Recently, the Missus was craving some Nem Nuong Cuon and Com Tam. It had been a year since I last visited Pho Duyen Mai, just after the new owners took over, so I thought we'd head on over.
Even though we arrived at 1030am, the place was already pretty busy.
We were waved to a table, waters and the menus were dropped off. The place seemed quite popular.
We ended up ordering two spring rolls, the Com Tam Dac Biet, and recently "FOY" Lilian had been missing Banh Xeo since her local favorite, Bolsa closed last year, so I ordered that as well just to see.
Soon enough our order started arriving; the first was the Nem Nuong Cuon.
Way back when Pho Duyen Mai opened in 2016, then under the ownership of the former owners of Pho Ban Mai, I called the version of this "Brodard light". Now, looking at an even "thinner" spring roll, even though we had noticed that the version at Brodard was thinner on our last visit, I'd call these "Brodard ligher". For some reason the wrapper was really chewy, the nem nuong seemed to be devoid of flavor, the amount of veggies sparse, and the dipping sauce watered down. The only thing going for it was the crisp-crunchy fried spring roll wrapper.
Next up was the Com Tam Dac Biet.
Man, that plate looked kinda sparse? So, going down things, the bi was missing the roasted rice powder which would give it a wonderful nuttiness; the one slice of Tan Hu Ky was dry and flavorless. This would be the common theme of the meal, as the "cha" the pork -egg "cake" was dry and bland. The meats were dry and tough; you get the point, right?
And as for the Banh Xeo……
Good lord, this was greasy, and rubbery, there were like three shrimp, it was terrible.
It was sad to see as Duyen Mai was pretty good when they first opened.
Pho Duyen Mai
5375 Kearny Villa Rd
San Diego, CA 92123