Revisits - Tim Ky Noodle and Que Huong

A couple more "Honey Doo" weekend breakfast revisits.

Tim Ky Noodle:

Actually, I hadn't planned on checking out Tim Ky. I'd been craving the Banh Mi Bo Kho from Pho Lucky and since 99 Ranch Market was out of the brand of Shaoxing I prefer, I headed up the 15 to Lucky Seafood. The plan was to get the bo kho from Lucky, then buy what I needed next door. Unfortunately, I was met with the "unlucky" sign to my right. Hmmm......hope they truly are just "remodeling". So I walked on over to Tim Ky and got the Won Ton and Dumpling Egg Noodle Soup. First off, the guy working here seems to have kind of burned out and has entered the "just give me your order phase".....which was fine....maybe he's not a morning person.

As for the soup....I totally take back my comparison of Tim Ky to Minh Ky.

While the noodles were spot on perfect; everything else was back to how it was on a previous visit. Man, that soup was bland, the dumplings and won tons tough....if you're keeping score; there's now a total of five, down from six on previous visits.

Maybe this soup isn't a "morning kind of broth"?

At least I got my Shaoxing....which kept this from being a totally "un-Lucky" morning.

Tim Ky Noodle
9330 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126 

Que Huong:

I was driving around on errands rather late this past long weekend. I was kind of hungry and noticed that Que Huong was open. Man, it had been over a year since I last visited. I walked toward the door and Jay came up and opened it for me! I guess the place opens at 10am on weekends. I didn't know that!

The other thing I didn't know was that they served a whole bunch of different noodle soups these days.

Though I recalled that the Missus kind of enjoyed the Bun Rieu here a couple of years back.

I ordered the Canh Bun. Jay told me they were out of fried tofu and I told him to not include the pork blood. I was surprised at what I got for $6.95.

Man, look at all that ong choi....which was fresh and crisp. Qutie a bit of the pork/crab floating around as well. Maybe they gave me a lot more since they didn't have any fried tofu? The noodles were nicely done, firm and slippery. What surprised me the most was the broth.....it wasn't overly MSG heavy, with a pleasant mild flavor. I do think it could have been a bit richer but the mam tom (fermented shrimp paste) really went well with this; adding a nice complex savory flavor to the broth.

I mentioned the quiet unsalty flavor of the broth to Jay who told me that they had really cut back on the MSG and salt these days......which makes it quite the opposite from how things have trended here in San Diego over the last few years. Jay told me that he has become a bit sensitive to MSG which lead to this change....interesting.

It's been way to long between visits. Maybe I need to drop by and try the Bun Mam here. Though I might pass on the pho..... Jay also told me that he's adding a whole range of "salad type" dishes and revamping the menu a bit. More reason to return I guess.

Que Huong Restaurant
4134 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

Comments

[kat]

Hope you can get your pho lucky fix soon:)

[nhb]

It would be nice to get a decent bowl of soup noodles in SATX that was choked full of MSG or salt or noodles. Pipe dream...

[nhb]

wasn't :-)

[Kirk]

I hope so too Kat!

Hey Billy - I'm guessing 200 miles is too long a drive for some decent VN food, huh? I'm seriously considering checking out Houston. Was told the Vietnamese Food there is better than the OC.

[Soo @ hungryones]

At least the noodles were good...

[Cathy]

We were just at Lucky. They seated us at the "reserved" table...should've known. We thought it looked as if it had new paint color on the walls. Food was still great. Must go back to Que Huong!

[Derek]

Hey Kirk,

What brand of Shaoxing were you after? I've found picking one out to be kinda of hit and miss and have received conflicting suggestions when asking people at 99 Ranch.

[Kirk]

Hey Derek - Let me email you a photo of the label of what I currently use. It's from Zhejiang. I'll od that sometime tomorrow.

[caninecologne]

Looks like we will have to revisit Que Huong to check out the revamped menu! I agree that Jay is a really great guy.

[Kirk]

Hey CC - Jay told me it might be a couple of weeks before the new menus are out. He is a really nice guy.

[Ed (from Yuma)]

Need to pick up a soup from Que Huong next visit. Tina and I really like going there.

[Kirk]

You should check them out again Ed! Maybe I'll you guys again.