Da Lat Vietnamese Cuisine

Strike one — rude, dismissive service. The guy waiting on me was far from friendly and brisk. I can take that in doses, but not at this place.
Strike two — gets the order wrong, completely. I ordered a vegetable dish and received a chicken one. Granted, the food came out within five minutes. But what use is that when it’s the wrong food? To make things worse, aforementioned server never came by to check on my food. Seems sloppy is all…
Strike three — the food wasn’t good. Bland. Uninspiring. Tasteless. Maybe if they handed me my order it could have been better? I’ll never know.
I’m giving two stars instead of one because the lady who refilled my water was friendly enough and was on the ball with keeping my glass filled. The server and food, however, sucked.

Whenever I am craving for good vietnamese food I usually go to Da Lat. The price is reasonable and the service is good. I would recommend the Dat Lat Appetizer Combination to start off. It’s actually big enough to be a meal. It consists of bbq lemongrass beef. Delicious! Three shrimp on the skewer, which is a little disappointing since they are so small. BBq pork.
As for the main dish, I would recommend the phở with either beef, chicken, or even the vegetarian. If you do not want phở, I would recommend # 225. The Spring rolls with the bbq pork vermicelli bowl.
I was at this restaurant three times in two weeks.

I have mulled over what to say about this restaurant for far too long. I have used up thousands of synapses, trying to figure out how I should go about doing this. Because here’s the thing: I want to be able to deliver the right message to you when I say that this place is not worth it. I want to successfully tell you (without simply ranting up a storm) why this place is terrible. So let me try to make the point.
Food: I would liken the Vietnamese food at this restaurant to the fake «Goochie» bag that even a merchant in China Town wouldn’t dare to sell – it is the worst likeness of Vietnamese food. Firstly, the dishes lack in spices and flavor. My fiancé had vermicelli and pork. He took a couple of bites of the vermicelli and the noodles were mushy, completely bland. So he added the fish sauce. Even the sauce to add flavor was bland! Totally watered down, with only evidence of vinegar and lime (barely fish, no garlic or spices to be tasted). I had the bbq pork and guess what it tasted like? Salted pork, that was grilled and not tender. The ever-​important condiments embellishing my dish? Two fat leaves of lettuce.
Dat Lee cuts too many corners on this menu for me to ever go back again. You can even tell in the menu that they do this; their phở options are basically chicken, beef, fish balls, or a combination of these. They have orange chicken. Bland food at best, and definitely overpriced.
Service: When we entered the restaurant, it was empty. A single waiter sat in the left back corner of the restaurant. He noticed us, went to the cashier to get menus, and gestured to a table. Nothing said. We looked over the menus and decided what to eat in about two minutes, but waiter had returned to his seat in the corner and was now talking on his Bluetooth and laughing. While doing this, he flipped through a magazine for two more minutes. He then leaned his head back against the wall behind him. Then: He. Closed. His. Eyes. About five minutes passed by. I tried the eye contact thing – but of course this doesn’t work when the other person’s eyes are closed! So we waited. Finally, he opened his eyes, got up and walked to our table. We order. He writes, goes to kitchen, returns to table. Still nothing said. This should tell you how I feel about the service here. I will be fair and mention the woman who came out of the kitchen a little bit later, near the end of our dinner, and smiled and gave us our bill and thanked us.
But the service had already sucked forgiveness from our souls, and the food had replaced it with a deep and steady disappointment that brings me to this review.
Cost: Inexcusably expensive – especially for Vietnamese food. We spent $ 30 here on two dishes and one drink. If it were legal, I would stand outside and pay you $ 5 for the cost it would take to drive your ass to Concord for the real stuff. And you’d still save money.
Please, don’t waste your time or your money here. It’s not fair to the other Vietnamese restaurants that take their business seriously with good food and good service to be grouped together with this sorry excuse for one. Also, it’s not really fair to you to get ripped off so easily!

If you’re looking for a reasonable place to get good quality food, look no further. Da Lat is a fabulous spot to get your Vietnamese craving satiated!
Most plates range from $ 6-​$ 9… WHAAAT?! And the quality is pretty freaking great! My family and I have been coming here for ages… the best part of the whole experience is that the owners are wonderful and personable; they even remember your orders!
Honestly, I’m a huge fan of everything… I love to start off with some Fresh Tofu Spring Rolls (they come with yummy peanut sauce), and a couple other favorite dishes include the Lemongrass tofu & green beans, ANY phở (my favorite is beef), Crispy noodle with beef & veggies, Stir fried prawn with garlic & black pepper, the pork and egg roll lunch plate special, and the Vermicelli bowls.
The food comes out in a jiffy, nice and steaming — which is hard to find in some places. They have great service, which is surprising especially since outside doesn’t look super fancy, but it’s definitely a gem.

I had the steak phở and honestly, I’ve had better. The best steak phở I’ve had was at Le Cheval, down the street.

Good egg rolls but rest was salty & definitely NOT authentic Vietnamese cuisine. In fact, we suspect a fair bit of MSG too. Amazingly, it’s busy but imagine what it could be like with the real deal. I’d say Le Cheval is a notch above… Slanted Door is as good as it gets. My wife is Vietnamese so she knows what is up! My advice… look elsewhere.

We got a recommendation to try out De Lat from our Marriott shuttle driver while we were exploring Walnut Creek. He ranked their phở at a close second to his vietnamese sister in law’s so we were sold!
We tried their spring rolls, phở, and vermicelli salad bowl combo 31 which had grilled shrimp and BBQ pork w fish sauce.
The vermicelli bowl was our favorite but we also felt that the phở was very flavorful and would rank it among the best we’ve had. The nice thing about the spring rolls was that they used large pieces of shrimp. Yum!
The service was quick and efficient and the prices were great. We found ourselves wishing we lived here so we could come back more often!

Simple clean awesome! Da Lat is an authentic Vietnamese restaurant. With all the taste and simplicity that makes good Vietnamese great Vietnamese.
Try the imperial rolls for apps. Then add either a Phở or a Vermicelli bowl of your choice, or if you are really hungry I dare you to try the crispy noodle combos!
Finish off with a crisp 33 beer (Vietnamese of course) and you can do worse in your miserable excuse for a life!
Seriously, I’ve tried the rest and this is the best! What are you waiting for? Mao!

I have eaten at Da Lat since they opened and they have been there for several years now. I am always greeted courteously with a smile of recognition. The service is always prompt and I have never made a reservation.
They have a pretty standard menu but quite large with a few Chinese items as well. The dishes are always prepared perfectly in traditional, authentic manner and the ingredients are always extremely fresh. The raw vegetables served with many dishes look like they were just picked.
The portions are very generous and the price is unbelievable for what you get. It’s not a white table cloth type place but it is a tremendous value. I prefer the food to other local places that charge a lot more and give a lot less.
Try the authentic Vietnamese ice coffee. It’s the real one with the little stainless drip pot that sits on top of the glass of ice and ever so slowly exudes it nectar.

Nothing wrong with Dat Lat!
Standard, affordable Vietnamese choices with some Chinese options.
I plowed through my bbq pork vermicelli with gusto.

I come here frequently to get phở, especially on cold, rainy nights. The phở comes in a large portion and is delicious. Unlike many other Vietnamese restaurants, the phở is served with a generous portion of meat. The only thing I would recommend getting at Da Lat, however, is the phở. All the other dishes on the menu are overpriced and mediocre. The rice dishes are greasy and the appetizers such as the Spring Rolls cost nearly the same as an entrée.
The service here is not the best and can definitely use improvement. The servers here simply do not seem warm and friendly. They appear to be detached… impassive. The service here is fast, too fast. I often feel like the servers are trying to rush me through my meal. I feel pressured to order fast and to pay, as the bill is usually placed on my table before I am finished eating.
I do not like the ambiance here. The fluorescent lighting is unappealing and harsh on the eyes. It makes everything look unflattering.
All in all, I come to Da Lat when I am having an intense craving for Phở. Otherwise, I will not come here for anything else.

In my opinion, there not really a lot of things to talk about when you go to a vietnamese place. There only so many things you can order, only so many things that can go wrong with the food and if the service is good or bad.
This restaurant was on point on all 3 requirements in my book (price, food, service). Nothing unusual about the this place, besides that fact that it is the only Viet place ive been too in walnut Creek. its just a regular restaurant that serves phở.
The food was good, their egg noodle Phở tasted good and the service was on point.

This place is overpriced for phở (probably due to the higher rent costs in downtown Walnut Creek), and the phở was nothing to write home about. The vermicelli bowl also had too much lettuce, too little of everything else. Something about the condiments also bothered me, but I can’t remember what it was. Perhaps they just weren’t available on the table – I recall looking around for something that just wasn’t there. Sriracha sauce? I would hope that’s always on the table…
The service wasn’t bad, but we probably wouldn’t be coming back with the number of better bargains and tastier options within the immediate vicinity. With so many tastier, less expensive phở options in the east bay, why bother coming here, dealing with parking, etc., unless you are stuck in the area and really craving a bowl?

‘Salright, I guess. I go to this restaurant for the grilled mussels, and not a whole lot more than that. Just like a few other reviewers have said, it’s a Chinese restaurant masquerading as a Vietnamese restaurant.
Warning for rainy days: The floor is CRAZY SLIPPERY. I don’t know if they mop the floors with pig lard or Crisco oil, but the combination of my shoes, the rain, and their mystery floor cleaning agent almost caused me to fall flat on my a*s on the way in.
Bottom line: There are better Vietnamese restaurants in the area.

This is what my husband said when we were there.. .hope this gives you a good indication:
” Wow! Faster than my Jack in the Box order the other day!”
«That’s my Bun?! That’s huge»
**silence** he was too busy eating.
We ordered shrimp summer rolls, beef and beef ball phở, and Pork Bun.. .and spent $ 22. Good value for well portioned Vietnamese. The best, no, but good.

Recently on a cold rainy day stopped by this place in Walnut Creek-​convenient location to the movie theater which was cool. It wasn’t anything spectacular but did have a nice variety of vegetarian dishes-​and it was CHEAP. For spring rolls and two entrees we only paid about $ 20. The tofu salad with rice was awesome and the portion large enough to take some home. However, the lemongrass chicken dish my boyfriend got was kind of small-​but again being cheap that was fine.
My only complaint is the service. We were there about 2 p.m. on a Saturday and the place was pretty full-​not super busy but buzzing. The waitress just seemed irritated with us the entire time. Then towards the end of the meal flat out ignored us while I was trying to flag her down to get a box and the check.
Le Cheval is definitely better but it’s a different type of restauran. Da Lat is for when you need something cheap, reliable and quick.

Da Lat is a famous tourist city in Vietnam, nestled in the Central Highlands area. It is in the mountains and is cooler and picturesque and is the preferred Honeymoon destination for many Vietnamese for many years. It is 1500 meters above sea level, so it is lush and cool.
Da Lat Vietnamese Cuisine in Walnut Creek is so named because the owners are originally from Da Lat. The menu, perhaps due to the suburban location, has some sprinkling of Chinese cuisine with the Viet choices.
Still, they have all the usual suspects in a Viet diner restaurant like this: Phở, Mi, Bun, Com, Goi Cuon, Cha Gio, Ca Phe Sua Da.
Even though I live only 5 miles from this restaurant, this was the first time I came in. After eating in 80 different Vietnamese restaurants in the past 2.5 years, in places like Seattle, Westminster, Portland, San Jose, Phoenix, San Diego, Montréal, Salt Lake City, Pomona and El Monte, I came here for my 81^st different Bowl of Phở.
They didn’t have my current Beef Noodle Soup favorite, Phở Tai Nam, so I settled for Phở Tai Bo Vien, and my favorite relative had her usual Phở Tai with no onions.
They quickly brought out a very large plate of fresh veggies, including both Basil leaves and Chinese Parsley (Cilantro), with lime wedges, sliced green chilis, and a heap of bean sprouts. The Hoi Sin and Sriracha sauces were already poured into a Chinese style dual condiment dish.
The broth was OK. Not great, but not bad. They do give you a pretty good size bowl, with a lot of rice noodles and plenty of Tai (rare beef) and Bo Vien (meat balls). The Thai Ice tea also came out quickly and was well made. Service was prompt but not friendly (it’s a Viet Diner, whatdya expect?)
We ordered Phở Ga «to go» for a friend (Chicken noodle soup) and this looked and smelled better than the Phở Bo (Beef noodle soup). Our friend reported it had good flavor and the chicken was moist, not dry (even before bobbing in the soup broth).
Prices were, well, Walnut Creek like. $ 7 for Phở. A bit steep for most of those 80 other places I have had Phở. But for the suburbs of Walnut Creek, this place is a bargain, and not bad for Vietnamese food out here in outer BART country.

I was meeting an out-​of-​town colleague for dinner in WC tonight and I was running late… yeah, really running and really late. So I told him to pick a place, preferably Vietnamese since I’ve been on a crazy Vietnamese food craving of late.
Looking at the menu and I’m confused. Is this place a Vietnamese restaurant? A significant part of the menu was a big mix of Chinese food, with a scattering of Thai food too. Sitting at the table, I had my friend look at Unilocal reviews from his iPhone. He said almost four stars with a bunch of reviews. Some say, its good Vietnamese food for WC. Is that like saying, «He’s pretty tall for a pygmy?» Anyway I guess its a bit unfair to judge ethnic food in WC. After all, its the pygmy of ethnic food places.
We ordered the Bun Thit Nuong and phở. The food was okay, nothing special… at least it was cheap.

A tip for those of you wanting later-​night eats (8 pm or so) at Da Lat: Keep in mind that their 9-​ish pm closing time is negligible.
As in, you will likely walk in and wait several minutes for menus. At this point, they will start putting up chairs. Then, if they feel like it, they will take your order.
Halfway through your meal, they will put down the check. Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry? My phở wasn’t worth it. I won’t be back.

I’m all about eating cheaply in the WC, but somehow I really don’t like this place. Other than the phở, their dishes seem more greasy Chinese — Vietnamese — American than true Vietnamese. I mean, orange chicken? Their phở is okay, and their cold bun noodles with nuoc mam is alright too. Not horrible but nothing to bring me back here again.
Even though I’d never rave about the food that can be had in neighboring Concord (Kevin’s Noodle House, Saigon Bistro, even Little Saigon), I much prefer eating at these places than Da Lat, and often do.