Nong Thon

I walked into the dimly lit restaurant unsure if it was open but as soon as I stepped up to the main level of dining tables I knew it was for the ambiance. The restaurant is decorated tastefully and thoroughly and the booths look like they are real wood.
I ordered the stuffed chicken wings, a dish I have never heard before, it was delicious. Tender on the inside and crispy on the outside.
The mint salad tasted extremely fresh
I got the chicken curry and it tasted home made, the chicken and the way it was prepared could stand alone on itself but the curry sauce tasted perfected from an old family recipe with a new age twist. Great flavor combination.
The Vietnamese coffee in my opinion was a little sweet but I do prefer my coffee on the black side.
I can say that I would feel safe ordering anything off of the menu and they would not dissipoint. I can taste the amount of effort they put into each dish my partnee and I ordered!

Bruh, this place has REAL ASS SEAFOOD. None of that chemically made imitation bullshit. Very family friendly and their food is always on point. I have never come into this restaurant ordered food and thought: «I should’ve gone to [insert name of some crappy phở spot] instead». Honestly, I’m surprised this place isn’t always super packed. Totally underrated, and the Unilocal reviews I’ve seen do not do it justice. I recently went to PHO AO SEN also in El Cerrito, and they do not offer any variations on their phở menu. They have no fucking seafood yo. Like wtf? I like seafood! I went to that other phở spot and as I sat there I thought «I should’ve gone to Nong Thon instead». 5 stars all the way yo! :)

They got no parking lot! They’re located on a busy main street of San Pablo Ave. Can b very difficult to ever find parking closeby!
Next door to them: Elevation 66 Brewing (American n beer), bikram yoga, n a small theater. Across street is Nations Burger.
They recently have changed ownership. Still got some of the same food, good authentic vietnamese food. The previous owner also own a vietnamese restro in Oakland called Binh Minh Quan, very good food there as well. I noticed on menu they now added cajun food! There’s seafood such as king crab leg, crawfish, n shrimp wit your choice of sauce. They also serve wine!
Mini eggrolls — very good inside but not crispy on out, very mini, got taro n meat!
Lotus salad — got pork n shrimp, very fresh ingreds, wit very good fish sauce!
Service was excellent! very attentive! very polite!
They also got realli nice décor! Love love! Makes me feel like home in Vietnam! Nice wooden table n chairs, n lots of big trees n bamboo! Beautiful! VERY spacious!
One thing not too great is tat certain dish can b pricey. The bo luc lac (beef cube) is $ 16! O_​o

We were ready for good Vietnamese and had been to this place with the previous owner. The flavors of the food is decent, but I think they are cutting back on meat portions to pay for the rent on this very cavernous space. We ordered a Bun with shrimp and pork, cubed beef, chicken and shrimp pancake, and the kids chicken noodle soup. Compared to other local spots, the veggies were lush, but the meat portions slim, yet the prices were hardly a bargain.

i really dont think this is the name of this place i like thier food.
they serve «veit cajun» food in the evening supposedly
their service isnt friendly but i eat here quite often i think they come off mean bc they do not speak english well and because they are actually Vietnamese they are very young from adolescent to about 30. the cheif maybe older i dont know.
i would recommend their crab fired rice. which is the most expensive rice but i would also recommend getting it with extra shrimp thats how i like it plus there is a funny story about that with the date who brought me over there earlier this year.
this place make good soup and gives you plenty of water which for me makes me want to come back. this is definitely a neighborhood place. oh it looks like a normal restaurant but this is the neighborhood restaurant.
i would still recommend dressing nicely just bc i will be eating there and i look good when i go out so please dont come looking bad.
now the only thing is they charge some money for their food but in some ways it is worth it but their are other restaurants out there who have competing prices.
oh and this place is pretty quite which i like.
and if you dont like the sun you should sit along the right side they are facing the bay and the sun beams pretty high in there lol

We had lunch at Nong Thon recently. They were closed for several months. This was our first visit since they remodeled and have new ownership.
The new set-​up seems to make better use of the space. They replaced the tables and chairs
As Toni M mentioned the children’s play area in front has been replaced with tables and chairs.
I agree with Toni about the service. It was a bit distant. Our server seemed nice enough but he barely greeted us or interacted with us.
The menu seemed a bit different than the previous menu; less vegetarian choices. Higher prices. I was happy to see that they still had the vegetarian pancake. This is one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes – few places offer it. The pancake is vegan – it’s made out of tapioca. The vegetarian version has tofu and bean sprouts. It was served with a vegetarian sauce and a pile of romaine and mint leaves. It was delicious. The non-​veggie version comes with fish sauce.
Mr Rinky ordered the mixed vegetables with tofu. There was a nice section of veggies in a light sauce. We liked it.
I hope they can improve the service. Although our server might have been shy, it might be a deal breaker for some people.

Inside is larger than expected from the way it looks on the outside. Went for lunch, a group of 3. Had rare beef phở, seafood egg noodle soup, crab meat fried rice, and shrimp spring rolls. Not bad, good mix of fresh herbs for spring roll. The broth was a bit thin for my taste. Fried rice, okay. Overall, the rating would been higher had it not been the prices which are a bit on the high side for what they serve. The total came to $ 48, and there are many Vietnamese restaurants that serve equal or better food for much less.

For a local place, the food is quite good. The only problem with the restaraunt is the service. You go for the service; you don’t go to be waited on. Every time we go there, the service is terrible.
There is no oversight by anyone in charge and the staff will all sit down for lunch at the same time, leaving patrons hanging.
BUT, the food is good.
It says they are under new management. I doubt it, as nothing has changed.

This restaurant proves that I will trudge through horrible service for a great meal.
Near everything on the menu is a winner, but the kitchen should consider using a slingshot to get the food to your table. While a messier option, I would prefer it to the surly method of delivery they currently use…
Go for the food — but don’t expect much more.

It is in a great location and the place is nice, clean, and spacious. Apparently it is under new management and well, i wasn’t impressed. The lighting is horrible! It is so dim it is romantic overkill! I had to find a seat with appropriate lighting (I do not have horrible eye sight)! I had the vermicelli beef and shrimp bowl and the noodles tasted straight up like DAWN DISH SOAP!!! The phở bowl was small and tasted like instant packed broth with soapy noodles. When we addressed it, the server said it is how egg noodles taste. I’m calling bs! Although the service was nice, I was not impressed by the food nor the lighting. I had a stomach ache right after. I will not return here.

This place is really nicely decorated but their food fell flat.
My friend and I went because we were craving phở. I ordered the tofu in chicken broth and she ordered chicken. We received no sauces and the service just wasnt friendly. The phở also had NO flavor. I mean, none. Even after we took sauce and salt from the front table and added it ourselves. The noodles were also huge and hard to eat.
Portions are big and its priced okay but we didnt finish our meal. We high tailed it a couple blocks down to vietnam grille where the flavor was.

This place has the BEST garlic noodles ever. I could just eat a plate of that and be happy. The décor is wonderful — huge high ceilings, big open space, large sprawling tables. We went when it was still daylight and naturally lit, and so the white fluorescent lighting that comes on at night wasn’t so harsh and obvious until we were leaving. The portions are pretty gigantic, and I had a huge shrimp vermicelli dish with shrimp cakes and it was more than enough food (although could have been slightly more flavorful). But go for the garlic noodles!

Mary and I met for lunch today at Nong Thon, which has been reopened for a couple of months. The kitchen has been remodeled and the side entrance is now down a newly created hallway. The women’s bathroom has been redecorated w/​wood paneling and tile-​work that goes halfway up the wall. The sink and counter are new. It looks much better and cleaner than the last time I was there. Many of the chairs in the dining room have been replaced w/​wooden benches, which didn’t look comfortable to me. The children’s play area is gone, replaced by tables and chairs. I took a seat at one of the tables by the front windows closer to Central and Mary joined me a little while later. We were given menus. They’re similar to the old menus but organized differently and there are some dishes offered that either weren’t on the old menu or I just didn’t notice them.
Two things on the menu that were new to me were garlic noodles and beef in la lat leaves. Mary wanted to order a pancake (banh xeo), which she had had previously w/​her husband and son and had liked a lot. Service was a bit distant even absent. Though the restaurant was relatively empty our waiter just kept watch from a distance. I finally had to call him over to take our order. After a reasonable wait Mary’s pancake and my garlic noodles arrived. She loved the pancake, which she declared was better than at Nong Thon’s previous incarnation, though she had been told the cooks were the same. The garlic noodles were marvelous and a bargain at $ 8. The beef in la lat leaves was also tasty. I brought most of it home because I finished most of the garlic noodles. Our server confirmed that the ownership was the same, but that Vu was no longer involved. They still offer my favorite appetizer and Alan and I may order it when we come here the next time.

Nong Thon deserves 3 stars.
The wait wasn’t long and the service wasn’t bad but the food was somewhat disappointing. Why was it disappointing? I thought I was eating a kids meal at McDonalds. I got the Phở bowl and there weren’t a lot of noodles and not a lot meat either. It really just looked like a bowl of broth.
I would recommend this place if you’re looking for something light to eat because it was not filling.

Excellent food. I’ve been eating here for a couple of years. I occasionally get phở to go and also the grilled quail. Wish they’d come back.
I hope they are not going out of business. Three months is a long time to do remodeling.
Does anyone know if or when they’ll be back?

Really love the food here
There remodeling right now and i miss it. come here with my wife all the time. Please come back nong thon
Your Phở is good
And your short ribs are off the hook
Come back sooner than later.

What I ate: phở with rare steak and meatballs
Visit date: October 24, 2014
First time? Yes.
This place was not what I expected, visually at least. Nong Thon is located in a fairly nice looking part of El Cerrito, by the movie theater. The exterior is classy and appealing. I wore a really nice skirt to dinner! And then when you walk in its like walking into someone’s backyard jungle playground. The air was different, there were toys everywhere near the entrance, and I felt way overdressed. Food wise, it was just as I had expected. I had been told it was just an ok Vietnamese place by a friend who has similar taste buds, but I’m always up for trying new places, especially if they are close to my home.
My two stars are based on atmosphere and the phở. All the other guests seemed to be enjoying their non-​phở dishes. Perhaps if I visited again (not likely) I would try something else. The phở was a lackluster. the broth was uninspiring and lacking in richness; the meat was cut up in tiny little pieces, there was barely any meat to chew. But I was hungry so I ate it. And I’m not one to throw away leftovers but I was reluctant to take mine home. Also, for some strange reason their sriracha wasn’t spicy. That added to the disappointing experience.

From the outside, the restaurant itself is nice looking and very large. The not-​so-​positive points about the atmosphere are that there is inadequate lighting, and it seems they live there after hours. There are children’s toys and a hammock toward the rear left of the restaurant and kids are just kind of playing there. It almost looks like a day care. Also, in the front window, you can see more kids’ toys. It’s tacky and takes away any possibility of «ambiance.»
That said, I like the chicken phở in beef broth. The spring rolls are fresh and tasty, too, and they add basil to them, which gives a new dimension of flavor.
If/​when I come here again, I will venture across the menu more. And I’ll sit by a window so I can actually read it.
I also have to agree w/​another reviewer… There is no attention paid to the customer. Your order is taken by a stone-​faced 20something, and minutes later, your food is delivered to your table, all without a word. No one comes back to ask if everything is ok. Hm. I might actually have to venture more into Albany next time for a change of scenery/​pace. The kids’ toys strewn about in the front and rear is a big turn-​off.

Ordered $ 50 worth of takout food last month. Horrible experience. With astonishment, I cannot believe they call themselves authentic, because IMHO, it’s not.
take the famed national dish, Catfish claypot. It was such a rip-​off at the price they charged. so inflamed, I drove back during rush hour to complain about the 4 – 5 oz dish, with barely any ingredients, and charged a full price for it.
I won’t be returning to this establishment. As much as VN food is my very favorite food in the world, I can’t stomach the bad first time experience and the highway robbery I experienced. Just can’t do it.

I never expected the interior to be so tropical just from looking outside. I’ve driven by countless times, but walking in, I was delightfully surprised by the number of plants (real or fake, I didn’t look too hard) and how big the restaurant is!
I order phở tai (rare beef), and I was happy to see that my beef was still rare when unraveling the little mound of meat in the soup. I hate it when I order this at other places and the meat is already fully cooked just from being in the hot soup for so long. The phở was close to my ideal phở: broth was flavorful without being too salty or greasy (in fact, I didn’t see a single drop of grease!), abundance of noodles that didn’t get too soggy towards the end, and the meat was tender. Their menu is pretty extensive as well.
I like that their juices come with an umbrella! Also, while walking out after my meal, I noticed the two front areas had couches and children’s toys. My friend, who’s a regular, said the employees bring their children here… not sure how I felt about that, but it does seem like a family friendly establishment for both patrons and employees. They had this tiny hammock set up in the back and a little girl was being rocked by her dad, and I got a teensy envious that I couldn’t also enjoy the hammock as well!