Once a tiny space with a serpentine menu, BoBo Café has grown along with Sacramento’s appetite for good Vietnamese food.
The original BoBo Café on Madison Avenue has been joined by three other s in the Sacramento area over the past few years. Time and expansion, however, haven’t diluted the food quality or the preparation time, which is quick enough to rival many fast-food stop.

Vietnamese dishes incorporate meat, poultry, fish and vegetable with ginger, lemon grass, cilantro and chili, among other ingredients.  Dishes are served with rice or rice noodles and peanut, red chili or fish sauce.

Note: the searing red chili sauce should be used with caution.

Incorporating color and simplicity, Vietnamese food is a mélange of clean and fresh flavors. It is sometimes assertive, seldom boring. And BoBo Café delivers traditional Vietnamese food in all the right ways.

If you are sampling Vietnamese food for the first time, you might order shrimp and vegetables rolled in cold rice crepes ($3.75 for six). Rolls, eaten by hand, can be dipped in peanut sauce. Cold rice crepes also can be ordered with shredded pork ($3.55) or charbroiled pork ($3.55).

Sauteed  beef with ginger ($5.75) is another delicious way to be introduced to BoBo Café and Vietnamese cuisine, On the day of our visit, the slices of beef had been trimmed of fat, and the dish exuded the slightly sweet, slightly hot taste of ginger. We’d also recommend charbroiled pork and plump shrimp ($4.65) served over rice noodles.

Lemon grass chicken ($4.25), the pieces speckle red from a chili seasoning, varies in heat intensity. We’ve had it fiery and surprisingly bland at BoBo Café. This time, the pieces of chicken, arranged over steamed white rice, were spicy enough to make you notice but not hot enough to blister your lips.

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FAST FACTS

BoBo Cafe

Where: 5412 Madison Ave. (at Garfield Avenue) 348-1750

Best bites: Sauteed beef with ginger., charbroiled shrimp and beef over rice noodles, rice crepes with shrimp and vegetable, lemon grass chicken with chili spices.

Of note:

BoBo Café is open

11:00AM to 9:00PM.

Monday through Saturday, Closed Sundays.

The same hour apply at the other BoBo Café locations:

1821 Douglas Blvd., Roseville;

2932 Fulton Ave.(Town & Country Village); and 6972 Sunrise Blvd.

Soups are not available for takeout orders.

Food: ***1/2 (out of four)

Ambience: **1/2

Bobo phone number is (916)348-1750