The kids were nearby (as were the birthday celebrant's parents who went to a nearby ramen place). We were across the freeway at a newly opened Vietnamese place...
which I first saw from Kirk's recent post (linked at the end; you can read his post for more info on its origins).
It's quite spacious inside and divided half with this partition. Our servers were very nice and friendly. The place had a nice mix of clientele, from Vietnamese to us (there was a three generation family there plus the lone Caucasian husband), some Latino guys who just got off their shift) they were all in their uniform) and quite a few families plus young college kids.
The chopsticks were in a nice wrapper (and were NOT red or green). No wooden chopsticks here.
Lotus stems salad with shrimp chips and nem nuong. We enjoyed both and while the pork paste rolls were not on par with Brodard's in Westminster, it was still better than the version we've had at Pho Hiep Grill Chateau in Eastlake.
We got a half order of the rolls; it was great to have that option here. We both had just one each and save the last one for TC. The lotus stems salad was delicious - so many textures and flavors. We liked the crunchy stems, the chewy jellyfish, the crunch from the chips and peanuts as well as the fried shallots. Very well done.
I know this was a lot of food but we intended for leftovers. Bert had an iced VN coffee along with bun with egg roll and beef (the marinade was on the sweeter side), while I ordered the banh xeo. It was quite large and filled with a lot of beansprouts (the shrimp and pork were under all that, but only on one side it seemed). The exterior "shell" of the banh xeo was not as "crisp" as my favorite version from Pho Hiep Grill Chateau, but it was good to try it out to make a comparison. One of the sauces ended up being super salty and I wasn't too fond of that one.
Everything we had was pretty good.
Who else went to Pho Duyen Mai?
Kirk visited recently (he had the wing, bun bo hue, pho with filet and spring roll with pork skin in addition to two of the other items we had)
Pho Duyen Mai
5375 Kearny Villa Road
San Diego, CA 92123
(858) 560-5354
There is no website of FB page but here are the scant reviews from you know where (only 14 as of Sept. 22)
A return visit with Bert and TC is in order to try other items we spied on their menu...
2 comments:
Glad you got to check them out CC! I recently revisited but only had the Bo Luc Lac which wasn't bad.....it's nice to have this place close to my work.
Me too. We want to go back. I've got to try the Bo Luc Lac as well. I like the version at Brodard's and Que Huong.
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