Kim’s Vietnamese Noodle House

Been here twice, first experience was much better. The second time, we had to kill a cockroach off the wall, and there was flys everywhere.

Exact same words as Oscar K. It was dead in there and the broth & noodles tasted like they came out of paper box. Pretty sure they use MSG, my toungue is NUMB!
Don’t order young coconut juice… it’s in a CAN!!!
They’re not like most Vietnamese resto who serves their coconut juice in a tall beverage glass with big chunks of coconut meat.
Service was average, but we are not coming back :(

I love the reviews commenting on ambiance and looks and all that crap. Hole-​in-​the-​wall places are known for their food — everything else should be of no concern unless the company you’re with is as picky and boring as yourself. What about food trucks? There is no ambiance besides whatever street or parking lot they are parked at and the food is usually top notch!
With that out of the way this place has good phở and they buy their vegetables from local farmers market stores. It is family owned and run so I was surprised when the cook came out to serve our food (an elderly Vietnamese man) I was surprised since most Vietnamese places around here have Mexican cooks.
The prices are great as well. I usually go to Phở Lucky since it is closer to my home and Kim’s items are $ 2 – 3 cheaper. So bottom line if you want decent Vietnamese food and are in the area stop by.

I’m a repeat customer. Everything on the menu is decent, but not great. I’ve had much better Vietnamese food elsewhere, home… restaurants down in Orange County…, but this place hits the spot for a quick fix.
Décor is a total mish-​mash hole-​in-​the-​wall. The owners though are nice people and always say hi when we come across each other in the most random of places. They go out of their way for us to make things that aren’t even on the menu if we ask for it.
The place is not aesthetically pleasing and not the greatest food around, but for the area; is a good alternative to most of the other Phở Restaurants within North County.

i love this place.
notice they get an A rating from the health department. the inside is very spartan but i think this adds to the charm of the place. this is a no frills mom and pop place.
their phở is probably the best i’ve had in most of san diego. the broth is hearty and not watery.
i love the egg rolls. they are appropriately sized, not like these tiny stubby egg rolls you get at some thai/​vietnamese restaurants. you’ll be pleased.
i’ve also had their banh mi and bun (noodle) dishes. all very good.
i live in san diego but love stopping by for lunch if i’m in north county.

Kim’s is the proverbial hole-​in-​the-​wall. Absolutely no recognizable design aesthetic can be found in this little strip center restaurant, nor will you find any indication of personality or creative flare. No, you won’t find any of those trivial things at Kim’s. I mean, gosh, who doesn’t want to dine in a space that causes one to wonder if he/​she has been temproarily transported to a Vietnamese kitchen out of the 70’s? For once, I was relieved to walk in to find a space that violated so many basic design guidelines that I was compelled to recalibrate my focus to be entirely concerned with the food, and nothing more.
Before heading out to fight the unforgiving Los Angeles traffic, both my travel companion and I decided to stop at Kim’s before heading out of North County. I was in the mood for some Banh Mi and he had a fierce hankering for a rice noodle dish. In addition to a chicken banh mi, I also requested a bowl of soup. Served hot, and tightly encased in a paper wrapper, this was easily one of the most delicious banh mi’s that I can remember having. So satisfying. So freaking delicious! And the broth? Well, it was amazing.
The menu is exapansive, with each item numerically identified that makes for an easy ordering process. Up until late last year, I had lived in North County the majority of my life and had sadly not had the pleasure of frequenting Kim’s as many times as I would have liked. Seemingly operated by a family, they are producing some quality Vietnamese dishes that translate to pure comfort food. Service doesn’t take a back seat, either. We were taken care during our entire visit.
So, yeah, try Kim’s. It’s the dingy-​looking place just a few doors down from Philly Frank’s. Can’t miss it.

I think the broth was decent but I’m not coming back. This place is dark and dirty. It’s the kind of place where you wipe down the chopsticks and the sauce bowl… twice. Oh, but this place doesn’t give you a sauce bowl. I guess you’re supposed to put the hoisin sauce directly into the phở? I don’t know if that’s traditional or not, but I need a god damn sauce bowl.
This place was dead inside when I went. Not a good sign.

This place is horrible. It’s dark in there and the ceilings have mold and dirty water leak stains all over it. It’s VERY dirty here.
I got Wonton Noodle Soup, and let me tell you by pointing out that the wontons were the WORST wontons I have ever eaten. The meat was hard — very hard. It was bland, unseasoned in any way.
The broth was decent, and the amount of noodles was good. BUT the wontons were freaking nasty.
Avoid this place. Go to Phở San Marcos for better ambience and food.

This place is a diamond in the rough. I have been frequenting this location for the past 3 years and still havent got sick of the phở. Every time a friend visits me from out of town/​out of the country, I take them to Kim’s.
My favorite dishes at Kim’s:
The Phở
— Amazing broth
— tender/​fresh, white meat chicken
— fresh/​crunchy vegetables.
— amazing flavor.
The Eggrolls
— crunchy
— not too greasy
— very filling and full of flavor especially when wrapped in the
crunchy lettuce, ginger, and dipped in whatever that sauce is.
When I went through my vegetarian ‘stage’, i stuck with the phở/​fried tofu
combo.

I may be biased since this is the place where I tried Phở for the first time, but I’ve been to a handful of places now and can still say that they have, hands down, THE BEST vegetarian phở I have ever ordered. The broth is incredible – so rich and flavorful – and I have never found another place that even comes close.
Don’t be put off by the somewhat ghetto strip mall location, or the lack of interior décor. The food is pretty awesome… I had it yesterday and just writing this makes me want to go back today.

I initially wrote a bad review for this place, and it really was not at all that great and inconsistent.
Well the last two times going back, giving ample time in between visits, I’m impressed, and this place has won me over somewhat.
Their coffee «Café Sua,» is still lacking. Seems like they are not using the really strong Vietnamese dark coffee, but rather some Folgers or something? It’s weak sauce.

update: in our visits back here, it seems like the food is trending downward in quality. Phở Tai beef quality has been pretty poor lately (I left half the plate of raw beef on the plate … I hope they didn’t serve it to you). Broth this last time was not good & I didn’t finish my bowl. Bahn Mi with BBQ chicken — the chicken was really off-​tasting & the overall sandwich taste was poor. Other dishes (dry fry noodle w chicken missing the dry-​fry) have disappointed.
I’m sad because I wanted this to be a go-​to place that we support, but after a number of poor visits in a row, we are probably going elsewhere next time.

The world tried to prevent me from getting my banh mi fix today, but I eventually made it here. Decided to check it out based on Unilocal reviews because there don’t seem to be a whole lot of Vietnamese places to choose from in Escondido/​San Marcos.
Went inside and ordered to go. The woman who took my order was friendly, but the menu I looked at was sticky… I hate sticky menus! Anyway, I ordered a grilled pork sandwich and the fresh spring rolls. They were playing Maury pretty loudly on the tv which was kind of amusing, but I think it would have been irritating if I had actually been sitting down there for lunch. Some music or something probably would have provided a nicer ambiance than white trash «MY MAN IS CHEATING!» arguments.
The sandwich was pretty good, there was a good amount of meat and veggies in there which I like. However, the bread wasn’t crispy or «toasty» on the outside and that was disappointing. The bread was pretty much soft all the way through and so my sandwich was getting pretty bendy, there was no sturdiness to it.
I was kinda bummed out by the spring rolls, they basically consisted of shrimp, TONS of vermicelli and shredded lettuce, no pork, and a microscopic amount of herbs. I actually didn’t finish my second one because I was trying to dissect it looking for any signs of herbs… I found a tiny sprig of cilantro and a little mini mint leaf, no basil that I could see. Sad!
It was decent for a first impression. The menu is pretty large and it looks like they might have some yummy stuff there. I want to go back to try the phở, and then maybe I’ll bump up the star rating. But no more spring rolls!

A friend and I came here for our weekly lunch. The food was really good and they had a lot of different choices. They had a vast array of different Phở’s and a lot of other different rice and noodle dishes.
The service was good. As we came in the server let us choose a table and was helpful in picking out our meals. She asked us what we liked and then pointed out what she thought was the best thing for us and my friend and I chose what she picked out and both really enjoyed the meal.
The prices were good for the amount of food we got. A really large portion for less than eight bucks? Sounds great to me.
The quality of the food was amazing. I got grilled beef and shrimp with rice while my friend got grilled beef and shrimp with noodles. It was amazing both my friend and I nearly died from how good the beef and shrimp were. The way it was marinated and grilled was perfection.
Overall the experience was good. I really liked the place. The food was good and the service was good as well.

Came here on a whim and was pleasantly surprised!!!
So upon my usual visits to San Marcos, I always stop by Los Cabos [right next door]. While I was enjoying my oh-​so-​sexy al pastor burrito, I decided to Unilocal Kim’s since I’ve been craving a Bahn Mi for awhile now.
Because WestLA does NOT have ANY good Vietnamese places whatsoever… especially ones that serve Bahn Mi sandwiches I was really hoping for a 4 star on Kim’s. AND my prayers were answered. Yay 4 stars!!!
Stopped in at around 2:30ish.Place was completely deserted except for the owner’s children playing on their Nintendo DS so I was a little skeptical. But I ordered a grilled pork Bahn Mi anyway. And it was only like $ 3.50!!! YAY FOR CHEAP FOOD!!!
I didn’t eat it right away since my tummy was full of carne asada fries at the moment so I saved it to eat later. And boy was I happy!!! Now, I must say that this wasn’t the BEST bahn mi I’ve ever had, but it sure was delicious!
The grilled pork was well marinated and the flavor came thro very well. The bread wasn’t too hard like at Lee’s and it had the prefect amount of toastiness and softness. The fillings were the basically the same, cilantro, pickled daikon & carrots. And to my surprise they added a cucumber! I’ve never had that before but it did add a nice crunch to the sandwich. I didn’t really spot any jalapenos so I was a little disappointed in that. But all-​in-​all a great place for bahn mi’s!
I will definitely be back!

kind of a mixed review. still obsessively stalking the wild banh mi …
stopped by and grabbed one to go after a softball game. service was benignly indifferent and the wait surprisingly long. seems to be a theme in VIETNAMESE restaurants in recent experience. no premium on pace — they apparently are taking the trouble to take the fast out of fast food.
the sandwich was plump and shorter than the narrow, baguettes i’ve come to expect. as i unwrapped the sandwich for a little graze on the way home. the bread was scorched and i mean a lot, not a little. i flashed on the scene from LETHAL WEAPON III with JOE PESCI going off about how they always #($^@_&#@$& you at the drive-​thru. the good news is although ascetically unpleasing, it effected the texture (more brittle than crackly crisp) than the taste. like good, thin crust pizza (and unlike my mother’s unfondly remembered attempts at the toast of my childhood) more sugar caramelizing than briquette formation …
missing some bass notes (i’m guessing light on the fish sauce and no pâté) but quite a bit of pork. WYATT, my four-​year old was asked what his favorite food was and answered (rather decisively) «MEAT» so am guessing KIM’s is tailoring their recipes to american tastes.
sad but true. anyway, the sandwich was, all things considered, still pretty good.

First of all, as previously reported, the Unilocal!map for Kim’s is completely wrong, even though the address is correct. It’s actually just south of the 78, in a large strip shopping center on the east side of Ranch Santa Fe Rd. Wanted to check-​in, but Unilocal!told us we were too far away to check in, while we actually sat inside the restaurant?!
Just don’t trust the Unilocal!map on this, or you’ll be several miles away.
As for the food, we had a nice late lunch, each having a «Super» sized bowl of Phở (Diane went with the Chicken, and All had the Shrimp).
These were tremendously large portions (the pictures don’t do it justice. Each bowl could have held a basketball)!!!
Quality was better than average, but the service was pretty spotty.
The Phở & spring rolls weren’t quite great enough for us to call it a tie with Phở Hong Bistro in Escondido (out favorite Phở dive), but still really respectable.
The food came to the table amazingly fast, and hot. Unfortunately, the server vanished after it was brought to us, and we had to wait forever for the check.
Definitely a good, «bargain Phở fix» if you’re in the area.

Honeybuns and I used to come here a lot back in 2008, before they repainted, and we loved the food then when the décor was really bad.
Visited today again for early dinner. There was only 1 other table with a couple people at 5pm. I can see that they have painted the place and updated it a bit. There are pictures of all the different dishes circling the walls, so it was nice to see what you get.
Had the #35 beef phở (rare steak, brisket, tendon and tripe). My fave. The phở was steaming hot. Perfect !!! I LOOOOOVE it when they give me steaming hot phở, so I can put all the herbs into the soup at one time, and they wilt nicely. It came with fresh bean sprouts, fresh basil leaves (except for 1 leaf, which was a little old), but no saw leaf herb (ngo gai), some jalapenos (which I never touch), and a wedge of lime.
There were a couple of chili sauces on the table, the Rooster sriracha sauce, and Lee Kum Kee hoisin sauce. Had to ask for the fish sauce because it wasn’t on the table. Guess Americans think it’s stinky or something.
Honeybuns got a #120 com (broken rice with grilled pork, tau hu ky, and vietnamese sausage). What’s tau hu ky? Think of a savory pie, instead of the pastry shell on top and bottom, it’s a soy sheets shell, and the inside is shrimp paste. And instead of baking it, it’s fried quickly. It’s done right here, flaky crispy skin, and tender shrimp inside. Not greasy. The grilled pork is our favorite. It is sooooo flavorful and freshly char-​grilled. The vietnamese sausage is a sweeter pork sausage, like Chinese lop chuong, with bits of fat in it. This was served with nuoc mam cham, the vietnamese dipping sauce of fish sauce, sugar, vinegar, water, and some daikon and carrot shreds (probably pickled in this mixture). Honeybuns enjoyed it very much.
We also love the #83 bun (rice vermicelli salad with grilled pork, shrimp, and vietnamese egg rolls). It’s served with the same nuoc mam cham. This is soooo tasty in hot weather.
The cha gio here is good too. The vietnamese fried spring rolls has a really savory filling, and they give you lots of lettuce leaves and herbs to roll it in. I hate when places are stingy with lettuce and herbs.
Best of all, we have NOT detected MSG in the broth here or in the food. Yay !!! No more food coma or extreme thirst after eating.
Another plus — the free water they give you is actually from bottled water. Usually in phở places, they just give you untreated tap water (eeek!)
For drinks, we have had the thai iced tea (really good), and the café sua da (vietnamese coffee) hot and cold. Another really refreshing drink in the summer is the soda chanh moi (salty lemon with ice and soda). It’s salty and sweet at the same time, and in the hot weather, it’s really really good.
The service is OK. Sometimes there’s someone to greet you when you walk in, and sometimes there’s not. If you wait for a few secs, a family member will come out and tell you to sit where you like. And if you come here often, they know what your normal order is :-) And you get more smiles and they’ll try to chitchat with you in broken English :-) I think most ethnic places don’t interact much with customers is because of the language barrier, so they just stay silent and in their little corner.
It’s not fancy, it’s a plain neighborhood phở place that serves really good phở. To me, the phở is as good as Phở 79 in Garden Grove before Phở 79 started using MSG. It’s better than Phở Lucky in Vista, and a lot of places on Convoy.
Really good beef phở broth + fresh herbs + really good bun + good com + really good grilled pork + NO msg + good drinks + bottled water = 5 stars.
Now that I have more clients in North County, I’ll be visiting here more often.

Whenever I go to a Vietnamese restaurant I always have to order a vietnamese sandwich (aka Banhmi) because ofcourse. their my favorite.
First time I went here I was blown away how cheap and fresh they make their vietnamese sandwich compare to *coughcough Phở Lucky’s (7.00)
Now I know where to go to buy’em, *wink

Really? It’s closed? Well… it is New Year’s Day.
I can be a creature of habit, and glad that my usual phở haunt was closed. Though I was a concerned that it may be closed for other reasons beyond the economy so I was compelled to make the visit anyway.
I went to Kim’s down the street because despite the holiday, they just «had to be open.» Yes they were. I was surprised at how deep their menu was and very thorough which can a double edged sword as we’ve learned about restaurants that you can’t satisfy all palates, and if you do something, you should do that one thing well.
Since I had never been here, I ordered the one comparable standby of phở for two (2) reasons. First, it’s as common as the debate over carne asada, and second, since it’s New Year’s Day, phở is a great post workout and hangover meal.
I feel good about this place since it was busy with a family of a dozen, two coeds, another family, and a couple. The staff (a family) seemed very genuine. You can sense they worked hard tending to every table.
I ordered the «super» size which really is the «large» in most viet places but still equally as filling, and fresh spring rolls. I walked out with a steaming bag of phở to go. Hot. I like it. On the way out, I noticed the standard pictures of meals and prices on the wall, and that they catered too. Mental note.
I will be back. Handing me a menu and a few gestures and an understandable accent framed by a smile — he told me to call ahead next time. I thanked him and joked in my mind that it’d be cold when I show up if I was late but then again that’s my fault not theirs. Hhahaah
So was it good? Yes. Am I a fan? Yes. The broth was distinctively phở. So I give 4 stars now, it remains to be seen if they can maintain a 4 for my next visit…