Aha! Thanks. Just so happens I’ve got some Sambal Oelek right here on my counter top ----- somewhere! I’ve probably seen that Vietnamese product in stores, too, and just didn’t put it together.
Me, too. And always keep a jar in my fridge. A necessity in my house for take-out Chinese, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese…and good ol’ American hoagies.
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(Quoting myself for context.)
So the Munchkin was in town last week for the holidays and one of his “hafta get tos” was Pho One. As I mentioned, we used to go frequently but I hadn’t been back in years.
The proprietor recognized us immediately and greeted us warmly. Kiddo ordered the egg roll appetizer and his usual grilled pork banh mi. I had my traditional Pho Ga, (Chicken Noodle Soup).
Honestly, I had forgotten how good the egg rolls are. Really excellent.
The kid’s sammich was so good he ordered another.
My soup was also better than I remembered for some reason. It was always delicious, but somehow seemed even better than ever. I had the small bowl, but it was plenty.
If you’re in the neighborhood give it a try. Great food brought to you by some really nice people.
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Is this the one on Westheimer around Wilcrest?
Oh never mind, you linked to it. Will try it!
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Oh my! Great article.
(Sorry if it turns up behind a paywall).
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I was craving a sandwich today and looking thru some galleries online decided I was craving something on a croissant. This place bakes their baguettes and croissants in-house and offers the sandwiches on either.
On the left, a Vietnamese bbq pork banh mi (small size) and on the right a chicken croissant. Both had scads of cilantro, cucumber, julienned carrots, jalapeno and a thin schmear of mayo. I liked the croissant sandwich better but it wasn’t quite the astonishing, revelatory, uplifting experience I was fantasizing about. Oh well.
Pate is supposed to be very good here, too.
Very clean shop. There is said to regularly be a line at lunch time; it was busy mid-afternoon, most people doing take-out.
Nguyen Ngo French Cafe, 11210 Bellaire @ Boone, across from Hong Kong City Mall.
It’s a small menu; besides the usual suspects for a banh mi shop they offer French ham and sausage sandwiches.
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Doctor Bruce, who has no formal medical training, was strongly recommending chicken soup today and the patient was compliant. I went to Pho Saigon - Sugar Land. A pleasant drive out there, not as far as it looked on a map. Hate to be along that route in afternoon drive-time, though.
Cha Gio Chay - first time I’ve ever ordered a Vietnamese Egg Roll - always gone for the Spring Rolls before. Interesting. With a dipping bowl of fish sauce.
Pho Ga Hon Hop - Chicken Rice Noodle Soup with white and dark meat. Largish pieces of meat, very thin noodles. I wasn’t getting much out of the broth or any aromatics, possibly due to the brick which is lodged in my forehead, affecting the sense of smell I’m sure.
Didn’t get a picture of the herbs/vegs or the Salted Lemonade.
Kikkoman Soy Sauce, Sriracha, Double Parrot Fish Sauce and hoisin in a sticky plastic squeeze bottle I decided not to pick up a second time on the table. I liked the addition of the fish sauce to the soup.
I’m going to bed early. I’m pretty sure the Doctor is going to recommend more therapy tomorrow.
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This means vegetarian egg roll. Was that your intent? Traditional cha gio are made with pork/shrimp or pork/crab if decadent.
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The best Vietnamese Egg Rolls, wrapped in lettuce and herbs and dipped in fish sauce, was at Van Loc. I miss that place.
My mistake. I’m not familiar with this dish and grabbed the wrong listing off the online menu without reading the description. I always assumed the ‘egg rolls’ at Vietnamese restaurants were the same things you get at Americanized Chinese restaurants and had never ordered before; always found spring rolls more appealing.
I completely understand. My friend ordered egg rolls at a Vietnamese restaurant expecting it to be filled with cabbage and carrots like at the Chinese restaurants she’s familiar with. She was surprised to find them filled with meat instead. She called them “disgusting”! Little did she know that it’s meant to be eaten rolled with lettuce and herbs like a spring roll or as the protein in a noodle salad bowl.
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The Wifeacita and I like the Vietnamese egg rolls at Vietnam Coast on Hillcroft just south of Westheimer.
A bonus is you can order a great pizza to go at Antonio’s Flying Pizza next door to be enjoyed later. I like 1/2 cheese 1/2 Italian sausage.
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The overwhelming majority of my visits to Vietnamese restaurants have been solo treks. Two people have recently commented on these, one on this board and one to whom I have broached the possibility of getting together for lunch at a place near where he lives which specializes in banh xeo. I asked if he had ever had Vietnamese food and he said he liked those little egg rolls; I thought he meant spring rolls but reconsidered. I haven’t convinced him yet so I’ll probably wind up going alone. The mentions roused my interest. Thanks again for the info.
As I have gotten older my appetite has decreased. I seldom order appetizers so I ordered just one to try.
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And bonus points to you! I often think of doing something like this, particularly when I’ve traveled quite some distance to try something, as in my recent visit to Silk Road Grill. But I’m always too full to contemplate standing around waiting for something to be prepared.
As says seamunky, the Vietnamese egg rolls also serve as a “protein” in the noodle soups as a main course. I am guilty of repeatedly ordering the Bun with eggroll, total decadence. Now I need an eggroll.
Since Van Loc closed, I indulge at Pho & Crab.
Much anticipated??? I’ve never heard of it before. Oh, wait. I see it was mentioned before on Eater Houston. Looks interesting.
Lua Viet Kitchen is another recent place to open in Montrose. I think this is caddy-corner to the Montrose HEB on Alabama, or at least only a block away. Trendy seems to be an apt term.
Les Ba’get, which I reported on before and really liked, except for the parking, is in the process of shuffling off to 34th and Ella for roomier digs. But the couple that operated it has replaced it with Les Noo’dle in the same location on Montrose.
I read about this and went back to look at an episode of ugly delicious, I think it was that she was in. David Chang was criticizing everyone from Houston to Vietnam for boiling crawfish rather than sautéing them. I guess he doesn’t know how many pounds each person eats. As a starting point, it would be impractical to sauté crawfish.
David Chang can…
I went to Lua Viet Kitchen recently with some friends (read: geezers like me). One of my friends lives nearby and wanted to try it. He’s not very much into Vietnamese food and a couple of others in the group were even less enthusiastic, but neither one of them can cook so they were kind of stuck.
It’s in a brand new development that follows the very trendy style of putting the business up front, right on the street, with parking in the back. You can park right outside the back entrance of the business (if you get there at the right time, of course). The interior is Concrete Chic, mostlly glass and concrete. There are a couple of what seemed to me to be oddly placed murals on the walls, leading me to speculate the interior decor is not complete yet. The staff is all very young and were all very friendly; I believe it was either the chef or owner who shook hands with me and welcomed me.
I had the beef pho, a huge bowl, very full, with 44 Farms beef tenderloin. Everything was already in the bowl when served except for a couple of wedges of lime on the side. There was a very generous amount of beef, perhaps as much as twice what has been included with similar bowls elsewhere. All the herbs were minced; the bean sprouts were mostly chopped into spoon sized pieces. The broth was very subtly flavored and very interesting at first but I found myself adding soy and sriracha sooner than I usually do, as it got a little boring (being able to add fresh herbs from time to time would also have kept it more interesting, to me anyway). I would up taking about a 3rd of it home, which included 2.5 ozs of the beef and mostly small scraps of the other ingredients. But I got to have Pho for breakfast the next day. The rice noodles were broader than what is used at most Pho joints I’ve gone to.
It was okay. I’ll probably be back but maybe only because my friend wants to go. I’m more interested now in checking out Les Noo’dle on Montrose and the new Viet/Cajun place that’s on the horizon.
One member of the party ate only spring rolls, which meant that I didn’t get one of the shrimp spring rolls that we ordered for the table. The pork spring roll was however the best I’ve ever had - juicy pork and very fresh ingredients otherwise with a more generous dipping bowl than you get at most places.
One member of our group had a lot of complaining to do before he got around to ordering; I was halfway through with what I was having before he ordered. He got the Vietnamese Dumpling Soup, about half the size of my entry and half as much; we were all shocked that he really liked it 
.
The menu seems to be still in flux; the menu boards on the wall included Bo Luc Lac, Shaking Beef, plus Shaking Chicken and Shaking Tofu. I had seen them in the Yelp gallery but couldn’t find them on the pictures of the menu. I had assumed they were perhaps an occasional daily special.
ETA: There are complaints on Yelp about the portion size; we did not agree; we all felt the portions were generous. Prices are a bit higher than what I’d expect at Pho joints out near me, probably due in part to the price of real estate in Montrose vs. where I live.
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