After we had the most amazing spring rolls with special sauce at Brodard Restaurant, we headed over to Vien Dong for the rest of our meal. Vien Dong is a simple Vietnamese restaurant with quite a few offerings and reasonable prices, which was recommended to me by several people.
We came armed with recommendations from mmm-yoso and The Ravenous Couple, so ordering was pretty easy.
Cha Ca Thang Long (grilled fish, dill, onions, rice noodles, sesame crackers, lettuce, mint, served on hot plate)
This was my favorite dish of the night. You can see the steam coming off of the hot plate. The fish was moist, flavorful and I loved the addition of the dill. It tasted great with the crunchy sesame crackers and the rice noodles soaked up the oil of the fish.
Bun Cha Dong Xuan (charbroiled marinated pork, rice noodles, lettuce, mint)
The marinated pork was tasty, though a little oily, and we wrapped it in the lettuce and rice noodles. Another solid dish. I do wish there was a little more of the pork though.
Banh Tom Co Ngu (Deep fried shrimp tempura, sweet potatoes served with lettuce and mint)
The shrimp were fried with the shell on but the shell was crisp enough that it could be ingested. It was served with fried sweet potato slices, similar to thin sweet potato fries.
Bun Rieu (tomato based broth with ground crab, shrimp and rice noodles)
I was excited to try this one because I’ve had a few versions in San Diego that I wasn’t completely satisfied with. I thought the tomato broth was a little too strong and I couldn’t taste the ground crab at all in the soup. I’ll have to keep searching for my favorite version.
Overall, we had a good experience and I would come back. We liked most of our dishes and the prices were reasonable. Now if only we had places like this in San Diego. Thanks Kung Food Panda for taking us here. You can check out mmm-yoso’s visit here.
Here are pictures of the menu:
Vien Dong
14271 Brookhurst St
Garden Grove, CA 92843
(714) 531-8253
Ahh I love your reviews of restaurants from Little Saigon. It makes me miss home since I’m in SD for school. You have given me a new perspective on my neighborhood restaurants that I usually pass up for my mom’s cooking when I come home to visit. The fish dish looks AMAZING.
I don’t know many places from Little Saigon. But I definitely like exploring it. I have a few more places I want to try.
Everything looks delicious. We haven’t been up in that area in ages. Guess I’ll be adding this to the list for when we do.
I wish we had something closer in SD. Oh well. Yes, definitely add it to your list!
Great post! Now I have another reason to visit that area besides the two Brodard’s. I like the variety of dishes you ordered, especially the fish.
The fish was great! I liked this place. A huge menu, good portions, decent prices.
More visits to Little Saigon in the future!!
Yup! I want oxtail pho!