mmm-yoso!!!

Noodling Around City Heights - Lotus Garden

While making my way to Northgate Market to get some pig's feet, I noticed that there was a "Pho" sign on the awning of Lotus Garden. Looks like the Lotus Garden was expanding the menu from the seafood and the typical Chinese dishes served there.

Since Lotus Garden opens at 9am, I decided to visit when finishing up my shopping in the area.

As it was fairly early in the morning; it was easy finding parking in back of the building, where it shares the lot with Minh Huong Supermarket. looking at the sign above the doorway; I guess it's now Lotus Garden Seafood and Pho.

I walked in and the friendly young man directed me to a seat. It's a pretty nice dining area and I believe they have even more space in the back dining room as well.

Man, the menu here has over 120 items on it.....and there's a second menu with pho on it as well. I was going to order the pho, but noticed all the egg noodle and hu tieu items. And seeing that this place is a (sorta) Chinese restaurant; I decided to get the BBQ Duck Egg Noodle Soup ($8.99). I really didn't expect much, but was quite pleasantly surprised at what I got.

The blanched bean sprouts was a good first move. The broth of the egg noodle soup, while being on the salty side also had some savory notes to it; with a heck of a lot of oniony-slightly pungent and a light, almost seafood like flavor. The fried shallots was also a good move aa was all that scallion.

The noodles were decently prepared, with a nice pull to them.

The most surprising thing for me was the duck.

While being perhaps a tad on the dry side; the skin of the duck had been crisped up nicely, no rubbery skin here, and there was a nice salty-sweet flavor to the skin. I also enjoyed the quite gamey flavor of the duck...perhaps not everyone's cup of tea; but I enjoyed it. This was actually not bad at all and really didn't need any sauce, or jus on it at all.

I really liked the young man working; I believe his name is "Tu", he was quite friendly and we chatted about Little Saigon....I believe he's from the OC, and he even told me he knew of a place in his 'hood that made pretty decent duck...."Lien Hoa?" I asked and he seemed surprised. And then I mentioned always getting a side of the "jus" with my duck from there....he cracked up.

I decided to return the following week to try the pho....and of course, when I first try a place's pho...it's the dac biet ($9).

The basil and sprouts arrived; even though a few of the basil leaves were starting to discolor; there was enough of it so that it didn't really matter. And of course the Ngo Gai was present, crisp, fresh, like a pungent cilantro with a hint of sweetness.

The broth however, was underwhelming. It was cloudy, severely defatted, lacking in beef flavor and....as is typical in San Diego these days, too sweet and overly salty.

The rare steak was tough and dry, the flank too chewy and flavorless, though the brisket was fine, tender with a mild beefiness, the tendon was soft and buttery, and the tripe was crisp and crunchy, without any off flavors.

The typical clump of noodles was decent as well; edging on over-cooked, but okay. Still, I don't think I'll have the pho here on future visits.

I had taken a closer look at the menu on this visit and wanted to try something I saw on the menu so I returned the following week.

This time I had the House Combination Egg Noodle Soup ($7.99), which was pretty much fishball city.

The bean sprouts weren't as well blanched on this visit. The soup was also more salty; with that annoying "sweetness" to it. I needed all of the lime to help temper it.

The noodles were prepped perfectly; nice al dente pull to them.

There were some pieces of meh shrimp in the broth, fairly muddy in flavor....the item I enjoyed the best were the pleasantly toothsome and mildly funky pork stomach.

But the item I had really come to try was the Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings ($8.99)….well, there's a "Doritos" version as well, but I stuck with the, ahem..."classic".

The wings were fried fairly well; being quite moist and tender. The batter was  bit too soft and got soggy quickly. The garlic was burnt and bitter, not great eats in my book. It wasn't overly salty and could have actually used more seasoning....though no more of the bitter garlic. Not sure I'd have this again, but it wasn't terrible.

In the end, Lotus Garden was not bad....I mean, I'd eat here every so often if it was in my neighborhood as it's better than the options that I have near by. I enjoyed the young man who served me on my first visit and there are still items on the huge menu to try.....heck, I haven't even gotten to the Beef Sate Egg Noodle yet.

Lotus Garden Restaurant
4007 Euclid Ave.
San Diego, CA 92105
Hours:
Open Daily 9am - 10pm

 

Revisits - Barrio Donas and Pho Hoa Huong

I guess if you've been reading long enough you'd have noticed by now that I'm just not a pancakes and French toast for breakfast kinda guy, right? Here are a couple more weekend breakfast stops.

Barrio Donas:

One morning when the Missus had to work; I decided to head into the office to catch up on a few things. On the way up, I decided to take a short detour to see how Barrio Donas was doing. The place was pretty busy for just past 7am on a Sunday morning.

I still can't get over the rather modern; hipster-ish look of the place; such a change from when it was Best Donuts.

I got my usual breakfast torta; the A la Mexicana.

On the good side; the light and airy bolillo roll was still warm as I opened up the sandwich. These days; it seems that there's a lot less salsa and spice, and much more cheese. It's not quite the sandwich that I really used to enjoy....it seems a bit out of balance, a milder and tamer version.

The great thing about doing this blog for so long.....here's the A la Mexicana from Best Donuts back in March of 2017.

Nice acidity and brightness from the salsa, decent heat from the jalapenos, the earthy-nutty-savory flavor of the beans, not too much cheese, mixed with eggs. Doesn't that one look better? It was also $4.99 then; now, while it's not a big deal, it's $6.50. They gotta pay for all the renovations I guess.

Barrio Donas
4714 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117

Pho Hoa Huong:

On may to do my usual "rounds" on a Saturday morning, I was too early for my next set of stops; Nijiya, H Mart, and Marukai, so I decided to grab some breakfast.....my kind of breakfast. I had kind of enjoyed my last visit to the "fastest pho in the west" and decided to drop by.

Like I mentioned in my last post; the former perfunctory, hovering over you waiting for your order, has been replaced with a more relaxed.....though I can't really call it friendly, atmosphere. What hasn't changed was how quickly the pho hit my table after I ordered it. I set my stopwatch and it clocked in at an amazing 3 minutes 45 seconds.....

Being the consistent (or as the Missus calls it, "boring") person that I am. I went with #4.

Man, look at all that basil, sprouts, and ngo gai. Some of the basil was turning color, but there was so much of it that it really didn't matter.

The broth was darker than on my previous visit, slightly beefy, not overly sweet as is the norm for san Diego pho these days. Perhaps a bit too defatted, but not bad overall. I didn't need lime to cut the saltiness.

The clump of noodles still had a nice pull to them....I guess when you get the bowl to the table in less than five minutes, there's no chance of the noodles getting mushy.

The flank was better this time around; though still too tough for my liking; the tendon decent, and the tripe had a nice crunch.

And like on previous visits, in and out in less than 30 minutes.

Pho Hoa-Huong Restaurant
6921 Linda Vista Rd
San Diego, CA 92111

Pho Duoi Bo from Pho Ca Dao & Grill (Mira Mesa)

Well, I've done it again.....I gave in to the power of suggestion. In my PCD ECB revisit post, both Elle and Sandy mentioned PCD MM, in my PT Eatery post Lynn mentioned that Pho Ca Dao in Mira Mesa had gone downhill since the remodel. Waaaay back when I did my Pho Duoi Bo from the now closed Royal Garden, I mentioned that the Mira Mesa location of PCD had Oxtail pho....at least at one time to Jan Frederick. And so here I was.....seated at Pho Ca Dao in Mira Mesa.

It sure looks a lot more modern than the last time I did a post on this location of Pho Ca Dao. Would you believe that was 11 1/2 years ago! Sheesh. I did return a couple of years ago with coworkers....had a not-so-good bowl of pho and didn't take any photos. But my memory did not fail me (this time). There was indeed Pho Duoi Bo (Oxtail Pho) on the menu.

That's what I was here for.

I was a bit surprised when my bowl arrived as it seemed kind of small...….and just having the clump of noodles on the bottom and two pieces of oxtail with little else made it seem somewhat sparse. There wasn't much bean sprouts provided, though the sprig of basil was quite large.

Cutting straight to the oxtails....well, they were pretty good, nice beefy flavor, tender, but not falling to pieces, not bad at all.

The broth however was a fail.

Lacking in color, light on the richness, this tasted like salt water and like the Missus says "like someone had waved a beef bone over boiled water"...… A bit on the salty side; in need of....well, just about everything....except more salt and MSG.

The noodles were nicely prepared.

And for an even bigger surprise...….well, I didn't expect Culantro (Ngo Gai) and didn't get it...but I really didn't expect Cilantro along with my basil and sprouts. Since when is that a thing?

I'm not much of a big eater these days; but for the first time in I don't know how long; I was still hungry when I left the restaurant.

Another thing I noticed; looking at the signs for the other Pho Ca Dao locations; only RB, Poway, and Mira Mesa are represented. Is the original and other locations owned by someone else? Elle had mentioned the menu had become more westernized....sorry to say I really didn't take time to look at it in detail.

Service was nice, the Pho Duoi Bo fairly pricey for the portion size ($9.85). It'll probably be another decade before I return.

Pho Ca Dao
8373 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126
Hours:
Open Daily 900am - 900pm

Noodling Around City Heights - Pho Ca Dao (El Cajon Boulevard)

Welcome to another "Noodling Around Post" as I make my way down both El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue from 54th Street. Well, right in the same parking lot as the often overlooked Tan Ky Mi Gia is Pho Ca Dao. I believe this is the original location, way before restaurants in Santee, Mira Mesa, Chula Vista, and Rancho Bernardo came into existence.

PCD was the perfect choice for this morning; first off, I hadn't been here for almost 4 years! And they open at 7am...….I arrived at around 730 and there were more than a few tables slurping about. Say what you will; even I thought it was pretty chilly this past morning at 44 degrees in Bay Park.....but a look out the window where and you'd never know it.

Much has changed on the "pho-rizon" over the years; two things fairly quickly became apparent....the young lady serving me had a nice bright smile on.....quite different from the "dealing out the menu and standing silently over you" for an order. Also, the #4, which what I usually order here (today was no different), was a mere $4.95 in 2006. These days I thought the $7.95 price was a steal for pho in San Diego.

Also these days; I feel like I hit the lottery when I actually get some Ngo Gai along with the standard issue sprouts and basil. What was quite interesting was that the young lady also brought me chili oil and sliced onions even though I hadn't requested it.....perhaps this is SOP these days?

I've always noticed that there a certain pattern to the bowl of pho at PCD.

A rather generous clump of noodles is placed in the bottom of the bowl. The protein is then placed in a layer; tripe under everything, with the flank, brisket, well done steak, and tendon each occupying a quarter of the surface area.

On previous visits, the broth had been on the salty-MSG heavy side; today it was on the typical "San Diego sweeter" side, but also had beefy tones. Which would not been too bad, except the soup was barely past lukewarm; thus the bean sprouts and such didn't soften, and the broth had a weird, greasy tongue feel to it.

I had always enjoyed the tendon at this location of PCD and today it was still tender and buttery, but there wasn't much of it in the bowl. The nice portion of tripe was crunchy, with no off flavors. Because of the broth temperature, the tastelessness of the flank and brisket were quite apparent and it was also on the cold side.

The noodles were good with a nice chew, except it seemed that I had gotten all of the broken short pieces off banh pho....lots of shorter pieces that really cut down on one's eating enjoyment.

So, not quite what I expected here. And as a nice parting gift, the young lady working the register did a nice job of reminding me what classic pho shop service used to be like......oh, yes....the good old days!

Pho Ca Dao
5223 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92115
Hours:
Open Daily 7am - 9pm 

Is PT Eatery Ready for P(rime) T(ime)?

**** You can find an updated post here

Back at the end of October, I noticed that Pho T Cali's sign had been covered over. Soon after "DerekR" mentioned that "PT Eatery" was replacing Pho T Cali and that the place was related to Phuong Trang. I went over that Saturday and yes indeed there was a PT Eatery sign up. A little over a week later Eater confirmed that this place was indeed going to sort of be Phuong Trang "light". Even though I think Phuong Trang is pretty much middle of the road Vietnamese.....or perhaps gateway Vietnamese? I decided to give the place a couple of tries.....

This restaurant seems to have kept most of the same décor from Pho T Cali throwing in a larger divider of faux (not pho) plants and such.

The young man who waited on me was really friendly and asked if I'd been here previously...…..I told him "no....how long have you been open?" He laughed and said "a week". As he handed me my menu; he asked me if he could recommend a couple of items on the menu......he was so very nice. He recommended the Beef Short Rib Pho...….shades of Pho Duyen Mai! So I went ahead and ordered it ($11.95).

While some of the basil was starting to brown; this was a decent sized portion of basil and sprouts....at least for these days. And of course; I expected no Ngo Gai and got none.

Soon enough my bowl arrived.

Let's first talk about what I liked about this bowl of pho....well, the broth was hot. It ended there. The soup was soooo salty, had so much MSG in it that all the other flavors were masked......there's not enough lime in world to fix this much MSG. I even added some water to see if it would help....of course it didn't.

The two ribs were super tough and rubbery. In the photo below you see how much of the rib I managed to chew off the bone.

The noodles......in a clump, overcooked, and mushy.

I just couldn't bear to eat much of this.

Luckily; so I thought, I'd hedged my bets by ordering one of what I consider to be the better menu items at Phuong Trang; the Butter Wings ($7.95).

I was rather taken aback when the wings arrived looking so pale. It was however, fairly crisp, though it softened quite quickly, and the wings were moist and well cooked. Much like the pho however; these also had way too much MSG, making it strangely metallic-sweet-bitter-salty. It was however, the lesser of two evils.

The really nice young man asked me why I had barely done any damage to the pho and if I wanted it to go....... I gently told him I wouldn't be needing it to go; that the soup had so much MSG it was bitter-salty. I think he understood since he had kindly refilled my glass of water four times during the meal.

Man, that was a kind of rough meal......though on one hand the place was still in its soft-opening phase.....on the other; Phuong Trang has been making this stuff for over thirty years!

A few days later I had a meeting in the area and decided to give it another go. I was pretty hungry so I ordered the Combination Broken Rice (Com Tam - $11.50). The plate that arrived looked pretty good.

A quick look at the nuoc mam cham and I knew it was watered down...which it was...."sauce not to offend", it was much more sweet than savory.

The broken rice was interesting....super moist, but not as fragrant as what I've usually had.

The "Bi" - shredded pork skin was decently prepared, a bit on the dry side and short on rice powder, but not bad.

The "cha", steamed egg and pork loaf was kind of odd. It was moist, though fairly thin and pretty short in terms of pork skin and cloud ear fungus. It had a decent porkiness, but, what's with all that yellow color that came off on the rice. Check the photo below, under the tan hu ky....the shrimp paste in bean curd skin.

Speaking of the Tan Hu Ky; it lacked crispness, the bean curd was mushy, and this was very bland.

The pork patty was perhaps the best item on the plate. While somewhat toothsome, it had a mild savory-sweetness to it.

Overall, fairly mediocre and this really didn't give me a reason to return.....but for some reason I did a week later.

Except, when I got to the table, I really didn't know what to order. I saw that another table had ordered the Nem Nuong Cuon ($5.95) - again shades of Pho Ban Mai and Pho Duyen Mai....though this was not even close.

They did the Brodard thing; fried egg roll wrapper in the center....but it was what was missing that mattered to me the most. Yes, the nem nuong was large, but it hadn't been seared, was rubbery, and was really bland. The filling was mainly lettuce and bun....I could make out no herbs to speak of. For some reason the wrapper was really hard and chewy. I took one back for Calvin....who hated it.

As for what to have with the spring rolls.....well, I was at a loss.....then; thinking about my previous meals; the menu....the sort of "Westernized - Vietnamese light".....the super salty broth....I ordered the "Pho French Dip" ($8.95), a pseudo Banh Mi.....

Standard issue banh mi; decently heated, light and yeasty, with "pho cut" beef brisket, tender, still dripping with broth, with bland, but blanched bean sprouts, adding a decent textural contrast, onions, cilantro...….I spooned on that super salty pho broth; which did well in small doses, under this framework. A leaf of basil, a small spoon of broth, a bite of the sandwich. While I'm not going to be craving this again soon, it is probably the best thing I had at PT.

So, is PT ready for P(rime) T(ime)…….I think you can figure out what I think.

Nice service; slightly higher prices, and perhaps, even with all that experience in the kitchen....the nice young man told me the cooks in the kitchen have over 40 years of experience making Vietnamese Food, in need of some time to get into the cooking groove...… I'm definitely going to give this place "some time" before returning.

You can read about Faye's visit here.

PT Eatery
7351 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Daily 11am - 9pm

40N Pho & Grille

A few weeks back, Calvin told me about a new Vietnamese/Pho shop that had opened in his neighborhood. He said that he was taking the family there on a regular basis. It was located in a strip mall in Scripps Ranch? Scripps Ranch? I had to go and check the place out.

40N is located off of Scripps Ranch Boulevard, in the same Strip Mall as Vons and Starbucks. I have to say; I didn't even know this strip mall existed; even though it's but a few miles from Miramar Road and the 15 Freeway.

I was the first customer on this weekend morning; there was a nice, friendly Asian woman working....she seemed to know all the customers who came in after me. She was wonderful, though this was the only time I saw her on during my three visits.

By the looks of the restaurant; I could tell this used to be a Sushi bar as the sushi case was still in place.

Since Calvin had told me the Pho here was quite good; I ordered the House Special (Dac Biet - small $8.50).

This was actually not too bad. The rare steak was still rare when the bowl arrived. The noodles were nicely done, it still had a bit of chew and wasn't mushy. The broth, while cloudy, wasn't overly sweet as is the norm in San Diego these days. It had a mild beefiness, light saltiness, though it lacked complexity was a bit on the bland side and was overly defatted for my taste.

The other cuts in the broth were fine; though the flank was tasteless, the brisket had some beefiness, and the tendon was adequately tender, if not buttery in texture.

The basil was starting to brown and the amount of bean sprouts was rather sparse as is the case in many more "westernized" Pho shops.

So, overall not horrible.

During my visit, it seemed that every table ordered the Cha Gio. So, I decided to return and try it out.

I got the 3 roll ($4.50).

I knew I was in trouble when these came out in less than 3 minutes. It had obviously been reheated. The wrappers were really chewy and this lacked any crispness. The nuoc mam cham was watered down and way too sweet. The filling was fine, but was totally ruined by how bad the wrapper was. Well, at least the lettuce was fresh, right?

Well, the meal wasn't over yet. I ordered the Banh Mi Bo Kho ($10). It actually says "Beef Stew" on the menu....what arrived wasn't no "stew".

Lukewarm, doctored pho broth, made really salty by whatever seasoning was used to make it seem like Bo Kho. The meat was too chewy and some pieces were still slightly cold. The best part of this were the carrots; which looked unwieldy, but was fairly tender.

The banh mi was standard issue, no complaints as it was light, yeasty, and had been heated up.

This was just not a very good meal at all.

And yet, there were two more items on the menu I wanted to try; so I decided to head on back.

I'd seen Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings on the menu. So I ordered the 6 piece ($7) version.

While looking a bit greasy, these were actually fairly crisp, with a good amount of seasoning....edging perhaps on the salty side, but not spicy at all. All the pieces were moist, the wings were actually quite good. The huge drumettes on the other hand, while crisp and moist, had a bitter, slightly freezer burnt flavor to them. Too bad, because this might have been pretty good overall. I ate all the wings....and said goodbye to the drumettes.

I also ordered Banh Xeo ($10). Sadly, this was not very good.

The crepe lacked crispness and was very spongy, the bottom a soggy mess. It was also very bland and the watered down, overly sweet nuoc mam cham did it no favors. The pork and shrimp were tough and dry; the bean and mung bean sprouts under-cooked. This really looked like it was slapped together. All that wonderfully fresh lettuce and mint deserved a better version of banh xeo.

So, while the pho and the chicken wings weren't bad, I didn't care for anything else as it just seemed a bit dumbed down. I'm sure folks in the neighborhood appreciate the place; but for me, I don't think it's worth going out of my way for....after all Mira Mesa is just right up the I-15.

40N Pho & Grille
9978 Scripps Ranch Blvd
San Diego, CA 92131
Hours:
Mon - Sat 11am - 9pm
Closed on Sunday

 

Revisits - Pho Duyen Mai and Tiger! Tiger!

A couple of revisits for a Monday.

Pho Duyen Mai:

**** Pho Duyen Mai is under new ownership 

In the comments on my last post Pho Hut & Grill, "Alan from Clairemont" mentioned that Pho Duyen Mai had gone downhill. Which was sad news for me; since when our office was in the area, was a fairly regular stop. So, this past weekend, with temps finally getting to normal for this time of the year, I decided to drop by while running errands. Pho Duyen Mai opens at 9am....which is not bad.

I got there right at 9 had a seat and was given a menu.....it was just too early in the morning for me to go with dem' bones; so I just took the easy way out and ordered the Dac Biet. Which arrived within minutes.

I quickly noticed that the basil was starting to brown; not a good sign of quality control. Though unlike Alan's visits, there was a whole half lime on the plate.....a darn good thing, as the broth was even more overly sweet and salty than I recalled. I needed a good amount of lime to attempt to balance the broth, which was even more defatted then I remembered.

On the good side, the rare steak was still nicely rare when the bowl hit the table, the tendon was adequately tender, the other cuts were ho-hum, the flank like cardboard and tripe was MIA.

The noodles, while in a clump wasn't over-cooked and still had a nice stretch to them.

So, the verdict? The broth at Duyen Mai has gotten much more salty and "sweeter", while losing what little richness there was. Not a complete fail, but it seems like the place has slipped a bit. Not a good sign in the vast pho wasteland that Clairemont/Kearny Mesa has become.

Pho Duyen Mai
5375 Kearny Villa Rd
San Diego, CA 92123

Tiger! Tiger!:

**** Tiger! Tiger! has closed

Hard to believe it's been over six months since we were last at Tiger! Tiger! Our visit was just a last minute decision....we just couldn't figure out where we wanted to go.

Not much to say; we ordered the usual, the Bratwurst, which I've posted on a couple of times.

And of course got the 1/2 order of the Charcuterie Board. The Missus loved the chicken and pork liver mousse.

It almost always delivered; except the bread was too hard and chewy this time around. Still, that smokey, porky, terrine was wonderful.

And of course, we always think of Sammy, when we're sitting outside. We miss you!

Tiger! Tiger!
3025 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92104 

Pho Tommy Opens in Linda Vista

**** Pho Tommy has closed

A few weeks ago, right before heading out on our Road Trip to Laguna Beach; I was picking up take-out from Thai Papaya, I noticed that Farm Market and Sandwiches was gone and replaced with something called "Pho Tommy".

Not quite sure what to make of this rather large space....after all it was a market and all, I was curious and decided to visit soon after.

The place seems to be put together....or at least renovated in a rather strange and haphazard way. It seems that they just pulled out all the shelving and replaced things with tables.

And there are still some grocery items for sale.

A "stage" has been put in near the entrance that faces Linda Vista Road. You gotta watch your step......the UPS guy walking in tripped and almost fell.

Another strange thing was that, other than the UPS guy, and the friends of the really friendly guy running the place named "Kim", I was the only customer on all three visits. Not sure what's going on here. Well, on with the show.....

Since the place was named "Pho Tommy"; it was only natural that I ordered the Pho Dac Biet.

First off, as you can tell, the basil and sprouts were past their "due date" and browning. The broth was clear with a decent amount of richness/texture, but like many places in San Diego these days, it had a salty-sweetness that isn't to my taste. I did enjoy the good amount of cilantro and scallions which helped a bit, along with a good amount of lime to try and balance things out.

As for the proteins; well the rare steak was too well done by the time the bowl hit the table and being the usual top round it was tough and dry. The fatty flank was on the bland side....no tripe in this bowl, though the tendon was fairly buttery and not bad. Not a great bowl overall. There's much better less than a block away.

When I went to pay; Kim just charged me eight bucks. Not wanting to short the place, I showed him the $9.50 on the menu, but was told, "I rang it up already, it's okay, eight dollars for you....."

So, I decided to go back the next morning since I needed to get some stuff from Thuan Phat, I was kinda hungry so I decided to drop by.

This time I ordered the Broken Rice with Bi, Cha (steamed egg), Pork Chop, and Egg ($8.99).

First off, the rice was nice and fragrant and the nuoc mam cham wasn't watered down, nor too sweet.

The Bi, shredded pork and pork skin was really dry and tasteless though. The cha was fine, though a bit drier than I prefer.

The pork chop was nicely charred, though it needed more seasoning as it was also bland.

But that egg was wonderful. Perfectly sunny side up, runny, with crisp edges, and nicely seasoned.

The broth provided, was basically the pho broth....it was less "sweet", but still too salty for me to fully enjoy.

Still, this was an improvement over the pho, so this past weekend, I decided to drop by early in the morning (apparently they open around 730), which is great for me.

I had seen something on the menu that I hadn't had for quite a while.

A dish named after the capital of Tiền Giang Province, My Tho; Hu Tieu My Tho.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't know what to expect. But the plate of sparkling fresh Tong Ho (chrysanthemum leaves, we call it Shingiku in Japanese) and sprouts started things off on the right foot. The Tong Ho was mild in flavor, without that resiny-overly green-grassy flavor. These were mildly sweet and bitter, obviously very fresh.

What really impressed me about this bowl was the liver....I'm usually not a fan of liver in Vietnamese noodle dishes because often times they are old and taste plain gross; but this was fairly tender and had just the right amount of earthy-offal flavor. In fact, in spite of the shrimp being cooked perfectly, the liver was the best meat item in the dish. The other pork was pretty bland.

The Hu Tieu was a bit overcooked for my taste. Though the clear broth wasn't quite as salty this time around. In fact, combined with that rather rich, almost greasy, bright red pork broth, it created a balance in a way. This was also quite a bit more than I'd usually put away for breakfast.

The third time was a charm it seems.

I enjoyed the guy working here; but unless evenings and lunches are super busy....somehow, I don't think it is, I don't know how long a place like this can last. I hope they hang in there. There's something definitely "old school" about Pho Tommy, without the brusque service, that I enjoyed.

Pho Tommy
6959 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA

Clearing Out the Memory Card - Never Made the Cut Road Trip Edition

Here are some photos that I was just going to delete.....I have a bunch of breakfast one's from when I was driving to Irvine almost weekly as well. But since these weren't in San Diego; where I try to visit places more than once; I thought I'd just do one of those "never made the cut" posts.

I went to lunch with the folks I was working with in Irvine a couple of times.

Ngu Binh:

I've posted on Ngu Binh before, but was excited to try the Bun Bo Hue. Unfortunately, the folks that got there first ordered for all of us...….

They like their Bun Bo Hue not spicy with no pork hock and that's what I had waiting for me when I arrived......what the??????

Ngu Binh Restaurant
14072 Magnolia St
Westminster, CA 92683

Pho Lovers:

Which was right in front of Lien Hoa, it has since moved.

loved the herbs which were amazingly fresh.

The pho was seriously defatted, the noodles over-cooked, though the broth wasn't overly sweet or salty.

Now at:

9892 Westminster Blvd
Garden Grove, CA 92844

From other Road Trips.

Chengdu Taste (Alhambra):

The Missus was seriously psyched to try the place that had been declared the "best Sichuan Restaurant in America". We were quite disappointed.

And the service was so terrible, that we got our mapo tofu and Shui Zhu Niu Rou, the beef boiled in hot sauce to go. Both just didn't have enough spice and were seriously defatted versions. The won tons in hot sauce were too sweet and lacked spice, not even close to the version I had at Long Chau Shou (龙抄手).

828 W Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91803

The Lark (Santa Barbara):

This one was from the same road trip where we had a wonderful meal at Yoichi's. It was a super hot weekend; yet they had the fire pit going!

From the mushy brussel sprouts to the teeth rattling sweet duck wings, not our favorite meal.

Though the lamb shoulder confit was quite good.

The Lark Santa Barbara
131 Anacapa St.
Santa Barbara, CA 93101

So there you go; thanks for indulging me.

I'll be back tomorrow with more San Diego restaurants.

Pho Fusion and Pho Hoa Huong Revisited

Since it's still fairly cool out; here are a couple of places I haven't been to in a while.

Pho Fusion:

Man, has it been three years since I last visited? I'd actually kinda forgotten about this place. I noticed that they were tearing up the parking lot and saw Pho Fusion open. I had thought the pho wasn't too bad; at least for "pho not to offend" on my last visit, so I decided to drop by and have a bowl.

The place was empty during my visit; probably the combination of all the construction and the time of day of my visit. Late afternoon on a weekend.

I started with the Popcorn Chicken which I thought wasn't too bad on my last visit.

And it still wasn't bad at all. Crunchy, well seasoned dark meat chicken. I believe the popcorn chicken here is better than, well  the now closed Popcorn Chicken down the street.

As for the pho; well, I got #14; brisket, flank, marbled flank, tendon, and tripe. I was provided with one sprig of basil and a ration of bean sprouts. In all honesty, I didn't expect much more. At least it was fresh. The clump of noodles were decent, not over-cooked. The broth on this visit was way too salty, and sigh; like much of the pho in San Diego these days on the sweet side. Not a hint of beefiness nor anise. The proteins were fine, the tiny sprig of tripe had a soapiness to it; the brisket was tender but flavorless, the tendon was decent, not overly chewy, but not soft and buttery either.

Like I said; "pho not to offend". Still, I'd take this over what I last had at a couple of other places in Kearny Mesa.

Pho Fusion
8038 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111 

Pho Hoa Huong:

So, the next morning I went on some errands and passed by Pho Hoa Huong at around 730am and the open sign was lit. My understanding is that they open at 8....but no, the place was open. So, since I hadn't been here in a while and, it had been even longer since I'd had pho here, I thought "why not"?

Strange, PHH used to be known as one of those "old school", perfunctory, menu slapped on the table, guy hovering over you for your order kinda place (remember - the "Fastest Pho in the West"?)....in fact the woman working was very nice told me to sit wherever I wanted and brought over a men and laid it on the table. On my last visit, I noticed what I thought was a "a softer, kinder Pho Hoa".

The place still looks quite "old school". I went with good ol' #4, which now cost $8.10 for a regular sized bowl.

Damn, when was the last time I actually had such a generous plate of basil, sprouts, and ngo gai? Well, at the other "old school" pho shop; Pho Hoa.

I'm not sure if I'm turning soft in my old age; but this was a decent bowl. The broth looked much too light, but it wasn't too salty, nor too sweet, had a mild beefiness, anise tones, and a mild hint of onion.

The noodles were prepped well, not too chewy, not mushy.

I wasn't a big fan of the flank which was too hard, but the tendon was decently tender and the tripe was nice and crunchy without any off flavors.

The woman who was my Server was very nice and smiled; the Gentleman manning the register asked me how I enjoyed my meal. Man, this sure ain't the Pho Hoa Huong I remembered. If this is the way things are now; well...all hail the old school pho shop!

And, I still got out in less than thirty minutes!

Pho Hoa-Huong Restaurant
6921 Linda Vista Rd
San Diego, CA 92111