Their best is 30 Rmb for some great tasting noodles. I visit them almost weekly, I don't think there is anything on the menu that doesn't taste good. Furthermore they are open till midnight normally (they will close earlier if nothing is going on, not unusual in CN).

A recent visit to Muse left me with mixed feelings--both Dismay and Bliss.

Dismay: Soup and Soda
The sour shrimp soup was...strange. Too sweet and not sour enough, we each took a taste, picked out the shrimp, and left most of the soup untouched.

The lime soda was not made with fresh lime juice (despite the presence of a fresh lime slice) but was made with an overly-sweet and artificial tasting lime syrup.

Mediocre: Spring Rolls, both fresh and fried
The fresh and fried spring rolls were just ok. Both were bland and rather tasteless, but not unpleasant. A few herbs or pickled veggies tucked in would fix things up nicely.

Bliss: Pho and Coffee
The Pho had excellent broth and could only be improved by the addition of lime (lemon just isn't the same) and a few more herbs to throw in.

The coffee...WoW!!! My usual thoughts about Vietnamese coffee in Beijing are "nice but not strong enough." This coffee was actually strong enough and even with ice it wasn't too watery.

So go for Pho with Coffee and bliss out!

What is it with people voting for places just because they're in Sanlitun? There are better Vietamese places in BJ - this place might look nice and have decent service (surely reasonable expectations for a restaurant!), but the menu and actual food are fair to middling, nothing special. I wish people would take time to explore a bit more and stop voting for the same old places just because they get stuck in Sanlitun!

Chaoyang Location;

Came here today at lunch for the pho. I don't give a rat's about the other stuff.

First impression was that the place was very clean and neat. Almost sterile if it weren't for the few patrons eating there. I did not feel the instinctive need to watch where I step or where the edge of my coat brushed against which was most pleasant.

The process of receiving the train lights (or whatever they called it) meal was on par, the sprouts, basil, coriander (cilantro to the yanks) and lemon came out first on a little platelet. However the pho itself came out with what appeared to be pre-cooked meat instead of the thinly sliced raw beef placed into boiling hot broth just before serving.

The broth in a good pho will have absolutely no hint of anything tasting like something that came out of an instant noodle packet. That aftertaste of artificially induced umami, slightly plasticy in a sense. A good pho broth tastes of freshness and sweetness (鲜）.

Unfortunately, this pho broth did have that artificial aftertaste, and was heavy on salt instead of flavour. The flavours of cinnamon, lemongrass and star anise as well as the beef consume in a good pho are all well absorbed by the rice noodles. Salt is not, and merely covers the outer layer of the noodle. However the sum of its parts seemed correct; you had your onions, cow bits and rice noodles in there.

I would say this pho is only merely on par, if not slightly sub par judging to international standards. Not sure how it compares in Beijing as I have yet to try the other pho places.

2 stars for the pho
4 stars for the hardware and amiable service.

overall 3, as it's not stupidly priced like many other places that target laowai.

Some might think that around 30 rmb for some noodles is expensive, however they taste great. I visit their SLT branch almost weekly, I don't think there is anything on the menu that doesn't taste good. Furthermore they are open till midnight normally (they will close earlier if nothing is going on, not unusual in CN).

Went to the Guanghua branch yesterday for lunch and was less than impressed by their Muse Special set lunch (which on the menu looks quite delicious - but in reality comes with far less generous of portions and far different looking strips of pork.)

Had an order of the fresh shrimp rolls, which were decent - as it's hard to go wrong with such a simple dish.

I've had their lunch set meals in the past and the experiences have ranged from pretty good to pretty awful. This time around fell closer to the latter category.

The place was empty, perhaps due to post holiday doldrums, but meals like that make me doubt their long term outlook.