat is so flavorful.  They also have “7 Courses of Fish,” which is an awesome alternative for those who don’t eat red meat.

Here are just a few locations that serve “7 courses of beef” aka ” Bo 7 Mon”

San Francisco, CA

Anh Hong Restaurant:

808 Geary St
San Francisco, CA 94109

San Jose, CA:

Anh Hong Restaurant:

San Diego, CA:

Phuong Trang:

4170 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
b/t Armour St & Othello in Kearny Mesa

Los Angeles, CA:

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