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4455 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego, CA. 92115. (619) 284 - 4215.

One of the places I love to eat in Eastside San Diego is Saigon on El Cajon Blvd. I’ve been to this restaurant with family and friends over the past few years and I’ve always walked out of here full, satisfied, and with a few bucks to spare in my wallet. whoo hoo!

Today I went with my friend Trang and her daughter, who have both never been here before. As we enter the restaurant, we are warmly welcomed by the waiters who are hustling about. Theres always a dozen or so customers sitting around here. Business is busy but there is always a full staff working around the clock to meet the demand.

(Up on the ceiling you can see beautiful paintings of various locations in Viet Nam.)

I tell them that my friends usually order the egg rolls here ($4.95) and some kind of broken rice dish. So I proceeded to ordered the egg rolls, which I suddenly had a craving for! And Trang ordered the Banh Uot with cha lua, thit nuong, bi, nem, etc.

The egg rolls are pretty good here and they are super filling. They are fresh and burning hot, straight from the deep fryer. I was only able to eat about three or so before I started getting full. Trang said that her entree tasted far better and came in a larger quantity than at the Bolsaa restaurant in Mira Mesa.

Taste: 7/10
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 5/5
Total: 15/20

Why did I give a five for service? Because these waiters were the first to serve me refills of water in a long time! Over the past few months, I havent gotten a single water refill at any restaurant I’ve been to. The water service here is excellent! In fact, I was given yet another refill when we were about to leave and then moments after gulping that down, another waiter came by and wanted to refill yet again. I had to practically plead to them to stop refilling my water. I just hate to waste food or drink so I would just feel obligated to keep drinking at least half or so. Hahaha.

1118 Westwood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90023
http://www.noodleplanet.com/

We decided to go to LA to visit our friend Cindy for her birthday. She suggested for us to try Noodle Planet because they had a wide selection of noodle dishes. The place is about a 5 minute walk from the UCLA campus. From the outside the place looked like it would be a small restaurant, but once I walked inside I found it to be very spacious. They offer Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese dishes. The menu was well organized and the dishes were listed by which region they originated from. They had everything from noodle soups to pan fry dishes and they even had pasta. They also have rice dishes for those whom don’t want noodles. Spicy dishes are designated with an asterisk next to the menu item.

(Thai Pan Fry) - Rice noodles stir fried with chicken, squid, green onions, and eggs. The noodles weren’t overcooked and still had a nice consistency to them. The dish was well seasoned, so you so you won’t be needing any soy sauce for this.

(Seafood Pad See-Ew) - Rice noodles pan fried with Chinese broccoli, eggs, black soy sauce, and a combination of seafood. The seafood that was in the dish was mostly shrimpy, squid and imitation crab. This was my favorite pan fried dish because it wasn’t too saucy and yet it wasn’t too dry. The black soy sauce cooked with the seafood gave it a nice rich sauce.

(Laht Nah) - Rice noodles topped with Chinese broccoli and a choice of beef, chicken or pork in gravy. You have to be careful with this dish because the green chili peppers are very deceiving and easily mistaken to be a piece of bell pepper or green bean. Many of us had bitten into the pepper without knowing and had to cool off our mouths with water. I thought the dish was a bit too saucy for my liking.

(Udon Noodle Soup) - Japanese fish cake, pork slices, tokfu, black mushroom, seaweed, and udon noodles. The taste of the broth wasn’t anything too special and It just didn’t stand out to me. They forgot to add the black mushrooms to my soup. I think they might have overcooked the fish cake a little because the texture was a lot tougher and rubbery than usual. I will stick to the pan fry dishes next time I come here.

The price of their dishes range from 5 to 7 dollars which is really affordable for the amount of food you are getting. If you are going to order a pan fry dish, I reccomend you have someone to share. It’s a lot of food for one person to handle, unless you eat a lot. If I lived in LA, I would probably be a regular just so I could try everything on their menu.

Taste: 7/10
Service: 3/5
Presentation: 2/5
Total: 12/20

4170 Convoy St. San Diego, CA. 92111. (858) 565 - 6750

I’ve decided to display all my photos in small thumbnails from now on so that users can quickly browse through the main page. Just click on any of the thumbnails for a larger view of the entree! yippee

Now, to the review!

Phuong Trang has been in Convoy for as long as I can remember. I’ve been going there since I was a kid and always had a pleasant experience with my family. This time, Lynn’s mom was in town and so my mom wanted to bring her here to eat, at our family’s favorite restaurant (when I say family, I do not include myself because I have no favorite restaurant ^_^).

I haven’t had Bun Bo Hue for a long time and so I just HAD to get it. Of course, its always the same everywhere, no matter which restaurant you get it from. Yet the soup and noodles brought back happy memories, followed my burning tongue sensations due to the spiciness.

The banh uot was presented nicely but tasted like any other. The pork meat was weird though because instead of several small pieces, it was three larger lumps of meat. The onions were soggy.

(1) Bun Bo Hue (2) Banh Uot Cha Lua Thit Nuong

(3) Banh Hoi & Thit Nuong (4) Hu Tieu

Taste: 7/10
Presentation: 3/5
Environment: 3/5
Total: 13/20

4644 El Cajon Blvd, Suite 101. San Diego. (619) 283 - 4180.

After I saw that DELICIOUS looking bowl of egg noodles from the other Minh Ky Mi Gia review, I have had a craving for noodles ever since. And I was finally satisfied with a visit on Saturday.

I ordered the Combination Wonton Egg Noodles Soup (4.95) and I was very happy with it. There were healthy greens like bok choy in the soup. The wontons were yummy with a piece of shrimp meat inside. I really liked the xa xiu (pork), which was completely meat rather than part fat. The only complaint was that the chicken was dry but I attribute that to being breast meat.

Danh ordered Sliced Pork Chow Mein (5.75) It was definitely too greasy for my taste, but that’s normally the way these types of meals are prepared. He said this meal was alright.

I was happy with my meal so I’d come back again to eat more wontons! I think this was the first time I’ve had them in California. I’d also be more than happy to order a meal with that xa xiu! If it tastes the way it did today, I’d be ecstatic! My tummy loves you! =)

Taste: 9/10
Presentation: 4/5
Service: 3/5

Total: 16/20

9330 Mira Mesa Blvd #A. San Diego, CA 92126.

After having a business brunch with Hai, we decided to actually go and eat something somewhere else. We originally decided to goto the banh mi shop near Big Lots but changed our minds and ate at Tan Ky Mi Gia instead.

Much to my suprise, the noodle menu did not offer fried shrimp! I was very saddened…

And so I ordered the Wonton rice noodle soup (~$5.00), served dry. But the way they make the rice noodles is not how i usually have them. Usually when I order them, they are much thinner and more translucent. These noodles on the otherhand were very thick and didnt soak up the rich flavor of the sauce at the bottom of the bowl.

The soup was pretty good and the wontons were tasty. There was two types in my bowl. One type was the normal kind that they serve and the second type was twice the normal size! Too crazy, but I managed to finish it all. The pork meat that came with it was good too.

Hai ordered the same thing, but with egg noodles served with the soup. I think his egg noodles would have tasted better than my rice noodles.

Taste: 6/10
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Total: 12/20