R & D Cafe in San Lorenzo - Phone Number, Reservations, Reviews

Superb service, lots of options, I tried bun bo hue it was decent but missing pig feet. Big portions I got large and super fast. Overall great place to come to if you need to be in and out quick, they also have a wide selection of Vietnamese food

My go-to guilty pleasure - garlic noodles with BBQ pork, so freaking good! I no longer live in the area, and none of the places within 40 minutes of me can compare to R and D. When I come into town to visit, I always bring a cooler so I can take a couple of meals home 😅😆LOVE their honeydew slush!

Great place for Phở. I usually go with #1, which have everything, and this place always have a lot of meat. Soup it tasty, so always satisfied. It could get crowded during busy times, since the place is not that big.

I'm a regular here and the food is always delicious and fresh.

Great chicken soup and chicken wings

Friendly owners and great service

Since it very close to school’s depending on what time you go there can be a crowd. But the food is amazing and love the Vietnamese sandwiches and thai tea !! Family run very nice people!! Very fast service too !! Especially for to go orders. Go try this place out especially if you never had a Vietnamese sandwich.

A small mom & pop shop in a little plaza. Parking's easy to find in the spacious lot, but there are often school kids biking or milling around in the afternoons, which can be a bit chaotic while driving. Be advised that they have a strict $10 minimum for credit cards! Otherwise, there's a bit of an extra charge. I really enjoyed my grilled pork bahn mi. Having tried both beef and pork now, I'd recommend the pork more. They get a really good texture on the bread (not too hard that it cuts into your mouth), fresh and crisp pickled veggies, tasty marinated meat, and a good sauce. Interestingly, their meat marinade appears to be more of a savory soy sauce than the typical sweet BBQ flavor you'll often find at other bahn mi places. It's good, though! The portion was great, and the price was reasonable. Note that the jalapeños can really pack some heat in these sandwiches. Even after picking out the slices, you still get quite a bit of residual oil left on the sandwich. If you're sensitive to spicy, please let them know while ordering to make yours without. I can't wait to try their other offerings, as well. I'll be coming by whenever I can for lunch!

They got me through my senior year of high school

Closed 3 days a week. Unbelievable.

TEMPORARILY CLOSED from June 18 to early August for vacation. Wanted to give a heads up to anyone else heading out there to avoid disappointment. Looking forward to coming back in August!

Bahn mi here is excellent and worth going out of your way for however the service from the main woman here, who I assume to be the owner is truly awful. She says very rude things about the high school customers in Vietnamese. They are young and probably a bulk of the weekday customers here so patience with them is necessary. The younger woman, who I assume is her daughter, is very kind and has excellent service.

Very authentic Vietnamese stop! Their store is small but service is pretty fast. We got the grilled beef bahn mi, the grilled beef spring roll and prawns. The bahn mi was crunchy in the outside, soft in the inside. The prawns were okay. They also have fresh coconut water and boba

Banh mi is definitely a must try here. I get two 😳

The food is fantastic! The freshest ingredients. It's a family owned business, and they are the best.

Best Vietnamese food in the area

I have tried going to many Vietnamese restaurant around Bay Area and R&D is one of the best -- not only for the taste but for cleanliness of their food. They also serve fast. Ten minutes is already a long wait. The staff are friendly and nice. What could you ask for?

what the heck was that? Had a great day celebrating my sons graduation from Law School and had resies at R&D for over 3 months to celebrate this milestone occasion. Food was amazing and the collective service was atrocious. It was almost weird that the entire Team from the server all the way up to the manger did not care about the experience they were trying to create and they would drop off food and not say a word or look us in the eye. there were no smiles and it was like the entire staff dreaded there job and could care less about the customer.. I am sorry but when I go to dinner and drop 300.00+ dollars and am expected to tip 22% on top of that I would expect that they cared about the experience they were trying to create for there customers. Left a bad impression all the way around for us. You guys need to make some changes!

I have had Pho at almost all the Pho restaurants in and around my city and by far R & D Cafe has the Best Pho in the Hayward, San Lorenzo, San Leandro Area. In my Opinion R & D Cafe and Le Soleil in San Leandro are the 2 best Pho places in not only my area but the whole Bay Area. #BM5 #LargecomboPho #freshspringrolls

This place is pretty hidden in the corner of a center near a grocery store. One of the best places I've had since being in the east bay and I didn't even try what they were best for. Will definitely keep coming back.

Everything I've had at this place is great. Only thing right now is you can't dine in.

One of my favorite spots. Love their Banh-Mi sandwiches and their shrimp spring rolls. Have been coming here since I discovered this cafe. Great customer service during the pandemic.

Always the best food and service!

I loved their pho and rice plates. The quality of take out food was as good as eating there (offer take out only due to COVID-19 Lockdown). I have to try the banh mi next time, I heard it’s good!

Perfecto desayunar comer y senar

Their Bahn Mi with grilled pork is one of the best Bahn Mi I've had so far in the bay, making this my second favorite spot after Siagon Sandwiches in SF. 10/10 would recommend.

R&D is a chow hall for me. Very reasonable price. Cash only. Food in good quanties. For now,only to go and closed at 7:00pm. For now when you order a 3 course dinner come with soup and rice,the milk tea is buy one get one free. I am a happy customer over there for many years

Great food for great price! Highly recommend

The food was delicious. Will get the dinner plate again.

Very large portions of delicious food at fair prices. Enjoy the garlic noodles and the spicy noodle soup (lots and lots of meat). Bahn mi are also delicious. Very cozy spot. The family that runs the restaurant is very friendly and welcoming.

Delicious food kind employees and the best spring rolls I’ve ever had.👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Best garlic noodles outside of Oakland and San Francisco. Great spring rolls too.

What a wonderful place to call or even walk in and eat. This is a family restaurant that welcomes everyone like if part of the family. Food is great and flavorful. Like the garlic noodles with tofu. Or a vietnamese sandwich in beef, chicken, pork or tofu. You have the same or even more options with the soup. The point is that you have plenty of delicious food to choose from.

Small place but big plate. Nice service. PS: Bun bo hue missing pork feet.

I’ve been here countless times now and have not had anything but a great food experience. Service is excellent and the food is delicious. I’m trying to go through the whole menu but always find myself ordering my favorites and figuring I’ll try something new on the next visit. Eventually I’ll try everything here.

Great place for great food. I always go with the chicken pho or vermicelli. Portions are huge! 👍🏽👍🏽

The one and only vietnamese restaurant in san lorenzo and it is legit.

This place is always consistent in qualities and quantities of food they serve. Most customers, including myself, feel sad when they take their vacation because it is hard to find another place like this.

My favorite place to go for Vietnamese sandwich. The staff is super nice and they make you feel very welcomed.

Fantastic as usual... My favorite restaurant in San Lorenzo. The food is delicious!

I live a few blocks away from this place. It’s my go-to for pho. Small, family-owned business. Owners will remember you even after only a few visits. Even just a regular portion of pho is filling. Pricing is good for the amount you get. Yummy pho for any day, especially when it gets cold around these parts (which is most of the time). This place gets pretty busy and sits probably about 20-25 people total. Sooo many people come in for take-out especially during lunch. One of the hidden gems of San Lorenzo.

Favorite ever BBQ pork over rice vermicelli. Best chicken salad: not fried, but shredded: tender, juicy and lots of it. Rachel shows pride of ownership every time.

Great spot run by great people. Love their garlic noodles, pork chop plates & iced coffee. Friends love the pho & bun bo hue. This place is about the food & can't say enough great things about R&D.

Always fresh food and hospitable atmosphere

Pork chops and garlic noodles...🥇👍

Fabulous neighborhood vietnamese food! Pho is great! bun is great bahn mi is great!chicken salad garlic noodles...what are you waiting for?

Great tasting pho dac biet, and banh mi

A hole in the wall kind of place. Great food and great service.

Love, love, love this family run business. We always have great food there. Although it’s small they turn the tables quickly, but you don’t feel rushed. There is a lot of take out. Their menu is extensive, and our large circle of friends and family have probably ordered everything on the menu at least once over the years we’ve been going there. The food is always fresh, Vegetables are never over cooked, the vermicelli bowls are out of this world, the garlic noodles are so yummy, Bon mi are always perfect, Can’t say enough about the shrimp rolls, and the chicken salad! And they will try to accommodate any special requests. Yes. It is terrific.

I love this family owned place. Great food, fresh and fast. Friendly service with vary reasonable prices. Pork meatball bon mî sandwich is my favorite. ♡

Family owned. They will treat you like family. They remember you by face and ask about your family. Delicious food. Check out the garlic noodles and their pho.

The best little mom and pops food in town!!

All the dishes they serve are quite delicious 😀👍🍜🍚🍵🥢

Love this place, great food . Super friendly staff. Bon mì sandwiches are off the hook.

Excellent meat and broth, friendly service, fair prices.

The food is delicious highly recommended

Love it here. Aside from great food, they are a wonderful family and I always look forward to seeing them.

A family run business. That's keeps strong ties and bonds with the local community. All the while serving delicious traditional Vietnamese food.

Always good food and a friendly family!!

Pho was great! Worth for a try.

The dishes are delicious and the service is friendly, reasonable prices. I recommend the green papaya salad. The garlic noodle dishes are excellent and filling.

Banh Mi and root vegetable smoothie. Heaven.

Good bowl of pho for a decent price.

Exceptional quality Vietnamese Restaurant. I ordered the Garlic Chicken Noodles. My wife had the Chicken with Vermicelli. Both came out very fast. The price and portions are epic.

Tonight with seafood soup fantastic lots of shrimp calamari fish cakes and lots and lots of varieties great soup

R & D café is our go-to spot for pho near San Leandro. It's the best I've tried in the bay area so far (haven't been to too many spots) and the staff is super friendly. If you have a little one they can provide scissors for the noodles and even though it can get packed I've never had to wait too long for a table. I will keep coming here as long as I'm in the area!

Good food, space is not big ENOUGH.

Came for a mid week dinner. They were not busy; only one other table had customers. A few take-outs cam in and one dine-in came in during our visit. The waitress told us to sit wherever and once we did so brought over some menu's and get a drink order. Once we put our order in the food arrived pretty quick. The wife had a beef, shrimp, and some various vegetables, as best I recall. Those portion sizes seemed good too. She was pleased and had no complaints. She said it tasted good and fresh. My sandwich was very good. I had a beef Banh Mi. The bread was very fresh and not hard or super crunchy like the sandwiches at some places. Likewise the beef was very fresh and served warm on my order. The vegetables were fresh and crisp. The restaurant was clean and presentable. Prices were fair The sandwich and dinner plate plus a Pepsi totaled less than $20. We will return.

Great tasty food at a very reasonable price. The staff is wonderful! Best tasting Vietnamese food I've tasted.

Delicious Pho, garlic noodles, and apps, cooked with care and attention to detail

I love this place we are greeted by name . They remember what we like and our favorites . Thank you for the outstanding service every time...

5 stars in relation to all the other Vietnamese within 20 mins. My go to spot for all things Vietnamese. Just really solid food and portion sizes.

One of the best pho places I've been to.

Its really good, give it a try 👍

Great service and food. A little expensive but not too much. Food was good. Tuesday at 1pm was not busy at all.

Fresh food and excellent customer service

Food is excellent ,service is great never disappointed

Delicious food, fast and helpful service. One of the best around.

R&D is my aunt & uncle's Lunch Spot of choice, and I have no complaints about joining them. The menu is extensive and the food excellent. Service is prompt and, being with regulars, actually familiar. Unless you are super hungry, order a small rather than a large, portions are generous.

The food here is to die for! Literally i love everything on the menu, even right now as i write this out im getting hungry. I recommend coming her and trying out there milk teas and sandwiches! Super friendly amd attentive staff, and its a place that very family friendly!

Moved to the area a few years ago and we stoked when we found this place. This is our Vietnamese restaurant. We don't even try other places because the food here is that good.

My go to Pho restaurant... Sometimes i get a sandwich once & a while. The family that owns & operates is so nice & their food is the best! I would recommend this place all day!

Amazing family owned neighborhood restaurant. The food and drinks are fantastic and reasonably priced. Banh mi sandwiches are a quick, delicious, and inexpensive lunch. Crispy rolls, spring rolls =yum. Green papaya salad is delicious and enormous. Grilled pork over noodles, garlic noodles, and pho rock it. People are always devouring the pho when I stop in....flavorful and filling. The tapioca pearl drinks and Vietnamese coffee ....fabulous! I could keep telling you what I like, but try it for yourself. You will not be disappointed.

Pho is always excellent! Fresh veggie compliments, flavorful tasty soup base. Vietnamese coffee and Thai tea are both nice & strong.

Just had an unexpected jewel of a dinner here! Very, very good. Very fresh, food...taste and quality are noticeable on first bite. I will be coming back here again and again....and bringing guests. Well done!! Friendly family running restaurant.

Great Vietnamese cuisine. Our favorite Vietnamese restaurant.

Found this place on Google after I got out of a business meeting... pho was excellent...spring rolls were delicious.... if I lived around here... I would stop by again...

I have eaten here twice. The first time, at six on a Friday evening, there were people waiting for tables after we had sat down at the next to last empty one. The second time, at five on a Thursday evening, there were only two other parties in the small, very plainly decorated dining room, which has about 15 tables. Several people visited to collect their carry-out orders on both evenings. The food is delicious for its category of lower-end Vietnamese food, but the selection is limited. Most of the dishes are based on raw vegetables and cold rice noodles. In the course of two visits, all of our dishes seemed to be served with same slightly tangy. clear, orange-colored sauce which made for rather monotonous experiences. On my second visit the grilled prawns (the only hot part of their dish of noodles and raw vegetables) were not de-veined and were slightly burnt. Even when the restaurant was full, service was prompt, cheerful, and efficient. Prices are very reasonable. Two appetizers, two main dishes, tax, and tip came to about $36. I would return, but not frequently, on account of lack of variety of preparation of the dishes offered on the menu. I also would not go on a weekend evening when the restaurant is apparently full and noisy.

I totally love this place. The food is always good and the people who work there are so nice. It's mostly local folks but when I come in by myself, I always feel welcome. Don't miss the wonderful Pho, sandwiches, drinks, etc.!!

Did you like my pun? Anyway I wasn't sure what to eat so I told the girl "give me what the white people eat." I got a number 10 or 11. Beef noodle soup. Bro. Hella good.

We love this place food is always wonderful. Fresh, and the staff is great. Great pho garlic noodles sandwiches and shrimp rolls

Amazing family owned restaurant with fantastic and friendly service. Their bahn mi is the best I've ever eaten across several Vietnamese establishments across the nation.

It's a good place to eat! I loved #32! Sooooooo good!

Amazing! I've been to at least 25 different pho spots all over the bay. This is the number one gold medal winner. I always get the beef noodle and they always make it when you order it and have the freshest produce and are very willing to give you extra whatever, and there small size is big compared to all the other places . and they do not skimp on the meat. And fair $

We came in a Saturday night and there was no wait, even though it is a fairly small restaurant. I got the grilled chicken with garlic noodles. It came with lettuce, cilantro, cucumber, pickled carrots and turnips, and fish sauce. It was very delicious and the portion was generous. Would come back again!

I have family in the east bay area, when visiting they always want to go to R & D for lunch, and I am happy to oblige. Yesterday we went and all four of us ordered differently. We had a serving of crispy spring rolls for appetizer, they were good. In the past we've had the shrimp spring rolls with were also good. I ordered Garlicky Pork and Noodles and it was DELICIOUS. My uncle ordered the meatball bun (sandwich); he inhaled it. My aunt ordered a shrimp and veggie soup, it was so big that she took home today's lunch; I've had it before and it was good. And my cousin ordered a beef pho, I tasted his broth and it was good too. Service is very friendly and quick. This place is on my GO TO list!

Nice little neighborhood cafe. I had some pho and it was very good. The fresh shrimp rolls were excellent.

Can not go wrong stopping here for great Vietnamese food, Closed on Mondays The Pho is extremely flavorful, the Bun is a huge bowl of fresh and delicious and the Com are very filling. The garlic noodles are some of the best I have eaten. Family owned and run, the service is very friendly, go there often and they will call you by name.

I just flew home from Minneapolis, MN (8 hours of travel and tired). The family was taking me out dinner so I opted for something light and quick. The menu is typical Asian – long, yet you will find many items that will tantalize your taste buds. We ordered the Steak and beef ball noodles (Dac Biet & Bo Vien #1) plus the Grilled Prawns and Garlic Noodles (Mi Toi Tom Nuong #59). The noodles were not heavy with garlic, this is a plus. While you are waiting for your order, look around and see what the other patrons are ordering. Everything is piled high with food or in really large bowls and all the food is eaten. Definitely worth the money here. We will be back.

great food, good prices, kind staff!