Huong Que

This is a relatively new Vietnamese restaurant in Rogers. I cannot tell you how excited I am to have 4 freaking Vietnamese restaurants in Benton County!!! This one is on Dixieland, just north of Walnut. There's a strip mall with a few Hispanic markets, a panaderia, and an Asian market.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures, so it's just my words this time.

This place is located in the center of the strip mall. When you go in you can go right or left. To the right is the restaurant. To the left is pool and billiards, some machines (video poker?) and the beginnings of a karaoke area. They're still fairly new, and it looks like the left side isn't complete yet.

Now, this is a small restaurant in a strip mall. It's a little bare bones. There's tiled carpet and the walls are pretty bare. It's a long and narrowish space, with the cash register at the back, with a big TV over it. No music. There were some tables for 4 down the middle, most of them pushed together. Tables for 2 were spaced along each side wall. The tables had napkins in a dispenser, chopsticks, straws, and condiments.

There was a kid watching a baby at the cash register when we arrived, which definitely means a family-run restaurant. In my experience, that's a good thing! A lady came out and we grabbed a seat and got menus. I had heard there's a "secret" menu for Vietnamese customers. I asked, but it's not in English. She offered to translate, but we figured since it's our first time, we'd use the regular menu.

The menu is a bit small. It's got all the basics: pho, bun, sandwiches, spring rolls, etc. I got hot jasmine tea and Frank got iced jasmine. I ordered the spring rolls, but I asked if I could get fish sauce instead of peanut sauce. I got the bun, which came with grilled pork, pork skins, maybe pork belly, and a cut up egg roll. Slightly different from my normal bun. Frank got the pork soup.

The spring rolls were really good. And Oh My God, the fish sauce!!! Finally!!! The lady brought the fish sauce out in 2 bowls, and it had garlic and peppers in it. She asked if that was what I wanted and I was like Hell Yeah! Okay, I didn't say that out loud. But I could smell the fresh garlic in it and the sauce itself. When I've gotten fish sauce at Miss Saigon Pho and Pho Thanh, it just tasted really watery. This was exactly what I was looking for and I dipped my spring roll in it like a madwoman!

My bun came out in the bowl and was also really good. It had chopped up carrots, bean sprouts, and some chopped cucumbers. But no lettuce. I was actually kind of glad. I like the bun at Miss Saigon Pho, but it seems to have a ton of lettuce in it. I poured the rest of my fish sauce over my bun and I was in hog heaven.

Frank had the pork soup and it was what he calls his normal pho. It had many thick slices of pork loin, 4 shrimp, 4 pieces of squid, and 2 quail eggs. Plenty of noodles. Parsley, bean sprouts, and lime. Frank says, "There was no basil, but I didn't miss it." There were also "no fucking jalapenos." Frank doesn't like those in his veggies. He also didn't have to add fish sauce to the soup. Overall, it was yummy.

Overall, everything was yummy. The total bill was $24. Service was a little slow at times, but it was one woman running everything and checking the kitchen. And everyone was really friendly. We will definitely be back! I'm going 4 stars and right now this is my favorite Vietnamese place in Benton County.

Miss Pho Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant

This place just opened up in Bentonville and we've been itching to try it!  We went there about 5pm on a Sunday.  They're open 7 days a week, from 10:30 am - 9:00 pm.  The place is so new I had to add them to Urban Spoon, and their website doesn't appear to quite be up yet. 

This used to be an Indian restaurant, I think it was Taj Mahal.  It was orange.  The outside has been repainted and the inside has been redone, but no extensive changes have been made.  There is a large, brightly lit sign advertising them and a drive-thru window.

There are booths around the outside walls and tables in the center.  Vietnamese music plays in the background, and there's a large flat screen TV behind the register, which was showing some kind of Asian show.

The wait staff was very friendly and many of them had English as a second language.  There were also a lot of Asians getting to-go orders.  We ordered hot tea.  They were out of Jasmine so we had green instead.

Frank got the H4 which is Egg Noodle with Wonton Soup.  The soup is described as "Clear or egg noodles with BBQ pork, shrimp, squid, crab meat in chicken broth, served with bean sprout, lime, jalapeno, cilantro."  He really liked it!  The crab was Krab, which is fairly typical.  And he said the wontons were sort of like shumai; they were twisted up, not how he was expecting them.  There were 4 shrimps, 3 pieces of squid, 3 Krab, 2 quail eggs and a buttload of pork!  The quail eggs were soft boiled and tasty!   

I got the B5 Grilled Pork and Grilled Shrimp.  It's described as "Vermicelli noodle with lettuce, mint, cucumber, carrot, daikon pickle served with homemade fish sauce."  It was also tasty!  There where 4 shrimp.  These weren't the tiny shrimps either, they were a bit larger.  I did have to peel the tails off.  The shrimp and pork were grilled very nicely.  The homemade fish sauce was rather mild, and there seemed to be more noodles and less veggies than I'm used too.  I still haven't decided if that's good or bad.

We were so excited to be eating Vietnamese that I almost forgot to order Spring Rolls!  I had to call waitress over again and order some.  And the food came out really fast.  I got my Bun before the Spring Rolls came out.  We were so stuffed from eating our food that we got Spring Rolls to go.  And Frank got his broth to go too!  I haven't eaten the Spring Rolls yet but they look really good.  We got the A1.

They did have a vial of regular fish sauce at the table, but I forgot to try it.  Frank put some in his broth and it tasted yummy!  Also, they give you real wooden chopsticks, not the cheesy break-apart kind.

Overall, we really liked the place.  I'm giving it 4 stars.  I believe I gave other Vietnamese place in Bentonville 4 stars as well (it's just a few doors down from this one).  I will say, the quality seemed better at Miss Saigon Pho.  It was very clean and crisp looking.  We will be going back soon!


 

May Hong

This is my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Albuquerque.  But first, some background and disclaimer.  I used to live in Albuquerque and May Hong opened up shortly after I moved there.  We started eating there the first week they opened, and for about a year, we were regulars and ate there once a week.  It was also some of my first Vietnamese food.

The place is small, with about 10 booths around the outside walls and 8 tables in the center.  The booths are the originals from 1999, and are starting to show their age.  They have some kind of Vietnamese pop/rock playing in the background.

They have really good soups here, so Frank got some kind of chicken soup.  It comes with noodles and a side of sprouts and greens (cilantro, etc.) to put in it.  The serving is huge - it was great!

I got the vermicellli (bun) with grilled pork and shrimp.  In the past, this came on a platter with the vermicelli in woven mats and large pieces of lettuce, and you would make lettuce wraps out of everything.  This time, it came in a large bowl, with loose noodles and the lettuce and cucumbers were all chopped up.  You also get a side of fish sauce.  [When I was in Houston, the Vietnamese restaurants I ate at there all used bowls, too.]   It tasted great!

We also got an appetizer of spring rolls.  These are the noodles and grilled pork and shrimp and mint rolled up in the clearish wrap.  And the fish sauce was a bit spicy too, and delicious.

They have ice tea, but it's Jasmine tea with a slice of  lime.  It was okay.

So, how do they rank now, compared to 1999?  If I hadn't been there before, I would say it was really very good Vietnamese food.  But since I have been there, I compare it to how it used to be.  The food still tastes really good, but the quality has gone down slightly, possibly because of the recession.  That said, I'd still give them at least 4 stars now.  They're much better than any Vietnamese place I've eaten at in Northwest Arkansas.  So, 4 to 4-1/2 stars.  Oh, and did I mention our bill?  Total cost $23!!!

Pho Thanh

This place is in the old Taco-Tico building on Walton Boulevard.  It's a bit bare bones.  There are napkin dispensers on the tables and small tables throughout the area.  Classic rock was playing when we were there.

I often measure restaurants by their tea.  The ice tea here was a bit off, but not too bad; I could drink it.  We ordered spring rolls which come with a peanut sauce.  They were good, and had lots of shrimp in them.  I prefer fish sauce with my rolls so we got some of that too.  It was really good - I was actually wondering if was home made.

For dinner I had the Grilled Pork and Shrimp Bun (noodles).  It was pretty good.  It came in a big bowl with veggies and I poured a lot of fish sauce over it.

Frank had a soup with pretty much everything in it.  It was a dark broth, but it was light and rich.  Frank said it had a good flavor and wasn't Americanized.  There were a variety of textures too, so he felt it was done properly.  He liked it a lot better than the Chinese/Vietnamese place on College in Fayetteville (Red Saigon?).

Overall, it was pretty good.  There were a lot of Asians eating there, which I always think is a good sign, and a lot of people coming in to pick up orders.  And there was a ton of food.  We really enjoyed it, and have gotten takeout several times since them.  Four stars.

Note: Photos to be added later

Pho Saigon

It's been so long since I've eaten here that the last time I did it was called Red Palace.  At that time it claimed to be a Chinese and Vietnamese restaurant.  I guess the opening of the pho shop across from the University changed all that.  Anyway, I had a coupon, which is always a good excuse to eat out.

Pho Saigon has a drive-thru window, and I had an old menu, so I placed my order and drove through to pick it up.  I had the Vermicelli Noodles with Char Broiled Sliced Pork and Shrimp and the Vietnamese Fresh Spring Roll.

In general, it was okay.  The Vermicelli dish was noodles with pork and shrimp, some bean sprouts and cucumber, and nuoc mam (fish sauce).  It was a bit different than the last time I had it!  Originally, the noodles were different.  In other places I've seen them referred to as patter, but I'm not sure if that's the real name.  Those noodles were like a woven noodle mat and the dish came with lettuce and you could make a kind of wrap out of everything.  The new dish is still good, but I liked making wraps (I guess part of me still enjoys playing with my food!).  At least they use real rice noodles, not spaghetti noodles, so that was fine.

The spring rolls contained lettuce, cilantro, sliced pork and shrimp and came with a peanut-style sauce.  I prefer the fish sauce so I dipped my spring rolls in that instead.  They were okay too.

Overall, I guess that's the main thing I can say:  They are okay.  I used to live in Albuquerque, which has excellent Vietnamese food.  I had no idea there were that many Vietnamese people there until I worked for the Department of Labor and the public library in the Vietnamese part of town asked if we could translate some of our brochures into Vietnamese.  So if you open up a Vietnamese restaurant in Albuquerque, it has to be good enough to stay in business.  Pho Saigon isn't bad, but they're just okay.  Three stars.