Sparrow Restaurant

Knew this place would not survive and it did not. Closed after 4 years which is a surprise it lasted that long since it was on life support for so long. Was always empty.
Don’t think this mall can sustain much retail with limited traffic compared to the Peninsula Center where Chipotle and The Habit are moving in. Dragon Fly and Chicken Maison are packed 24×7 too.
Problem with this mall is once they moved to medical and business services, retail died off since there was too little traffic. This mall is in a sad state, even with a few more formal restaurants. Yogurt place died while Yummy Yogurt thrives with virtually no foot traffic.

This is a great restaurant for fast Vietnamese cuisine. I usually stop by for take-​out (or sometimes dine in) after working out at my gym which is close by. I like the noodles with either beef, chicken, or pork which comes with a small salad (healthy!), and a spring roll on the side
so it definitely fills me up! My husband enjoys the Vietnamese coffee here (a nice change from Starbucks!) The beef stew they have here is also tasty (kind of like comfort food), comes with carrots. I would recommend this restaurant if you want a simple, fast meal, and reasonably priced.

My family and I have been to Sparrow many times for not only a sit-​down meal but for takeout when we’re too lazy to cook but want some good home cooked Vietnamese food. The soup broth for the Phở is rich in flavors and despite the summer heat, we recently enjoyed a bowl of rare steak Phở with a side of crispy shrimp and pork egg rolls. The Banh Mi sandwiches are always a favorite of ours and an easy to go item for a snack at home or to pack for lunches. The bread is always fresh and the cooked meat is well-​seasoned. During our visits, we’ve also tried the beef stew and rice plates which are also hearty meals. We haven’t tried the fresh vegetarian spring rolls yet but plan to do so on our next visit.
Sparrow is located in the Promenade on the Peninsula in Palos Verdes. The restaurant not only has indoor but outside seating as well where you can both enjoy your meal and people watch at the same time. The owner is always friendly with the customers and we will continue to be frequent patrons of Sparrow!

Very low quality food. The bean sprouts they use are old and the phở broth is overly salted to make up for the lack of flavor. Sorry to see the only phở on the hill go downhill. I’ll do the drive to Torrance for Phở Hana on Hawthorne instead.

If you want bland phở with a dash of meh. You’ve come to the right spot. Do yourself a favor — drive down the hill for some authenticity and actual flavor unless you go to Tantawan Thai or the Chinese place up here.
I’m not sure how this place gets a lot of stars — either they have a lot of friends posting or they are paying peeps… :)
First time (and last) I was here with the FAM they used plastic utensils and bowls for everything — really — in a sit down restaurant??? Maybe they fixed that? Easy fix right. Now fixing the food.. . thats gonna take some real work.
Don’t get me wrong. The place is clean, the price is reasonable, great spot on the hill. Outside of that… they have work to do.

Overview: Sparrow Restaurant is a Vietnamese restaurant located in an upscale outdoor mall (Promenade) in the beautiful Rancho Palos Verdes mountain. It’s immediately next to a giant parking structure and situated among several other shops and a movie theater.
The Establishment: Decorated in a modern, low-​key fashion. Has a couple of outside tables. No line at all in the late afternoon.
The Food: Sparrow offers savory Phở bowls from $ 8 – 9.25, Banh Mi sandwiches from $ 6 – 7.25, and a few other noodles and appetizers that are priced a bit higher than the average Vietnamese restaurant in Garden Grove or Little Saigon. The Thai coffee is pretty expensive at $ 3.25 as it’s mostly ice (see photo below). I will give Sparrow credit for delivering an intense coffee flavor with a good balance of sweetness and creaminess, but for that price I wouldn’t purchase it again.
Conclusions: Sparrow is a small low-​key restaurant in a beautifully manicured mall in the heart of Rancho Palos Verdes that serves popular Vietnamese dishes. It offers about the same food that you could find in Little Saigon in a much classier environment at a slight price premium.

Highly rated on YP so I decided to try Sparrow the other day because it’s close to my house and I love me some Banh Mi sammies!
Started with a fresh spring roll and it was soooo good and tasted sooooo fresh! The lady made it quick and it came out with a different kind of peanut sauce, much darker than I’m used too, but sauce was very, very good!
Next, the banh mi sando with grilled pork. That’s the one to get. I’ve had just about errry kind of bank mi sammie and the grilled pork is a little more flavorful than the bbq pork as a rule but both are good here. Sando came out on some beautiful bread with fresh carrot, cilantro and jalepeno’s. NOTE: ask for extra peanut sauce and put some on your sammie, peanut sauce will always make things better. Solid place and could actually be a larger, nicer, sit down type restaurant IMO if they ever want to expand or go in that direction but it’s currently in a small space at a mall in RHE. Nice mall and nice spot but could be expanded and there should be a bunch of these all over within 3 – 5 yrs. its that good!

I haven’t been to this mall in forever and it is the first time I’ve seen this Vietnamese restaurant.
The mall itself is pretty dead, but there were a couple of patrons during lunch. I decided to order the large shrimp phở ($ 8.75) and gave some to my dad. It was good, but not great. They have sriracha and one other bottled hot sauce (possible house made) that had a good amount of spice and flavor.
My dad got the pork sandwich ($ 5.50), which was tasty. I enjoyed his more. The bread was delicious. Perfectly toasted and nice and soft/​chewy on the inside. Of course the filling wasn’t too generous, but it was a good sandwich and fairly good deal on the hill.
It was a relaxing meal and oh, they also have wifi!

I really wanted to like this restaurant because the owner was soooo nice to me. The phở aroma was very inviting right when you enter the restaurant. Sadly after eating it, it was nothing I pictured it would taste like.
Phở Dac Biet (combination of everything)
–Broth was very salty, too much MSG!
Bun Thit Nuong Cha Gio
— Cold rice vermicelli noodle dish topped with grilled pork, fresh herbs and vegetables, and egg rolls.
— The fish sauce was flavorless
— Meat and egg rolls were bland
Spring Rolls with peanut sauce
–Dipping sauce tasted like it was straight up just hoisin sauce.
Vietnamese Iced Coffee– The only good thing here?
I give this place 5 stars for excellent service, but food was not on point. I consider myself an easy eater, but for me to find the food here unappealing must mean something…

A pleasantly unexpected place. I walked past it more than once thinking it was just another coffee, or tea shop; maybe even a soap & candle shop. But it’s a yummy Vietnamese restaurant. I had a Vegi w/​pork Vermicelli Noodle bowl, which had cucumber and chunks of egg-​rolls.
The interior of the restaurant is clean and well maintained. I really like the corrugated sheet metal used to treat the bottom part of the walls. It smelled really nice when I walked it, too.