Tu Thanh Revisited

I’m actually enjoying the cooler weather. It means that I can get my noodle soup fixes…which means I headed on up to City Heights and Tu Thanh.

I’d actually been craving some Bun Mang Vit for a while and tried to visit Tu Thanh a couple of times. First off, parking in the area can be a challenge. Second, I had actually found parking twice and walked over to find the place closed at their posted opening time. I thought I’d give the place one final chance….you know; “three strikes and you’re out”. And it must have been my lucky day….they were actually open at 915am!

I was greeted by the very friendly Hispanic woman working and she pointed me to the seat. It was interesting as she was the only employee in the shop. It had been over four years (!!!!) since my last visit and I was wondering how things were.

I placed my order for Bun Mang Vit and just kind of sat back.

Places like Tu Thanh really gives me perspective on how long I’ve been doing his blogging stuff. My first visit with this shop was back in 2006. Back then, there was a “ABCDE” shop on University Avenue named Chinese Kitchen. It served typical Chinese Fast Food….but, there was a not so “secret” menu that listed Chao and Banh Canh….and of course Bun Mang Vit…which called themselves Chi Tu Thanh Nha Hang. And you think these “ghost kitchen” thingies are a rather new concept, right? Anyway, it became my favorite place for Bun Mang Vit. In 2013 Tu Thanh made its move and opened up their own restaurant also on University and I have visited many times over the years. Through the years like almost every Vietnamese Noodle Soup shop in San Diego, there have been changes; banana blossom stopped being served, the Nuoc Mam Gung had changed, but at least on my last visit it was fairly close to what I’d had before. The amount and quality of the bamboo shoots had changed as well…….

And when my bowl arrived; well…….

I don’t know what’s up with that hard, tasteless strings of bamboo shoots they use these days is; but it’s not a nice texturally and lacks the flavor and fragrance of what they used to serve.

Case in point…..this was circa 2018.

And this is what I got on this visit.

The broth was also a bit more cloudy than I’m used to, but not overly salty. And it does get better over time as there’s a bunch of “dunking” and mixing in of veggies and such going on.

The Nuoc Mam Gung was not as good as on my last visit.

As it seemed to lack as much fish sauce as I like; but at least it wasn’t overly sweet and had enough ginger in it. The amount of sauce is less than before; but I’m fine with that as for me a little goes a long way.

Thankfully, the duck was as it always was, savory, nice toothsome texture, and absorbs the flavor of the dipping sauce nicely.

Did you notice anything about the plate? Well, everything was in a pool of water, it was just heavily dripping off the cabbage. I’m guessing it wasn’t drained very well? All that needless liquid will water down the flavors.

And lastly, the noodles.

Which were nice and slippery, but chopped into short, little strings, which made it really hard to eat.

I’m not sure what is going on here…maybe it was just a bad day? Or perhaps I’ve just been coming here for too many years that I’m living in the past? I guess that’s the bad part of having a food blog for so long…I remember when the stuff they served looked like this!

And perhaps that’s why it took me over four years to return to a place that I’d visit at least a couple of times a year?

Tu Thanh
4804 University Ave. #A
San Diego, CA 92105