Thanh Tam II

If I could give 0 stars I defiantly would. For starters the container was cracked at the bottom and burnt my leg. I told the owner that I was not pleased with my food because it taste freezer burnt and I asked to have the food remade the owner replied «I give you yo money back you no come back here you tell me my food no good» what the hell how do you tell a customer that? Would not recommend this place to my worst enemy!!!

Quick service, lots of vegetarian options. I tried the vermicelli and vegetable chow fun dishes. I wish they had hot oil – that would make the dishes scream with flavor!

Was in the area and randomly chose this place as i found a parking spot across the street. The restaurant is a bit cramped, with a whole row of tables running down 2 aisles.
I had the beef salad which I like. The beef were very thinly sliced and was not fully cooked but not raw either. Kinda liked it that way. Not fully cooked.
Got a bit dehydrated (probably due to the sugar & sodium in the ngoc nam) and drank 3 glasses of water with it! I’d consider returning.

Deliciousness. One of my favorite vermicelli craving spots
Fresh, tasty and you dont have to wait long

One of the better Vietnamese restaurants in the city. Fast service, no wait on a Saturday evening, and yummy food!
We ordered:
imperial rolls — which came with more pickled veggies than other places. good crisp and flavor.
fried rice with shrimp — not too greasy, good flavor
phở — average, broth could be more flavorful
tofu salad — our favorite dish that we ordered, such a nice light and fresh tasting dish with mint and basil and grilled tofu
Not sure why this place doesn’t have a higher rating! Also looked like they have free delivery, so we definitely know what we’re ordering next time.

Transported!
Last night my friend and I were transported to Vietnam. I have been craving good phở for so long that I forgot I was craving it. When I sat to review the menu, I was eyeing some more delectable dinner entrees, but in the end I decided on the beef combination phở. Lawd help me! It was perfect. The broth was perfect, everything tasted amazing.
The quail we started with? Perfectly fried. I always feel like a happy heathen eating small birds and then discarding a pile of bones onto my plate. These made me happy yesterday. So much yum.
It’s funny, we were walking to Mau, of which I’m only a somewhat fan, when my friend said «Let’s go here.» It was another happy accident, and now I have a home for phở this winter in my neighborhood.

This place is great! It’s been a MIssion institution since the early 90s. I’ve gone to so many Vietnamese restaurants in SF just trying to find some really good Phở (of which there are a few). Thanh Tam II is definitely in my top 3.
* Great service
* Great food
* Great atmosphere
I will continue to go back! :)

If I have to rate Thanh Tam II against its cohort in the city then maybe its a 3 but to compare it to the likes of the South bay or Orange County, this place deserve no more than a 1.
My cousin and I was fixin to get some phở one afternoon but was too lazy venture out into the South bay so what the heck I thought, I will give the city another try. After going through process of elimination based on proximity, Unilocal rating and previous experience, we narrow our list to Mau and Thanh Tam II.
We end up opting for Thanh Tam II because it looks like a hole in a wall so we assumed that it would be more authentic. This could be it I thought to myself, no longer will I have to venture out to the south bay to satisfy my craving for phở.
I was wrong.
If one was to google phở, they will quickly come to the conclusion that it is a noodle soup with a beef broth. Emphasis on beef. That was clearly not the case with the Phở at Thanh Tam II. Not only was it lackluster in proportion of the round tip slice but the there was only a hint of beef in the broth for a soup known as «Beef noodle soup».
I definitely do not recommend this place for phở. Stay clear.

I have been looking for a Vietnamese place that uses the proper rice wrap for imperial rolls for 15 years! I have been sorely disappointed everytime. SF, The Peninsula, East Bay, everywhere I looked just to be saddened once again. I never thought I would find a place comparable to Tu Lan. I had pretty much given up! Boy, was I WRONG.
From the appetizers to the Phở nothing disappointed. Service was excellent! Calm atmosphere. I am ashamed that I must’ve passed by here a MILLION times in my hunt for food and NEVER saw it!
I spent so much of my 20’s in this area drinking and carousing within the immediate vicinity and never knew what I was MISSING! Never again. My hats off to you Than Tam II. I now have 2 staple Vietnamese restaurants to go to depending on which I am closest to.
I am sick and asked the girl on the phone which soup would be best. I liked the hot spicy beef. She said a seafood combination is good too and that she could make it spicy. She even asked if I wanted some fresh squeezed OJ! I said yes and a ginger ale too.
She almost didn’t take my order for delivery because they are cash only usually. She made an exception for me. Thank you! She was so very sweet that she included a NOTE iside saying Feel Better with a smiley face! Awwww… They win my business hands down. Way to go the extra mile for a sick girl. I LOVE you guys!

Phở-​CK this place! I seriously considered walking out shortly after the meal was served; but held out on a hope and a dream that some part of the dining experience here would/​could be salvaged. — 2 stars for mediocre Vietnamese in the area (+1) and (+1) inexpensive prices.
Minus stars because service would benefit greatly from better communication tactics.
The three bean drink is SALTY AF (–1) if something is sent back, listen to the reason why, ask whether customer wants a replacement or a write off the check, and communicate it to the cook. To the cook (–1): don’t send passive aggressive parting shots as the customer is settling up. I cannot stress enough how salty BOTH iterations were –there is still a burn in my mouth from where the liquid from the two sips (one from each drink) sat in my mouth.
Also was pretty miffed that server did not allow us to sit at the end of a larger table, and away from the door as specifically requested (–1)– and mere minutes later (before being served water) a group of two gets seated at near the front. I’ve been here plenty of times where larger tables had to be shared.
I will not return anytime soon, and will speak poorly of it to my associates.

This place is legit. I’ve come here on multiple occasions with friends. It’s the best place to come to when you can’t think of anywhere to go, or know exactly what you want to eat, but it’ll def. hit the spot.
It’s likely that you’ve walked by this place on Valencia hundreds of times but never even knew it existed. That was the case for me. Once you step inside, it’s seriously like you’re in your Vietnamese best friend’s parent’s house. It’s most def. a mom and pop type place.
Every time I come here I get the sliced BBQ pork, with fried rice, and fried egg. So good. Never fails. The phở and string beans are good here too. Service is pretty quick. All in all, for what you pay, and the satisfaction of the food, I’d say this place is a keeper in my rotation of go-​to restaurants on the fly.

This is a very decent Vietnamese restaurant. The service is good, you just have to be agressive about it. If you want to order politely wave. I saw some over privileged bros get offended for their lack of service but they were so rude!
The hot and sour soup was so good! I recommend getting a side of noodles or rice with it because it doesn’t come with it.
The sandwhiches were not the best. My bf ordered the chicken and pork while I got the tofu. The tofu sandwich was plain and not well seasoned. The bread tasted sour. I’d stick to their phos and bbq plates of I were you.

Fresh veggies, tasty and refreshing. Will have to come back and try their sandwiches and noodle soups

There are no places to eat phở in the Castro District so this was the default choice of restaurant that is walking distance. When my friend and I entered the restaurant, we were directed to sit at a table that had not been cleaned after the last customers. Luckily there were only dirty cups (and not half-​eaten food) but that was super unwelcoming.
The waiter was quick to take our order and bring our food, but the food itself was mediocre. We ordered spring rolls and phở in beef broth. The spring rolls looked fine, but I can’t put my finger on what was wrong with them. Maybe it was the dryness or the rubbery texture of the skin that did not taste fresh. The peanut sauce tasted starchy too.
The beef broth tasted artificial and I realized that maybe I should have tried the chicken broth instead. They actually give you a LOT of noodles and meat for a small size order, so that’s the only awesome part of this restaurant. The beef was incredibly dry which made it difficult to eat. By the end, I was full but not satisfied.
We had to flag down our waiter to get the bill and as soon as that was done, I made a dash for the door. I might come back because it’s so close and open relatively late, but I’m better off traveling in the other direction towards the Sunset District.

I’d rather pay a few more bucks and go to Mau. The food here isn’t bad, but significantly less satisfying in terms of flavor and quality of food.
Spring rolls (2 stars): dry.
Grilled pork and egg roll over rice (4 stars): this was the best thing we had. Good pork, but wish we had more of it. Egg roll was good albeit very greasy.
Combination phở (2 stars): the broth was soooo bland. I had to put half a bottle of sriracha. Compared to Mau’s ginger chicken broth, this was as if they just washed the chicken with the water. Yuck. Avoid!
I used to really like this place, but after getting spoiled by Mau I can’t go back here. Disappointing.

Now that Sunflower’s closed, where oh where will we get our hole-​in-​the-​wall Vietnamese food?
What about right across the street?
Thanh Tam II is the epitome of hole-​in-​the-​wall, right down to the dudes mixing condiments in the dining area and the torn up upholstery. Beef bowls are more lettuce than meat and it’s not particularly fresh. Still, it works in a pinch.

Update from my June review regarding food poisoning from Thanh Tam: my housemate filed a complaint with the SF Department of Public Health, and we are not the only case of food poisoning from this establishment.

Had BBQ pork vermicelli and fresh spring rolls. Pretty decent food overall and at a good price. We did delivery and it was delivered pretty fast!
Will probably order here again!

As recent tradition goes, my mom and I get phở together once or twice a month and chat about work /​life /​family /​etc. On this Friday evening, we were attending an arts and improv night at church, which was a refreshing change up to the booziness and general debauchery I usually put myself through on Friday nights. So we stopped in at Thanh Tam II on Valencia as it’s super close to our church.
I’ve only dined at Thanh Tam II once, way back in the day, and I didn’t really remember how cramped it is, but now I’ve noted this. We walked in to the restaurant to the shrill voice of a woman loudly and rapidly speaking Vietnamese, guessed at a place to sit, and began to browse the menu.
I chose Thanh Tam out of the other locations in the area because I remembered that they have the option of thick noodles in their phở. Unfortunately, the only flat noodles they had were «old», per our waiter, and so they weren’t an option. Why would you have old noodles? Just throw them away if that’s the case, or, as a popular Mission restaurant, be stocked with the ingredients to one of your main dishes.
My mom, always the optomist, ordered a tofu salad and raved about it for the rest of the night. I got the Rare Steak Phở which was bland and had to be drowned with Sriracha, the jalapenos that were served alongside were old, or had been cut the previous day and were drying out and whiteish. When I went to use the restroom, I noticed all the Imperial rolls waiting on a tray to be fried, right next to the restroom, um, okay, yea, that seems sanitary.
Finally, when our bill came, we noticed that the total was hiked up from what should have been $ 17.89, to $ 24.95. So I had to show our waiter and the shrill woman from earlier the error, which was corrected. Mistakes happen, I get it, but this was just such an unejoyable experience all around, I will surely not be bringing my dear mom, or our business back anytime soon.

On a stretch of Valencia where you can have pretty much any kind of food you want — hipster tacos, working-​class Mexican, upscale French — this little, unassuming Vietnamese spot just doesn’t stand a chance of staying in anyone’s culinary memory. With Little Saigon just one BART station away, I would be hard pressed to make a return visit here based on what I tried on a lonely weeknight when I was perusing their fairly robust menu on a relatively busy evening. When hamstrung by indecision, I tend to go for the predictable and ordered the $ 6.75 Goi Cuon (Spring & Pork Rolls) (photo:
).
It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t very fresh-​tasting either. The peanut sauce was its only saving grace. For my main dish, I went for the $ 9.95 large bowl of Phở Dac Biet (Special Combination Beef Noodle Soup) (photo:
). It contained all the right ingredients — the beef balls, the flank steak, even the tripe — but it was done in by the watery broth which didn’t sustain any of the meaty flavor. Like ramen, phở is an artfully satisfying soup when properly executed, but when prepared with indifference, well, you can almost taste the shrug in every slurp. I’m sorry to say that the service matched the quality of the phở. Just not a memorable meal here.
FOOD — 2 stars… spring rolls taste flat but nothing compared to the phở
AMBIANCE — 2.5 stars… nothing too memorable about the space
SERVICE — 2.5 stars… nothing wrong with the speed but a sense of ennui surfaced
TOTAL — 2 stars… packing my bags and leaving for Little Saigon