Pho Broadway

Across from the Broadway Gate in Chinatown was a row of businesses featuring upturned roofs...

We wanted one last snack before going home...

New favorite soup

I finally did it...

I tried something NEW at Asia Cafe...haha!

It was about time to get out of my rut and try a new dish here...

Pho Fusion

Returning back to my Fall Break posts, aka Coupon Adventures with TC...

We were once again back in the Convoy/Kearny Mesa area. This strip mall also has two other places I want to check out because I have a coupon, Aria Kabob Cafe and Mercury Grill.

What the Pho!

The other night we went out to dinner at the local Vietnamese place, Pho Convoy Noodle House. Not the one on Convoy but the Chula Vista location located across the street Southwestern College. 

TC got the Bun with Beef Short Ribs. Always a good choice. Leftovers were breakfast this morning.

My MIL had the Com Tam with BBQ'd chicken. The amount of chicken seemed a bit excessive, like it was 4 portions on one plate. Again, enough for leftovers. Personally, I'm not a fan of com tam. I don't like my rice in tiny small pieces.

I got the bun with Char-Grilled Shrimp and fried egg roll, one of my favorite choices

Bert got the Pho with rare steak and flank. He really liked the broth; it wasn't too salty. It had a good beefy flavor which he enjoyed. The noodles separated at the bottom with a little bit of prodding from his chopsticks.

Bert and I shared the Blueberry Shake which was quite delicious, although the dairy in there kind of gave me a "bubbly" feeling later on.  Wut?

Notice anything?

O _ o

Well, if you couldn't tell, a big hand and congrats to uber foodblogger extraordianaire Kirk from Mmm-Yoso on his first published food review "Pho Forager" in the latest SD Reader! Looking forward to reading more of his reviews in the near future!

Pho 888, oops I mean Pho Vinh

Here's yet another "coupon" story. My GBF (gay boy friend) and I had a date for lunch today, so I thought we could try this new Pho place in western Chula Vista. I had a coupon from a mini magazine mailer. I hadn't heard of Pho 888 before so I thought, ok, let's try it. Turns out that this place is not even open yet! Dammit! The coupon said the grand opening was on October 25 and today was the 30th! WTF!!! Also, this restaurant site must be cursed because this used to be Tango Grille. This is on Broadway, by the way, a few blocks away from the Chula Vista mall. After Tango folded last year, it briefly became a Mediterranean Grille place. I never ate there, but just remembered the sign. That didn't last long! It then became a generic Mexican food place. Now it's Pho 888. But yeah, it's not open yet.
So...hungry and desperate for Vietnamese food, we traveled north on Broadway and parked near the seedy Motel 7 (what? no 15 minute rates?) which is the neighbor of this fine eating establishment.

I'd been here several times before with TC, Bert, and a few other friends. Here's one of my previous posts here .

The decor is standard tacky Asian stuff. You know, the Four Seasons (not pictured here). My parents have a circular Four Seasons in the bathroom of all places. Okay, not the same place I'd put it but...I'm just saying!

My GBF and I ordered the fried spring rolls which came with a small platter of lettuce and mint. No cilantro.

Oops, the photo of my GBF's pho with flank and brisket is gone! Now all you see are the beansprouts and basil he dumped on top of his pho. I actually recommended the flank and brisket to him. I think he liked it, but he peeled off the fatty edges - and there was a lot of fat (that's why I like it!).

My Bun with shrimp. Nothing too exciting. This was okay, I've had better. Sigh, no fried pieces of pork fat here like at Pho Hoa Calli and Bolsa. But I wanted to eat something relatively healthy. Noodles with fresh vegetables and seafood (okay, those are kind of laden with cholesterol) does the trick for me. Someday I'm going to just make this at home so I don't have to go out and buy it. But I need to get a recipe for the sauce first. The only fish sauce I have is Filipino (patis) and I want to buy the Vietnamese kind. I'll be looking on some other food blogs later to check out some recipes...Maybe do a run to Ranch 99 in a few days...

Here's a closeup of my vermin from the sea...a nice little shrimpy shrimp.
In other news, Vien Dong III in Linda Vista is now Thuan Phat. Not sure if it's open yet. We saw it when we passed by on our way to Sab e Lee last week.

Pho Vien Dong

Hmmm, Pho Vien Dong? I went there earlier today to meet a few friends for lunch. I suggested Vietnamese at Pho Hiep Grill, but because their lunch break time was limited, they didn't want to go there because they felt it was too far. Pho Vien Dong is a bit closer to them and is located in the Eastlake Vons shopping center, while Pho Hiep is further East (about miles away). They hadn't been to Pho Vien Dong before, but I had. Sigh. The last time I ate at Pho Vien Dong was back in December. I thought it wasn't great - the food, service or decor, not that the decor matters too much. But that was a while ago and perhaps, the food and service improved? That was not to be.

Still the same ol'.

Sucky.

Service.

We had an old guy as our server and Rockabilly (he was featured in my older post) as well. I didn't bring my camera because we were just going to order bun. One friend ordered bun with

pork and eggroll; the other chose bun with shrimp and eggroll while I wanted the char-grilled beef with bun. We also ordered the fresh spring roll appetizer which came out first.

My last time at this place, I remembered that they took a long time getting our food out. In my opinion, waiting more than 10 minutes just for bun is pretty bad for a Vietnamese fast food place. My friends' bowls were served separately, about 5-8 minutes apart. Other people who came after us were getting their food first. The waiters didn't seem concerned that my order wasn't done yet. Most places they serve it right away or all together. Not here. Then, when the first waiter came out with some bun, it was the wrong kind. They gave me pork and eggroll and then took it back after I told him that I ordered the beef (which I remember him asking me if I wanted the beef twice earlier). After 10 minutes, my friends were pretty much done with their food, my bowl arrived. The beef didn't look 'char-grilled'. It seemed like they just slapped it on the pan with some onions and tried to pass it off as edible. I wasn't impressed with the noodles. They seemed too soft and the meat was not what I expected - a little tough and chewy. Ugh, not char-grilled.

Oh yeah, they don't put mint in their bun. I don't know if that's a mandatory ingredient but in most places I've been to, mint is in there. So, major points off for the crappy service, the long wait time and the lack of mint in their bun! By the way, their bun is $6.99.

A measly tip was given...we shall not go back.

In the same strip mall, I noticed that D'Lish Express (an Italian place) is now gone. Or maybe it's been gone for a while, since I hardly go to this area? It's now been replaced with a BBQ joint. A few doors down is the ubiquitous L & L Hawaiian BBQ chain, a Chinese place (forgot the name but 'Panda' is in the title), and Pho Vien Dong. But what caught my attention was a sign that read, "Coming Soon - Lisa's Filipino Cuisine".

Hmmm, I'll be sure to check that out when it opens. I really hope that it's a nice place and not some steam table "point point" place. Not that there's anything wrong with those, but when you put "Cuisine" in the name of your restaurant, I'd expect more than a turo-turo joint. There's too many of those type of Filipino places in San Diego already. Let's see what "Lisa" serves up...

Pho Vinh

Last week, TC and I went out while Bert helped his older brother clean their shed and garage. Last year when they did this, they found the liquefied remains of a couple of 'possums. Niice. So, with my check off list in hand, we headed towards the Chula Vista Library to drop off book donations after church. While making our way up Broadway in Chula Vista, I saw this place, which I hadn't been to in more than a year. It's between F & G street and it's next to a seedy tattoo parlor and a Hotel 7.

It was cold that day and it was also supposed to rain (luckily it didn't THAT DAY). That was the weekend of the really heavy rain. I ordered a large pho with brisket and flank for TC and I to share.

This is the only Vietnamese place on the West Side of Chula Vista, as far as I know. On the East side of Chula Vista (East meaning West of the 805), there's Pho Hiep & Grill on Telegraph and father down, near Eastlake, Pho Vien Dong. It's smallish inside and family run. There were a lot of people there that day, mostly families. They all seemed to be Filipino too, judging from the chattering I heard in Tagalog. Here's a photo TC took. We sat on the far left side, across from this mural of goldfish.

The condiments tray. I see that they have red chopsticks here. Pho Hoacalli has green. I bought pairs just like those at the Vietnamese grocery store behind Pho Ca Dao (on University). I used them as accents in a tallv ase during Christmas time. As you can see by the dark green faux marble table, they must have given decorating tips to the folks over at Pho Vien Dong in Eastlake. Barf! So ugly! The little booklet is my Ugly Dolls mini notebook. I use it to write down my observations and grocery lists and other mundane things.

We were seated in the booths near the far left wall. On the right are the bathrooms, which by the way, are kind of gross. Don't go there unless you want to assault your senses with urine.

My downfall that day, Cafe Sua Da. I shouldn't have ordered this. Although I really like Vietnamese iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk, if I have it after 12 noon, I'm pretty much up all night. And that's what happened. My non-coffee taking wuss of a body was wired until about 2 or 3 in the morning.

The pho with flank and brisket...

Our goi cuon with peanut sauce:

Mmm...fat!

I didn't really eat much of the pho that day. I ended up giving most of it to TC. She really liked the noodles, but the meat - not so much. After having had a crappy bowl of what they called pho from Pho Hiep, this was much better. There was greenery in it (green onions) and the broth had a good flavor, as opposed to the watery swill they served TC a few days before.