Dong Que Restaurant

Came here with my sister for a late dinner one night. Food was good but service was subpar which is very typical of a lot of Vietnamese restaurants. If you’re looking for authentic Vietnamese dishes, look no further but be prepared to be ignored.

good stuff, wish the portion was bigger

ROCKS, ROCKS, ROCKS, all i had was a lot of rocks in my mouth i don’t even know where it all started from. i know the razor clams for sure had a lot. i mean a lot. it was like. razor clams covered rocks! only thing memorable about this place was the crab and shrimp eggrolls and their on-​choy goi which was pretty refreshing. the bathroom was a big no no. i went in there and seen somebody had their time of the month on the floor. pls clean that shit up. don’t need to be seeing that shit before i eat. there were so many things i wanted to try and had hope to come back again. but. probably wont be coming back for a while.

I’m giving this place 5. The food is always on point, friendly service, and may I add the price is perfect. I’m never disappointed.

I absolutely love the food here and the service is superb! Love the variety of hot pots here and they are all equally delicious. My favorite would have to be the ox tail and the Thai seafood.
Apart from their scrumptious hot pots. I’m also a fan of their assortment of clams, particularly the stir fry black bean sauce clams. I’ve tried almost every dish and have yet to find one I dislike.
As for the service, the owner is super sweet. They close at 11pm but I called at 10:45 to see if I can still come in. I wouldn’t get there until 11. They took my order and had the table all ready and set with my orders for me when I walked in. It really doesn’t get better than that!

I enjoyed everything we ordered here. The restaurant is a bit small and disorganized but when the food comes out none of that matters.
My sister recommended this place for a family dinner and it was exactly what we needed for not to bad of a price.
The food here is very home style vietnamese with a mix of vietnamese party flavors.
I’m sure when the time is right everyone has their Hiennies in hand and some roasted squab, hanging with their homies.
Anyhow, I think this place was good and it was worth going back.

They have an extensive menu of seafood dishes! I came for the Oc Len Xao Dua. It’s damn near impossible to find in San Diego and I was so impressed by this place! It was packed with flavor and they give you a decent amount for the price. Keep in mind they’re small so obviously they don’t have a lot of meat but I love this dish so I was dedicated going in. All the snails/​clams/​mussels dishes are about $ 11 each.
My boyfriend ordered the cooked blood clams not knowing they taste better raw. They came out on a hot skillet topped with scallions and peanuts. This was our least favorite dish because the blood clams were overcooked and chewy. So if you don’t like the chewy texture in a clam (because who does…) I don’t recommend ordering these. They’re so much better raw.
We also got the Banh Beo appetizer. It came out later than the snails/​clams and it was really good. You can tell they made it fresh on the spot and it wasn’t pre-​steamed. They were topped with the dried shrimp mix and small pieces of pork grinds. They served it with a sauce that was lighter than what I was used to but it was delicious! They give you 5 pieces (separately in their own dishes) for about $ 4.
Parking is easy. There is a private lot. The interior is nicely furnished and modernized. They have more larger tables than small ones so it is definitely a place to bring your friends. Most of the food they serve is traditional to Vietnamese drinking foods. As in yall should drink and eat here.

Everything was excellent! The waitress remembered my extra ice and lemon which always gets forgotten. Food came out quick with everything hot and steamy! Would definitely come back and try other dishes.

Fun menu with lots of seafood variety. This is what Vietnamese peeps eat when they drink but finally I can come dine on this stuff without feeling pressured to get crunk :)
They were out of a few dishes which is a turn off when you see it listed on the main menu. The seafood though is really fresh and incredibly flavorful. If you love Vietnamese spices and seafood. come try this place out! Tamarind, basil, and lemongrass were just a few of the flavors that popped that night. I loved the garlic fried shrimp and our coconut snail dishes. Very authentic Vietnamese preparations, too!

My friends and family come here to dine almost every week for many different reasons. Get together, celebrate, and just enjoying the atmosphere.
Tonight! Such a disappointment. Took my family here for my dad’s Birthday and the service was terrible. Not sure who’s running the show of the night but seem like all servers doesn’t seem to give a darn about the customers. Not like it’s a full house … Yet they missed partial of our order, joking around while we wave for help. WTF! get it together people.
Not asking for first class service but come on. Where’s the hospitality?

Love the large menu w/​its big selection of clams and snails along w/​basic Viet dishes like Ca Kho and Canh Chua.
All the clams we ordered were juicy and meaty. Herbs paired nicely. Wished they would state that they cover each shellfish w/​peanut. Can’t do peanuts. Hard time picking it out and making sure I don’t wash off the seasoning.
Average $ 10-​$ 13 a dish.

We went to a party on Saturday and they catered from Dong Que. We came 2 hours late and the food was still excellent.
My favorite was the deep fried chicken feet. So freakin hard to eat, but the flavor was amazing.
They also had stir fried balut, but they had it in tamarind sauce. I don’t like sour, so I didn’t like the flavor.
The salted fish fried rice was delicious and addictive, as well as the goi.
I would eat there again, but would go straight to the restaurant since I want to see how great the food was fresh.

Came back today for their cat fish in cat fish in claypot, absolutely delish… not too sweet in flavor, the sauce not over took the fish. The cat fish is melt in your mouth tender and fresh, love it. For sure a must have here.

The snails, clams, razor clams, and snail salad (goi) are pretty delicious!!! I came here with my coworkers and We ordered 2 of each and honestly I wanted more haha… Service is ok and the pricing is decent. I would recommend this place to my friends.

1^st star for the food (because it’s good) but it’s not good enough for the waitress to treat customers with disrespect and 2^nd star is for the nice/​clean interior.
The waitress never once smile, ask how everything was doing and she looked like as if I stole her boyfriend whenever she brought food out. I thought she was gonna pour drinks and food on my head whenever she came out since she just looked soooo angry. I asked for a menu to order more and she just tossed it. * hello, are you not happy that I wanted to eat more and spend more money at your restaurant? o. O?* Anyway, I said thank you everytime she brought food out. And of course. complete silent. I talked to her in both Vietnamese and English and she’s perfect in both. I completely lost my appetite because of her rudeness and I was kind of in fear while I was eating since she was just sitting a few tables behind mine while picking veggies and her face was facing my face directly. I felt like the waitress was treating my mom and I as if we were beggars that she can’t wait to kick us out.
On the positive note, the young waiter was quick on his feet when I asked him for more lime. He was super quiet but at least he wasn’t rude.
Bottom line, I was the only customer in this huge restaurant with 3 people working in the front and this is the treatment I got. Imagine if I came with people or if there was a crowd.

If you want home-​made tasting Vietnamese food, this is the place to come!
I don’t know how to cook a lot of complex Vietnamese dishes, so I like that I can come here and order some. I’ve tried a variety of the dishes they offered, and I’ve enjoyed every single one. A must try is definitely their com chay (burnt rice); I order this every time I’m here and recommend it to anyone and everyone that comes here.
They’re most known for their lau (hotpot) and oc (snails), which are both great to eat while you nhau (drink). It’s a great place to come with large groups of friends and family.

After reading multiple Unilocal reviews and looking through the many pictures, my boyfriend and I were very excited to try this place. We wanted amazing and authentic Vietnamese food, especially since we were craving it. My boyfriend loves food that pairs well with beer, so we decided to give this place a try. I mean, it used to be a Vietbamese bar, its got to be good right? Well, it was more of the opposite. Many helpers raved about the entrees like the Thai hot pot and sea snail dishes, but I found them to be mediocre. I guess you can say I’ve had better since I am a San Diego native. The 3 stars is from both food dishes we ordered — our grilled sea snail appetizer deserves 4 stars the Thai hot pot deserves 1 star.
Lets start with the restaurant itself. We drove up knowing the place was situated in a bad neighborhood, but it wasn’t the neighborhood that gave me a bad impression. It was more of the atmosphere this place had. We waited for 20 minutes for a table, which wasn’t bad, since I’ve waited longer before. However, right when you walk in, you hear loud people screaming across tables. It was very obnoxious. We tried to not have it bother us but it was kind of hard when the table next to you consisted of 20 people who screamed across the table. And omg, they played an obnoxious and extremely loud «Happy Birthday» song twice.
Okay, let’s just get to the food. We ordered a seafood Thai hot pot and grilled sea snails. We literally waited close to 45 minutes for our order. They are sooo slow. The waiters were busy running around but they weren’t the problem because we ordered instantly after being seated. It was the kitchen that took forever to bring out our food. Our grilled sea snails came out first. They were actually tasty. They were fresh and juicy. You could definitely tell they were grilled. However, they were bland. Maybe because we ordered grilled. Our Thai hot pot was not delivered to our table until 30 minutes later. We were starving by the time. Usually everything tastes good when you are starving, but definitely not this Thai hot pot. We paid $ 25 for a small seafood plate, very sweet soup, and veggies that weren’t cleaned well. The small seafood plate consisted of 3 sea snails, 6 small strips of fried fish, 3 small pieces of fish, 4 fish balls with roe filling that was not good — the roe made the entire fish ball taste fishy, 5 clams, 3 mussels, 6 squid, and 4 shrimp. The soup itself was very sweet. I love sweets but not in my soup. Thai hot pot soup is supposed to taste tangy, not sweet. Lastly, I had to sort through the veggies to make sure they were clean because it definitely wasn’t. It was a good thing they gave us a variety of veggies because one of the veggies was not clean.
We definitely won’t come back again for the Thai hot pot. However, we might come back to try the other sea snail entrees/​appetizers. Hopefully the sea snails will make me change my mind of this place.

I never thought you could make an item with as many ingredients as egg rolls to be so tasteless. Not enough even asking for extra fish sauce could bring life to this flavorless appetizer. It was really bad.
The lemongrass tofu was even worse. There was no trace of lemongrass and the pieces were spicy. Despite all of the colors seen on this dish, I tasted only plain tofu. Adding fish sauce strangely made this taste better.
Remarkably, the bo luc lac was incredible. This restaurant couldn’t deliver on two basic menu items but somehow managed to deliver the best bo luc lac I’ve had in a long time. It was served medium rare, full of salty beef flavor, and with the salad – added a delightful crunch.

Dong Que used to be a bar, which is why it’s important to note the kind of food you should order to expect this place to be good. My party of 4 simply came to check out their seafood dishes and appetizers and love everything that came out. Pairing our dishes with white rice, we ordered:
* Chicken Salad with Banana Blossom
* Fried Chicken Wings with Fish Sauce: crispy on the outside, tender and juicy meat on the inside
* Fried Frog Meat with Fish Sauce: this dish had a mild spicy kick to it and tastes like chicken, albeit a bit more chewy.
* Grilled Oysters with Onions: my favorite
* Steamed Sea Snails in Mild Coconut Curry: the curry was very thick and had a distinct coconut flavor to it.
* Stir Fried Sweet Snail with Lemongrass and Chili: pretty spicy and highly recommended to pair this dish with rice
Service was really attentive. The waiters and waitresses kept replacing our plates and bowls. They did forget one of our dishes (Grilled Japanese Emperor Clams with Fish Eggs), but we were full by the time we noticed that dish was taking a bit too long. The waiter also never charged us for it on our receipt so we didn’t really mind, but it would have been nice if they came out and said, «Sorry we forgot that dish» or issue an apology for not having those special clams in the kitchen.
Parking is in a very small private lot, with only a few marked spaces. Carpooling recommended.

Here’s the lowdown: this place got in trouble for serving alcohol past the city time limit multiple times and hence had to convert from Viet bar to restaurant. My mom, being a totally Vietnamese woman in everyone’s business, explained to me the situation. Good riddance because Viet bars are a nuisance to neighborhoods. ANYWHO, the food.
Came here the other day with a craving for Bun Rieu and Oc with my mother. We ordered the grilled snails with green onion oil and peanuts. They were great! Very tasty and cooked well. The bun rieu was also some of the best I’ve had in the area. They are on the pricier side for food, but not by much.
It’s still a little dark and dingy on the outside, but it was relatively clean on the inside and well lit. A complaint I do have though is the music is blasting so loud, you can’t even talk. On top of screaming Vietnamese people, it was sooooo loud in that restaurant (as you can imagine). Also, parking sucks during peak times.
Definitely will revisit when I have another craving for bun rieu and oc!