Category: Pho

During my visit to Renaissance Towne Center to see what was going on, I had intended to getting a Chicago Dog from Chicago Fire Grill. However, I noticed a business that I hadn't heard a peep about named Viet Nom. And the place was open.

The sign said "soft opening" and things were 10% off until mid-April. So, I decided to head on in to check things out.

The interior is small, with just a few tables and a counter. The young lady who was working was nice and professional. She was also quite patient with the folks walking in to ask if they had sandwiches (they don't) and other questions.

The menu is small; three versions of pho and six sides, including youtiao, sesame balls, and such. The prices were also on the high side, but I decided to order their Pho Nom which was $19.50 and some Tamarind Wings, which was $16.50.

And then, while waiting, I saw this.

And then I realized what jogged my memory. I asked the young lady if this place had the same owner as Formoosa and Steamy Piggy and was told "yes". Ugh…..I haven't had much luck with the food from either place which just seemed all about concept. In fact, "FOY" Kenneth had asked me why I haven't gone to Flama Llama yet, knowing I love Peruvian Cuisine and I replied about having eaten at F and SP, which gave me pause when thinking about eating there and also at the company's new "KFC" place (you can read about Soo's visit here).

Anyway, it was too late to back out now and my wings soon arrived.

The coating on the wings were getting soggy quickly and ended up being more mushy than crisp-crunchy. The flavor of the glaze was extremely sweet, way too sweet for my taste, as it over powered all other flavors. The quality of the wings didn't seem too bad, though this was a bit much for me and I only finished two wings.

Soon enough the sprouts and accoutrements for the pho arrived.

I'm not sure if it's just me; but the portion sizes of sprouts, basil, and seem to have shrunk. The basil, as seems to be the norm these days was turning brown.

As for the bowl of pho; it was humongous.

   It was loaded with meat. The beef rib, their version of Xí Quách Suon Bò had also been seared a bit before service. The sliced "short rib" (as defined in the menu) was cut too thick, super tough, and lacked flavor. Strangely, what is usually not my favorite item in a bowl of pho, the squeaky meatballs was the item I enjoyed the most. Of course, there was no option for tendon or tripe. The rib meat came off the bone cleanly, was decently tender, but seemed to have had all the beefiness cooked out of it. Yes, it was a large portion of meat.

   The huge clump of noodles were mushy and over cooked. The broth was super bland….I do complain a bit about how pho broth in San Diego seems to be on the sweeter side of the scale….well, you know what, I would have gladly accepted that here! Much like the Niu Rou Mian broth at Formoosa, the soup here seemed to have been made using the "wave" method, whereupon a piece of beef was waved over some water to hopefully create flavor. The broth was super thin and watery. This seemed to be more about presentation and portion size.

Well, at least I got 10% off; even though the wings cost $16.50 and the pho $19.50. Viet Nom made Xin Chao seem like first rate pho. The thought that this is the future of pho depresses me. I usually do more than one visit; but since the place has just 9 items on the menu; three of them pho and one version of broth with the rib meat in it, I'm just going to say "Viet No" to "Viet Nom" for now.

Of course, with my luck, a couple of days later there's a post on Eater about Viet Nom. If only it had been posted before my visit. Though there was one tidbit of information in that post. Looks like the owner of these places that makes everything from Dumplings to Taiwanese to Peruvian/Latin American to Korean Fried Chicken to Pho is now going to open a ramen shop…….

One last, somewhat humorous item. I brought the remainder of the wings back to the office and told folks about it. One of the guys really enjoyed the wings. I was fascinated and asked him why. He told me "this tastes just like Panda Express….I love Panda Express!" 'Nuff said….

Viet Nom
8895 Towne Centre Dr.
San Diego, CA 92122
Current Hours:
Sun – Thurs 11am – 930pm
Fri – Sat        11am – 1030pm

I had been searching for some new pho places relatively close to work. Yes, I wanted to try something new. And Xin Chao appeared, in Del Mar Highlands Center. Hmmm……. So, I headed on over.

A very nice modern space. Part Vietnamese restaurant, part gastropub….. for some reason Shank and Bone came to mind.

And then when I took a look at the menu with regards to pho…well, no tendon, tripe and such. Though "dem bones", or should I say, a bone (Xí Quách Suon Bò) was available as well as an oxtail version. The folks working the front of house were quite mellow and friendly. I placed my order……

I saw chicken wings on the menu….with a fish sauce version. My instincts was to order the salt and pepper version, but I still miss the fish sauce wings from Que Huong, so I ordered that ($13).

  Geez who'd have thought we would see prices at 2 bucks per chicken wings all those year ago! The wings were nicely battered, more crunchy than crisp, the texture was not bad at all. There was a sticky glaze, which was more toward the sweet than savory, though you could make out the fish sauce. The wings were on the larger side and was decently cared for with a minimum of bitter black portions around the bones. This was not bad at all and had me wishing I had ordered the salt and pepper version.

Looking at the menu, it hinted at "pho not to offend" since there were no options for tendon or tripe. Though thinking about the customer base what should I have expected? I ordered the House Special Pho which clocked in at $18. The key item for me was what I call "dem bones" (Xi Quach Suon Bo), though perhaps it should be called "that bone" since only a single rib was in this. I was soon presented with the basil and sprouts and the sriracha and hoisin.

Let me just say that Xin Chao took the "silver medal" with regards to the smallest portion of herbs and sprouts….the second least amount I've experienced next to Mom's Pho and Grill in recent memory.

Well, at least it was more than the 16 bean sprouts I counted there….I think.

My bowl soon arrived, blazing hot…..like so hot I had to wait ten minutes before really tucking in.

I was able to try the rib bone. The meat was on the chewier side but came off the bone nicely and was actually the beefiest cut provided. Because the broth was super hot, the rare steak was over cooked by the time of consumption. The rest of meats were bland and tasteless as well. 

The waiting for the molten broth to cool down pause also meant that the noodles, which were in the typical clump were somewhat overcooked and headed toward mushy.

The broth, while tending toward the overly "sweet" San Diego style was not bad……it was very clear and defatted thus on the thinner side and lacking in richness, but still had a hint of beefy-anise tones to it. 

This was not bad overall, a modern rendition that bordered on "hipster pho and pho not to offend", but was still pretty good. I really liked the folks working here.

So, I returned.

This time to try the Crispy Salt and Pepper wings.

These wings seemed not as crisp as what I'd had before. So, I'm not sure if they bread/batter the wings differently based on flavor. Still, the garlic-salt-pepper flavor came thru nicely, and the fried appendages were quite moist and tender.

This time I ordered the Oxtail Pho ($17), which came with the same shall we say

As for the bowl, my goodness, it was even more scalding hot than the bowl before!

 But at least I didn't have to worry about my rare steak being overcooked. Based on my last visit, I decided to time how long it took before I could safely partake of my pho. Cautiously taking sips things timed out at twelve minutes and seventeen seconds. As you can see; the soup was very clear, though it wasn't as sweet-salty this time around. It did have a nice beefy "nose" with hints of star anise. 

There were three good sized oxtails, plus one "runt" provided. The oxtails were cooked perfectly, easy enough to take off the bone with chopsticks, but not falling to pieces to be lost in the soup. 

I'm thinking the extra time I needed for the soup to cool enough really messed up the noodles as like on my previous visit it was on the mushy side. 

Overall, a decent bowl.

It seems like Xin Chao is trying to ride that line of pleasing non-"pho-natics", those hoping for a more modern rendition of pho, yet trying to keep the spirit of traditionality. The prices are in keeping with the location…that is, on the high side of things. I like the folks working here, they are quite nice. A far cry from "the fastest pho in the west", which the "pho-natic" in me enjoys. Ok, enough pho puns for a while…..

I'll try and revisit in a couple of months if the weather is cool enough and perhaps see how the bone marrow is as well.

Xin Chào Eatery
3545 Del Mar Heights Rd.
San Diego, CA 92130
Current Hours:
Daily 11am – 9pm

As I've mentioned many times before, I always appreciate all the tips, notifications, and recommendations I receive from all of you! And I'll say it again, I don't think this blog would still exist if not for all the wonderful comments and emails I get. Way back in October of last year, FOY "Laurie" mentioned that that the old "ABCDE" (American-Born-Chinese-Dining-Establishment) in Tierrasanta Town Center had closed and was going to be replaced by a Vietnamese Restaurant. Laurie was good enough to keep me appraised on the situation in comments of various posts.

Recently, recovering from the crazy adjustment in weather from 85 degree (not the bakery) and humid Taiwan, to chilly 50 degree San Diego had me wanting some noodle soup. It was time to get back out there and get some pho. Now here's the crazy thing. Since the start of the pandemic, the number of times I actually had pho in a restaurant totals……three! Yes, the guy whose done 150+ posts on pho only had three bowls dining in over the course of the last three years. And one of them was in Montpellier, France!

So, it was time to get back on that pho train and since Laurie had told me that Mom's Pho and Grill had opened back in January, I decided that it would be a good place to have my first bowl of pho in over 6 months.

The restaurant opens at 9am; I got there at 930 and was the only customer in the place, which is spacious, clean, though a bit on the dark side in terms of lighting.

The woman working led me to a table and handed me a menu. I quickly noticed the standard accoutrements laid out on the table.

Not wanting to hem and haw over the menu; I just went with Deluxe Mom's Pho without looking at the price ($16.99). 

I was in for a bit of shock when the sprouts and basil hit the table.

Is this the standard post-pandemic plate these days? Good lord, perhaps there's bean sprout supply chain issue? While waiting for my bowl to arrive I counted the bean sprouts, all 16 of them. This was even more shocking since I had gotten us Bun Rieu from Phuong Nga the day before and this is what I unpacked at home for our two bowls.

Anyway, my bowl soon arrived with a nice-looking beef rib floating on top.

    The broth looked very light, yet cloudy, and had what I call the "San Diego sweet" pho broth flavor. At least it wasn't overly salty, but it also lacked beefiness.

The noodles were in the typical clump in the bottom of the bowl and was on the mushy side.

There was quite the variety of meat in this. It was supposed to have rare steak, but I couldn't find any. The beef that I thought could have been rare steak at one point in recent memory was dry and tough. The brisket and flank were dry and lacked flavor.

 There were two strips with nicely done tripe and some very thinly sliced tendon which also wasn't bad. And of course there was that beef rib. The meat on the rib was quite tough and as you can see trying to get it off the bone resulted in the meat peeling off in one large piece. It did have a decent flavor, but was quite chewy. It definitely wasn't like "Dem Bones from Duyen Mai".

As a whole, I think Laurie summed it up well when she said that it was pho ""not to offend" somewhat toned down".

Still, I wanted to try some other items from the menu and happened to find myself in the area again. This was going to be a takeout visit. I really didn't feel like trying any of the Com Tam, stir-fry, or bun dishes. And since it was, ahem, "Fry-day", I decided to order a couple of appetizers to go.

I went with the Cha Gio and decided to try out the Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings. Both items did well on the trip home.

The Cha Gio (3 for $5.99) was nicely wrapped and because of the layers more hard than crisp.

The filling was slightly porky in flavor and was highly prosessed so you really couldn't tell what was in there. The nuoc mam cham was overly sweet and needed more fish sauce.

The Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings (8 – $11.99) were actually not bad.

More on the crunchy side, these were perhaps a bit over-fried as the flesh was on the dry side. It wasn't overly salty, and the wok'd garlic-chilies-scallions-onions gave it a nice zip. This won't make me forget any of our favorite versions of Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings, but it was decent.

The gentleman working here is quite nice and friendly; the woman working is quite reserved. Perhaps I'll return when I'm in the area to see how the place is doing.

Mom's Pho & Grill
10645 Tierrasanta Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92124
Current Hours:
Daily 9am – 830pm

And thanks to Laurie for letting me know about this place and getting me to pho-rage for pho again! 

Thanks Laurie!