9211 Bolsa Ave, Ste 101-103, Westminster, CA 92683Pricing -
$ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Vietnamese
http://phoquangtrung.comIt's a travel tradition for me - I need pho when I get home! While my favorite pho place is
Pho 79 in Garden Grove, it isn't open at all hours of the night (WHY NOT?!) and when your flight lands at 9:40pm, your choices become more limited for good pho. However, since
Duc was going to pick me up, he did some research and said that Pho Quang Trung in Westminster might be our best bet. I looked up the reviews on
Yelp and saw some positive comments so I agreed. Also, I was sick so having some warm noodle soup seemed like an awesome idea at that point.
So many of the rave reviews were commending the chicken pho - I have never had chicken pho before but since that's where the praise was going towards, I decided on that with chicken breast instead of thigh and no add-ons of liver or skin (I know it's traitorous to beefy tradition but...I had to). The "medium" that came out was HUGE! I mean, I normally would have said no but my congestion wanted some brothy lovin'. As I ate it, I felt like I was betraying my dear Pho 79 because I was actually enjoying my meal. The broth was hot, clean, and rich. The noodles were perfect in texture. The meat was fresh and bountiful. Why did I have to like it so much?!
Duc went for the pho tai sach (the tripe was for my sake since I was craving it) in the medium size too. That broth was also hot, clean, and rich; there weren't any traces of greasiness which a lot of pho restaurants have. The meat was so plentiful, and the noodles spot-on too. Because the broth was so clean, it did lack a little bit of the savory marrow flavor we like in our broth (which is so deliciously heavy and apparent in Pho 79's broth) but in general, was fantastic. We both felt bad about enjoying the meal so much as well as seeing that this place actually took credit cards (no shady Vietnamese cash-only business?). We'll keep it for our late-night cravings then and still visit our dearly beloved during its opening hours. WELL-PLAYED PHO QUANG TRUNG, WELL-PLAYED. You made us feel like we were having an affair, sigh.
9550 Bolsa Ave, Ste 115F, Westminster, CA 92683
Pricing -
$ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Vietnamese
It's odd being away for so many years and then coming back to the area to live again. My cousins from out of the state were in town and wanted to get some good Vietnamese food. Our dinner was slated to be quite late in the evening so my choices were limited in terms of where to go. Luckily, I had a friend who suggested this place to me and it was actually pretty decent. It wasn't the best of
phở places I have been to but it was pretty good. The perk is that it's open until 3 am every night so if you ever get a late night hankering, you could drop on by and expect service! It was also the cleanest and most "chic" looking phở restaurant I've been to; it was reminiscent of a contemporary art hotel lobby.
I got the cà phê sữa đá for my drink out of nostalgia from the Vietnam trip and because it seems like the proper thing to do to check the authenticity of a Vietnamese restaurant. It didn't come out with a coffee strainer actually so points are lost for that one. My drink was also already mixed! I was expecting that if I didn't have the coffee thing, I'd at least have my milk and coffee separate. Oh well. It was only so so and a bit too generous on the ice in my opinion. I had thought that the cost was cheap on the menu but in the end, it wasn't great for the two bucks.
The phở here is a tad more expensive than other places I am used to. It was $5.45 for a small and 50 cents more for a large. To be fair, there was a HUGE difference between the small and large so whoever gets a large will snag its worth if s/he can finish the bowl. One of the first things I noticed about the phở was that the broth was clean. It wasn't grimy or greasy; it actually tasted pretty good though less flavorful than really authentic Vietnamese phở. I think it was Americanized a bit with less bone in the broth. Oh well. The noodles were great and the filet mignon slices were ridiculously thin. I loved the steak! I had ordered a small of the phở tái nạm gần sạch but the tripe was quite skimpy. I think the largest serving was of the steak. Overall, a solid dish but not out of this world. It scratched the phở itch I had been having.
9625 Bolsa Ave, Westminster, CA 92684
Pricing -
$ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Vietnamese
My family and I went here after we got back from Duke because it was one of the 24 hour pho places around. It was priced just where I like seeing my pho - at $6 for a large bowl. The few Asian places I've seen around Duke have always charged $9+ for a small bowl but we were finally back in the land of Asians. For a 24 hour place, the food was pretty decent. I ordered the bowl with everything. I really liked the noodles because they were cooked to the right firmness. The broth was good after a long day but not too memorable. They put a good amount of meat in the bowl for which I was grateful (my only complaint was that there wasn't enough tripe) and the vegetables were quite fresh. I'd come back another late night when I'm craving pho in the wee hours.
