Category: Pho

Sometimes I just wait too long to post. Case in point would be Phở Gà Go, which is Crab Hut’s kinda pop-up. I say kinda because it made quite a stir doing just take out back at the end of last year. You’d put your order in online, choosing a pick up time…..between Sunday and Tuesday. On Sundays, the pick up was between noon and 3pm. On Monday and Tuesday from 4pm to 7pm at Crab Hut Mira Mesa. So, not having had decent Pho Ga in San Diego, I was interested and eventually I did place an order. The pick up time for weekdays was a bit of a hassle with regards to traffic and such…but what the heck.

Everything was packed nicely and you just zipped in and picked up your order. Of course I chose the dark meat chicken. The herbs were fresh…there was ngo gai.

The broth was nice and rich, with strong chicken tones……kinda like what your mom would make….if you were born into a Vietnamese Household. Look at the golden color.

Not overly salty, the chicken toothsome, I enjoyed the Banh Pho, which were of the wider variety….it did a better job of getting coated by the rich broth.

It’s definitely the best Pho Ga I can recall getting in San Diego (and no, I don’t care for Cow Cali’s MSG laden version)……which I’d pretty much given up on decades ago.

So, I was going to do a post after doing another take out visit….but I must have taken too long….getting slow in my old age I guess? ;o)

By the time the weather had cooled off, Pho Ga Go was now doing dine in…between 10am and 2pm during weekdays. The time suited me even better, so I decided to grab an early lunch on a Friday. As a bonus, this location of Crab Hut has a patio….so guess who could come along?

The drill is interesting….you walk in and order at the host stand and pay….it’s credit card only right now. The menu is a lot larger than what I recalled online.

And then had a seat on the patio.

As with takeout, the basil, ngo gai, and bean sprouts were quite fresh. It was interesting to note how quiet things were. In fact, one of the security guards driving his buggy drove by and stopped…asking me if they were now open for lunch! I guess he hadn’t noticed?

The Pho Ga came out steaming hot; but looked a bit different.

It was much lighter in color, lacking that yellow tone that I’d had previously. Though it was still nice and rich. In fact, this had nice aromatic/spice tones; anise, clove, coriander, ginger…….even stronger than takeout!

I actually enjoyed it more. Though I did make one mistake….the broth really didn’t need the basil nor lime, which masked a lot of the flavor of the spices to me….I had just wanted to see what the effect would be. Lesson learned; rookie mistake.

Same type of Banh Pho, decent cooked.

Though the noodles seemed to be chopped into shorter strands? Well, no slurping for me, I guess?

This time around; the poultry was a bit more toothsome, but actually had an even stronger savory-chicken flavor.

I found this quite comforting. And I guess I now have a place to get my Pho Ga fix.

I hope they continue making pho ga and perhaps even expand their hours a bit. Especially when winter comes around.

Phở Gà Go at Crab Hut Mira Mesa
8280 Mira Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92126
Current Hours:
Mon – Fri 10am – 2pm
Closed Weekends

It’s funny how I sometimes find new places to visit. For example, I was updating “The Big List” and other posts. I sometimes do random checks to see if places are still open and started wondering about Sab E Lee Santee….man it had been how many years since we last visited? It had apparently gone thru a change in ownership and name to Faidang Restaurant, so I added it to my “list”. A few months back, I decided it was time for me to finally check the place out….and oh my, Faidang had permanently closed due to various “creatures”! It was now a Vietnamese restaurant named Sizzling Saigon. Hmmm…… I waited a couple of weeks before actually heading out East on the 52 and back to a locale that was once fairly familiar to me, but where I hadn’t been in maybe 5 years?

And there it was…Sizzling Saigon. Taking a look at the sign gave me a slight pause. Under the name of the place was written “Asian Fusion”? Double hmmm….. Still, I had driven all the way here.

The young man working was very nice as I was seated and handed a menu….which gave me another hard stop.

My goodness, in what universe is pho now almost $21????

And in this alternate universe, Bo Luc Lac is cheaper than the pho???? And the even the Bun Bo Hue is $21???

Well, this mad my decision quite easy; after all the place is named “Sizzling”, right? I decided to go with the Bo Luc Lac ($17.89). My order took awhile, but it looked quite good when it arrived.

I guess I didn’t read the fine print. This comes with fried rice; which, while nothing special in terms of flavor, the rice was fairly evenly coated, the texture fine, and a rather nice surprise.

While the beef was definitely not filet mignon, it was decently tender, nicely marinated if a bit too salty and in need of more complex umami tones; like perhaps a bit more fish sauce and pungency.

My pet peeve with this one is that the bell peppers were basically raw and too hard and crunchy. Not the largest portion, but with the fried rice, not bad at all.

I think the version at Ngon Ngon is better; but this was not bad at all.

This meal, combined with the really friendly service, had me wondering what that $21 bowl of pho was going to be like. So, of course I made time to return. The same really nice young man was working. I went and ordered the Pho Dac Biet ($20.89). And soon the “tools” and accoutrements arrived…..

I say tools because this was included with the napkins, spoon, and chopstick.

The young man told me that the chili oil is a “must have” for the pho? Hmmm again. As I anticipated, no Ngo Gai; it’s “Asian Fusion” after all.

And then my pho arrived.

At first glance quite impressive that bowl was a molten, bubbling cauldron of broth crowned by a beef rib. Seeing this arriving at my table I was really worried that the young man would spill some on himself or get burned by that stone bowl.

The plate of rare steak, beef flank, noodles was impressive. Though upon further review; it seemed to have all been premade and put in the fridge, because as hot as that bowl of broth was, the plate itself was ice cold.

That portion size of noodles was no joke either. The banh pho was of the “wider” type and because of being pre-portioned was a huge mass stuck together. And the bowl of broth was filled to the top, so you couldn’t put all the noodles into the soup at once. The scissors did come in handy here. At least the texture of the noodles were good.

The actual broth was tongue meltingly hot, but really lacking deviod of beef and any pungent tones. Thus the chili oil I guess. While not overly “San Diego sweet” in flavor, it was very bland. I used all the basil, onions, scallions, and even wishes there was more cilantro. It took me twice the amount of time to taste a spoonful of broth without burning my tongue.

The texture of the beef rib was on the chewier side, but came off the bone cleanly. It was really mild in flavor as well. There was a half a meatball swimming in miasma.

The beef flank was, as expected being served cold, super chewy once heated in the broth, but also lacking in beefiness.

The one blessing of having the broth served so hot was that a single dunk would get the rare beef done. Sort of like a pho shabu-shabu I guess?

Overall, I think of this bowl, much like what is served at Phonomenal to be more of a “marketing” angle, perhaps anticipating an influx of influencers? But, if you like a showy bubbling cauldron of broth, with a large portion of noodles and meat, without caring much about flavor, this might be for you.

At least the Bo Luc Lac wasn’t bad. Though like I said, I prefer the version at Ngon Ngon.

Sizzling Saigon
9159 Mission Gorge Rd.
Santee, CA 92071
Current Hours:
Daily 10am – 9pm

In the comments section of my post on the opening of Yorimichi 2, “FOY” Elle mentioned that the supposed second location of Phuong Nga next to World Foods Supermarket was going to be a place named 999 Quan Vietnamese Street Food. And recently, when I headed up to City Heights I passed by and noticed that the place had opened, so I changed my plans and stopped to take a look.

I saw that the place was indeed open, so I changed my plans and decided to eat here.

The photos of Banh Khot and Bun Rieu caught my eye as I entered the simply adorned restaurant.

I was pointed to a table and handed a menu, I quickly noticed that Banh Khot was not available at this time.

And also…the prices….yikes!

I had thoughts on trying the Bun Rieu, but I decided to try to get the Missus here to check that out….then perhaps Bun Bo Hue? In the end, I just went with the Bun suon bo vien – which was $18!!! But there was a 20% discount because it was grand opening week.

Ina somewhat funny moment….Vietnamese Music Videos were playing when I was seated. I was the only customer at the time. When I placed my order, the gentleman seemed a bit surprised that I didn’t speak Vietnamese….a few minutes later, Blues Videos in English started playing!! You gotta love it!

A glass of cold tea was dropped off…along with a plate of garnishes. Looks at all that Ngo Gai! Something that’s a rarity these days.

The bowl soon arrived and I quickly noticed something.

Along with the suon…the beef ribs…well the noodles didn’t look like bun, more like banh pho!

Which were perfectly cooked and not in a huge clump at the bottom of the bowl. There were nice droplets of fat floating on top of the broth adding a nice tongue feel. The amount of black pepper seemed quite excessive; but the pungency of that along with the raw onions really added to the flavor. Throw in the anise tones of the cilantro and ngo gai, all of this really complemented the soup, which to me was basically a nicely beefy pho. It did have a hint of that “sweetness” that permeates most pho in San Diego, but wasn’t bad at all.

The bo vien, the meatballs were typical, tough and squeaky, not my favorite thing in the world. The thicker slices of beef were decently tender and beefy. The crowning item of this bowl was the beef rib, you know, what I call “Them Bones“.

So tender….falling off the bone, nice and beefy!

This was possibly the best bowl of pho….even though it wasn’t called that on the menu; that I’ve had in a while. I prefer it to Pho Ca Dao which shares the same parking lot.

I tried to talk that Missus into a visit, but She kept declining. So, a couple of weeks later I returned. By now, each table had a menu placed on it! And they had changed the name of the Bun suon bo vien to Pho Suon Bo Vien. And raised the price by $2 to $20! Ouch!

I had thoughts of getting the Bun Bo Hue; but decided on just getting the Banh Mi Bo Kho ($15) instead. It had been a while since I’d had a decent bowl of Bo Kho as my old favorite place for the dish had changed ownership and my last bowl there was just ok.

The banh mi looked typical, but it was light, yeasty, crusty, and warm. The bowl of beef stew was fairly large as well.

The stew, was more of a broth, being on the thinner side. That said, it was full of beefy-anise flavor, with good tomato-pepper tones, and scorching hot!

The beef was super tender, the huge slices of carrots were as well. The tendon was super hard and crunchy…I prefer a more buttery texture.

Overall, loved the flavor, the tender chunks of beef. Would have preferred more tender tendon and a more stew like soup. Still, in terms of taste, it was quite good.

Several groups of older folks came in while I ate. A group of six women sat in back of me….they all ordered the Bun Rieu. Three gentleman, also on the older side came in a bit later, but hadn’t received their order when I had finished. The guy that I think is the owner was eating as I left….he was having Bun Rieu, so perhaps I can talk the Missus into visiting?

I’d probably come back again real soon….but those prices! They also have Bo Ne, that sizzling skillet dish that I only recall seeing at Thien Huong in Mira Mesa.

Elle, have you had a chance to visit 999 Quan? And if you did, what did you think? Thanks as always for the heads up!

999 Quan Vietnamese Street Food
5237 El Cajon Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92115
Current Hours:
Wed – Mon 9am – 9pm
Closed on Tuesday