BIA
“My main course was Pho Bo which is a small soup with thin sliced of beef and noodles.”
“We ordered shrimp spring rolls and pan fried pork dumplings.”
“I proceeded to order the pork chop on rice with a fried egg!”
BIA
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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BIA is clearly short staffed. For a place that seats 50+ there is one person who bartends, takes your order and another that cleans up the tables. To be fair, they are both working their asses off. But there are too many misses and uncleaned tables. Messy.
Upon entry, we could have sat anywhere we wanted but some tables weren't clean and the waiter/bartender was tending to others.
It's been 15 minutes and we still haven't received plate settings, utensils or water.
Asking him his preference of Oxtail or the curry noodle, he pretty much said "Ummmmmm" for about 20 seconds until his brain blew up and suggested the Curry for its flavor and balance.
Summer roll was good. But the shrimp is tiny.
Curry Noodle Soup
I had to go on a treasure hunt to look for a spoon. He said it came with grilled chicken. I didn't know it was 3 tiny pieces of boiled chicken breast. While the soup had decent flavor. The soup to food ratio was 5:1. The noodle was the thin rice noodle. Not vermicelli and they didn't give you much of it. But for $10, it wasn't horrible.
Bo Luc Lac was decent but for $14, they gave you very little steak. Definitely not as much as Cyclo.
Biggest issue is that they lacked the service today, yet they didn't acknowledge it or check up on their customers.
If you want good Viet food in LIC, try District Mot in Astoria. Even Cyclo is better.
It is ironic that this part of Queens can still be a food desert, so I am very grateful that BIA is now an option for lunch.
I have been here a few times and each time, I can honestly say I have not been disappointed with the food, but I was letdown by the service.
They have only two people working weekday lunches and given the popularity of the place, I think they could afford to hire one more person to help with serving out food and making customers' experiences quick and efficient. Lunch isn't a time people can dally about, it is about good food, in and out!
They have a decent menu selection. I have tried the steamed shrimp dumplings ($5.50), this is a decent dim sum appetizer, but for the price I wouldn't recommend it again. I really like their vermicelli ($10) which has an option of 2 side choices, which include veggie spring rolls, shrimp spring rolls, pork skewer, chicken skewer, grilled shrimp or tofu. I have had the vermicelli with grilled shrimp,tofu and shrimp spring rolls. This dish is fresh, light, tasty and great on a warm summery day.
I have yet to try the banh mi sandwiches or the curry dishes, but given that the rest of the dishes I tried were decent, I don't think these would disappoint and I will be back in here again for lunch at a future date. I just hope they can figure out their service situation the next time I come back!
Note: They also have good happy hour specials, so when I am in the area after work, I will try it out and report back!
Had a quiet dinner with a friend who's a regular at this place. She told me she keeps coming back because the location is great (across the street from the 7), the food is refreshing and fresh (true!) and most importantly, one of the hosts always plays 90s throwback music (also true!). I can see why she likes this place. I got the chicken banh mi which was great and she got a noodle dish. Both dishes were filling yet light. Service and atmosphere are great. Prices were really good. Good place for a date or dinner with a friend.
I really wanted to give this place a higher rating but I'm a stickler for service and the service sucks. I came in on a Wednesday afternoon and it was empty, it will stay that way if they don't improve on costumer relations. We weren't greeted, offered water or checked on. We had to hail the waitress down. The food was good but not good enough to endure bad service!
The overall rating for this place made me nervous to eat here, but the food was fine. The mixed vegetable dish was good and a nice size. Veggie summer rolls were heavy on the tofu and very light on the veggies, but fine all the same. (The sauce is a sweeter peanut sauce, not a chili sauce, for anyone wondering.)
I can't speak to the service issues. I came in on a Sunday afternoon, so it was relatively quiet, and my waitress was attentive and excellent. She seemed new, so perhaps that was in response to reviews?
I like BIA for happy hour. It is downstairs from where i work and has a great vibe, great service, great music, and strong drinks. And those chicken ginger lollipops are the bomb. But I was most looking forward to the pho which is mediocre. I've only had it once as take out. Perhaps it'll be different when I order it while at restaurant. Not sure. I went with my Vietnamese friend who said it was just ok and I'm from a highly populated Vietnamese area (east san jose, ca) so I have high standards for pho….hopefully they will keep working on their recipe to improve their pho. I'm really dying for good pho in NYC.
We had dinner here on a spontaneous weeknight date after work. The weather was still very cold so we both thought bowls of pho would be perfect for dinner. Bia is new to LIC but their sister restaurant in Brooklyn have been on my radar for some time. I liked the atmosphere and while it wasn't too crowded that night I've been told that it does get busy for happy hour and on weekends. The service was friendly and the drink options are pretty good. I had a local beer that was available on tap and a bowl of their bo kho served with noodles. Bo kho is a spicy beef stew with tomatoes and in Bia's version it had oxtail. It was delicious! The oxtail was just perfectly tender and the broth was perfect for a cold night. My bf had pho bo which was also excellent. I certainly wouldn't mind coming back here again for weeknight dinners.
Wow – I was very happy to find this place. First let me say, we only passed by here to get to the wine and liquor shop down the street and we were hoping to not eat out and cook in…. yet when we saw this place, and looked at the menu, and that the had a happy hour for later than most bars and restaurants, yeah… it was decided we would try it out! And I do not repent!
Again – keeping in mind our original thought was to make it a sty in home night, instead, we came here excited to try this new place in the neighborhood. We used to live in Hell's Kitchen, so lots of Thai places in every corner, but I don't think I have done much Vietnamese style food. Looking through the menu and seeing pictures quickly helped us with determining what we wanted to try! As appetizers, we ordered the fried chicken lollypops which were covered in a sort of sweet honey glaze with hot pepper. These had a bit of a kick to them. Luckily for me, all the tables have hoisen sauce that simply goes well with everything! In fact, I am not a big fan of heat and spice, and the sauce helped me through it. I never knew I licked hoisen sauce this much to be honest. I proceeded to order the pork chop on rice with a fried egg! This looked exactly as it did on the pictures on yelp (so I had to add my own as well) and boy oh boy! The flavors were amazing! The only thing I did not enjoy was the side coleslaw that came with my plate. The flavor was just not for me, though my partner loved it. I poured the carrot duck sauce over my white stick rice and opened my egg expecting the yolk to come down oozing.. sadly, my egg was probably a medium and not a large cause almost no yolk came oozing down, but I was also not planning to eat all the rice that they placed on the plate (which was a big serving). The pork chop itself was pretty big and another great part was that it was only $12 yet so filling!
My partner ordered a Pho Bo I believe (a beef noodle soup) and to be honest, it definitely smelled a bit weird when it came out, but the flavor was actually pretty good. I was originally going to get a soup as well, it was a coldish day out and gloomy, but I am so happy I changed my mind! Still, I tried his soup and thought it was pretty ok.
As for drinks, they have an interesting list of specialty cocktails, but I went for a cider, which I think was about $4. The cider was an Ace brand cider, the flavor was pretty nice. I recently discovered that some ciders are more dry and carry different flavors, and some just smell terrible. I recommend this one if you like dry ciders!
I just realized that while writing this review, I totally want to come back and get the same pork chop plate!
On a different point, the place is actually pretty impressive. The wall is covered in wooden shingles given it a shore type feel yet the tables and chars are mixed between wood, concrete and metal. Giving a real rustic type feel to this place. I truly appreciated that it was quiet through happy hour, mostly cause not much people were here. I did notice as we were leaving, more people came in for dinner. There was only one bartender that also worked as the host and server. So in a way, I guess it's good they were not packed, but I do hope the best for BIA, the place is great, the food is pretty good and I will most likely come back for more! It may be that they just opened a few months ago and need to do some advertisement.
Really happy to include this in my list of local restaurants!
Great place for a third date, chill environment and great food. Only reason I don't say first or second date is cause… well, location, it's kind of not the busiest area or not much happening around here… but don't let that stop you away from trying this place out!