Taste of Asia

First impression: a clean and quiet restaurant hiding inside Asian mall. I guess a little music would be better.
We ordered bún bò because the picture in their menu looked really good. We were really pleased with our bowls: the presentation was pretty and the taste was even better, very authentic bún bò.
Price for other items might be a little high but for the bún bò it’s very decent compared to other places.
Serving us was a skinny, kinda tall waitress with glasses. She was very attentive. I’m impressed how she could handle multiple tables at once by herself.
This is a good place if you are looking for a quiet place to dine in.

This place is simply horrible in terms of food and service! The predecessor had better food. Came here with my mother to try it and everything on the menu was overpriced. My mother got phở, which tasted horribly and like the frozen phở you can buy from Costco. I ordered a dry rice noodle with egg rolls (I forget what it’s called). Firstly, the chef is supposed to cut the egg rolls like all restaurants and secondly, the bowl was like ¾ lettuce and ¼ noodles.
Although service at most Vietnamese restaurant is subpar compared to other restaurants (due to lack of hospitality training), but this restaurant had two girls that simply sat at the register gossiping. They didn’t even noticed to creepy homeless guy entering the restaurant asking people for money.
My 3 P’s:
— Palate: ¹⁄₅
— Plating: ²⁄₅
— Presentation: ¹⁄₅

Wtf. Phở tastes so bad. Wasted our lunch over this restaurant. We have ordered Phở and Soda Chanh Dng. It took the girls 15 minutes to come to our table for the order. At the time there were only guests?
These girls were all hi tech with their Ipads???
Then it took another 15 minutes for them to bring out the Phở for us. That’s 30 minutes, what is their intention? Really starve us so we could taste their Phở better…
Wow, I took out the spoon and taste the soup right away. It got no flavors at all. Just like water poured in.
Go on… The meat tasted like it has been in the refrigerator for a while, cuz it has the cold frosty from the old meat. SO HORRIBLE!!!
Soda Chanh Dng: had no carbonate at all. Not sweet.
It took us two bites, then we stopped!!!
I walked to the cash register and told the guy there. He looks like the owner. He has shown no reaction about the comments at all. After he listened to my comments about his food and service… He just walked away from the cash register and gave an order for one of the girl to ring up the bill for us… WITHOUT…making any comments or thanks us for making these constructive comments.
OVERALL: Any prospect guest:— please AVOID THIS RESTAURANT AT ALL TIME unless if you don’t want to waste you money and time at this horrible restaurant. They should be shut down cuz they are ruining the Phở name.

On a Wednesday night at 7pm, this place was pretty quiet. In fact, the 2 girls working were sitting on the floor behind the counter having a little chit chat.
Once my partner yelled at them in Vietnamese, they got up and helped us.
They were actually pretty quick to get our drinks and food on the table. The food was as expected for this style of restaurant. Presentation was excellent. They get Kodu’s for being very clean.
They closed shortly after we left so I’m know we were their last customers. All in all, a pleasant experience.

Place is huge so that’s good as this was a different resto last time we were here. Service is slow, we finished eating our phở but my sons order took me twice to follow up on his order. Their boba is in a small cup, ordered the taro and there’s still solid ice at the bottom of my boba.

You know when a restaurant on Unilocal tends to have reviews on the lesser half of the spectrum and you still decide to give the place a chance?
Well, choosing to take the chance on this restaurant was a mistake.
I came here with my boyfriend and we both ordered two separate dishes. He ordered spring rolls and I ordered the veggie rice noodles. I wish I could tell you about the food but we weren’t here for long
I have an autoimmune disorder which prevents me from eating flour, barley, rye or else it’ll severely damage my small intestines and cause serious medical conditions. My dish came with breaded tofu (which wasn’t listed to be on my dish on the menu), and when I explained this to them they still wanted us to pay for it.
We asked to speak to their boss but they quickly came back to us and told us their boss said he was «too busy and wouldn’t be able to talk to us». We asked how long would it take and they said he would be busy in the kitchen for 2 hours or more.
It amazes me how little they care about their customers. We won’t be coming back to this restaurant again.

Let’s start with the good… the food was decent. Not great, but decent. Phở had too much anise to my liking, but at least the tendon was tender but still firm.
My folks ordered broken rice plates with grilled meat. The thit nuong had a VERY gamey taste… I love pork, and I didn’t want to finish my bite.
Anyway, the big problem was the broken rice… which it wasn’t, just plain white rice. It’s like ordering quinoa and getting bulgar. Definitely not the right dish, but they didn’t tell us they had run out of broken rice, they just brought it out, hoping my folks would just eat it.
We tried to chat to the owner who came over to ask how everything was, but it was clear that he was just checking off the boxes, kind of like he saw what he was supposed to do on TV, but never really understanding why.
He actually half listened to our comments, he became defensive and dismissive, making excuses, then telling us the dish was close enough. He then turned around and walked back to the kitchen in the middle of us talking to him.
When he came back out to socialize with a table he knew, we flagged him down again, and I made it a point to tell him that what they served was not what we actually ordered. His body was half turned, wanting to escape into the kitchen again, and I held on to his attention just barely a second longer when he couldn’t help himself and walked away again.
No apologies. Nothing. And that’s fine… he doesn’t have to be a good restauranteur, and we don’t have to be his customers.
BTW, he also owns one of the restaurants in the front part of the mall.
PS — The bathrooms are indeed gross.

I have to say this place ruined my lunch. We came here for Phở 79 but we found out the place has changed so we gave it a try. Once I opened the menu, I should have headed out but I stayed because I came with my family.
Both me and my husband agree this place sucks. First, his phở got a lot of stuff that weren’t mentioned on the menu and those stuff are what he hates. Other than that, his phở was OK.
I ordered a rice dish which was about $ 1 more than other places. Since it is more expensive, I would expect my dish is just as good as Phở 79’s. The pork looks and smells sweet. I was right, it has too much of sweet taste to it. From the texture, seems like they used some kind of starch to season the meat. It has a moist texture, not the kind of BBQ pork I usually get. The pork cake looks so old. The shredded pork skin tastes old, like it has been in the fridge for a long time. The pickle veggies look old, except for the tomato. The only thing that was cooked right was the steamed rice.
Guess what I found in the pork? HAIR! Seriously?! I pulled it out and took a detail look hoping that was just from the shrimp, which was not part of my Pork rice dish… So, I took a picture to let you decide. Also a picture of the pork cake to show you it was so old and tastes nasty (too much ground pepper taste)
Seriously! If this is what you call Vietnamese food, I will probably never eat Vietnamese food again!!!

Came here on a day I was a bit under the weather. Their Phở was just what I needed!
Broth great with a significant flavor of very distinct star anise and the noodles are a nice chewy texture that I’m not used to getting even at my favorite Phở place down the street.
Definitely worth trying this place under new ownership and a new menu.
Others complained about pricing but it’s still pretty inexpensive and quite a nice and clean restaurant which is more than can be said for some other local ethnic places. The staff are kind and friendly.
I think you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Family used to come here all the time before they changed name and ownership. Restaurant was empty at the late lunch time we came on Labor Day. Very clean unlike many Vietnamese restaurants.
Service was great although the girl was extremely slow in taking our orders, most likely because she was using an iPad to take orders. Her English didn’t seem that great however.
I warn you now. Food portions are huge. As an American, I love this, but as an Asian, I think it’s a bit in excess. I could barely finish half of my food and had to get the rest boxed so I wouldn’t waste the food; my mother and brother had to do the same with their dishes. Food is super tasty though, and I enjoy that hey serve onion soup with the rice dishes, though it did taste a bit like phở broth and they just added some green onion.

Nice phở. Balanced broth. In the mall of Vietnamese delights. I had the house phở it came with a lot of tendon, good if you like it otherwise order no. 17. All beef.

After working around the mall I decided to try out this new place. I know Phở 79 was here before it closed. Well, nice tables and decorations; however the place was really quite on Friday evening. Me and 3 other customers were in the restaurant. I ordered special Phở. The price is $ 1 – 2 more comparing to many places that I have visited. The taste and service are so so; but I like the clean environment and wide space. While eating you can see people walking and the waitresses are hard working. I definitely recommend this place.

This place is good. I don’t know why the reviews are so bad. I had the bun Tom that nuong. The portions was big and full of protein. They definitely were not stingy with that. The eggrolls were tasty and fresh and the right crunch. Most eggrolls with the rice paper get too chewy when it starts cooking but these eggrolls were good. I had bun Bo hue and it was delicious.

Pretty good phở id say. Its boiling hot like i wanted. The spoon are like very nice. Very clean and spacious. The décor is well done and vibrant. I like the servers. They are very patient unlike other phở places. I do say though the phở is not that big for a xl but its expensive. It is worth coming back but i wanna try out the broken rice next time.

The phở here is okay, not much flavor with the food. On the other hand, our family love to eat the broken rice with meat. Honestly, one of the best entrée at this restaurant. We found our new spot for rice entrée.

This is the first time I’ve been here since phở 79 closed. Place looks cleaner but phở not as good as 79. I don’t recommend the phở. The broken rice w grilled meat (com tam thit nuong) is a much better choice. The meat is marinated just right. The flavor is outstanding. If you come to this restaurant I would HIGHLY recommend the broken rice dish!

I went to dine in at the Taste of Asia on high hopes since Phở 79 has been a part of my childhood and was homey. The experience of going to the Asian Garden Mall is extremely memorable for me on so many levels. Yet now I think a tradition is broken thanks to this place.
Right upon entering this place, I was shocked since it’s all renovated. until I realized I’m standing in front of a completely different restaurant. I just wished I came back in time before they left. :(Well either way I went in for a homey dish that would satisfy my taste buds, so I kept an open mind. My family sat down and the waiter gave us the menus and left for about 30 seconds and immediately came back asking for our orders. We literally just sat down and the waitress came back asking what we wanted. We haven’t even flipped a page into the menus yet! Other than that… once we ordered it took 10 minutes just for ice water to arrive. We ordered 3 of the #1 Phở with everything in it… but it took 45 minutes for it to come out. It should be the fastest thing out since all you have to do is scoop the soup into the bowl from a big pot and put the noodles in. Yet every other table had their orders that were no phở and we sat their waiting. Phở 79 literally took 5 – 10 minutes upon ordering and the order just the way we ordered it. I almost felt as if the soup was microwaved for some reason. After we finished our meal, my mouth became dry as a desert and I already knew what that meant… overload of MSG. Now for the restrooms… I went to the women’s restroom and well first things first it looked identical to the old restroom. Except, the cold water faucet side was broken and I literally could pull it off by turning since I didn’t even know it was barely holding on. I ended up having a slab of soap on my hands and scalding hot water to clean it off with. Wonderful. Overall I’m not pleased with my experience and I’m especially disappointed that phở 79 is replaced by a place that’s shameful to the great legacy that it had. Not to mention it damaged my childhood and family traditions. We will no longer come here again.

I ordered egg rolls with vegetables. Big mistake, mystery meat filling in a greasy over fried won ton type of wrapper. Vegetables were cut but not properly washed. Could not take more than 2 bites which I spit out. Horrible doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Let me just say that I really missed the Phở 79 that used to be here for decades. I still can’t believe that they really closed down. Coming here last weekend, I don’t know where to eat except for the food court. I decided to give this place a try since it look very busy. I ordered the Hainan chicken which was $ 7.50 or $ 7.75. The food took forever to come out! When it finally came, all I got was 2 pieces of meat and the rest are bones. There was no side soup either, for a rice dish. I understand that it’s inside a mall and the rent is high, however I expect a little bit more meat. I didn’t order the chicken dishes to chew on bones. Overall it was way overprice with mediocre food.

This used to be the old Phở 79 at the Asian Garden mall. I came to get some bun rieu and that’s what I got. It’s not too bad here. It’s good enough for me to come back. I also had the spring rolls and it’s not bad as well. Next time I come I’ll try the other dishes. I do like that it’s all new. The place is very clean for a Vietnamese restaurant in little Saigon. The dishes and utensils we also vey clean. They also use iPads to take orders which is nice that they are using the latest tech. The staff was nice and responsive too.