Kien Giang Food 2 Go

I’m sure this place was great under its old owners, but I really have no idea what this place is supposed to be now.
We came in one afternoon to find an angry-​looking older woman slurping a delicious-​looking bowl of noodles in the dining area. We tried to order off the menu, asking to start with a classic banh mi. «Beef!» she tells us. We tried asking for pork several times, to no avail.
Ok, no banh mi, then. The daily specials menu board was half-​wiped off and unreadable, so back to the picture menu. We kept pointing at items, asking «phở?» or «tofu?» only to be told they had no phở, no tofu, only beef.
It really was one of the more confusing encounters in my Vietnamese restaurant experience, and I don’t think it was a language barrier. The two people in there were unfriendly and unhelpful. Can someone tell me about the old days?
Thank goodness we live off of Central and have a handful of other delicious Viet restaurants to turn to.

Kien Giang is Closed !
I live a few blocks away and drive by it daily. Today I saw a «FOR LEASE» sign. I walked around and it looks like they just left. The «Coffee Shop «next door that popped up a few months ago and never had customers is also gone ??
just an FYI

Another Very Good Vietnamese shop for Food!
Shrimp, Pork and Lotus Root Salad! Quite a meal for a «Salad», makes my «Zalad» list! It is that Delicious!
Korean Beef Ribs in a Vietnamese shop that easily compete with the Three Korean Restaurants in the area! I think she said Kiwi Juice is in the BBQ Sauce! These Ribs are GREAT!
Small Shop! They do have some tables inside, about a dozen seats, this is primarily a «Take Out»!

This place was great and cheap. However, they are under new ownership, and the quality of the food is now awful. What a shame. Best of luck to the former proprietor and her family, as they did a great job.

Kien Giang is AMAZING! and just FYI they are NOT closed!!! I just called them and they are OPEN! please keep visiting this amazing establishment! :)

Go with the sandwiches and some sesame balls for desert. This place is a real local treat on Central!

Kein Giang was one of those places that was on my list for a while and I never could get by — perhaps the name was throwing me, I’m not really sure. But then one day I decided it was time to pop in, and it’s a good thing I had the address, because if you miss their sign, you have a really good chance of missing the place entirely. If you know where you are going, you’re set — just park around back and it’s good to go.
Once inside, you may be tempted to take the food to go (as the sign says), but then you may miss out on tasty deliciousness. Some things just aren’t as good when you take them away, and this could be one of those places. The only problem is that there are about three tables.
Service is friendly and generally helpful with ordering to boot if you have no idea what you are ordering (like us), so it is well worth the adventure.

Kien Giang is really good. I must say, they’re legit. My girlfriends bun rieu was pretty intense and honestly a little too crabby for me but they’re not holding anything back.
My pork porridge was awesome, it was a special though, so there’s a chance it might not be there when you go. I haven’t been back because I’ve been trying to try everything but it’s been hard not to go back since it’s on my way home.

I have to update my review as there is nothing keeping this place from five stars in my book. The service is as friendly as could be (recognized me on my first return visit), the food is fantastic (and the broths are homemade, simmering bones for 8 hours — not from a cube), the prices are reasonable, and I love that I can stop in for a decently quick bite (the all made to order from super fresh ingredients, sometimes by only one person can take a little bit longer) or end up chatting away for over an hour with friends or the staff.
Kien Giang is where I like to go when I want something a little more than a list of 15 Phos or Buns with varying meat topping. (On the days I do want this, I know I can drive an extra block down the road to Phở Hoa). I feel like they’ve handpicked from all over Vietnam the dishes they do best, and that’s what they serve. Top choices: marinated quails (still haven’t tried the tamarind), lotus root salad, bun bo hue, and the bun rieu. I like the grilled shrimp & spring roll bun, but as Mike K pointed out — having to peel the shrimp was more of a mess than I was looking for during a lunch stop. The lemongrass beef bun is also tasty, well frankly everything I’ve had I’ve been extremely happy with.
Also, if you’re calling in ahead to pick up, don’t be afraid to ask for specials. More than once I’ve walked in and Linda had a dish for sale that was not on the menu (like delish savory shrimp cupcakes, banh khot maybe?).

I love this hidden gem in Midwood Plaza. After they opened a few months ago and I became a frequent diner. The food is great and the owners (Linda and her husband) always greeted me with a smile. I highly recommend this place. If you are in search of a restaurant that serves fresh and tasty Vietnamese food with prices that won’t put a hole your pocket… Kieng Giang is the place.

Unilocal never fails! I’ve been seeing reviews for this place and decided to give it a try. As my husband and I were driving around looking for a place to eat, part of me worried about going here because it says «Food 2 go» in the title… I was all dressed up (which if you know how long it takes me to get all fancy, you’d not want to waste it by just getting food to go back home either). However, no need to worry! They have a handful of tables inside, although the ambiance is really casual (reminded me of a small restaurant you’d find in NYC).
The owner is really nice and friendly! She’ll visit with you about what to order and while they don’t have any veggie friendly options, she can make a noodle or rice dish with tofu and veggies on the fly. It was our first time trying bubble tea and my goodness it was good! Like she described, it’s like a dessert and drink in one. If you like gummy bears, you’ll like this.
While this isn’t a special date night location to spark romance, it is a «I want delicious, fresh food, casual-​laid back meal location without breaking the bank.» And it would be great for take-​out for that special «night-​in.»

I also need to thank Unilocal for leading me to Kien Giang. If your looking for authentic Vietnamese food at a great price Kien Giang is your place. A small husband & wife owned restaurant that specializes in take out. I love it. Big plus they also have a bubble tea bar it seems like last year I couldn’t find bubble tea anywhere near the house and now I have Kien Giang yay! Beef Phở was fantastic as well as the chicken curry special. The owner mentioned next time I would have to try the crabcake phở with shrimp and tofu — ah yeah definetly that sounds delicious. I’m so excited about this place, I’ll be a regular for sure.

Thank you Unilocal for leading me to Kien Giang! So happy to see another Viet restaurant in the Queen City!
Linda, the owner, is so sweet (she reminds me of my aunties back home in the DC area). She and her family moved to Clt from Vegas, where she had 2 restaurants. They came here when the economy tanked. They wanted to bring something different to Clt so they opened a Vietnamese to go restaurant.
We ordered:
Banh Mi Ga (chicken sandwich)
Cha Gio (crispy spring roll)
Bun Rieu (crab noodle soup)
Taro bubble tea (taro bubble tea — u should know what that is!)
Café Sua Da (iced coffee)
Wish I took pictures, but the food looked so good we just went to town… sorry!
The Banh Mi Ga was AWESOME!!! My hubby tried the Banh Mi Ga at Le’s Sandwich in Asian Corner and hated it! He said the chicken had a red pepper seasoning on it (not normal for Banh Mi Ga) although the bread and pickled veges were good. Kien Giang’s Banh Mi Ga was spot on! Bread was crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. Chicken was shredded and seasoned just right. Veges were pickled perfectly… yummy! Glad to know we can now get Banh Mi the right way.
Cha Gio was good too. I liked that the Nuoc Mam (fish sauce for dipping) wasn’t all watered down like it is at some other places.
The Bun Rieu was delish! I actually never order this soup, but it’s been so long since I’ve had it at my mom’s house, so I took a chance… and it paid off! It’s definitely not the type of soup I would suggest for a Vietnamese food newbie. The broth is crab based with tomato and shrimp paste. The shrimp paste is pretty strong and intense. It’s served with shrimp, crab meat mixture, tofu, shrimp paste, bean sprouts, and greens. Full of flavor!
The Café Sua Da was good, a little strong, but good. The Taro Bubble Tea was sooooo yummy!!! It was actually a shake, not on ice, but still yum. It had tapioca balls and coconut jellies at the bottom — nice surprise!
This place was so surprisingly delish. Can’t wait to make the drive from Huntersville again…

See my photos and you may think we packed out this small 6 table, 12 seat Vietnamese shop. if you are reading all my reviews and you better or you will miss out, you no i have jock friends, that is pretty much all of my friends and if you no about jocks they eat alot.
Korean Beef ribs in a fruity BBQ sauce, ummmm, wait this is a Vietnamese place, Korean ribs, yes that is what they are called, we had two stacks, fresh rolls a Vietnamese favorite, but these are huge, if you are not looking at my photos this is not trick photo graphy, this time+ Lotus Root, all these Shrimp and pork salad we ordered because of the twins, review, thanks jock twins. sauce sause, sauce and more sauce, then Phở, Phở like i’ve never had before, mint instead of Thai basil, a tiny amount of cilantro, noodles more like fat round spagetti noodles and Bologna, in Phở, lemongrass, bones cooked for 12 hours she said.
Four a bunch of blonde and blue cracker crumbs they treat us like we can take the heat, spicey oh so nice and perfectly spicey, 5 stars on the ribs, my first time with Korean.
don’t you dare say anything about my photos unless it is positive I took 48 photos here and picked the best.

This is another exciting addition to Plaza Midwood, and FURTHER cements this as the best neighborhood in Charlotte (in my opinion, of course).
I happened to read about this place in Creative Loafing and realized it was the place that recently opened across the street from Auto Zone. I had to go the same night to check it out.
The menu is different than a lot of vietnamese places, because they don’t heavily specialize in just phở, or banh mi. Rather, they have a unique and interesting cross section of dishes.
Here’s what I got:
— two fresh shrimp rolls ($ 3.95). Totally clean and refreshing, as good as any I’ve had anywhere else in NYC, Chicago, Seattle, you name it.
— the lotus root salad with halved shrimp and pork ($ 15). Sure it’s the priciest thing on the otherwise extremely reasonable menu, but it’s an adventurous dish, and big enough for two. There’s a substantial amount of roughage in this dish, and some of that is cabbage, but a lot of it is more exotic, like the lotus root, for example, and the banana blossom, which is shaved into thin ribbons on their meat slicer. The whole deal is marinated in a vinegar/​fish sauce/​chili concoction and topped with halved shrimp and sliced pork. I’ve never had anything like it. I’d definitely get it again, especially to split as a side with others.
— the grilled shrimp over vermicelli ($ 6.95). This was a good version of a dish that I constantly ordered when I used to work near a Vietnamese restaurant in NYC. The basic components are grilled seasoned shrimp sitting atop cooled vermicelli noodles, with mint and other veggies piled on. Kien Giang’s was super tasty, and brought me back to those previous meals. The only difference was that this version had shell-​on shrimp. I didn’t mind, but I was thinking that if I was trying to eat a quick lunch I’d prefer no shells just for quickness’ sake and not to go back to work with shrimpy smelling fingers.
Overall, this is a great spot. It’s take-​out oriented, but there are some tables inside for diners, and in fact there was a couple enjoying some phở at one table when I went in last night.
Also, Linda, the woman running the place, is extremely accommodating. We went through a lot of the menu items just to get a rundown on all the dishes and ingredients. And if you worry about language barriers at ethnic restaurants (I don’t but some do), never fear, Linda probably speaks English better than you do.
One more thing: they’ve got a bubble tea bar, and that includes vietnamese coffee.
Everybody ought to try this place out. I’m looking forward to many future visits.

Apparently this place just opened up a few months ago. It’s done no marketing. Just word of mouth. And word is getting out.
Ordered two soups — one was spicy beef noodle and the other was a spicy crab and shrimp noodle with. Both had tremendous flavor due to a fresh tomato-​laced broth with mint and bean sprouts included on the side. They were the perfect remedy for my nasty head cold which kept me inside on a beautiful October Saturday.
We also bought freshly baked Vietnamese donuts. They were lightly fried with a rice flour outer shell covered with sesame seeds. On the inside was a dollop of the sweetest mung bean paste — if you shook the donut, you could feel the dollop moving around. Why I was shaking the donut, I have no idea. But good golly, these were delicious. My new favorite word is «mung». If you start repeating it to yourself, I think you’ll like it too.
All for under $ 20. Another gem on Central Avenue!
And even though the name of the restaurant is «2 Go», there are a few tables in case you want to purchase your food and gobble it up immediately. I can’t wait to go back and try some other stuff.