diff --git a/src/node/server/serverPluginVue.ts b/src/node/server/serverPluginVue.ts
index e7ac4191ff9c24..8f11cde8314f76 100644
--- a/src/node/server/serverPluginVue.ts
+++ b/src/node/server/serverPluginVue.ts
@@ -319,7 +319,7 @@ async function resolveSrcImport(
   const importee = cleanUrl(resolveImport(root, importer, block.src!, resolver))
   const filePath = resolver.requestToFile(importee)
   await cachedRead(ctx, filePath)
-  block.content = ctx.body
+  block.content = (ctx.body as Buffer).toString()
 
   // register HMR import relationship
   debugHmr(`        ${importer} imports ${importee}`)
diff --git a/src/node/utils/fsUtils.ts b/src/node/utils/fsUtils.ts
index 7861a9e1dc90f7..6185ddcb27f400 100644
--- a/src/node/utils/fsUtils.ts
+++ b/src/node/utils/fsUtils.ts
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ const getETag = require('etag')
 interface CacheEntry {
   lastModified: number
   etag: string
-  content: string
+  content: Buffer
 }
 
 const fsReadCache = new LRUCache<string, CacheEntry>({
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ const fsReadCache = new LRUCache<string, CacheEntry>({
 export async function cachedRead(
   ctx: Context | null,
   file: string
-): Promise<string> {
+): Promise<Buffer> {
   const lastModified = fs.statSync(file).mtimeMs
   const cached = fsReadCache.get(file)
   if (ctx) {
@@ -51,7 +51,8 @@ export async function cachedRead(
     }
     return cached.content
   }
-  const content = await fs.readFile(file, 'utf-8')
+  // #395 some file is an binary file, eg. font
+  const content = await fs.readFile(file)
   const etag = getETag(content)
   fsReadCache.set(file, {
     content,