Toan Ky Restaurant - A (quick) first look

*** Toan Ky has closed ***

A couple of weeks ago, Toan Ky Restaurant officially opened. Replacing LV sandwiches, and before that Le's, from the name and the look, I thought this would be one of those "Mi" shops a la Minh Ky and  Tan Ky. Linda Vista could use a good noodle soup shop, since Mi Ngoc So 1 folded its tent, and was replaced by Thai by Tara, and then (thankfully) Sab E Lee.

 
 The main renovation has been done to the entrance area, where the "bar" has been removed, and a smaller counter with the ever present cash register resides.

The menu, fortunately or unfortunately still has some Thai dishes on it, but Banh Mi is still available; and yes, all the standard Hu Tieu and Mi soups are available. The prices at first glance are about in line with other shops of this type..... but hold on for more.....

The Missus went with Dumpling Egg Noodle Soup ($5.50). When the bowl arrived, I noticed something right away.

The portion sizes were pretty small compared to other shops. This was about the size between a small and medium Santouka Ramen. There were only three dumplings in the soup, but it was supplemented with a shrimp, a fish ball, meat ball, and slice of fish cake. The Missus thought the dumplings were passable, and gave me a taste, which I thought was bland, but much softer than the typical hard packed meatballs of these type of shops. The Missus declared the broth tasty, but light, and believed that only a minimum of MSG was used.

I ordered the Duck Leg Egg Noodle Soup ($6.75):

The broth of this soup was dark, I'm assuming fortified with the drippings of the duck. I usually pour in some of the drippings when I get duck egg noodle soup served with the duck on the side. This duck was braised, and frankly, quite bland, lacking in the richness of say, a roast, or barbecued duck. The soup was fairly good, with mostly a soy sauce flavor. I would have preferred something like what you see here, which is cheaper than this, and twice the size. There were about three to four bites of egg noodles. This was gone pretty quickly. 

Our first impressions are mixed. The food is decent, but the soups seem to be snack-sized, and in fact most other tables ordered an additional item with their soups. The Missus has a saying about most of these type of soups.... "the more I eat, the more there is", which wasn't true in this case, as She had almost finished by the time my soup arrived, a mere five minutes. I believe that much of the reason places like Minh Ky and Tan Ky are successful is because of value, this is a bit different. The service was efficient, but indifferent, pretty much what we expected. I dunno....... I'm sure we'll check in again, so stay tuned.....

Toan Ky Restaurant
6925 B Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111

Open 8 - 8 daily

Comments

[kat]

hopefully they will meet up the next time.

[Kirk]

Hi KAt - I hope so!

[Tammy]

Did you get free sodas?

[Kirk]

Hey Tammy - Nope.......