Ha Tien Quan

I’m so sad they closed. They made an awesome pork chop. Have to find a new place for viet eats now. =(

I ordered off the veggie menu and they seemed confused by what they were selling. I got the food to go. The spring rolls were ok. The Phó was awful. It was cold, the noodles were cold, and the fresh veggies (mint, lime, chile,) were frozen. Worst soup ever…

Awesome! So authentic and flavorful.
Larry, the owner, was super friendly and told us about how he chooses the best ingredients for his food and gave us recommendations on what to order. We got the deer noodles and fermented anchovy noodles (both broths were so incredible) and the perfectly cooked pork chops. I’ll be coming back!

Came here on a Saturday night with my boyfriend and the place was almost packed. The whole restaurant wasn’t filled, but filled enough to surprise me. This place is located in the plaza across the street from the San Gabriel Superstore. Other restaurants in here are Yoshino, quickly and Amrose. Right when you enter into the plaza the place is on the right hand side. There is more parking underground.
I’m giving this 5 stars because they have a vegetarian menu for non meat eaters like me. There’s only a handful of other phở places I know that have a vegetarian menu. It was so hard for me to choose which item I wanted to eat, because I wanted to try everything!
I ended up getting the vermicelli bamboo shoot noodle soup which came with a plate of soy chicken and a salad. This dish only cost $ 8 for a lot of food. The bowl of vermicelli was huge with an enormous amount of bamboo shoots and tofu skin. It was delicious. The side salad it came with consists of onions, celery, carrots, and mint. The sauce was yummy but these are vegetables that I don’t normally eat. The soy chicken it came with was SOOO YUMMY!!! I would get this just by itself; it had a lot of flavor, my boyfriend said it was super close to chicken, and the texture was the same as eating real meat.
I also got the veggie spring rolls. The picture said it was going to come with vegetarian shrimp but it didn’t, instead it came with tofu and vegetarian pork. I really wish it came with the fake shrimp tho, I don’t like false advertisement. Inside of the roll had another small egg roll skin that gave it a good crunch. The peanut sauce had too much peanuts and carrots in it, and weirdly, they put pineapple juice in it. It tasted pretty good with it though, it gave it a sweet flavor to it.
My boyfriend got the phở bac. He said the meat was good but the soup tasted like peppermint. Weird lol but I’ll make him come back with me anyways because I want to try a lot of other stuff on their vegetarian menu.
Service is okay, the younger guy seemed new and didn’t know what he was doing at times. The lady barely knows any English, but the older guy looked like he knew what he was doing. He’s probably the manager? Just a guess. The whole bill was $ 23 for 3 items.

Authentic Regional Vietnamese Cuisine? Yes! A small restaurant tucked into the corner next to a Hot Pot place, located inside a two story plaza. Parking isn’t too bad. The décor is a bit off. They have blown up city scapes of China instead of Vietnam. I would think pictures of Vietnam would be more fitting.
Restaurant is clean. Service is nice. Lots of dishes to choose from. Some dishes are known in specific regions in Vietnam so if you’re adventurous, order Bun Mam. An anchovy base broth with thick white noodles, fresh pineapple, eggplants, shrimps, & roasted crispy pork. Served a side of veggies, herbs, & sliced banana flower. Squeeze a little lime into the bowl, add some chili for zing & enjoy!
The other item ordered was Canh Bun (Bun Rieu served with thick noodles) clear broth tomato base with crab & meat mixture, tomatoes, tofu, shrimp, & served with a side of veggies & herbs. Light & tasty.
They also have a sliding refrigerator that has Vietnamese desserts & yogurts. I’ll be back to try other items on the menu. CASH ONLY!

Vietnamese seafood hot pot — 4 stars!
The soup base was delicious! The pork in the soup was very tendor and flavorful. 1 star off for the vegetable stems that were not edible.
Phở 3 stars — the beef was good. The soup can be heavier/​stronger.
Snails 5 stars — the portion is generous! The coconut flavor is great.

I was torn between 3.5 and 4…
The menu was slightly confusing for me… I always get a Bun when I go to Vietnamese places so I was looking for my usual Bun and it took me a while, But when I asked the guy if this (pointing to picture/​dish name) is the Bun without soup and the vinegar sauce thing, he was very nice and explained it to me.
It was my first time getting a HOT bun. It didn’t really make a difference for me but I expected to cool off with a cold Bun so I was a bit confused (I’m not sure how it is authentically… is that a real word?)
I liked the fact that the Bun used Shiso and no mint (I hate mint), which may throw people off. No cilantro.
The portion is HUGE. Lots of meat.
The people were really nice. They spoke understandable English and we chit chatted even though I’m not Vietnamese.
CASH ONLY
Just not sure if I would go back because I am not a fan of cash only places and the menu was not English-​speaker friendly.

Came here one day because I wanted to give this place a try. This place has an extensive menu.
Service was average, place was clean and it’s cash only. There was no wait; in fact, it seemed quite dead. Food came out fast… maybe a bit too fast.
We ordered two noodle dishes and the broth was not even that flavorful. They were really generous with the noodles, but that was WAY too much. I’ve had better.
Overall, I don’t think I’ll be coming back.

Flavorful, powerful, authentic. Plentiful. This place is a super find. Came with a friend to try their deer noodle soup and their fermented fish soup. Prices are slightly more than other Vietnamese noodle shops, but when they brought out the herbs, we discovered why. Besides the standard herbs that most Vietnamese restaurants give out, they included exotic ones like banana bud, shredded cabbage, some kind of Vietnamese bitter herb, shredded water spinach.
The fermented fish soup had shrimp, catfish, pork belly, fermented mudfish, leeks. Very very impressed. Food that usually restaurants will skimp on. Not this place. They are really good. According to my Vietnamese friend, what is supposed to go in the soup, garnishes, etc, is all there. She explained that usually, most restaurants will take shortcuts and leave out some things, but this restaurant did not.
They are a bit heavy with the salt, but not too much.
The deer meat noodle soup was also good. I liked the flavor. They came with less garnishes than the fermented fish soup. It was pretty standard herbs. The soup is very delicious. I like the meat, though there wasn’t a ton of meat. Deer meat is probably expensive. Lots of noodles, done very well.
We also ordered the banh khoat, which when it comes out looks like mini quiche pies, but actually you are supposed to wrap it in herbs and lettuce and eat it as a wrap. Tastes pretty good. My friend says it is their specialty.

Now when you walk in you will smell a pretty foul rotten smell, don’t worry its part of the experience. I’ve been growing up all my life smelling that smell so I get used to it. They have 4 options for Vietnamese lau/​hot pot. There was various vegetables and fish, shrimp, squid to add in your pot and cook. The deer noodles was really good. It was like eating phở or had a semi-​phở flavoring. It is a really good experience if you want something Vietnamese outside of the banh mi and phở stuff. The service is good too, they even walked up to you and asked if you need anything, which is rare at an Asian place.

3.5 though I rounded down. I
So I walked here after my distress from sushi…
Phở was so comforting. I might have been starving (went hiking, waited to eat ayce sushi, see my review for yoshino, then came here…) so I can’t say this is the best viet restaurant ever — i was really famished, but the broth here was so comforting. And it came out s fast. And there was no issues. And I was happy enough.
Bun mam was STRONG. If you’re not used to strong smells, then avoid. It was homey and delicious as my lolo used to use fish sauce like nothing at our house. I wouldn’t recommend it to a newby with such foods. It’s probably an acquired taste, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

I wish I could remember the name of what I ate, but something somewhat spicy noodle soup with venison. Friggin’ delicious.
Vegetarian spring rolls (rice-​paper wrap!) were great as well, plus something else (some other egg roll…).
About the only disappointment was the nem nuong, which was decidedly average at best, so-​so at worst.
Subtly nicer inside than most Vietnamese places in this price range, easy to appreciate once you realize it. Just remember, cash-​only and the menu is pretty much only in Vietnamese and Chinese. Lots of pictures at least, for those of us who don’t read either!
Come with friends who are ethnically Vietnamese, they all say there are quite a few dishes here they haven’t seen outside of Vietnam (or at least are very rare in the States) and they all seem to highly recommend it.

This place is different from your local phở places. There is a lot of variety.
We tried four different items. The Cha Gio Re (egg rolls with flaky paper, almost like panko crumbs but not), Phở Xe Lua, Bun Bo Hue (*WARNING* DO NOT GET IT), and a noodle with a sticky soup base plus seafood.
The egg rolls were good. Flaky, crunchy, and meat filled.
Phở Xe Lua was good. Generous in noodles, excellent beefy flavor.
Bun Bo Hue, please do not get. PLEASE. It tasted like water. No flavor, no substance, NOTHING.
The noodles with sticky soup base plus seafood (wish I knew what it was), is very different. I haven’t had it before so I thought it was good. The noodles were a thick glass noodle. I felt the noodles were over cooked though because they were mushy. There was shrimp, cha, fish ball, etc. It was decent for something I’ve never tried.
Overall, I thought everything was A-​OK. It wasn’t super fabulous but it wasn’t too bad. I heard they are popular for their Bun Mam, but I am definitely not so brave. If you are give that a try!
–Give it a try!

My first impression of the place was that it really smelled… I’m not complaining about the first sauce because I’m from a culturally Vietnamese background. But it was mixed with a fishy and chicken coop kind of smell… I dont think you know what this smells like… but it’s not that great… but still bearable.
I think their place is known for their Vietnamese Hotpot… but I didn’t order it because it looked a little bit too pricey for what I was going to receive (~$ 20). So instead I opted for the usual, some Bun Bo Hue ($ 6.50). It was pretty good, however, the soup was filled with excess lemon grass which got stuck in my teeth. but overall one of the better BunBo Hues I’ve had around the area.
There are 4 different types of eggrolls here… which is different from other Viet restaurants I’ve been to — various skins/​textures
The Com Tam (Rice Dishes) was okay. But I think I prefer the one from Com Tam Tung Kieu and Saigon flavor down the street more.
Although this place was decent overall, i would suggest going to Tung Kieu or Saigon flavor down the street more.

When it comes to Vietnamese food and one is ready to delve deeper, past phở, come here for Bun Mam. Bun Mam is a noodles in broth with the broth derived from salted preserved fish. The smell can be intimating for first timers as well as seasoned veterans. If one is able to keep an open mind and put chopsticks to mouth, one might find a pleasant surprise and a new culinary friend. When one is ready for this adventure, worry not about going it alone.
The owner is more than willing to guide anyone interested through this and many of the different dishes his restaurant offers. He is a super cool guy who is very enthusiastic about his food. He is also very proud of the ingredients he provides. For instance, he was able to offer fresh lotus stems.
Because of the difficulty of acquiring some of the veggies, he offers a portion one might find on the stingy side. It is by design it seems. He probably hates to see food wasted as much as I do. It’s a shame when he has to throw out hard to find veggies when someone cannot appreciated. If you can appreciate it, just ask him for more– he will tell you this.
As for food, if one is a seasoned consumer of this type of Vietnamese cuisine, I feel that one will either find it really good or just ok. For me, I found it to be just ok. The broth is not concentrated enough. That said, the broth is perfect for everyone who is new to the dish.

Dank stank two words to describe this place.
I don’t mind the stank if the food’s taste makes up for it, but this time around it didn’t. Although I didn’t order the Bun Moc which I guess is their specialty so my bad experience may well be my own fault., I instead ordered the Bun Rieu and it wasn’t good. Broth was flat in flavor profile and all the meatballs turned into mush as I attempted to pick them up with my chopsticks therefore making my soup into a mushy mess.
Banh khot, umm aren’t these supposed to have shrimp in them? Because our order came with no shrimp and had zero crisp.
I’ve had better but the stink not being made up for with the food turned it into an eek!

Dear Ha Tien Quan: thank you for saving me from my Vietnamese food withdrawal symptoms.
I moved up to LA from Orange County about a month ago, and right before that I was visiting Vietnam, so, I mean, the symptoms were getting serious! I would stare balefully at my non-​broken, regular old rice. I would reach for fish sauce as a condiment and realize there was only Sriracha. I would get a stomachache from eating too much greasy fried food and long for a basketball-​sized plate of fresh leaves and herbs to soak up the oil.
Ha Tien Quan not only fulfilled my need to basically mainline fish sauce, but it also provided me with a menu full of items I’ve heretofore only seen in Vietnam. South Vietnam, even.
Banh khot, those little coconutty, shrimp-​festooned, lentil-​jeweled rice cakes? Sublime.
Egg rolls? Not your typical sad, grease-​stained limp vegetable-​stuffed filler. What is that lightly latticed outer coating? Taro? It’s fantastic!
Fellow Unilocaler Amanda S. was a good sport about ordering her bun ca ri with deer meat instead of beef, at the insistence of both me and the owner. It was a nicely homey soup, slightly sweet and chili-​laced. The owner even brought out a sample-​sized dab of chili paste so she could gauge the spice level before ordering.
Bun mam, which I was cautioned thoroughly against ordering if I had not tried it before, had an anchovy-​infused broth that wafted up and took control of the noses of everyone at the table whether they wanted any or not. (I lied about having tried it before, bwahahaha!) I loved it — its eggplants were fat and soft, its fish slices unobtrusively floating around, and its shrimp firm. Best of all, though, they used big old crispy pork belly slices — the kind that are higher than they are wide and let you see the whole cross section of flesh: crisp skin, the thin fat layer right beneath, then the tender meat closer to the bone.
Add to this a pungent, tangy chanh muoi, plus prices every bit as reasonable as those in Little Saigon, and I’ll be a regular in no time.

This isn’t your usual Vietnamese fare. I am a frequenter of Little Saigon In the OC and have yet to encounter the regional delicacies that are offered here at Ha Tien Quan.
Bun Mam is what they are known for. The owner was hesitant to let me order this dish but consented when I said I was Thai. After receiving the dish I can understand why he was hesitant to serve it to me. It was stinky! Salty, fishy, stinky pungent. Oh Yeaaaa I wanted authentic food and I got it. I am glad that they don’t Americanize their dishes here. I hope they never get to that point and feel like they have to. The restaurant distinguishes itself by offering an unadulterated taste of their regional Vietnamese heritage. The garnishes offered with the dish were also unusual. I’m pretty familiar with the Vietnamese herbs but there were many greens that I had never encountered before and thoroughly enjoyed. I just wish I knew what they were!
The fried egg rolls are a must order. They use a unique paper to give them extra texture. The taste is similar to traditional Vietnamese eggrolls but the look and mouthfeel of them is really cool.
Service is typical of traditional Vietnamese restaurant. They wait to take your order, they bring you your food and then they leave you alone. Don’t expect them to check on you or refill your water unless you wave them down, and you will have to wave them down quite often as the water glasses are super small.
I really look forward to trying many more of the dishes here at Ha Tien Quan. Great find for unusual regional Vietnamese cuisine.

The deer meat noodle shop ($ 7.50) is legit. The sate based broth is tasty without being over powered by the sate. There’s a good amount of deer meat, which has a decent gamey flavor. The noodles is plentiful. One bowl can easily be shared by two people.
The service can be a little spotty with the small number of wait staff, but not frustrating.

What I love about following food blogs is that they often write about undiscovered places. The personal voices send me on adventures to hidden gem in the walls. This time it was Gastronomy Blog that sent me to this unassuming family owned Vietnamese venue.
Word of the night: niche.
The vietnamese dishes found here are unique and extremely hard to find.
Come for the bun mam! This dish is comforting and amazing. I like mine with a spritz of lemon and big gulps of the broth with the noodles. This is a stronger flavor which hits home to many Vietnamese people. Noodles + soup = comfort.
Cha gio re — these egg rolls are specially wrapped and fried with noodles paper? I’m unsure, but it gives it the perfect texture. I don’t know what the «re» part of the dish means. I’ve been searching for this dish specifically after having it with my parents when I was a kid. Thrilled to have discovered it. Amazing.
Banh Khot is also very rare and they do it well here. Coconut flavor that blends well with the fish sauce dip. It comes out fresh so don’t burn your tongue. I recommend drizzling the sauce into the morsel to cool it down before taking a bite.
These three dishes were perfect to share with three people. We requested little bowls and plates so that we can try each one.
We tried to interact with the family, but they brushed us off as youngins without any influence over the food community. My MMM sounds and «this is amazing» comments were not acknowledged. But I think it was a long week for them and they were more focused on other families with larger orders.
Parking is a disaster, upon driving downward into the underground parking you are greeted with another car going too fast at the perfect angle to hit you without any warning at full force. Heed my warning! Drive slowly into the garage.