Paddy Rice

I’ve been working in the area for over 2 years but never tried the food at Paddy Rice. Although my co-​workers eat their often because of the mix reviews I didn’t bother until today! I was told they’re now under new management and a coworker brought over a new menu so I decided to try.
I had ordered (takeout) the Paddy Fried Rice chicken $ 8.95 with addition of shrimp for $ 2.00, and the Chicken Egg roll $ 5.95. I also purchased two mexcian cokes which are way better than the regular cokes. My total was $ 25.88 in addition I had tipped $ 2.00.
The lady that took my order over the phone was pleasant and super nice, love it! When I had arrived to pick up my order as soon as I had walked through the door I was greeted with a smile, love it! Good customer service is rare in L.A. so you know I was pleased.
Paddy Fried Rice: I was a little disappointed when I got back to work and realized my order was incorrect. I had ordered the P.F.R. with chicken with addition of shrimp however there was only shrimp but honey once I had started eating the P.F.R. I was in heaven. It was the best rice dish I’ve ever had in my life, my God! It didn’t even matter anymore that the order was incorrect. All my coworkers were coming over to me and was asking «What is that you’re eating that smells so scrumptious». The rice, the shrimp, everything was stir fried to perfection!
Chicken Egg roll: It was really good however it wasn’t very warm. The egg roll wasn’t very flavorful but once I had dipped it into the dipping sauce that’s when my taste buds started to do the «electric slide». That’s what saved this dish the dipping sauce. The egg roll was fresh because it was juicy but it was just cold and a cold egg roll isn’t very appetizing. If it was hot I’m sure it would’ve been better but for a cold egg roll it was really fresh so I might try this again but tell them to make sure it’s nice and hot.
Overall, I’m in love with this place so I would try it again. I didn’t give it 5 stars because she messed up my order but I would recommend this place to everyone. I just hope when I go back the food is still yummy because a lot of places aren’t consistent and that’s what bothers me about some restaurants they’re not consistent with the quality of the food, and customer service. Lets pray Paddy Rice is different because my tummy is still happy…

Man this place is great! Good Phở and other great dishes!
Ambiance is cool, although it’s a bit of a mixed bag with all the TVs. Thankfully, they changed their layout and it works a lot better than it did before.
Favorite dish: Paddy Fried Rice with chicken. It’s absolutely delicious! I can be a picky eater, but the presentation of the this dish is so pretty and smells so good that you don’t even think about all the odd sprouts, leaves and mushrooms that are in it! It’s like spring is in bloom in your mouth. Seriously.
The only problem is that it’s a bit expensive. The portions are pretty good, though, so you can probably take half your plate to go and make it worth the money.

Paddy Rice is located in an inconspicuous location on Melrose Avenue. The restaurant is beautifully decorated in dark brown pine colors and modern lighting fixtures. The restaurant appears to be clean and well managed.
I was in the need for a quick lunch, so I stopped off here to order food for myself and two other friends. Looking at the menu, I decided on the Spring Rolls. $ 6.00. The nice lady working behind the counter said that it was 8 pieces of spring roll cut Japanese style (she meant to say Sushi style). The order came up within 5 – 10 minutes and I was on my way.
Upon presenting the lunches to my friends and opening our takeout boxes, they were super happy with the spring rolls. I was a bit dissapointed. There was one large spring roll cut into 8 bitesized pieces. ONE Spring Roll? In most Vietnamese restaurants, you get two large spring rolls for under $ 6.00. I was dissapointed in the portion sizes. That was an expensive $ 6 roll.
Additionally, the rice wrapping on the outside of the spring rolls were tough (we ate the rolls within 5 – 10 minutes of picking up our order). The insides, which were made of lettuce, rice noodles, shrimp — were fresh, but the entire dish was bland with no flavors. I was reading the other Unilocal reviews when I was waiting for the dish — many commented on how good the peanut sauce was. It was meh. I had to also ask for a side order of Siracha sauce (Rooster hot sauce) and Vietnamese style (?) fish sauce. I’m glad that I did because you will *need* to use these sauces to eat the spring rolls. They had no taste. Food Grade: C–
I would be glad to come back to this place to try their phở one day. I believe that this is a Vietnamese Restaurant runned by Koreans (which isn’t a bad thing). From my experience of eating one dish at this restaurant, the food is created for a Western pallate. I mention this because the authenticity of the flavors are missing a bit. I hope they can turn this restaurant around.
Food Grade: C–
Service Grade: B+ (Friendly servers!)
Worth the Money Grade: D.
Overall Impression Grade: C-.

I love this place! The Veggie Bun is great!

Came here before going down the block to Room 5 Lounge. This place passes if you have no other option for Vietnamese but doesn’t really hit the spot.
We had spring rolls that weren’t very tasty without the peanut dipping sauce. I had the meat phở: the meatballs were literally that, meatballs; the noodles were clumped together and the broth wasn’t as hot as it could be (i think the noodles were cold and dropped into the broth). My gf had the bun which looked good, but isn’t too hard to mess up. The egg rolls over it were good.
The décor is really nice, I could see it turn into more of a chill lounge. But the music killed me… SMOOTH JAZZ! waaah

Okay lets get right to it…
Spring rolls: bland, no seasoning or extras inside whatsoever, it would be akin to eating salad wrapped in glutinous rice paper if were not for the peanut sauce. Also for the whole roll they give you like ONE SHRIMP cut up. I couldn’t even find it let alone taste it.
Shrimp bun paddy for me: I originally wanted tofu, but they ran out of it (???) so I opted for shrimp. It’s basically assorted grilled vegetables (zucchini, asparagus) and whatever protein you order, on top of rice vermicelli (cold), on top of salad greens, sprinkled with a generous amount of fried onion strings. Mine had 3 grilled shrimp, and a half piece of fried tofu that I guess one of the chefs managed to find lurking somewhere back in the kitchen. It comes with an egg roll that was definitely frozen prepackaged and pretty gross (squishy, indistinguishable flavorless innards). I ended up putting the egg roll dipping sauce as a dressing of sorts to flavor the «salad». Then it was pretty tasty, but for the price they really need to give you more shrimp.
«ulti-​MEAT phở» for the boyfriend: Phở is all about the broth. So, here the broth is okay, not bad. It comes with the usual fixings (bean sprouts etc) and the meat is pretty standard… except the huge meatball. It’s not even an asian meatball or fish ball. It’s straight up a blob of ground beef an inch and a half in diameter in the middle of your bowl. Weird. But well, the broth was not bad.
The boyfriend and I have been craving Vietnamese food, but this uninspired meal made us wish we could undo and choose a different restaurant.
—
+1 for the cute name, trendy interior, and crate & barrel dish ware
–9,000 for the smooth jazz that makes you feel like you’re in a waiting room, oh and no alcohol

I was really craving Vietnamese food while working in Hollywood and there wasn’t anything really close except this place, which I still had to drive out of my way. I got there and ordered a sandwich, spring rolls, the bun paddy, and the paddy wrap.
The reason why I ordered all that food was so I could have something to eat later when I go home, it was going to be a busy night at the office. I’ve never been here before and wasn’t really interested in fusion Vietnamese food but I was optimistic. I strongly said to be myself, «If it’s not good, then at least it can’t be THAT bad.»
I got back to the office and I opened the sandwich box, I found tortilla chips and guacamole dip inside. The strong smell of Mexican clashing with the pungent smell of Vietnamese was unbearable. I took a few bites and closed the box.
I moved onto my spring rolls and it was the worst dipping sauce I’ve ever had (ya know, the peanut one). I was becoming upset at this point.
I opened up the bun paddy, knowing that there would be fish sauce in there. «Great, they can’t screw up fish sauce!» I thought to myself. Well, they did. I ended up not finishing anything and eating something else later.
I actually gave all of my food away to a co-​worker who has no experience with Vietnamese food, so she thought it was good.
Here is the lesson. If you’re not familiar with Vietnamese food, you’ll like this place. After all, it is some sort of new wave American/​Vietnamese fusion joint. If you’re Vietnamese like me and grew up feeding on Bolsa Ave., this place is absolutely disgusting.

First of all, I need to say that this place is where we go when Unphogettable is closed. I always like to cite other places in reviews so ya’ll can check it out and have something to compare to. This place has some serious issues but also some decent potential. But I digress and I’ll get right to the point:
–Paddy rolls: Good, like the filling but unlike other traditional vietnamese imperial rolls, the sauce is not fish sauce or nuoc mam or whatever it usually is– its a slightly bitter sauce that does not compliment the rolls. And, they don’t give a nice assortment of herbs to roll it in like other viet rolls, part of the reason viet rolls are so awesome– the crunch of the fried with the fresh basil/​mint/​etc.
–Chicken phở: Actually has alot of promise, delicate broth, fresh ingredients. HUGE DOWNSIDE– the noodles come in a «glop» that doesn’t separate even when you put it in the hot broth– so you end up with noodle bits and big chunks of congealed rice noodles. Has happened each time, and we forget, then are remembered, then go back…
–Fried rice: Not great. Nice that there is veggies in it more than peas and a few green onions like other fried rices, but this version has some serious drawbacks. Fried rice, even though a fried food, should still have a delicate, complex flavor. This tastes like 1. soy sauce. 2. sesame oil. I like both of those things, but it tastes like what I could make at home– 2D and not very interesting, There were some fried onions on top which were tasty.
–Strawberry lemonade: Really good, fresh.

Interesting place! I like it. It’s funny because the phở is super traditional and the broth is just LOVELY. It’s hard to find phở broths this good in this part of town, so that’s really nice. What’s interesting about the place is that it’s owned by Koreans, so there’s a bit of a Korean twist in the dishes other than the phở. Their bun rice dish was good, but not what I’d expected. I wasn’t in love with the spicy pork, as it was shredded, not grilled. There were all manner of Korean ingredients in it as opposed to basil, mint, etc. I would’ve liked it in addition to them. But altogether Paddy Rice is definitely worth the trip. The food is priced well, the service was good, the place was clean and modern. Everything is healthy and fresh. I’ll be back for sure.

I usually doubt the quality of Asian food in trendy locations, but I was pleasantly surprised by this restaurant. The décor was very trendy, of course, but that only made the experience more surprising. Service was good — food came out in a timely manner and the waitress was pleasant and professional.
As for food, I got the steak phở, and it was quite good. It didn’t taste as heavy as traditional phở, but that may be attributed to less msg (?? I don’t know. just assuming they put less). I’ve heard good things about the rice as well, which you can «Jeff up» (meaning you sub for brown rice). And I have to say their strawberry lemonade is seriously BOMB! Homemade and delicious. Not too tart or over sweetened… probably the best strawberry lemonade that I’ve had EVER.
I’d go again. I do love noodles.

Cute little place, close to home, with a nice selection of veggie options. We went for lunch. The server was very friendly and attentive. We ordered a veggie phở, a veggie fried rice, 2 Mexican cokes, and the veggie rolls. Everything was fresh. The broth was excellent and I loved how it tasted after I put some of the condiments in there. The fried rice was also excellent. It had tofu, broccoli, carrots, and cumbers, which were a nice addition.
This was my first Phở experience so I am no expert but I enjoyed the meal and would definitely come back here again. Also perfect for take out.

The most trendy, up to date phở place I’ve been to so far. The designing of the place is really well done. They got TVs on all the walls and nice little booths to share a date with. When I went there was a guy behind the counter who was very helpful and friend, we ended up talking for a little bit about the NBA finals, enjoyable small talk.
The prices are a little more then your typically phở place but definitely worth it. By far one of the best tasting broths I’ve had. The bowl it was served in was a good size and to be honest, just thinking about it right now, I’m craving their stuff right now.
Weird observation, their bathroom was so cool looking. They had a TV in their and this trippy looking ball thing that was actually the light for the bathroom. Never thought I would enjoy my experience with a bathroom so much.
This place is worth the trip to Hollywood. Good phở, nice staff, I want some of it right now. Weird.

Being that I am Vietnamese-​American, I am extremely particular about my phở. My friend has been talking about this place for awhile because it’s in her neighborhood and it’s a quick phở fix. Personally, I would much rather get my phở fix in Chinatown LA.
The restaurant itself is clean and trendy. There were many TVs for your viewing pleasure. I respect that the owners are trying to change up the menu and not have the same ingredients for the traditional dishes but why fix something if it isn’t broken? Vietnamese food is all about tradition.
We ordered the spring rolls, papaya salad, and the «ulti-​MEAT» phở. The spring rolls were decent, but it had avocado in it which threw me off a bit. In addition, the peanut sauce was extremely thick which also tasted like peanut butter. The strands of papaya on the papaya salad were awfully long, which made eating the salad tremendously awkward. Lastly, the broth of the phở was pretty good but the bowl was very minimal. It was just the noodles, the meat, and the phở. I mean can a girl get some tripe in her life?
Overall, the restaurant is OK. It wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t great either.

Come on!!! Really!!! I was in desperate need for Phở… my «cure all» for sore throats, bad days, and HEADACHES ;) and Paddy Rice was the closest place to my destination.
Not good. I’m surprised people come here so often. The food is WAY overpriced… I get that you’re in Hollywood but if you’re going to charge that much, satisfy my craving at the very least!
The food did not taste traditional at all. Like the ambiance of the restaraunt, it tasted completely Americanized… they put (what looked and tasted like) spaghetti meatballs in my phở. Terrible. Don’t even get me started on the broth.
I would rather walk to Ralphs and get a can of chicken noodle soup than get phở here again. This place is lucky that the staff is so nice because this is the only reason why I’m being so generous as to give them 2 stars.

Phe Phi Phở Phum, please get in my Tum
I love Phở, so tasty and good. Paddy Rice is close to my house and has yummy phở. This makes me happy especially since it has been raining lately. Every time I have gone, I ate Spring Rolls and Chicken Phở. So for the rest of the menu, I am super unhelpful. I don’t know if this is authentic phở, and I know everyone is all about being authentic, but isn’t that overrated? Somethings are a bit to authentic for me to handle.

If a hipster on a budget created a Vietnamese restaurant, this would be the result. The décor is fake wood veneer with modern minimalist furniture. It’s like eating inside a wood box. One side of the restaurant has seating facing the wall with T.V. screens. So as if L.A. wasn’t impersonal and unsocial enough, we can now ignore each other by watching our own private T.V. while eating in public.
The phở was decent. However, I just can’t bring myself to want to come back to this restaurant. It’s not the food that’s driving me away, it’s the stale cold environment.

I’ve decided the only way for me to give Paddy Rice or any other Vietnamese restaurant a «good» review is to leave my bias at the door.
Sure, I’m Vietnamese, but I’d rather have an ok Vietnamese restaurant in the city than non at all.
Having said that, Paddy Rice is bright, clean and modern. It looks like it could be an Ikea showroom with its simple lines and inventive little touches.
The food was freshly prepared. I had the grilled pork «bun» which is vietnamese for «noodle». The ratio of noodle to veggies was a little off. It felt like I was eating a salad, and it didn’t help that the herbs were still attached to the stems. so it was a little hard to eat. The dipping sauce that came with it was very different from regular «nuoc cham» sauces, but I liked that it was different. It could have used a little more fish sauce, but that’s just me.
It’s on Melrose, so parking can be a pain, but I really hope this Vietnamese restaurant finds success and continues to fine tune its menu.

Tasty phở! Full disclosure: I never thought I liked phở — it always seemed so bland to me, especially compared to Thai boat noodles, my fave noodle soup. But this is super conveniently located for me, so I wanted to give it a try.
So first impression is that it’s a great-​looking space. Very modern and open, and the chandeliers are goooooorgeous. There are little flat screen TVs along the wall, which may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but to me connotes a laid-​back, unpretentious lunch.
I told the server about my limited phở experience and she recommended the ulti-​meat phở for me. What they brought out to me was 1) super-​tasty and surprisingly flavorful and 2) not what I ordered. Once I realized there was no beef and told them, they very nicely replaced it for me, but also took away my utensils with it, so I couldn’t easily sample my companion’s meal while I waited for mine.
There’s a lot of promise here: food was really delicious (better with some hot sauce thrown in, natch), my strawberry lemonade was plentiful and tasty, and the space is lovely. I thought it was reasonably priced for a lunch place, though I don’t know how it compares to other phở places, and they didn’t offer us any amount off our bill for the food mix-​up.
I think they need to iron out a few service items to be awesome, but I’m definitely excited to try them again in the future!

Pretty good phở… but the other reviewers who said it was untraditional were definitely right. You’re not gonna find your grandmother’s phở here, but it’s still yummy.
Very nice staff, quick service, clean atmosphere with a funky touch. Recommended.

When I saw that a noodle place was opening up across the street from my house, I couldn’t have been more excited. I was waiting for the right moment to try it out… but I am sad to say that I took it to-​go instead of eating there and really experiencing the place.
The only criticism I have about this place, is that one of the workers was sitting on the counter and watching t.v. when I walked in. I understand that it was completely dead, but at least sit at a table or bring up a chair. Not a deal breaker for me, just a minor note to who is in charge.
The staff was very friendly and recommended great items. I had the Vegetarian vermacelli noodles which was amazing. I wish they had more veggies in it and much more tofu, but from what I hear they are creating more tofu dishes which will be great.
My boyfriend had the Ultimate Meat Phở and he really enjoyed it. Again, I think there could have been more than 2 meat balls, but overall the flavor was delicious.
Now one thing NOT to get is the sweet potato fries. Talk about wimpy fries. They were way too skinny, not crispy and lacked in flavor. I had to put them in oven to get crispier and they ended up turning into chips.
Overall I would try it again because I just love noodle houses.