Spices-A Taste of Vietnam

anyone know where the chef went? That talent is out there somewhere, and I’d like to find out where! :) Natomas still misses you, best SE Asian in Sac, you were.

Spices was a delicious Vietnamese restaurant located in Natomas. Given their prices were a little high, it is still a pity that they went out of business as they were the best Vietnamese around.
The next best Vietnamese food would have to be Tu Lan in SF.
Check them out for yourself!:

This place needs to get. some spices in their food. The waitress served a bowl of soup and passed in right over our child… Duh ever hear of 3^rd degree burns? The broth of the Phở was watery and despite the doctoring we did with lots of basil and jalepenos… NADA!
We made the mistake of going back a second time and the food was still bland. Really, then need to add some spices to their food or give it up. The spring rolls were good but that was about it.
Maybe things have improved for them.

THEY ARE CLOSED… WTF!!!
Because this was my first time eating here, I’ll give it 4 stars for that bit of wiggle room!
When we walked in, my boyfriend and I immediately noticed that we were the only white people in the joint — that’s how we knew it was going to be GOOD! Mmm, we started out with their spring rolls. Nice chucks of shrimp and noodle, the only thing I would say would be to add more mint, it was just decoration…
For our entrees we got B1 (vermicelli noodle bowl with shrimp and chicken) and C1 (seared beef with sausage and shrimp + rice and an egg roll). In my opinion C1 was the best! GREAT flavor and texture to the beef, not mushy or stringy like some places.
I also think the service was pretty good, my water glass was always full and the prices were excellent! $ 22 for two entrees (huge portions) and an appetizer! Half off appetizers on Sundays… woo hoo!

This place was mediocre at best. The phở didn’t taste like phở, the broth just tasted like something straight out of the can. The prices are pretty high for vietnamese food and the rice places were small in proportion.
Not authentic vietnamese dishes, I’ve had better elsewhere… and so will you!

We went here on a Sunday afternoon for lunch. They had a half-​off appetizer special going on for Sundays.
We ordered phở and an order of egg rolls. The food and pricing is reasonable for the Natomas area. It’s much more convenient than having to drive all the way to Stockton Blvd for some phở on a Sunday morning. The egg rolls came out hot and fresh. And the phở came out just as we finished with the egg rolls.
The only thing I’d complain about is that the phở noodles were kind of broken down into small pieces. I’m not sure if they do that on purpose, or if they just over cook the noodles a little too long and it breaks off on it’s own.

This was hella good! I had some crispy salt and pepper shrimp with jalapenos and damn it was tasty. I went in for lunch and the server was REALLY SWEET. They were accomodating, the shrimp were wonderful, I learned I hate fish sauce and jasmine tea I love. I was reading a book and she insisted on turning down the TV to help me out! How nice! Everything came out really fast too. This is a new lunch favorite spot for me!

I love this place. We always have the same waiter, and he is very friendly. The food is served quickly and is always fresh.
I always order the Phở and the spring rolls (the un-​fried ones). The Phở is by far some of the best that I have ever had. It is flavorful and very inexpensive. It is around $ 5 for a large bowl. The spring rolls are super yummy, too. If you have a Gold’s Gym card, they will give you an additional 10% off your bill.
It is great to have a good Vietnamese restaurant in the Natomas area.

I live in the area so it’s wonderful to have a Vietnamese restaurant in your «backyard.» The service is always friendly and prompt. The restaurant is clean. And the food is always consistent and good. I always gravitate toward the noddle salad bowls: S1, 2, 3… they are wonderful especially in the summer. BUT one dish I would not recommend is X7 which is supposed to be a noodle salad with beef and lemon grass.
Here’s what I didn’t like about it– the beef was too tenderized (like when they overdue it in a Chinese stir-​fry) and smothered in this thick and way too spicy sauce that seeped through most of the noodles. It was inedible and too hot… But other than that, Spices serves up some great noodle salad bowls!

Your expectation of «service» at a phở restaurant is well… not really «service» but take your order, bring your food, pay your bill. Not the case at all with Spices. You can tell they take pride in the place. It’s clean, pretty, not too noisy, and the staff is great. I’ve had a few different dishes there and all are pretty decent. Prices are probably a little bit higher than at other phở places. But, I would much rather pay and extra dollar for my phở if the person serving it followed up to see if I needed anything else. I also didn’t feel the need to sanitize the five foot radius around my son like I do at other places. For those that need to save the dollar, go on Sundays when appetizers are half off.

Spices has the nicest waitstaff that I’ve come across in a LONG time. They were very friendly and attentive, possibly because the place was deserted on a Saturday night, which is too bad.
The food was tasty, but I expected a bit more, especially for the price. Hint: «with basil» = 1 leaf of basil, and «with pineapple» yields 4 little Dole pineapple chunks. Are these ingredients really at a premium? I hope they can lower their prices a bit or else they won’t survive for long.

Soooo, I was perusing some of the comments and thought that it was about time to write an update.
Honestly, I seriously CANNOT BELIEVE that PEOPLE ARE STILL COMPLAINING ABOUT THE PRICES!!! Since the last time I was there, the prices seem to have GONE DOWN and PEOPLE ARE STILL COMPLAINING??? Anyways, I still managed to eat there with a meal and a drink and I still spent less than TEN DOLLARS!!! I’ve had friends who have spent more going to Panda Express. So, if people want to complain about prices, do so when there is a valid reason for it. Seriously.
The food was good, the service was friendly, and the restaurant was clean. I don’t know what that one girl (Joan H) was talking about that a good phở restaurant has to be dirty, because seriously, that’s why I DON’T go to those places. If they can’t even keep their bathrooms clean, what must the kitchens look like? Has anyone even seen KITCHEN NIGHTMARES?
Anyways, like I said, the place was clean. One of the things I judge service by is how often my glass of water is refilled (and I do drink a lot of water) and here, I didn’t have to ask.
Other than that, what can I say? It’s one of my favorite places to go. I also like that the manager is friendly and will record TV shows for me to watch the next time I come. I think that’s supercool.

The morning after a ridiculously successful house warming party, I woke up feeling like a wreck. My left foot was numb and both my legs were sore from the heels I had been wearing. My neck was hurting from sleeping on my friend’s arm all night, and my head was still pounding from the endless games of Flip Cup. Well, I’ve been in this state many a time, and knew the only cure was a nice, big bowl of piping hot phở. And plus, an end to a great weekend always includes Sunday brunch and the following three things.
1) At least one person is too hungover to eat, but is still dragged to the restaurant anyway. (Hey heyy Grace P.!)
2) Someone just so happens to remember every detail of the night before and proceeds to tell stories to the rest of the group.
3) And all of this is topped off with a little bit of awkwardness between people who hooked up. I especially like how they try to act all casual like nothing happened, heh :)
So, Spices — A Taste of Vietnam, the restaurant was clean and nicely decorated, but almost too nice. Come on now, the best Vietnamese restaurants are kinda dirty. However, our waitress was really polite and accommodating to our large party. She took our orders and didn’t make any mistakes with people’s special requests. But once other tables started filling up, she became overwhelmed and it seemed like it took forever to flag her down for anything we needed. And the consensus of the group was that the phở broth was flavorless, the noodles were too firm, and the meat was disappointingly lacking.
Okay, so why the harsh 1 Star rating? When we received our bill, we realized that most of us wanted to pay with credit cards. So we walked up to the front counter and asked the manager to ring us up separately. He seemed flustered for whatever reason, and said «Just so you know, next time you need to tell us beforehand if you want a split check. And also, we have a policy where we don’t do split checks for parties for 6 or more.» Dude, are you for real? We just bought all this food, we’re trying to pay you for it, and now you’re going to give me an attitude? Calm down. And thanks for the «just so you know.» for the next time we DON’T come here and go elsewhere for better food and better service. What would’ve been a mediocre rating of 2.5 Stars was dropped to a 1 Star for this incident.
Argh, though our experience here ended on somewhat of a sour note, the recovery meal with great, newly made friends was still the cherry on top of my weekend sundae.

I give Spices a solid four stars. The service was excellent and the cashier who took my order was very helpful when suggesting a dish to my friend who is a vegetarian. I should have also asked for his assistance, as the beef dish that I ordered was kind of bland. However, it did not taste bad. So, 3.5 for my food, and 4.5 for my friend’s food.
My friend ordered the deep-​fried tofu pad thai. It was delicious and coveted by me. So based on her food, I will be back to Spices to try other dishes on the menu.
We ordered takeout, but I did notice that Spices has some very good wines on their menu. I have noticed that in most ethnic restaurants other than Italian, wine is sort of an afterthought, so I give Spices kudos for picking some drinkable stuff.
The owners were sitting out at the tables in the dining area when we came in and greeted us with a smile. She also complimented me on my hair. Awww. I noticed the dining room was nicely decorated and very clean.
I also like that the restaurant is close to my new place and they are in the entertainment book (printable coups online) and they have discounts available on
Very good.

Great Vietnamese food and within walking distance of the house and next door the to gym that I haven’t been going to ;-)
I usually get the over rice dishes which are great.
Owner and staff are friendly and the prices are good, but still… I should remember to bring in those coupons from sudden values.

I’ve been hearing about this restaurant for quite some time so I was very excited to finally be able to eat there. We ordered:
eggrolls– nice and meaty, and very tasty
pineapple fried rice– so good
lemongrass chicken– so good, nice flavor
da chanh– nice combination of sweet and salty
And we also received a strawberry smoothie, which was awesome.
The décor is beautiful and the service was fantastic. I would definitely go there again the next time I’m in Sacramento.

Don’t listen to the people who say the prices are too expensive.
This restaurant is nice restaurant in a nice area of town. It would only be fair to compare prices of other restaurants menus around this neighborhood. Not in another city, not in another part of town.
But a restaurant can’t be defined by prices alone. The food is to me, what’s important. Spices has very nice dishes. It’s always on my list of places I consider when going out to eat.
The Phở is good and the spring and winter rolls are delicious.
The atmosphere is nice. The service is quite good. Usually the owner is nearby, always looking for ways to please his customers.
Spices is a place to go again and again
Alvaro

My Vietnamese friend lives down the street from here, but she never knew it existed. Yes, it’s out of the way — you kinda have to look for it.
It was mid-​afternoon and I wanted a snack. I got an order of the spring rolls to go. While I was waiting for them, I noticed their specials board — All you can eat Phở for $ 12. Are you kidding? The waitress said that people really like the possibility so it’s a popular item. I guess… Anyway, I got my order and asked for a second thing of sauce. I love peanut sauce! Anyway, I’m eating the rolls as my friend drives us to the Vacaville outlets. They tasted ok, but they smelled funny. What did I do? I extra dipped them in the peanut sauce and called it a day. Yes, $ 5 is a bit pricey for three spring rolls. No, I didn’t get sick eating the food.

Great little place to eat. I stopped by on the way back from a weekend in Reno and the food from this place hit the spot. I had the bo luc lac (shaken stir-​fried steak cubes) and the meat was high quality and very tender. The side of tomato flavored white rice complemented the taste of the beef very well. My companions ordered Phở and were very pleased with their meals.
I don’t agree with some of the other Unilocalers that this place is too expensive. The price of a bowl of Phở has been creeping up in San Jose and it’s just about the same. Also, considering most of the cheap places look like holes in the wall, Spices wins hands down with the nice décor and cleanliness.
Great food and service, good atmosphere, and a great place to go if you want to hang out with some friends. This is a new stop for me for all of my snowboarding trips.

$ 7 for takeout with smallish portions is hardly a good value. At least it’s good quality.
They need to lower prices by $ 1.50 across the board.