Trung Nguyen Restaurant

A definite hole in the wall located at the entrance of the plaza on San Gabriel. Same plaza as one stop hair salon. One day after a hair cut I wondered into this small joint and was surprised to find a tiny Vietnamese restaurant. Service was okay, and this place is definitely a family owned business as I could see the owner?‘s daughter and son whom I believe go to Rosemead high school nearby. Service is okay like I said, not fast, not slow and kinda nice? They were mostly listening to recordings of Viet songs. I was served by the son, and food was prompt in arriving fast.
Food-​4*
Got the phở tai only one size for $ 7. The soup is excellent, not too much flavor but didn’t need no extra oyster sauce or chili. The meat was a decent portion, but cut like at home, was still nice and juicy. Definitely home cooked meal.
Interior/​ambience-​3*
It felt awkward to have a family that owned the restaurant chilling and watching recordings of Viet songs (also kind of loud) but i didn’t mind too much. This restaurant is probably like their 2^nd home. It was pretty clean so no complaints there. Deco is straight out of a Chinese/​Vietnamese home with the shrine and all.
TIPS
–speak Viet or Cantonese
–don’t be shy or you won’t get that check and you will never leave hahahah jk
Really a 3.5 but I will round it up cause nice guys finish last. Would only come here to get a quick bite if I’m around the area and maybe take someone here to talk one on one. I wouldn’t bring big parties or even small parties unless they the Viet lowkey hookups. Nah

This place is filthy!!! I went there to eat with my wife and saw cockroaches on the walls. We were so disgusted and lost our appetite. The staff is non existant. They let their kids run around yelling and playing in the restaurant. It basically like eating inside a daycare center. There noodles are dry and has a very weird odor to it. Also while we were eating the owner was yelling in the kitchen to the staff. The whole restaurant was in shock. Then to top it off, i saw the owner (viet guy with a mustach) reuse the leftover sauce and gave to another customer. When i caught him he tried to explain to me its a new sauce. YEAH Right. Dont waste your time or money. Hole in the wall place…

Small resturant with some funny staff.
We ordered the Vietnamese xui mai (ground pork with salty veggies that comes with fried bread). My boyfriend and his mom really liked it. Then we all ordered noodle soup– hu tiu (Cambodian noodle soup). It comes with a variey of meat and seafood in flavorful broth.
My mom joked around with the waiter saying she wants her noodle soup to be extra hot– no kidding, the soup came out steaming! Thanks waiter! =)

The worst service ever!!! I would give them HALF a star if possible! So on Friday, August 3, I took my grandma there to eat since she wanted to go there. As I approached the door I saw a sticker that says « Unilocal loves us» so I’m thinking the food must be good since my grandma likes it and people on Unilocal.YEAH RIGHT. Right when we walked in, we were ignored. That didn’t really mind me, but then we sat down and waited for our menus. It took about 2 minutes for a little girl about the age of 9 to come and throw two menus on the table. rude much. But that was whatevers. It was a little girl. Then after deciding what we wanted my grandma called for someone to take our order (since she speaks Vietnamese and I don’t). No one came and not one person looked at us. By this time I was getting mad. So my grandma walks over to the little girl who threw down our menus and taps on her and tells her we’re ready to order in Vietnamese. The girl makes my grandma repeat herself at least 3 times before getting up and getting her dad to help us. After getting her dad, he comes out after a minute then walks right over to the table next to ours without even looking at us. He kisses that guy’s ass and goes gets whatever he wanted. UMM HELLO?! WE’RE WAITING TO ORDER! Then he goes back behind the counter. So I’m really pissed off now and I tell my grandma «Let’s go, I really don’t want to eat at a place like this,» and right as we’re about to get up, he comes to us and says something in vietnamese. As if their service was not bad enough, he’s talking to us and not even facing our direction! His side is facing me and he’s basically talking to the wall behind me… what the hell. Seriously, the food isn’t great nor is it even considered good. NEVER ever coming here again. Didn’t wanna tip at all since they had such POOR customer service, but I’m not rude like that so I did, but I will never EVER in a million years eat at a place that treats my grandma and I with such disrespect and so poorly. If you want to be treated LIKE A PERSON, DON’T COME EAT HERE!!! and they should take out the sticker that says « Unilocal loves us» BECAUSE IT’S NOT TRUE!

I dont know what it is but their bun ngoc lieu (I probably spelled that wrong — I’m not Viet) is so addicting! The first time I brought my boyfriend here, he thought it smelled and tasted too funky but after a few weeks, out of nowhere, he had the strangest craving for it. Since then, he likes it too! I also enjoy their house special egg noodles. I get it dry and it comes in this sweet soy sauce that’s just mmmm The place is quite small but it’s never really packed. I’m not really sure what their business hours are either because they’re just closed sometimes even though the sign says they’re open o_​O the staff doesn’t know much english but just point and you’ll be fine haha

I was craving for noodle and found this place by accident. I whipped out my blackberry Unilocal app and saw good reviews on this restaurant. Completely agree with most Unilocalers, very hole in the wall place.
Ordered hu tiu (hay mi) nam vang (house special rice or egg noodle soup): I opted for egg noodle soup. It came with dried shrimp, liver, green onion, shrimps, pork and ground meat. The shrimps were perfectly peeled. No shrimp tails. Chicken broth was also served with the noodle. I did taste strong MSG.
Xiu Mai Dau Cha Quay: Steamed meatball with Chinese donut (youtiao). The youtiao was good but not the meatball.
So I asked for satay sauce as the other Unilocalers recommend. That was not satay sauce. It tasted like burnt chili oil.
3.5 stars
Trung Nguyen is kinda yummylicious!

My husband had takeout at Trung Nguyen before but since we were in the area we decided to stop in and had a quick bite.
Very small restaurant, room capacity is no more than 30 people.
Let’s get down to the food. First we ordered «xui mai» (ground pork) and you eat it with either bread but here they serve with Chinese donut (non-​sweet). Next I had the Hu tieu My tho, it’s a noodle soup with ground pork, shrimp, real crab meat and slices of pork meat. The soup base is delicious. You can order it with yellow noodles, white flat noodles, or clear noodles. I’m sure they all tastes great. And also, if you like to change it up, they can prepare the noodles in dry seasoned sauce with a bowl of soup on the side, very good as well.
A good size bowl costs $ 6.50.

back for my monthly follow up
upgraded to 5 whole stars
same noodle order but this time i had it with seafood. the owner also hooked it up with his homemade satay sauce and that thing was supremely flavorful. perfect balance of smokiness and spice — yuuummy!
til next time — you stay classy trung nguyen

At first, I drove by the restaurant and I was like, «nah, look at the restaurant, I wouldn’t go there to eat.» But I was sooo wrong. The Vietnamese food here was authentic. Every noodle kind has its own soup base which is very good.
Must try:
Banh canh thit heo
Hu tiu My Tho
Mi Vit Tiem
Very affordable for students. Yay!!! Dinner is about average 6 – 7 dollars NOT SO BAD!!!

The dry egg noodles (house special) is pretty good.
Ask them for the satay sauce and it gives the noodles the right kick !
Small family owned style restaurant and a good place to come if noodles is considered comfort food to you.

Talk about HOLE-​IN-​THE-​WALL! Whoa this place is definitely one of those mom-​n-​pop establishments… they don’t even have a business sign to let people know that they exist.
For a quick lunch meeting, my friend said he wanted to try out this place that he had read about in LA Weekly. How did LA Weekly find their way to this little tiny joint when I used to have a business right across the street and I didn’t know about it?
We both had Hu Tiu Mi (Rice Noodles + Egg Noodles). He had the Nam Vang (Phnom Penh) Style with small white rice noodles + egg noodles. I had the My Tho style with clear starch noodles + egg noodles.
Both items came out fairly quick and their Chinese donut was freshly fried. I usually don’t like my noodles with soup in the bowl so I always order it dry style (soup on the side). Usually my preference is for the dry noodles to be tossed in an oyster sauce/​sate mix, a lot of Vietnamese locations like to toss it in a soy sauce base. I usually don’t like the soy sauce base but Trung Nguyen prepared it pretty well.
The bowls were filled with SO MUCH of both kinds of noodles, they definitely gave a very generous portion of meats and seafood to go with the noodles. The Chinese donut was very fresh and was still crispy and hot, just the way I like it. I don’t like dipping cold and soggy Chinese donut into my soup.
The price was average, I believe it came out to $ 21 for the both of us. My friend had also ordered a to-​go iced café.
I give this place 3 stars because the food was good but it wasn’t GREAT. I wouldn’t go out of my way to come here, especially since it’s hard to find parking.

If you know Phong Dinh, this restaurant is the same type of cuisine, The whole catfish meal. What is different about this one? Well they claim they actually buy their catfish at the 99 ranch market nearby when you place an order of the catfish. When I went there was not much people so it was quiet so it was pretty relaxing as I was wrapping my fish in the rice sheet. If you want more of a festive environment, go to Phong Dinh.