Tonight we tried a fairly new Vietnamese place in the Eastlake Vons shopping center. My husband's co worker , who is Chinese (but raised in Vietnam) had eaten there recently and thought it was so-so. I had this place confused with the up and coming Pho Hiep Grill which is also next to a Vons, but in the Telegraph Canyon Road/805 strip mall. This place is way on the other end of Telegraph. Pho Vien Dong is near Eastlake Parkway. Telegraph Canyon Road turns into Otay Lakes Road if you head east. After the confusion, we found the place and had a late dinner at 8:10. By the way, this place closes early: 8:30 pm.
My expectations weren't that high, but I was still kind of excited that a Vietnamese place was close enough for me to go for lunch. The only other Vietnamese places I know of in the South Bay is this one hole in the wall on Broadway (northern Chula Vista) and this other Pho place in National City near 8th Street. It's pretty small inside and we got the last table. Turnaround is pretty quick here and business seemed brisk. That smiling guy was our waiter who was mega flirting with some young girls seated behind us. Perv. Just kidding. There was another older waiter who had a slight pompadour; I secretly called him Rockabilly. Clientele was mixed. Predominately Asian (Filipino, Vietnamese and couldn't tell what else), a few white folk, and Latinos.
Turns out they've been open for 2 months now. Their Pho Dac Biet (#1 on the menu) was, gulp, over $6!
We ended up getting the Chicken Soup for Bert, Pho with Flank for TC and Bun with char grilled shrimp and egg roll for me.
The condiments tray. I didn't like their dark green marbled table. Made my food photos dark and ugly.
My daughter's pho with flank. I ended up eating some of it towards the end because I was actually still hungry, but I did not "finish her food". I've made it a rule to never to finish her food just for the sake of cleaning off her plate. I don't care if it's "wasteful" or whatever, but it's not necessary to polish off a plate of your kid's food. I think that's why some moms (and dads) end up getting fat since they feel they need to eat their kid's leftovers. It may sound fkd up but it's true.
The rather skimpy plate of herbs. The bean sprouts kept falling off whenever we got some to put in the soup. The oval tray was too small. There were two sprigs of basil and a few pieces of sliced jalapenos on top of a pile of bean sprouts.
The Chicken Soup (I forgot the Vietnamese name for it). Bert thought it was just "okay". He said the broth seemed a little oily. The chicken pieces were in large chunks. Never having ordered this, I wasn't sure if this was standard.
It took FOREVER to get my damn bun. The only thing you need to cook is the shrimp and fry the egg rolls. The rest are cold noodles with cut up vegetables. I suspect that the pervy flirty waiter forgot because he was too busy flirting with girls young enough to be his granddaughters. I was kind of mad since the soups came out first and I waited more than 15 minutes to get my bun. Now you may think, "Fifteen minutes...wah, wah", but in Vietnamese restaurant time, that's a long ass time. Bert had to remind another waiter, a younger dude with spiked hair. After another wait and no apology from Mr. Player, my bun finally arrived and was served by Rockabilly. So here it is...my bun with char grilled shrimp and egg roll. I was pretty disappointed with this because there was NO MINT in there! What? Bun without mint? The noodles were alright but not great, and so was the shrimp (a bit smallish though) but I'm so used to having mint along with the chopped cucumber, carrots, and lettuce. Plus, no fried bits of pork fat on top like Phuong Trang and Pho Hoacalli. 
Despite their fkup with my bun order, I'm wiling to give this place another try. I will probably order something else off the menu which was your standard Vietnamese menu. Pho, Rice Dishes, noodle, dishes, etc. If I order bun again, then I will make sure that they put mint in mine!
My expectations weren't that high, but I was still kind of excited that a Vietnamese place was close enough for me to go for lunch. The only other Vietnamese places I know of in the South Bay is this one hole in the wall on Broadway (northern Chula Vista) and this other Pho place in National City near 8th Street. It's pretty small inside and we got the last table. Turnaround is pretty quick here and business seemed brisk. That smiling guy was our waiter who was mega flirting with some young girls seated behind us. Perv. Just kidding. There was another older waiter who had a slight pompadour; I secretly called him Rockabilly. Clientele was mixed. Predominately Asian (Filipino, Vietnamese and couldn't tell what else), a few white folk, and Latinos.
Turns out they've been open for 2 months now. Their Pho Dac Biet (#1 on the menu) was, gulp, over $6!
We ended up getting the Chicken Soup for Bert, Pho with Flank for TC and Bun with char grilled shrimp and egg roll for me.
The condiments tray. I didn't like their dark green marbled table. Made my food photos dark and ugly.
My daughter's pho with flank. I ended up eating some of it towards the end because I was actually still hungry, but I did not "finish her food". I've made it a rule to never to finish her food just for the sake of cleaning off her plate. I don't care if it's "wasteful" or whatever, but it's not necessary to polish off a plate of your kid's food. I think that's why some moms (and dads) end up getting fat since they feel they need to eat their kid's leftovers. It may sound fkd up but it's true.
The rather skimpy plate of herbs. The bean sprouts kept falling off whenever we got some to put in the soup. The oval tray was too small. There were two sprigs of basil and a few pieces of sliced jalapenos on top of a pile of bean sprouts.
The Chicken Soup (I forgot the Vietnamese name for it). Bert thought it was just "okay". He said the broth seemed a little oily. The chicken pieces were in large chunks. Never having ordered this, I wasn't sure if this was standard.
It took FOREVER to get my damn bun. The only thing you need to cook is the shrimp and fry the egg rolls. The rest are cold noodles with cut up vegetables. I suspect that the pervy flirty waiter forgot because he was too busy flirting with girls young enough to be his granddaughters. I was kind of mad since the soups came out first and I waited more than 15 minutes to get my bun. Now you may think, "Fifteen minutes...wah, wah", but in Vietnamese restaurant time, that's a long ass time. Bert had to remind another waiter, a younger dude with spiked hair. After another wait and no apology from Mr. Player, my bun finally arrived and was served by Rockabilly. So here it is...my bun with char grilled shrimp and egg roll. I was pretty disappointed with this because there was NO MINT in there! What? Bun without mint? The noodles were alright but not great, and so was the shrimp (a bit smallish though) but I'm so used to having mint along with the chopped cucumber, carrots, and lettuce. Plus, no fried bits of pork fat on top like Phuong Trang and Pho Hoacalli. 
Despite their fkup with my bun order, I'm wiling to give this place another try. I will probably order something else off the menu which was your standard Vietnamese menu. Pho, Rice Dishes, noodle, dishes, etc. If I order bun again, then I will make sure that they put mint in mine!
4 comments:
I'm up for giving it a try. Since I'm not a connoisseur, any pho is pretty good to me...
okay...let's go after the 21st (when i'm on vacation). let's hope that pervy waiter isn't there!
My coworker said he thought they could do better with customer service as well. The other thing he didn't like about the place was that it wasn't ventilated well. He said he could smell the beef broth on his clothes after they left.
bert
i think most vietnamese places make anyone (who orders pho) end up smelling like pho. unless there's a big vent above us, we're going to smell like pho.
i remember i had to take a shower that night because my hair smelled like the soup!
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