CỦI
Banh beo and banana-leaf tapioca dumplings are rare in Austin, and this kitchen leads with them. The pho uses smoked brisket.1
Why go
This is a small room in a McNeil Drive strip in North Austin, and the whole point is that the two traditions on the card are cooked as one thing rather than staged against each other. Nicolai McCrary reviewed it for The Infatuation on 30 June 2026 and declined to put a number on it, saying he wants to come back first, which is worth reading as a real signal about a kitchen still scaling. What he did commit to is that the mashup does not read as a mashup: the classics arrive wearing a pair of cowboy boots.
1 The hard-to-find Central Vietnamese items are the reason to make the drive north, and the smoked-brisket pho and the caramelized-fish-sauce rice bowls are the reason to stay.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the banh beo and the banana-leaf tapioca dumplings first, then the smoked-brisket pho. That order puts the Central Vietnamese half in front of the Texas half.1
- Avoid: arriving late with a table of six. The review describes a tiny room still scaling up from its opening.1
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation, Nicolai McCrary (30 June 2026), unrated by choice:
Stick to the standards or go as new-school as you'd like, there's no wrong move here.
1 - The same review, on why it is not a gimmick: the food reads as
classics wearing a pair of cowboy boots
rather than a collision.1
Good to know
- Which door: 7318 McNeil Drive, Suite 109, in the strip off McNeil in far North Austin. Austin Public Health still knows the suite by its previous tenant, a pizza shop, so search the address rather than the name.3
- Booking: nothing published. Walk in, and go off peak given the size of the room.
- Hygiene: Austin Public Health has never inspected this business, or has not published it. The suite's last published inspection belongs to Boss Pizza Co, the previous tenant, which is missing data rather than a finding.3
- Getting there: McNeil Drive near the Parmer and 183 corner. This is a drive from central Austin, twenty minutes off peak.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: Several recs
Verdict
could-visit — Central Vietnamese cooking is thin on the ground in Austin and this kitchen leads with it, banh beo and banana-leaf tapioca dumplings ahead of anything smoked, then runs the barbecue half through the same pantry rather than beside it. The Infatuation reviewed it in June 2026 and deliberately withheld a score, saying it wants to revisit, which is the most honest thing anyone has published about a room this new. That withheld number is also the ceiling here. One unrated review is the whole critical record, no price is published, the room is small, and Austin Public Health has never inspected the business under its own name. Go north for the rice cakes and the brisket pho, and go early.