Vietnam Restaurant

I have seriously been long overdue to write a review about this extraordinary gem in the San Gabriel Valley! I have been here many times and the owner and his staff are absolutely incredible! They really treat me and all of their customers very well, and they are so prompt with their service! I always order the brisket phở bowl and a Thai iced tea on hot days (or a hot tea when I am not feeling well)! Although, on occasion, I have also ordered their vermicelli dishes as well!
Their phở is always served piping hot, which is what I love best! I feel like soup always tastes best when it is hot! And it especially helps to eat hot phở, and add in sriracha sauce, when I have a cold and am not feeling well. It seems like sriracha seems to go so well with practically anything! And it helps to open up my sinuses! Haha!
I highly recommend coming here! All the staff members really treat me like family, and I always look forward to dining here!

Ca nuong… I seriously daydream about this dish. Crispy crunchy skin and tender white fish — together… a delicious fishy paradise. That… actually doesn’t sound great, but it is.
My family is extremely loyal when it comes to our restaurant choices. The tried and true will always spring to mind, especially when it comes to family-​style meals or traditional Vietnamese cuisine. However, this past weekend for my lovely sister’s birthday, we wanted ca nuong, or «baked fish». Our go-​to Thien An decided to switch things up and be a «cash only» place (bummer). Cue Vietnam Restaurant.
It may not have the most creative name but it gets the point across. We called half an hour ahead, ordered a 5-​pounder, and automatically got a reservation for 8. Great and easy service!
Usually, in Rosemead/​SGV area, parking is a nightmare but luckily, they have their own lot! Easy. Our table was ready for us in the back room when we arrived. This spot isn’t made for large groups; they probably only had 2 big tables, so make sure you get that reservation if you’re coming with the whole fam. Our server, I assume was the owner, came by and chatted with us a bit. We ordered a few things to start off before the fish showed up to the party.
Eat this:
–bo mo chai: these are those grilled beef balls. It is a must-​get if you’re new to Vietnamese barbecue. Marinated and grilled to perfection. The outside is slightly chewy, I suspect they use some sort of intestine as the casing like sausage.
–bo la lot: why would you not get this? It’s marinated grilled meat wrapped in a soft delectable grape leaf. It’s a little grainy from the herbs and once again, straight perfection.
–phan cha gio: this is a full order of just egg rolls. But these are amazing. They use rice paper, which is the way to go, so it’s more crispy than their crunchy egg wrapper counterparts. One order was probably not enough. My dad loves egg rolls. You’ll understand why if you eat theirs.
–ca nuong: catfish baked/​roasted to crispy perfection. Here, they split the fish in half before it goes in, so the skin gets evenly crispy without that oily, soggy underbelly that typically happens. The meat inside stayed moist (sorry if that word bothers you, but it was) and tender. Flaked apart easily. They added fried pork rinds all over the plate, like little golden crispy nuggets. This whole plate was just a texture heaven! Loved it so much. All of this for about $ 50, and you feed ya whole family with leftovers!
Sauces: They brought out two types, both a fish sauce base: one was tamarind flavored and the other… I’m not sure but they both went well with the sambal oelek. They even have sate. I am a sucker for customization and here, the combinations are endless. I can’t even organize my thoughts properly.
This whole experience comes with banh trang (rice paper), plenty of veggies and vermicelli. My favorite veggie combo: pickled daikon/​carrot, lettuce and bean sprouts. Wrap a bit of those, some crispy skin and fish into a wrapper and dunk it. You can even switch it up and do a combo of the meats, the egg rolls and the fish. Go crazy! Just don’t overfill that delicate wrapper, I suck and it always rips. :(
Bottom line, come visit with your friends, family, friends that are family and eat family-​style. You’ll be amazed and see why this was an event, not just another meal. Bring the people you love. Don’t bring downers. Can’t have that kind of negativity in your life during moments like this.

Recently tried the egg rolls and banh canh. FYI-​I am a frequent visitor of Saigon Flavor and Golden Deli, they are my go to viet restaurants. Saying that so people get a better understanding of my taste buds. The service is nice; they speak English, viet and Mandarin. But the food is okay. It really depends on your palate. I found the egg rolls to be chewy. I’m use to crunchy. The outer layer was crispy by the inner wrapping was soft and chewy the filling was not very fulfilling. Just a style I’m not use to, and that might just be the case. However the banh canh was good. That is what I came in for, haven’t had it since my mom use to cook it-​years long ago. The broth was light and flavorful (pork broth). I got shrimp and crab meat, not too much not too less. The right amount. The noodle were they way they’re suppose to be, tapioca-​udon like noodles. Cook right. Is go back for the banh canh but that’s about it. My hubby liked the broken rice dish; grilled pork, baked egg and shrimp paste.

If I were to give you one piece of advice when coming here, it would be to either stick with the soup based noodles or try the baked catfish!
Came here with a group of 4. I knew ahead of time that we were going to get catfish, so I called about 45 minutes ahead of time to order it. Prices are decent too, it was $ 45 for a small and $ 55/​up for a bigger fish. Once we were seated, we ordered a few more dishes (bun thit nuong w/​the eggrolls and shrimp paste, and the banh beo).
After waiting for about 10 minutes, the baked fish came out! The owner/​manager (?), a nice gentleman, came out and basically taught us how to eat it. This was helpful since some of us were first timers. The fish was sooo crunchy! Better than other places I’ve had it at! The meat was flaky and they even included some fried pork skin with it and a heaping portion of green onion! Easily the highlight of all our dishes. The fish came out with the wraps, noodles, veggies (lettuce, mint, picked carrots). I just combined a bunch of sauces they had on the counter (tamarind sauce) and hot sauce and dipped it in. The rolls I made came out pretty ugly, but it doesn’t matter since it still tasted good! :P
The other dishes were disappointing, to say the least. The banh beo (steamed white cakes topped with mung bean/​dried shrimp) were a little too mushy for my liking. The other noodle dish was okay, but the shrimp paste was super thinly sliced and so dry. I’ve had their noodle dishes here (such as their phở) and they have always been good.
Service was friendly, but was almost nonexistent after getting our fish. Our waters took a long time to be refilled and we waited so long to get our check. I actually had to get up and go to the counter to ask for it. I’m not sure if it was because we were sitting in the side room, but I remember we got much better service sitting in the main room where the door is.
Overall, I feel that this place does serve really delicious Vietnamese food. Almost perfect if they improve on their dry dishes and their service.

Had the baked Catfish, 7 courses of beef, and egg rolls. All were delicious. I’ve tried the baked Catfish from phong dinh, thien an Bo 7 mon, and now this spot. I’d say this spot makes it the best. The skin was crispy and not rubbery like other places. The meat itself was very tender. Although it took a while, but it was well worth the wait. I’d suggest to order 1 hr in advance. This old man was our server and he was great as well. Will definitely be back!

I’m almost positive this place is owned by the same family that opened Golden Deli and consequently they have almost the same menus and the food tastes almost identical. The big differences between the two places would be that this place is actually bigger, and almost always empty.
If you don’t have to have the style and decoration of Golden Deli, feel free to come here for the same great quality Vietnamese food without the hours of wait.

Hello my Unilocalies,
Came here for the first time since I’ve been craving for some Vietnamese rice and sides. This is one of the few that accepts cards so why not try it out? Parking is very convenient it is located to the right side of the restaurant. So don’t need to worry about finding a spot.
The place is pretty spacious, it has a good enough space for people. I of course order the rice plate with baked egg, shrimp paste and grilled chicken. They were nice enough to make the grilled chicken for me since it wasn’t on the menu. The baked egg of course was delicious, it was cooked to perfection. I really enjoyed their shrimp paste because of the amount they give. Many places I go to the shrimp paste are very small, this place they give a pretty decent size. As for the chicken, I was very happy with how little fat it has but it was a little over cook that more than half of it was burnt but good thing it was just the top layer.
As for my boyfriend he order pretty much the same, shredded pork, pork chop, baked egg and shrimp paste. From him he thought it was pretty decent, better than Golden Deli. The pork chop was good but still a little dry, as for the shredded pork it was good but pretty much all places have decent shredded pork. We also order a side of egg rolls, it was decent but from my boyfriends point of view it used to be a lot better. I did like how it was seasoned well but it would have been a lot better if it was more crispy.
The service was decent, I was very happy with how they helped me to alternate the order. Everything came out to almost $ 30 which is average on Vietnamese restaurants.
Overall, 5 stars for service, 4 stars for food and drinks, 4 stars for environment and decoration and 4 stars for cleanliness. May come back again in the future.

The wonton soup with egg noodles is delish!
I get it whenever I have a cold. …or whenever I have a craving for it.
My family and I often get it to go and it comes separately so that the noodles are not cooked while in transport. The wontons have silky and thin wrappers with great flavored meat inside.

The food was not that great. We ordered:
Bo 7 Mon: I eat this pretty often back in Boston and it’s amazing. However, nothing was good here. Veggies were old. Dipping sauce was watered down and lacked real flavor. All the meat was dry.
Phở Ga: It was mediocre. Chicken strips were dry.
The only good thing was the Chinese twists/​donut thing.

Decent place. Came here twice after we felt like we were going to the same place and wanted to change it up a bit. Sad to say there was no brisket available. And I was fairly disappointed in the egg rolls, it’s wrapped in what I assume was clear vermicelli.
I might have better luck with their rice dishes. Meh.

Dropped by today for my regular fix of Imperial Rolls, and as usual they didn’t disappoint.
The owner seemed excited to see us walk in, It was very nice to feel so welcome.
My pal had a beef sandwich, not the perfect choice for a big appetite. Razor thin slices of beef, slivered carrots and other veggies on a crisp French roll.
They serve some items I’ve never tried before, one looked like a transparent cellophane tortilla.
My server could see I was confused, so he showed me how to dip it in hot water before eating it. I thought it was a napkin! It didn’t even look edible, and had no taste whatsoever.
They sell banana leaf wrapped Vietnamese tamales made from sticky rice filled with pork, or banana to go for about three dollars.

My family and I have been going to this restaurant for Phở for years! The owner is always there and is super friendly. Their Phở is pretty good in my eyes, though I haven’t been to many different Vietnamese restaurants. I love the rare and cooked beef Phở with tendon… the soup base is always on point and not too salty. I also like their vermicelli noodles with egg rolls and pork. Their egg roll appetizer is always good as well with the lettuce wraps.
The restaurant gets super busy on the weekends so go early. Their take out is great as well. There is parking on both sides so that’s super convenient.

got the pork bun and our table shared the 7 course of beef.
the pork in the bun was dry and unflavorful. the overall bun was disappointing.
this was my first time with the 7 course of beef. it was okay. dunno if it was just this place that was mediocre but other 7 courses are just like it.

I came here on a Friday afternoon at around 4:30p.m., not too busy, pretty quiet place with good music playing.
I was greeted and seated by a man named, Michael, ordered the #9 which is phở with well done beef in the soup.
Delicious!
I work in the city of San Gabriel and have had Phở at a lot of the restaurants here, this is the first one that I’ve actually had a chance to leave a Unilocal review on. I will definitely be coming back here. Great tasting food, friendly staff, good price, just all around a great place. Thumbs up!

I had an itch for 7 course beef and my friend has never had it before, so I decided to check this place out :) I have been to Vietnam House and Thien An Bo 7 Mon, both of which I thought was decent, but perhaps there may be better? The employees here (at least one of them) was very friendly, and made sure to check in with us several times over the course of our meal, which was very nice of him. We got:
Banh Xeo: I’m used to banh xeo with a crispier, «eggier» type of skin, though bf insists this is the good stuff. It’s a bit thicker and more «doughy» than the ones I’m accustomed to (not saying it’s a bad thing), most likely because it has mung beans added to it. There is also a light coconut taste that I don’t usually taste from other banh xeo I’ve had, though it’s actually quite nice. The flavoring is bland, but wakes up after you load it up with herbs and dip with sauce. I actually like this dish quite a lot and I noticed a lot of customers ordering it as well.
7 course beef: Everything was pretty good, though my favorite is probably the beef wrapped in leaves. I was very happy that they made the beef porridge with actual rice, and not that weird pasta-​stars crap that other joints like to use. Flavoring for the porridge was spot on with ginger and other goodies. The veggies given to us were okay, though I still think it appears fresher at the other locations – I’m not complaining though, as the flavors of the beef is more important to me than the veggies.
Those two dishes were very reasonable in terms of pricing, quantity, and taste, and three of us left with a full belly (okay just two of us, but one is just a hungry hippo). I like the flavoring of the meats here a tad more than the other locations, though they aren’t far behind. The banh xeo is a delightful winner winner chicken dinner though, and I’m curious to try their other dishes as well. I definitely recommend you give this place a try to see for yourself!

I think the food is good more like 3.5. But the egg roll had the clear rice paper outer layer and the soda chanh muoi didn’t taste like much. I will give it another try. I had the hu tieu it was ok. My husband had the cari ga (chicken curry). Consensus was it was ok. I want to try the phở though. I’ll be back and will update when I see fit. The workers are super friendly and quick.

What a hidden gem. I like this phở place! It’s kind of hard to find since the building itself is overshadowed by the medical offices and the San Gabriel Hospital. The parking was quite full from the offices.
The Phở here is delicious! I ordered the extra large Phở Ga (chicken phở) and it was tasty! It’s served in a huge bowl with generous proportions. Lots of white chicken strips served along with a plate of soy bean sprouts, sliced chili peppers, cilantro, basil mint leaves, and slices of lemon. The broth was extremely hot which was almost able to fully cook my sprouts. My noodles soaked up my broth quite fast and I had to ask for more broth.
I also ordered a Vietnamese iced dripped coffee. The coffee is good, but wasn’t as strong as the other phở places I’ve been to.
I had a pleasant experience here. Nice little restaurant with decent service. a good place for a quick meal. I didn’t like the parking situation though, and was a little disappointed that they charged me a buck for a small bowl of extra broth. The reason asked for more was because the noodles quickly absorbed it, or they didn’t give me enough to begin with. Yes, I shouldn’t complain about a buck, but business is business.
I’ll still give this place a happy four stars, and will come back soon.

Hmm, not sure if we’re convinced here.
What we ordered:
1. large phở for him, regular phở for me. The soup base was weak. Wished there was more flavor. We normally don’t add too much extra stuff to our phở because there’s usually enough flavor. Extra Sriracha and Hoisin sauce for him. Ngoc mam for me.
–skip.
2.Spring rolls. Not sure what was off about it, but we didn’t really care for them
3. Side order of pork chop. Seasoned well, cooked well. PLUS! I bet the broken rice and vermicelli must kick ass.
4. Bahn xeo. Not too bad. Crispy, hot, stuffed with meat, bean sprouts, onions, and shrimp. Decent.
Overall, we’d come back to try other things. Didn’t care too much for the phở. Pity.
Plenty of parking. It’s the lone restaurant next to the San Gabriel health center area.

My coworker and I decided to stop here for our lunch break. Luckily, it wasn’t too busy so we were easily seated without needing to wait.
I ordered the charboiled beef with egg roll and rice vermicelli noodles. The big bowl was decent tasting. The noodles tasted fresh. The egg rolls were delicious and I really liked the charboiled beef. Price is reasonable too.
Even though it wasn’t busy, the service was a tad bit slow. Despite the fact that there weren’t too many customers, I was kind of turned off by the fact that the server/​owner was participating in idle chat with a certain table of customers instead of paying attention to the other tables.
I even witnessed an incoming customer waiting at the door and finally walking toward the owner/​server to say that he has been waiting for someone to seat him. I don’t know about you — but customer service trumps idle chat. We also waited for quite awhile for the bill, and when we kind of got fed up with waiting for our change — we just went up straight to the cash register.
Overall, food was decent. However, the lack of professionalism was off-​putting, especially since we had a sensitive time period for our lunch break.

BAKED CATFISH!
Came here because the reviews for the catfish and 7 courses of beef were pretty good.
Service was good. I did not realize that they are connected to Golden Deli. The owner was the one who opened Golden Deli.
I preordered my catfish because it takes about an hour to cook if you come in and order it.
113. Baked Catfish, Small — $ 39.95 — Meat was cooked nicely. Tender and flaky. I liked the pork fat cubes and green onions that it is cooked with. Great in lettuce wraps and spring rolls. They filet the fish but I found it harder to get the meat off the bones. A lot better then Thein An Bo’s catfish and I have not tried the new Phong Dinh’s but there reviews look pretty bad now. I guess this is my new favorite place to get catfish!
97. 7 Courses of Beef — $ 16.95 — Each courses tasted decent. I liked the sliced meat cooked in the broth. I do not think I am a fan of the other way the meat is cooked. It was either dry or to sweet. Soup was ok but the ginger overpowered everything. A little different from the 7 courses at Thein An Bo but the portion amount is a ton more here.
105. Sizzling Beef — $ 12.95 — Meat comes out already cooked for you unlike other places where you cook it yourself. I thought it was going to be really overcooked but it was tender and seasoned really nicely. I wish this was part of the 7 courses.
I would come back to try some other items and the catfish again.