Cali Huong Viet

Excellent fish specialty and goat fondue. We 5 people group come here twice a month for the same dishes. Great fast service. Good prices.

Baked Catfish was NOT fresh… Meat was mushy and everything we ordered took years to arrive to our table including water first and last time at this place. Can’t believe it had even 1 star rating … Would give Negative star if I had the option!!!

Very very very expensive. Catfish is not expensive UNTIL you come here!

This is the best and most affordable place to get Ca Nuong.
The place used to be «quan Hen,» which was a little unsanitary but the new owners totally turned it around and still keeping the food quality :).
Ask for bitter-​young banana (chuoi chat, a non advertised item) to roll with your Fish.

In the mood for lau mam so I went with my parents. Decent portion and the veggies and herbs they gave were plenty. Made my tummy happy. It does contain a lot of MSG but typical for vietnamese cooking. Not sure it’s considered vietnamese food without MSG…

Stopped by this restaurant since the place next door was overly crowded. I Unilocaled this place before walking in and it seemed like the famous entrée here was the baked/​fried catfish spring rolls.
My family was disappointed by the catfish. It was pretty flavorless, even though they had peanuts and other spice/​shavings layered on top. We also ordered the phở, but it was mediocre… nothing too out of the ordinary but it did seem smaller-​portioned than other phở places.

Fish here is fresh. Sauce here is wonderful, both the poo-​tang sauce and fish sauce is kicking. Veggies here come in abundance and don’t be afraid to ask for more. Price decent for up to two heads for 1 med fish.

If you spend anytime scrolling through the photos for this restaurant you will notice that the majority of the photos will be of a bigass fish. Come to the restaurant and you will see that everyone and their mom has also ordered a bigass fish. Naturally, when I got there I ordered the bigass fish. Going to go ahead and call common sense on this one.
Their menu is pretty simple — apps, phở, bun, com — you know same rodeo. I honestly wasn’t too impressed with their offerings but again I came here for the bigass fish. I wouldn’t ask for the bigass fish though, you will be met with some awkward stares. The Ca Nuong Da Don (translation, grilled catfish w/​crispy skin) comes in 4 sizes: small, medium, large and extra large. The fiancé and I went ahead and handled a medium, but if you know me at all you know that we can throw down, so maybe for the regular eater a small fish will suffice for 2 people, continue to go up in size for additional 2 people.
The bigass fish is also accompanied with a large large plate of delicious vegetables, fresh vermicelli noodles (that DONT stick together) cucumbers and pickled carrots and daikon. There are two different sauces that you can choose from. You have you spicy nuoc mam (fish sauce, peppers, sugar, lime) and mam nem (fermented fish, sugar, pineapple). I personally like to mix the two — with a bit more emphasis on the mam nem of course!
It takes a bit longer than the other dishes but it is well worth the wait. It comes out on a large platter, filleted in a way that you don’t need to turn it over to get the rest of the meat. The skin is cleaned very well so it is edible (sans scales). It comes out browned beautifully and coated with fried scallion oil and peanuts. Break through the shell and you will find a moist flaky interior.
The beauty of ordering the bigass fish is that you get to control how you want to have it. You can pick at it but it’s meant to be rolled up in a make your own spring roll. They wrappers come in this amazing contraption with a slot to hold the dried spring roll wrappers and another slot with the warm water. (I am still in awe with this thing). For you novices, dip the spring roll wrappers in the water — give it about a minute to soften up. I recommend a bed of veggies first (put them ALL in there), vermicelli and then top with the fish and roll away! Big ups to the restaurant for having thick spring roll wrappers that don’t fall apart no matter how much you stuff it.
Eating here really takes me back to the many family parties we had as a child. Piles and piles of fresh vegetables, delicious crispy fish and nuoc mam to your hearts content.
Few things to note.
— The entrance to the restaurant is a bit awkward, when you first walk in you will just see a bunch of booths — keep going and just make eye contact with someone who is standing near the back.
— If possible eat your bigass fish in the store, they charge an additional 5 bucks if you order to go and the crispiness of the fish will be compromised if left out for too long
— They take both cash and credit

If you are non-​Vietnamese and you can eat catfish spring rolls and ca nuong, I am certainly impressed. If you are Caucasian and you can eat the spring rolls with the stinky sauce, your «Asian Card» will be mailed to you shortly!
This is my favorite catfish spring rolls restaurant. The service bites but no legitimate Asian restaurants will have service. Your PF Chang (which is owned by Peter Flemming by the way), Panda Express and Pick Up Stix are not considered Asian restaurants! But I digress. The vegetables are always fresh. The catfish are fried just perfect. Crispy on the outside and soft and juicy on the inside. The dipping sause (fish sauce and stinky sauce) are awesome. The prices are pretty good. The extra-​large catfish ($ 40) will feed 4 – 5 people easy.
They are also known for «Lau» which is a goat hot pot of sort but I have never tried it.

We only eat here. Great for groups and we call in with how many catfish we need at what time and it’s usually ready for us. Better service than the other places and very affordable. The only thing is I wish they had a larger selection of veggies and more of it but definitely better than favori, ca 8 mon, the place above the supermarket or any other i’ve tried.

Okay, I finally caved. I was craving ca nuong one day and called Lau Dong Que, but, as always they were out of their small fish at 6 pm (peak dinner time). So I figured I’ll give Cali Huong Viet another try and I am so glad I did because they did not disappoint this time. I suppose it’s either hit or miss when you order to-​go at this place; which is not reassuring to me because I don’t like to gamble, especially when it comes to ca nuong. The dilemma.

This is my go to place for baked catfish/​ca nuong. Why? Because they cook the fish faster than other places. It usually takes a half an hr or more for a fish to be cooked in a typical ca nuong place, but here it takes half the time. I think it’s because they bake and fry the fish as well. Its way more greasy and crispier than a typical baked fish. Doesn’t matter to me because I LOVE me some crispy fish skin! :D
Plenty of CLEAN veggies (no snails, dirt, worms, rolly pollys, insects), noodles, and rice paper. I also like their brown fish sauce to dip with my spring rolls. Its really pungent and fishy, so some ppl can’t handle it. But I love it hehe.
I usually order the large size fish for 2 ppl which comes out to be 35 bucks. Each person eats a half side. If theres 3 ppl or more, better to buy two large fishes. I say large, but its really not large at all. It tends to be a medium/​small fish (typical viet). Service is generally good.
Get this. ice water is FREE, which is unheard of in OC. So go drink water here!

Ate here a few times. I tried there Com bo luc lac, it was good. Their dry noodles no so much.

4 ½ stars. We met twelve family members here on Christmas day and called ahead of time so they had several large tables arranged for all of us to be seated together.
They don’t have a liquor license, so no wine or beer is offered. We ordered the house specialty — three whole catfish which included the rice paper skins, veggies, mints, pickled veggies and dipping sauce for the rolls. In addition, we ordered one entrée of the anchovies, shrimp, calamari, eggplant, mushrooms, and pork with pineapple soup.
I was impressed since this was my first visit here and thoroughly enjoyed the service, quality and cleanliness of the establishment. I don’t speak Vietnamese but family does — so I was in good company since the majority of clients here are Vietnamese.
I will definitely be returning here in the future!

First off, I love the ambiance and the layout of the restaurant. This place makes eating feel cozy, almost like I’m eating comfort food. I came here instead of its next door competitors Ngu Binh (I hate the service there) because I finally convinced my mom to go somewhere else.
I got bun tom thit nuong chay gio and my mom hu tieu nam vang.
The food looks amazing and well-​portioned! First bite, it was absolutely stunning in my mouth. I love the egg rolls, but wished it was crispier. And let’s just say they don’t skimp you out on the thick cuts of charbroiled meat. My mom said she liked hers too.
Only set back was that the waitress never bothered to check up on us.

I came here to try the catfish spring rolls.
It came out with a few arrangements for you to create your spring roll.
–dry spring roll wraps for you to dip yourself
–vegetable plate, assorted with lettuce, pickled carrots and squash, mint, and cucumbers
–rice vermicelli
–and the meat! A huge deep fried catfish!
This meal was very interested but the catfish was very very dry. And since this is the «meat» of the meal, i had to give it 2 stars.

This place is good! My friends and i go here when we want catfish spring rolls. The service is good and the food comes out HOT. Overall, worth going to!

We were craving some grilled catfish so we stopped by. Luckily we arrived before the crowd came in (8:30pm). After we were seated they were full house with several large parties. The fish came out pretty fast, normally takes about 30 – 40 minutes at other restaurants.
The fish was soft and the skin was crispy… YUMMMM
I enjoyed the tamarind sauce while my boyfriend enjoyed the Mam Nem (stinky fish sauce).
We both enjoyed it and will probably be back. Why only 4 stars? Service was slow, only 4 servers with a full house. They never came to check on us.

When our catfish came out looking all crispy, long as my forearm, peanuts and onions cascading down the sides and glistening with oil, I had two thoughts:
— GET IN MY MOUTH
and
— crap, should have ordered the small — how are we going to finish this?!
We did, but just barely.
Despite being perfectly crispy and crackling, and the pure white flesh on the inside being tender enough to melt, the flavor of the fish was… how can I put this… diminished. Like fish that had been boiled. Obviously it hadn’t been boiled, but the inner white flesh tasted like it had.
It really needed the addition of all the veggies and sauces to get that particular Vietnamese fish-​saucy, veggie-​pungent flavor mix in my mouth, but unfortunately, the sauces were also pretty mild. Even that purple shrimp paste based one that usually blows your tongue off. Luckily, though, the vegetables were extremely fresh and that perfectly fried fish skin was just like little fish chicharrones.
If you’re a texture-​eater you’ll love this place. If you want to eat more fish in one sitting than you’ve ever eaten before for something like $ 15 (sharing with two people) then you’ll love this place. If your tongue gets offended by how fish-​saucy most Vietnamese dishes are, then you’ll love this place.
I’ll stick with Quan Ca My Van, though, provided I can catch it when it’s open.

All the food here is decent. Nothing is really bad or mind blowing.
The only bad part about their Ca Nuong is the oiliness of it. It’s so oily it sorta looked fried. However I am not in the back so I wouldn’t know. Hopefully I am wrong.

Very friendly customer service. Always get the fish spring rolls. Consistent quality. Small fish is good enough for 2 people. They always give us a large portion of veggies, which is a good thing. Haven’t tried any other stuff, but I guess I will stick to my favorite.

My new go to spot for ca nuong. Soo good! No complaints here except the service could be very lacking sometimes. Call ahead and have them start setting up your table and get your food ready if you’re starving or in a rush. Been here 3 times in less than 2 weeks, very inexpensive

This is my second time ordering from this restaurant, the fried crispy catfish. Allow me to tell you folks that, I am totally enjoyed. I have found that the selling point of this recipe was the sauces, they tasted so good. So good that made people keep coming back for more.
If you are craving for catfish, go here. Today I stopped by to pick up the catfish, I noticed the tables were having catfish, so that said something.
I would recommend this restaurant to my fellow Unilocalers, if you haven’t tried it, do try it and you will be in awed; and will appreciate the Vietnamese cuisine.
Enjoy your meals!

Maybe it’s because I didn’t try the catfish here, but I find this restaurant very generic. It’s the quality of food you can find anywhere in Westminster, even similar to the food to-​go areas. I got the Banh beo, while my friend ordered the bun Bo xao. The Banh beo tasted overlooked and did not have that «melt in your mouth» experience that I normally get from eating Banh beo. The meat in the bun Bo xao just looked like it was steamed since they didn’t flash cook it. If you’re looking for Banh beo you gotta try quan Hy on bolsa. Nothing compares to them!

Uh… when did Phở Thanh Lich close? And Phở 79 closes at 8? Gah! Guess that’s what I get for not keeping up with what’s going on in the olé ‘hood, lol. My friend and I were just looking for some cheap Vietnamese food before a movie and after striking out at the aforementioned places, we happened to drive by this place and saw that it was open. There were Vietnamese-​looking people in here, how bad could it be? As it turns out, not bad at all! Ironically, I’d grown up very near here but this was my first time visiting. It’s pretty spacious and clean, and there were plenty of tables open. We each got a phở and an order of banh beo to share. The phở was OK – it’s not really their specialty so their choices were limited. I usually like the rare steak but they didn’t offer that so I had the cooked beef in my phở. The banh beo was good but also not the best I’ve had – it seems they do a lot of different things but none excellently. Jack of all trades, master of none – just like a middle-​of-​the-​road diner, but Vietnamese-​style. Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful they were there and open and pretty good. Sometimes just OK is just fine.
STEPH JUDGEMENT: They offer a variety of items, but they are just OK.

Does this place ever close??? Nope! Great and thankful on Xmas Day! I have been going to this catfish place since it changed owners.
Awesome Pros:
— Fresh Catfish every time!
— They speak English.
— Large Catfish feeds 4 – 5 people.
— They accept credit cards.
One Boo:
— Catfish price did increase by $ 1 – 2 every couple of months or so.

Under new management. Same location as the old Quan Hen.
The New management is generous with their portions. The small baked catfish is the same size as Quan Hens medium.
Quan Hen use to charge for water. Yup funny stuff huh. Not like it’s bottled water. Now the water is free as it should be.
Baked catfish is super soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. Cali does bit give you the raw banana with the veggies. Everything else is the same.
Yummmmm! This place is bomb!
Happy Fishing!

I had dinner here. baked Catfish really good food, the fish sauces was a little too much for me lol,
Their menu was reasonably priced. Would definitely come back.
get some fresh squeezed orange juice with pulp sooooo FRESH! goes so well with the fish.

CASH ONLY
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Small Mom & Pop Shop here so décor is at a minimal…
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Veggie plate that comes with baked catfish is plenty =)
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They had increased the price of the small catfish here from $ 19.99 to $ 22.99 medium & $ 28.99 for Large (prices have gone up since the other Unilocalers have been here so it’s not $ 18.99 for a small catfish anymore, it starts off @ $ 19.99 for a small catfish.
Great fried catfish here, a bit on the the greasy side but the small size is good for two people but there’s only about $ 3 difference between the small & medium size.
So get the medium sized catfish if you’re feeling hungry or if there’s more than 2 of you that’s going to be eating.
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Service: typical Vietnamese restaurant style so don’t expect much, it ain’t the Ritz here ;-)
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Décor: Just ok, nothing fancy either, you come here for the food, not the décor =)
*Size of the catfish here has gotten smaller for some reason after they r-​modeled the place. Boo =(-1

First time here, I used to come here a lot before the name change (Quan Hen).
I ordered the medium baked catfish to-​go. I paid $ 28 which includes the catfish, fresh veggies, noodles, rice paper, and sauce.
Everything was excellent. The fried shallots was a nice touch. The only issue was it was smaller than before.
The lady that helped me was really nice and they take credit cards now.