Lau Dong Que

I’ll have to say that I’ve only been to one other ca nuong place (that wasn’t very memorable), so I don’t have much to compare by… but I thought this place was very good.
The restaurant itself was very cute (and clean). Service was quick. My boyfriend and I took my mom here for dinner (for her birthday) and ordered a medium ca nuong (and that was enough for 3 people).
Food came out quick and the fish was really good. Skin was perfectly crisp and flavorful. I didn’t find it to be too oily and loved the crispy onions and green onions that threw on top of the fish.
There’s not too much else I can say, but if I ever get a craving for ca nuong again, I would definitely come back.

They’re known for their ca nuong (baked catfish) and rightfully so. The most delicious flavorful and crispy skin with moist fish! Price is $ 35 for a medium $ 40 large and $ 45 XL.
I also love their grilled scallops w peanuts and onions as well as their coconut sea snails!
I wasn’t a fan of their hot pot but my friends loved it and yes they’re viet too.
Expect to pay about $ 20-​$ 30 per person w tax and tip for a beer and some yummy viet seafood.

I love this place
Their deep fried catfish is excellent very crispy and the staff is awesome as well very friendly.
The medium size catfish is more than enough to fill two people up
Make sure you dip the spring roll with that dank dark sauce

I really wanted to give this place a second chance so I tried to call in for take-​out few more times, and as usually, they’re sold out of their small fish. Very disappointed.

Restaurant is clean. Fish was fresh. My bf and I enjoyed it very much. We’ll come back again

Really enjoyed the food here!
My family and I came here on a rainy day because the dinner rush and order a few «big items» that took up a lot of space, including the grilled catfish and a large family hot pot. The workers here were super friendly and accommodating — they pushed two tables together for us, so that we would have more space, even though we told them that it was okay. The restaurant is very small and filled up quickly. As it filled up, we tried moving our food to just 1 table to make space for other parties, but the workers told us that it’s fine since we got here first.
The staff was very hospitable and always checked up on our table — which is not very common at a Vietnamese restaurant. Additionally, all the food we got was delicious and the veggies that they provided was crisp and refreshing to eat!
Highly recommend this place for both the grilled catfish and the seafood hotpot!

Had the squid n mango salad, garlic butter escargot, and Lau mam (stinky sauce hot pot).
All were really good.
The hot pot comes with a good portion of squid, shrimp, pork belly, and catfish slices. On the side are a variety of veggies (chine flower, bean sprouts, banana leaf, bittermelon, lettuce, some Vietnamese greens) and rice noodles. It was enough to fill 4 adults. The waiter even asked if we wanted more veggies or noodles, not sure if it’s free or for a fee.
Not as many variety of oc (snails) as Oc and Lau but I think I like the flavor better.
They were out of razor clams for lunch though

We had the oc len Sao dua (coconut snail) and Catfish fried and mango salad with grilled squid. Everything tasted delicious. Oc len and mango salad tasted 10x times better than oc & lau place. I saw people ordered lau mam, looks delicious too. Must be one of their popular dish. Overall, you can’t go wrong with the food here.

We were fortunate to get seated within minutes on a very busy Saturday night. Why? Because this store actually hires front staff to host, serve & clean tables. My friend ordered the Grilled Cat Fish (Ca Nuong) in size small, but they were out so we opted for medium. No big deal. More food for us! If you are hungry or in a hurry, order the hot pot or anything soup. It comes out way quicker than our order, which was worth the wait.
The vegetables were fresh, vermicelli was perfectly cooked & the fish was crispy without being oily. Awesome experience in an authentic setting with attentive servers. One of them actually forgot our request for take-​out box (place never stopped being busy during our stay), but another one got it within a minute after we asked again.
Would love to come back to try out the rest of their menu.

Bad location and no parking. Call order 3 crispy catfish to pickup 2 hours in advance. And I still wait for 20 minutes to pickup.

Was craving for Lau for the longest time, but was over going to quan nhaus just to get some hot pot. Thank God for Unilocal!Found this place in Unilocal,decided to give it a shot even though they don’t take cards (which is a disappointment) or I would have ordered more food, good and bad side I guess, lol.
Anyway, this restaurant is pretty small, parking can get pretty pack, but luckily my boyfriend and I got there before the dinner rush (before 6:30), by 6:30 there was a dinner rush and wait, line out the door and chaos for take-​out. We ordered the Lau Thai medium which was perfect for 2 people and a side appetizer (goi xoai tom) mango shrimp salad which was delicious.
4 stars because the food was delicious, but super busy and chaotic, hence no 5 stars. Best advice is to go before dinner rush and bring cash, $ 40 + for 2 dishes.

We had pink tapila hot pot and steamed squid. The squid is very good. The medium hot pot $ 26 and 3 of us couldn’t finish. The pot for lau is not enough space for us to put the fish and veggie in. Overall, food is good

This place appears to be very popular – pretty much at capacity on a Sunday night at 6:30.
You’ll want to either be very adventurous or familiar with Vietnamese food because the menu isn’t comprehensive with its descriptions and there are few pictures.
Their two most popular dishes are the Ca Nuong (roast catfish) and the Dong Que hot pot. The Catfish is large, and comes with a huge platter of vegetables and all the fixings. You’ll need 4 to 6 people to do justice on the catfish.
We ordered the Dong Que hot pot, sized medium, for two people. Comes with catfish, mussels, shrimp, calamari in a sweet and tart broth. We ordered a second plate of vegetables for a small charge.

I was craving Vietnamese hot pot («lau») and found this place on Unilocal.Despite the small number of reviewers, this place is very popular! The restaurant is small, but they make good use of the space. It was packed on a Sunday at 6:30pm, but luckily there was one table left for 2. We ordered the Dong Que hot pot, which had 4 pieces of each seafood (catfish, mussels, shrimp) and many pieces of calamari. The main broth, which is slightly tart and sweet, has green onions, pumpkin, and taro (yummy!). The hot pot is different from other pots I’ve seen… the broth is separate from the seafood and you can slowly add the seafood into the broth. The hot pot also comes with veggies and noodles on the side. We ordered a medium size, which was $ 25, but paid extra for more veggies and it turned out to be $ 30 and some change after tax (before tip) for 2 people.
This place is known for their crispy baked catfish and I saw so many other tables order this, but you’ll want to come with more people to share this.
This place «accepts» credit cards, but the machine was down last weekend and so we had to pay in cash.

This is the our 1^st visit at this restaurant. The store looks ok. But the food is terrible, everything it way too sweet. I didn’t taste any flavor from ours food (lau dong qua, squid mango salad and claim w lemongrass). This prolly the least flavorful place I have ever been too. But I gave 2 stars for the services.
I prolly won’t come back.

CA NUONG! Get iiiiiit!!! (Baked Catfish) Comes with ALL the fixings!
Came here for an early (for me) dinner with my parents and bf. Last time, we waited over an hour for our catfish but they were newly opened. So, this time, they got their act together, and the fish was ready in 30 mins or so! YAY! Plus, my parents got here first, so the wait for me was zero haha
Ca nuong is a viet dish that is baked catfish served WHOLE with a beautiful presentation. The skin is crispy and delicious and the fish is tender and melts in your mouth! It’s served with all the fixings — spring roll paper (in a very crafty water and paper stand), various leaves/​garnishes, lettuce, pickled radish/​carrot, sauces, and green onion oil with peanuts. Put them altogether and roll it up like a mini burrito, and you’ve got yourself one delicious fish springroll!
I always enjoy eating this. The fish come in various sizes but two people really can’t finish their smallest fish! So, it’s advisable to come with at least 3 people minimum to enjoy this! The fish has AMAZING flavor. It’s not smelly at all as one may think bc it’s fish and it’s whole. I personally love a lot of green onion oil and peanuts, but you can ask for more on the side, too. The sauces are great! I especially love the tamarind sauce mixed with a liiiiiiitle bit of that stinky grey sauce (I don’t know the name haha) and topped with freshly chopped chilis YUUUUUM. The chilis are not that spicy!
If one of the side foods are low, you can ask them to replenish it. They don’t or shouldn’t charge you (they didn’t charge us). Service was ok. It’s a small restaurant so it was okay. They did get busy mid way through our meal but luckily we had gotten all our food and didn’t need to be bothered.
The first time I came, the female owner was here and she was super nice and personable. The second time around, she was there much later into the evening. She had others helping her run the show now! I’ll come back when I have another craving for the baked catfish! they also have seafood lau (hot pot)… pretty good, but I’m partial to the catfish!

The fried catfish is good, their hotpot is not too shabby but after a couple of visits there I can’t stand the consistency of bad customer services and lack of hygiene. The owner I think is deceiving as well, gave us free drink for our birthday guest and then later charged for it. Giving the selections I have to spend my money on Vietnamese food in Westminster, why do I need to waste my hard earned cash on bad services, lack of hygiene and ok food.
BTW, how do you know if a restaurant is owned by a local Vietnamese American… the real American or run by VietCong? It’s sad to see the local business owners are slowly getting pushed out by rich VietCong, just a way for them to laundering their dirty money in this free country of ours.

The hotpot that my family and I ordered was very flavorful.
The food wasn’t a lot of a small party of four. A lot of what trey gave us were vegetables and the meat/​seafood were a small amount. The soup was very little as well.
My family had turned off the heat but the soup was still too little to cook everything.

Don’t listen to the mixed reviews here. I went just last week, and it literally blew my mind.
With way too many Vietnamese restaurants in OC, it’s hard to find which ones are worth dining.
I’ll start with my favorite:
1) Scallops: Mind. friggin. blown. Fresh scallops charred on the shell garnished with scallion, vietnamese mint, tiny bits of savory? pork? goodness. Served with a special white dipping sauce with salt, pepper, lime.
2) Charred escargot (oc nuong) — mind. blown. again. &burnt my finger again. that’s how hot it comes out. tasted like the chewy part of a clam, and packed with flavor. they know how to season here.
3) Snails in coconut sauce/​lemongrass — I told them not too sweet (im not sure how they normally cook it). came out awesome. and fun to eat. I like to enjoy my food. sampling as many dishes as I can :)
4) Clams in lemon grass broth — perfectly cooked, perfect sipping broth!
5) Crispy rice and veggies — who doesn’t like crispy rice?! i do! served with sauteed veggies, was still hot & crispy when it came out.
6) Seafood Hot Pot — broth is sweet, tangy, savory goodness.
7) Mango salad and squid — tasty, refreshing, served with fish sauce
8) Fried egg rolls — crispy deliciousness! (P.S. its not easy to make it the way they do. certain technique to make it that texture)
9) Leafy green drink (Nuoc Rau Ma) — I drink green juices all the time. Ended up ordering 2 with no sugar bc thats just my preference. Quenched my thirst!
10) Green bean blend drink — forget boba. order this. Trust me, other places don’t have this drink.
11) Jack fruit– still had room for dessert. :)

Came here for lunch with my dad & his friends the other day. We ordered a whole bunch of food — escargot in coconut sauce, the skillet escargot, the steamed clams, fried rice with bo luc lac & a bunch of other items. Everything was really good and service was pretty nice. I’m guessing it was nice because they knew my dad — but I wonder how it wouldve been if my dad wasn’t there, haha.
Not quite sure if i would come back for a second taste since there are so many places to eat down there.