Thien Long Vietnamese Restaurant

This is place is really really good for their tumeric fish dish! We’ve been here multiple times and have gorged ourselves on the food. We deviated and had the half fish half beef plate and unanimously decided that the all fish is the way to go. Paying a bit extra for the rice wrappers is well worth it and rolling your own fish egg rolls — hands down is flavorful and healthy!
Service can be a bit spotty but that grilled fish is worth the long drive down from the Peninsula!

Me and my family have been coming here for years now! Never seem to disappoint me. I always come here for either Bo luc lac (#47) which is beef fried green/​red bell peppers mixed with mushrooms and lettuce or Bun Cha Ca La Vang (#36B) which is grilled fish, topped with peanuts & onions that comes with mixed greens, noodles, rice paper, and fish sauce that you can make spring rolls with. This is my main Vietnamese spot I always come to! You seriously can’t go wrong with any dish here.

Gosh, I am in love with their Cha Ca La Vong — the famous grilled fish dish!
If you come here, you need to try this dish out. I love the light grilled fish chunks, with the extra crunchy toasted peanuts, and sizzling green onions and white onions. You eat the fish chunks with some rice paper and stuff it with some fresh herbs and lettuce! Bön apetit.
Clear noodle soup was light and refreshing. It had meatballs, chicken, shrimp and so much more. Definitely weren’t skimping out on the proteins here — there’s a lot of it!
Love the food here and stoked to come back again.

I had been craving bun bo hue for a long time now and when my friends and I finally ended up here, I was so excited. Unfortunately, the bun bo hue here was just okay. It sadly wasn’t flavorful as the broth was a little bland and I attempted to fix this by adding hot sauce. It somewhat satisfied my craving but I was a little disappointed. Portion size is huge though so that’s a star right there.
However, my friends ordered the Cha Ca La Vong (grilled fish) and it was soooo delicious. Rolling it in rice paper and dipping in fish sauce was seriously so good. I wish I had gotten that instead. Well now I know for next time. 4 stars for the Cha Ca La Vong and large portions.

A Vietnamese restaurant that can cover most, if not all, of your cravings. Thien Long doesn’t really specialize in anything, it seems, but the dishes that they make are all very good. From Banh Bot Chien, Nui Xao Bo Luc Lac, Bun Rieu, Bun Mam, the list goes on and on.
Great price for their extensive menu. The restaurant is spacious, I’ve never seen it fill up enough to have a line. The workers are extremely friendly and fun.
Definitely one of my favorite places to get some of my favorite Vietnamese comfort foods.

My favorite is their Banh Bot Chien Trung (Fried Flour Cake W/​Egg)! So good. They offer a wide selection of dishes and their prices are great!

One of my go-​to places. You know it’s good when the place is filled with Vietnamese patrons. Definitely get 36B with rice paper and I always toggle between their beef stew or chicken and rice… perfectly boiled and their rice is cooked with chicken broth! YUM.

Great prices all around for their menu choices! The plaza is full of other restaurants and parking is really tight so you might have to park on the sidewalk right out of the plaza.
I had the Bun Bo Hue. Tastes like Bun Bo Hue but I’ve had better around San Jose. There was no distinct taste to make the dish special. Instead it was a little bland and there wasn’t as much meat as I had hoped for. There was probably two pieces of beef, a large tendon, one piece of pork blood and a piece of pork with fat all around. Maybe this dish isn’t one of their specialties. The tables around me all had their special skillet dishes with fish and pork sizzling. It smelled good and it was the most common dish I saw when visiting.
Be patient! Lines are long and the place is pretty squished.

Although this place is cash only, it’s still my favorite restaurant in the South Bay for Phở. The service is good, friendly and fast. They also have this awesome Bun Cha Ca La Vong dish where you make your own spring rolls with fish that come on a sizzling plate, which is definitely a must try if you haven’t had it before.
This establishment is also nice and clean compared to other Phở places in East San Jose. Parking can be a little tough on weekends when it’s fairly busy.
Highly recommend!

My family loves to come here for Sunday night dinners, especially if it’s a special occasion like after my cousin choir recital or my dad’s birthday.
We’ve never had to wait too long to get a seat. Service here is great. Friendly staff. Parking can be pretty difficult as there are so many other establishments in this plaza.
My mom’s favorite dish here is their Phở Ap Chao (fried phở noodles with a savory thick sauce mixed in with your choice of veggies, seafood, or meat). She gets it every time and loves bringing it home for the next day. My dad loves fish so his favorite dish is their Cha Ca La Vong that he wraps up into spring rolls. I’ve had many dishes here including their Bot Chien Trung and their Bun Bo Hue, all of them were great. Food is always brought out in a timely manner. If we need anything, we just ask and it’s brought out to us immediately.
Honestly you can’t go wrong with any dish here. They make great Vietnamese food and they’re one of the first places I think to come to when I’m craving some.

I regularly get hard core cravings for #36B– a generous serving of grilled cod fillet, fresh dill and green onions served on a sizzling platter and accompanied by a tangy, funky fish sauce, various greens (including mint), vermicelli and rice paper. Everyone who comes here gets this dish for good reason. The meatiness and savoriness of the fish combined with the fish sauce, mint, dill and green onions is SO good. Would eat this everyday if I could.
The other dishes I’ve tried here were good but not on the same level as 36B. The crispy chow fun is unique to Thien Long (I think) — and while it sounds awesome (who doesn’t love a good chow fun — and now it’s fried??), it just felt like there were too many layers of chow fun in each piece of fried chow fun. The sauce, while good, was also just a bit too corn starchy and wet for my taste– I might just be too engrained in my Chinese beef chow fun ways. We’ve also tried the egg omelette — stuffed with mung beans and meat — this might whet some people’s appetites, but it just isn’t my thing, especially for dinner at an Asian restaurant. The only other dish I’ve tried here is #C — the thin egg pancake with radish. It’s a good and unique option to go with if you’re looking for another dish. Personally, I could eat just the 36B and be perfectly content.
Service is quick here — there’s little chit chat, but the servers bring your food and refill your drinks quickly. I wish there were some more interesting drink options. Finally, as others have mentioned, bring CASH.

I am a regular here. The food here is of Northern Vietnam, so it really is not a common restaurant around the Bay. The food is always served sizzling hot. I usually order the fish dish and the fish and grilled pork dish (#32).
If you don’t know what to order, just look at the next table, most people just order the fish plate anyways.
Pretty value, you get a lot of food for the money.
Plus, this place is not too crowded. You are seated pretty quickly even if you come with a large group.
The servers are very nice. One time my friend and I waited 30 minutes for a friend who didn’t come. We were seated at a table for 30 minutes and decided to not leave without ordering since our friend couldn’t make it. The server was still happy and didn’t say anything but smiling and asked us about our friend.

Excellent quality Vietnamese food. Maybe too good of a quality?
You know those tiring days when all you want to do is have a comfort meal of no-​nonsense phở or noodle soup at the end of the day? This place doesn’t come to mind first, because there’s a certain je né sais quoi about it, like it’s just really way too clean. The beef stew noodle soup here is good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s definitely more lean than others. If you’re more health conscious that’s great, this is the place to be. Very wholesome, filling food.
If you’re trying to impress a date with your knowledge of great and safe noodle houses in the area, this is your jam. Actually, it’s a really great date spot because there’s boba right next door (literally there are at least 4 boba spots in the same exact plaza) for dessert!

This is a great find in the South Bay. Ideal for take-​out or even dine in. The restaurant itself is not a very fancy place, but it serves some of the best food for a very reasonable price. On a Saturday night, my husband and I came here to buy food for take out. Our choice was Appetizer C (Fried Flour Cake with Egg) and #41 (Crispy Chow Fun with chicken and veggies).
We ordered at the counter, paid for the food (cash only, btw) and waited for 10 – 15 min for the food to be ready for pick up. Service is very friendly.
I liked everything that I ordered and I’d certainly like to return to try their popular cod and other items from the menu.

I have tried almost everything on the menu here and you really can’t go wrong with most of the dishes. The chicken noodle soup is flavorful and comes with plentiful meat. Perfect on cold winter days.
Phở ap chao is crispy and saucy. I absolutely recommend the banh bot chien trung. It’s my favorite and the texture is just right every single time.
Cash only. Service is pretty decent considering it is a Vietnamese restaurant. Authentic foods that remind me of my grandma’s home cooking.

**Solely for Bun Rieu Oc and Bun Bo Hue**
As a Vietnamese, I have a high expectation for Vietnamese food in general.
Bun Rieu Oc here is the worst I have ever had. The periwinkles (snails) had no taste to it what so ever. Most people would give the periwinkles a nice stir fry in garlic sauce of some sort. I had a raw wedge of tomato in my bowl. The broth was flavorless and tasteless. Overall, don’t order this dish here!!!
Bun Bo Hue is mediocre. The broth was bland. However, they do give you a generous amount of meats in there. If you like your Bun Bo Hue with a lot of lemon grass flavor in there, you might like it here. Personally, I was unimpressed.
I have not yet tried their Cha Ca La Vong (sizzling fish). When I do, maybe I will have a better impression of this place.

Serious the BEST phở I’ve ever had! The broth was super flavorful, my chicken came with the option of with or without skin (I chose with) – not dry at all and super flavorful dark and white meat pieces. I find that chicken phở isn’t a favorite for many people because of how dry the chicken can get, but that is NOT a problem here.
CASH ONLY
Expect a small wait, we waited like 5 – 10 minutes before we got a table. This place is packed, so I imagine the wait is worse on weekends/​peak meal hours. Service is just ok, they came to give us our drinks & take our order but never checked in on us after, which was fine because we had no problems. If you’re super uncomfortable with tight ish places/​a lot of people, this might not be the spot for you~order to go because you don’t want to miss the nomz this place offers.
Only 1 female stall for the bathroom, so expect a small wait for that as well. Clean though! :)

My GO TO Vietnamese restaurant when I’m back home in SJ! favorite, great food and I love my Viet food ~ #mypeople :3
FAVORITES/​RECOMMENDATIONS:
#36B: Bun Cha Ca La Vong !!
— grilled fish (comes out on a sizzling plate w/​fire) and it’s make-​your-​own spring rolls ! this is shareable and good for ²⁄₃ people; also love how it comes with rosemary (jk I think it’s dill) & peanuts !!
[tip: the onions are on the bottom and are there so it cooks and doesnt burn the fish on top!]
#39: Phở Ap Chao Bo (crispy chow fun with beef & vegetables)
— crispy yummy goodness
#C: banh bot chien trung (fried flour cake w/​egg)
— more of an appetizer & love the sauce
honestly, skip the phở and basic rice dishes and go for my recommendations ;)
service is fairly quick and place is pretty new; they do take out and remember CASH ONLY ~
now with a happy belly, feel free to get milk tea/​boba at the MANY nearby stores in the same plaza :3 haha

I’ve never had a bad experience here. They have a wide variety of food to choose from.
I would recommend the BANH BOT CHIEN TRUNG! It’s great and even tastes better with the dipping sauce. A good combo of flavor!
The hu tieu kho is okay. The regular white rice noodles with meat and seafood. There wasn’t enough sauce so my noodles was kinda dry.
My parents like the cha ca la vong. The smell of the fish and dill is enough to make me hungry. It’s fun to eat this dish and make spring rolls too.
When it gets busy (usual lunch and dinner), it’s harder to get a hold of a waiter, but if you’re persistent and can get ahold of their attention, you’re good.

I didn’t realize how limited my Vietnamese Cuisine experience was until I visited and dined at this commendable restaurant. If you wanna know what’s beyond the Phở and Lemon grass chicken/​porkchop, then you have to come to this place.
We asked the server to recommend some dishes for us. They were very helpful dn were not disappointed with all the dishes that we had. Even our two toddlers ate more than their usual serving.
Love this place. Have to try all the other dishes that we didn’t get to try.