V33

I was really craving a Vietnamese grilled pork chop on jasmine rice and luckily I was able to order from V33 and pick it up close to my workplace. Yes, I am still not adjusting to delivery and like to take a quick stroll to pick up food for lunch. The portion was very large for $ 6.50. The only drawback being that there was no hoisen sauce, but that is totally my fault. The pork chops were plentiful and tender, with grill marks and delicious rice.
If you dine in, your meal includes a salad as well. They also have a lame Chinese food takeout bar where you can purchase a Styrofoam box full of buffet bar food for only $ 4.50. Which is how they get most of the foot traffic. There are a couple other Chinese restaurants serving Vietnamese dishes in the area, so I will give those a try and then possibly come back here if I have no luck.

What’s with the Hate?
I have dined at V33 (the Vietnamese portion of China Palace) a bunch of times before they renovated (renovated must have been back in 2006 or so) and one time after. I haven’t been back since 2006, but I don’t remember it being as bad as other Unilocalers say. I would only go for dinner though, so can’t speak of their lunch food or service.
I would usually order spring or summer rolls and the #1 phở, and actually would like it, so I’m surprised that the only ratings for here are 1-​star ratings.

The meal I ordered from here was so unsatisfying, it motivated me to register this Unilocal account in order to give this place a one-​star review.
I had a Sauteed Shrimp with Vegetables and Lemon Grass lunch special, so that’s the only dish I can really talk about. It sucked. I ordered this dish under the naïve impression that, like many dishes out there that say «…with Vegetables,» I would be getting a variety of vegetables, or at least maybe two to three different kinds. Instead, I pretty much got a crapload of onions. A few little pieces of green pepper were in there too, so technically there were two kinds, with a 19:1 onion-​to-​pepper ratio.
Overall, not counting the rice, I would say 90% of my meal was onions. I love onions, but not to the point where I’d actually enjoy eating many mouthfuls of nothing but greased onions, which is apparently what the creator of this dish assumes. The sauce was not very flavorful either, and there were only four modest pieces of shrimp. I ended up throwing away most of it. For $ 8.75, this is robbery.

the vietnamese spring roll is great it come out with carrots, lettuces, cucumbers, and tomatos it is great.

Growing up, I was taught never to waste food. This lesson was further instilled upon me during my limited experience as a prep-​monkey at a fairly well regarded Italian restaurant (my first real job would involve food, natch). In fact, i’d get screamed at by the day Manager if so much of an onion petal was accidentally discarded, a mushroom mis-​fluted or a carrot carelessly brunoised.
Against my extincts, I threw away most of lunch from V 33. A repulsive summer roll to start — the skin had been unskillfully triple wrapped, giving it the texture of a latex contraceptive. The flaccid summer rolls went into the bin.
The phở managed to be excruciatingly salty and simultaneously under flavored. Absent were the earthy, bitter and aromatic undertones that make a good phở broth. This broth tasted simply of salty hatred. A few gristly pieces of beef made an appearance, but didn’t do much to improve the situation. The remaining phở was left untouched (I would recommend spitting out the last salty mouthful, instead of swallowing).

This place is the other half of China Palace. I knew right off the bat not to eat here, because those combo places never work out, and boy was I right.
I know a few good phở places in Manhattan, but was there with a few of my friends from LA and they wanted to eat near their hotel and this is what they picked.
I went with a couple second-​gen Viet’s and one native. It stared out bad once they realized that none of the people at the restaurant spoke Vietnamese. But they pressed on, ordering things that they didn’t usually find in LA. Not one dish came out even remotely like what they thought it should have been. However, they all said it wouldn’t be bad food, if only they didn’t know what they were ordering.
I wasn’t feeling good that day, so I got a phở ga. Perfect. But they didn’t know what that was, of course, so I ordered the chicken noodle soup, figuring they just didn’t translate. Well, it looked like phở ga when it came, noodles, broth, but they didn’t give me any basil or sprouts. I asked for them and was informed that was only for beef. I made them give it to me anyway. But the broth tasted strange, even before I started adding to it. It tasted like canned chicken noodle soup, just with the right noodles. But I guess that’s fair because they really didn’t call it phở in the first place.
So, long story short, as long as you don’t have any preconceived idea of the meal you are ordering, you’ll probably be happy. But I wasn’t.