Phuong Trang is probably among the most well known of the Vietnamese Restaurants in San Diego. An institution on Convoy St, on any given day the non-Vietnamese clientele out number the Vietnamese customers. Tonight the restaurant was unusually empty, probably due to the weather, and the long days associated with the summer solstice. Many times we'll avoid Phuong Trang at dinner time due to the crowds and drive to Pho Hoa Cali on Clairemont Mesa Blvd instead.
Sometime during the last year or so the interior of the restaurant has gone through a bit of a renovation and modernization, and it seems that the Owner's Daughters now run the operation during the evening.
It's been sunny and warm so no Pho' for us today. We started with the Bo Bia Spring Rolls ($3.25), these are our favorite with pickled vegetables (Ca Rot) like those found in Banh Mi, shredded dried shrimp, basil, lettuce, egg, and Chinese sausage (lap xuong), served with peanut sauce, these spring rolls are both salty, sweet, crunchy, and refreshing. Always a nice start to a meal.
The Bun (Vermicelli Noodle) with Shrimp was nice and cool ($5.95). We asked for extra Nuoc Mam Cham and basically created a cool sweet/salty soup. The amount of shrimp was very generous and were cooked well.
I ordered the "special" Broken Rice ($6.95):
A char grilled pork chop, shredded pork, Fried shrimp/fish cake, steamed egg cake, is served on a bed of broken rice "com tam", along with lightly dressed shredded lettuce & carrots, sliced tomato and cucumber. The steamed egg is my favorite part of this dish, ground pork, cellphone noodles, give this "Vietnamese Chawan-Mushi" wonderful flavor. If I could just get this and the fried fishcake over rice I'd take it! The pork chop is basically a cutlet with bone and well flavored though tough, and the shredded pork though not among my favorite things; was nice and moist, not dry and stringy as is often the norm.
Overall this was a pleasant, quick meal. At times the service at Phuong Trang can be a bit curt, especially when crowded, so we try to avoid those periods. We've had many meals at Phuong trang and found it to be generally good, though the Banh Xeo (Crepe) is greasy, the Cha Gio (Fried Egg Rolls) are excellent. Another thing that Phuong Trang does well is to give a good of amount garnishes with all the dishes served, nothing worse than getting 3 basil leaves and 5 bean sprouts with your bowl of Pho' .
Phuong Trang
4170 Convoy St.
San Diego, CA 92111
(858)565-6750