While making my way to Northgate Market to get some pig's feet, I noticed that there was a "Pho" sign on the awning of Lotus Garden. Looks like the Lotus Garden was expanding the menu from the seafood and the typical Chinese dishes served there.
Since Lotus Garden opens at 9am, I decided to visit when finishing up my shopping in the area.
As it was fairly early in the morning; it was easy finding parking in back of the building, where it shares the lot with Minh Huong Supermarket. looking at the sign above the doorway; I guess it's now Lotus Garden Seafood and Pho.
I walked in and the friendly young man directed me to a seat. It's a pretty nice dining area and I believe they have even more space in the back dining room as well.
Man, the menu here has over 120 items on it…..and there's a second menu with pho on it as well. I was going to order the pho, but noticed all the egg noodle and hu tieu items. And seeing that this place is a (sorta) Chinese restaurant; I decided to get the BBQ Duck Egg Noodle Soup ($8.99). I really didn't expect much, but was quite pleasantly surprised at what I got.
The blanched bean sprouts was a good first move. The broth of the egg noodle soup, while being on the salty side also had some savory notes to it; with a heck of a lot of oniony-slightly pungent and a light, almost seafood like flavor. The fried shallots was also a good move aa was all that scallion.
The noodles were decently prepared, with a nice pull to them.
The most surprising thing for me was the duck.
While being perhaps a tad on the dry side; the skin of the duck had been crisped up nicely, no rubbery skin here, and there was a nice salty-sweet flavor to the skin. I also enjoyed the quite gamey flavor of the duck…perhaps not everyone's cup of tea; but I enjoyed it. This was actually not bad at all and really didn't need any sauce, or jus on it at all.
I really liked the young man working; I believe his name is "Tu", he was quite friendly and we chatted about Little Saigon….I believe he's from the OC, and he even told me he knew of a place in his 'hood that made pretty decent duck…."Lien Hoa?" I asked and he seemed surprised. And then I mentioned always getting a side of the "jus" with my duck from there….he cracked up.
I decided to return the following week to try the pho….and of course, when I first try a place's pho…it's the dac biet ($9).
The basil and sprouts arrived; even though a few of the basil leaves were starting to discolor; there was enough of it so that it didn't really matter. And of course the Ngo Gai was present, crisp, fresh, like a pungent cilantro with a hint of sweetness.
The broth however, was underwhelming. It was cloudy, severely defatted, lacking in beef flavor and….as is typical in San Diego these days, too sweet and overly salty.
The rare steak was tough and dry, the flank too chewy and flavorless, though the brisket was fine, tender with a mild beefiness, the tendon was soft and buttery, and the tripe was crisp and crunchy, without any off flavors.
The typical clump of noodles was decent as well; edging on over-cooked, but okay. Still, I don't think I'll have the pho here on future visits.
I had taken a closer look at the menu on this visit and wanted to try something I saw on the menu so I returned the following week.
This time I had the House Combination Egg Noodle Soup ($7.99), which was pretty much fishball city.
The bean sprouts weren't as well blanched on this visit. The soup was also more salty; with that annoying "sweetness" to it. I needed all of the lime to help temper it.
The noodles were prepped perfectly; nice al dente pull to them.
There were some pieces of meh shrimp in the broth, fairly muddy in flavor….the item I enjoyed the best were the pleasantly toothsome and mildly funky pork stomach.
But the item I had really come to try was the Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings ($8.99)….well, there's a "Doritos" version as well, but I stuck with the, ahem…"classic".
The wings were fried fairly well; being quite moist and tender. The batter was bit too soft and got soggy quickly. The garlic was burnt and bitter, not great eats in my book. It wasn't overly salty and could have actually used more seasoning….though no more of the bitter garlic. Not sure I'd have this again, but it wasn't terrible. 
In the end, Lotus Garden was not bad….I mean, I'd eat here every so often if it was in my neighborhood as it's better than the options that I have near by. I enjoyed the young man who served me on my first visit and there are still items on the huge menu to try…..heck, I haven't even gotten to the Beef Sate Egg Noodle yet.
Lotus Garden Restaurant
4007 Euclid Ave.
San Diego, CA 92105
Hours:
Open Daily 9am – 10pm
