Mekong Kitchen

Terrible vermicelli bowl, offensive prices, mediocre at best banh mi! Terrible! I wanted to love this — but 15.50 for a vermicelli pork /​imperial roll

Nasty! Delivery charged me for items not included in order. I was delivered RAW imperial rolls and cold soup. Delivery person did not care and kept walking when I explained my order was not acceptable and items were missing that I was charged for. Restaurant would not credit my order and insisted I pay for dangerous items to eat.
DO NOT GO HERE!!!

Came in on the recommendation of garlic noodles.
Than Long had the best garlic noodles. I shouldn’t have ever doubted.
With all the available Vietnamese restaurants in the city, go elsewhere. I wouldn’t go back and you shouldn’t even start.

I dropped in for lunch after having a couple friends recommend this place. I would say that I will never eat here again. I ordered the pork rice bowl. The meat was largely fatty and had a lot of grizzle. It was that kind of food experience that when you bite into something and expect delicious and instead you get fat and tough… ruins it completely. Then as I start to look most of the pork isn’t even completely cooked. Like literally I could see pink almost bloody meat. Hello trichinosis!!! Who serves raw pork? For where this is located… there are far better places to eat lunch or dinner. Super disappointed… I love a good rice bowl and had high hopes for this place.

I like to think of myself as an understanding person. That being said, my first experience at Mekong Kitchen included my partner being accused of stealing beer after signing the sales receipt, which included the beer in question. The food arrived undercooked and bland.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt, so tonight, I tried Mekong Kitchen a second time. My partner and I ordered our food, and the man behind the register told me it was $ 24.95 for two entrees and a small side. The sales receipt was placed in front of me which read $ 34.95 instead. I asked the man about the price, and the woman standing next to me confirmed that she also heard $ 24.95. He motioned I look at the menu, which turned out to be deceptively designed.
Most restaurants in existence have the full price next to the dish, whereas Mekong Kitchen separates the price in two different locations expecting you will see both prices and know to add them together.
After my partner felt obligated to pay for a portion of the meal, we waited in a nearly empty restaurant for almost half an hour. Our food finally made it out to us and again, it was undercooked and bland.
I cannot recommend Mekong Kitchen, especially since there are so many other and better choices within a very short walking distance.

I ordered delivery, not so sure how that was going to work out with Phở which doesn’t strike me as the easiest delivery food. The Phở Ga was delicious and included all the accoutrements, sriracha is extremely important! While it wasn’t the best ever, it was delicious, nourishing and perfect for being stuck at home on a sick day.
I also had the Tofu Bahn Mi which was very fresh and delicious. I loved the coleslaw and the tofu was perfection.
Overall a solid delivery option for a Phở fix.

Sriracha wings are amazing and perfect for football. Beef bowl is worth getting. Phở is great. Fresh rolls are the only thing that just seem weird.

Why Mekong Kitchen Didn’t «Deliver»:
1) Our cold, clearly pre made Five Spices Chicken Noodle Bowls had to be microwaved.
2) The noodle bowls included ingredients like overcooked dry chicken, pickled red cabbage and inexplicably RAW cauliflower.
3) The peanut sauce for the Spring Rolls didn’t taste like peanut sauce at all.

I came here at l 8pm in a Wednesday after the gym. I was the only customer in the restaurant. I ordered the noodle bowl with chicken and the cashier tried to get me to upgrade to garlic noodles which was another $ 2. I haven’t been asked to upgrade at a restaurant since McDonald’s when they offered super size. So weird getting up sell questions at a restaurant.
The food took a good 25 mins to come out. Keep in mind that I was the only customer in the place so I can’t figure out what took so long. It does seem like a common occurrence based on other reviews.
The food was not even close to being authentic Vietnamese food. It wasn’t very good food either. The noodles were hard and had very little chicken. Seems like another shop in the Castro just waiting to go out of business.

There is wonderful food here, so many amazing choices. Any of the soups with show off the deliciousness of your choice. Such comfort food!

Phở is tres meh. =(
I came here feeling afraid of becoming sick like others at my office. It’s close to my house so I figured maybe I could have a new watering hole… I thought a bowl of soup and vegetables was a good choice to ward of the SF plague. Alas, twas not worth the $ 10+ for a bowl of mediocrity.
Save your money and go to a better phở place.
2 stars because the 1 imperial roll I had was tasty.

We’ve had some okay meals here. But recently things have just gotten pretty bad. The wait times are very long, and when the food comes it’s low quality. We ordered pick up and needed to wait an extra half hour past when we were told it would be ready. When we finally got the food and took it home (a 3 block walk) the phở we ordered was luke warm and rice noodles were so badly cooked they wouldn’t break a part. It was basically noodle clumps and beef soup.
In addition, no utensils were provided and they gave beef broth for the chicken phở we ordered. I don’t mind waiting if it’s worth it. But it has just not been worth it.

This is my second time eating here and unfortunately it will likely be my last.
The first time I ate here, I ordered the beef phở. while it was good it wasn’t the best I’d had and it was more expensive than some of the other Vietnamese restaurants I frequent (Mau, Tin, etc). I’m happy to pay a premium for great food and good quality ingredients but $ 12 didn’t feel justified.
I wanted to give it another chance because of the proximity to home and asked my husband to get me the five spice chicken vermicelli bun. Famished, I dug into it to find garlic noodles instead — a substitution with a $ 1.95 up charge which brought the bill to about $ 18 (husband added imperial rolls for another $ 1.95 which is why it was so $$). What??! He didn’t request the garlic noodles and couldn’t remember being asked if he wanted them so it looks like we got charged and delivered something we didn’t want or order. It’s possible the cashier asked if he wanted to upgrade the noodles but knowing my husband, who remembers EVERYTHING, improbable.
I really wanted to love this place because it replaced another Vietnamese restaurant I LOVED (Zadin) but I just don’t like it enough to pay the premium.

I liked the crispiness and taste of the brussel sprouts — not sure it is a Mekong dish — but nevertheless, it was pretty good (recommended by other Unilocalers too). I also got the fried 5 spice tofu banh mi — I thought this was flavorful, filling and a good vegetarian option (I’m not vegetarian though, just thought I’d go meatless for one evening). My friend though her oxtail soup was a bit bland (she added spice, salt and pepper) — this dish was also recommended by other Unilocalers. Overall, it was an a-​ok dining experience. I’m glad we tried it.

I’m a huge fan of fast casual and love independent places that offer more exotic food than Chipotle or Panera. Compared to those chains, this place is awesome. Compared to Vietnamese places around San Francisco, this place is just ok (hence the 3 stars). I suspect it’s probably worth deviating from the standard phở and trying less traditional menu items, since it was the wings that were the real highlight for me.
Sriracha Wings: Nice and crunchy. Not sure if they did a single-​fry or a double-​fry, but it was a great texture. Could have been a tad spicier though; felt mild for sriracha.
Phở Bo: Pretty good for the Castro, but just ok compared to hole-​in-​the-​wall joints in Little Saigon. Comes with brisket by default but you can get a $ 2.95 add-​on of rare steak. The rare steak was a little frozen, so I had to let it fully cook. I would preferred to eat it partly rare, but at that stage the rare portions were still icy. Generous portion of noodles. Would have preferred some meatballs in the mix.
Imperial Roll: Ordered the add-​on for $ 1.95, not the appetizer portion. Just came as one tiny roll with no dipping sauce. Not that memorable.

–Review is for delivery only–
The spicy oxtail phở was super delicious! The price is on the higher side — $ 17 for a bowl of phở — but oxtail tends to be expensive when you dine out, so I’m willing to overlook the price.
The oxtail was super tender, the broth was really flavorful and fairly different from common phở broths, and the portion was fairly large. While I was a huge fan of Zadin, the other upscale Vietnamese restaurant at this location, I’d happily try the other items on Mekong’s list.

I went here originally for a Unilocal Elite event so I’ve tried most everything on their menu.
Went back last night and wasn’t as impressed this time around. The Brussels sprouts as appetizers were the best, very good! The bahn mi brisket dip was pretty good, but their signature spicy oxtail phở was really disappointing. Spice was subtle but had good flavor but noodles were beyond overcooked that they were mushy– something I noticed at the Unilocal Elite event as well. The oxtail comes out on a huge bone and this time was tough and hard to get off the bone. I don’t recommend the spicy phở– it’s just not worth the $ 16.95.

Let me start by saying, I eat a lot of Vietnamese food– it’s one of my favorite foods. I eat at hole-​in-​the-​wall places, as well as up-​scale establishments.
I’d been wanting to try this place for a while, so when I walked by today and it was empty, it seemed like a good day to give it a try.
The décor was nice, but the place was swarming with flies. I stopped counting at 20 while I was waiting for my food. I actually had to bat them away from my face when I walked toward the counter to order.
The cashier was friendly. I asked how large the papaya salad was, and she said it was a good portion served in a large bowl. I ordered it (with shrimp added) and an iced coffee. Total was 15 bucks and some change, I paid with a 20 and threw the rest in the tip jar…
When the food arrived I was surprised. It was a tiny portion… Check out the photos I took. I used my sunglasses for size comparison. This was not a 12 dollar salad, and it was served on a bread plate. She did apologize for the mistake on the size of the salad, but nothing else was offered. I hoped it would at least be fresh and well flavored, instead the papaya was limp and soggy, the tomatoes were over ripe, and the green beans (which made up most of the salad) were extremely dry. As you can see from the second photo, I didn’t end up eating most of it.
Very disappointing. The iced coffee was good, that’s about it. After wasting 20 bucks, I literally had to leave and find somewhere else to get lunch because I was still pretty hungry.
Maybe their phở is good, but avoid the salads. :(Wasted my money here.

I really wanted to love this place. I did. I’m a HUGE fan of Asian food, and Vietnamese is toward the top of the list.
But again, in this cursed location, it was just okay. Credit where credit is due… it’s better than the predecessor, Urban Picnic, which was just ill-​conceived and poorly executed. Someone ignored good advice when setting that place up. But Mekong still isn’t quite nailing it.
Don’t get me wrong… everything was tasty. We had two appetizers… both delicious… and my friend’s soup was good, though unusual, phở. My banh mi was really unique, the dipping au jus being phở broth is a cute idea.
But an entrée, a sub, and two appetizers in a legit Vietnamese restaurant is like $ 18. At a fusion place… Americanized… like Dinosaurs down the road… maybe $ 25. I think we dropped close to $ 40 for dinner here.
If it were cheaper… I’d be a player. But for the money you have a LOT of options in San Francisco, some of them are tastier. It’s just… not exactly as it should be. Good, if not great, food. Creative, though sometimes slightly trying-​too-​hard fusion vibe. Nice servers. Great location. But man $ 40 is a lot for casual «cheap» Vietnamese food for two.

I never did try this place when it was the sunnier-​looking Urban Picnic although I’ve been to the one on Kearny which, let’s just say, didn’t excite my palate. Before that, it was Zadin, another Vietnamese place which was more of an actual restaurant and served fish rolls that Atelier Crenn chef Dominique Crenn raved about on Chef’s Feed. I thought those fish rolls were good, but the rest of the menu was hit-​and-​miss often on the same plate. Owner Trang Nguyen appears to be going for an even more urban vibe this time around by creating a hipster haven with modern takes on traditional Vietnamese fare. I decided to try this one because dammit, I can be hip and modern. OK, maybe not but give me credit for trying. I’m a person who could eat a hip spring roll.
As it turned out, the $ 7.95 Spring Rolls were the part of my order that wasn’t given any new-​fangled treatment. They were just standard-​issue spring rolls with halved shrimps peeking though. The accompanying hoisin peanut sauce had the consistency of cake frosting and was almost as sweet (photo:
). Yep, that was a miss compared to what you could get at Four Seasons or any phở house in Little Saigon. Other menu items under consideration were items like Spicy Wing Lollipops, Sugarcane Shrimp and Redboat Brussels (photo:
). I bypassed them all in favor of the most expensive offering, the $ 14.95 Spicy Oxtail Phở. Now I like phở and I like oxtail, so the prospect of having both in one bowl was intriguing enough for me to try.
It came with all the correct accessories — the bean sprouts, the basil leaves, the cilantro (which I laboriously pick out since I am not a fan). The large bowl contains a sea of spicy red broth with big chunks of fall-​off-​the-​bone oxtails (photo:
). It was what I expected but awfully hard to maneuver since the bones were big and the risk of red stains on my shirt increased with every slurp. Indeed one of the bones slipped out of my chopsticks and had enough elevation to cause quite a splatter on the table. There were no casualties. I thought it was tasty though, so maybe they could work a bit more on the execution. Otherwise I would go back if I happen to be in the Castro and in the mood for hip-​hop Vietnamese.
FOOD — 3 stars… lackluster spring rolls but a mighty oxtail phở that needs to come with a splatter guard
AMBIANCE — 3.5 stars… going for a darker Asian look these days
SERVICE — 3 stars… no servers here, you just order at the counter just like at Gyro Xpress
TOTAL — 3 stars… Vietnamese with a spiky hairdo