Vietnam House Vietnamese Restaurant - San Gabriel

On the same day we had dinner at Battambang Seafood Restaurant, we also went out for lunch at Vietnam House Vietnamese Restaurant in San Gabriel. It was me, my brother, cousin Q, his older brother's Cambodian friend, and two other cousins. Can you tell what drink we all ordered? :) Ca Phe Sua Da (Vietnamese Milk Coffee Iced) for $1.60. Vietnam House is located on the corner of Las Tunas and Mission Drives in the same strip mall as Luscious Dumplings Inc., and catty corner from Golden Deli Vietnamese Restaurant. The original owner of Vietnam House opened Vietnam Restaurant, just a little further down on Las Tunas. Vietnam House is currently owned by the original owner's brother-in-law. Some people say the quality at Vietnam House has gone down since, but as I don't think Golden Deli is worth all the hype anyway, I'd say they're about the same. Confused? Vietnam House is no longer affiliated with the family. The original co-owner of Vietnam House now owns Vietnam Restaurant. His nephew owns Golden Deli and his sister owns Saigon Flavor. The menu and food is pretty much the same at all those places, except I think Vietnam Restaurant is slightly better in quality. Vietnam House and Vietnam Restaurant also offer bo bay mon (Vietnamese 7 courses of beef). Vietnam House is a larger restaurant so there's no wait. It's also open year-round. Golden Deli shuts down during the month of August. I ordered com tam suon cha gio (Vietnamese broken rice with pork chop and egg rolls) for $4.95. Overall it was good, but the rice was clumpy and mushy at parts, and the pork chop wasn't as juicy as at Com Tam Thuan Kieu. The egg rolls were wrapped with banh trang (Vietnamese rice paper) for that crispy outside, chewy inside. Cousin Q ordered bun thit nuong cha gio (Vietnamese rice vermicelli noodles with grilled meat and egg rolls) for $4.95. One of my cousins ordered com tam cha bi thit nuong chao tom (Vietnamese broken rice with omelet, shredded pork skin, grilled meat, and shrimp paste) for $6.25. I like my chao tom grilled, not steamed and deep-fried. But aside from that, the plate was good. Everyone else at the table ordered other rice plates too. And because evidently I have way too many posts in my queue, the rest of my photos from Vietnam House were from slightly over a year ago when I had lunch with Henry Chan's Food Videos and his friends. We ordered an appetizer plate of cha gio for $4.75. As you can tell, these are pretty substantial in size. The egg rolls came with the requisite plate of Vietnamese herbs and lettuce. Henry ordered bo kho (Vietnamese beef stew) for $4.95. I think he ordered these with rice noodles. You get a choice of two kinds of rice noodles, egg noodles, bread, or rice. Although the flavor was good, the beef wasn't as tender as he liked. I ordered hu tieu tom cua thit (Vietnamese clear noodles with shrimp, crab, and barbecued pork) for $5.50. The noodles came dry on a bed of lettuce with broth on the side, limes, and jalapenos. Here's a close-up of the chew hu tieu noodles. Considering most dishes are still within the $4 to $5 range, I think Vietnam House is very reasonable. Wanna hear a random anecdote about Vietnam House? When one of my Oregon cousins was in town last year, her uncle took her to dinner here. He asked her if she can get food like this in Oregon. Dude! He used to live there, did he forget? Maybe not in the boondocks but my family lives in Portland. According to the 2000 census, there's almost 19,000 Vietnamese in Oregon, the 12th largest population of Vietnamese in the country. Sheesh. Who else ate at Vietnam House? Cousin Q posted about our lunch and his bun thit nuong cha gio and ca phe sua da. Henry Chan's Food Videos filmed his 7 course beef dinner. Also on Main St./Las Tunas Dr.: Aji Man Japanese Restaurant - San Gabriel Golden Deli Vietnamese Restaurant - San Gabriel Luscious Dumplings Inc. - San Gabriel Pho Super Bowl Vietnamese Cuisine - Alhambra Vietnam Restaurant - San Gabriel Vietnam Restaurant (Bo 7 Mon (7 Courses of Beef)) - San Gabriel Vietnam House Vietnamese Restaurant 710 W. Las Tunas Dr., #5-7 San Gabriel, CA 91776 626-282-6327 or 626-943-9743 Open Monday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Tuesdays. Wednesday and Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Firday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. ***** 1 year ago today, I asked what should I do with this case of mangoes?