Top Southeast Asian Restaurant in Brea
Pho Ha
1619 E Imperial Hwy, Brea, CA 92821, United States
Weve been coming Pho Ha, 1619 E Imperial Hwy, Brea, CA 92821, since 2006 whenever we do not want drive to Westminister.Recently there are new service staff and it has not been the same, the services are worse.Specifically on Tuesday 11-8-2022, we went there for a meal. The server which we do not know his name, he is the short short man who was very rude, aggressive, and unprofessional.We had to wait for some time before we were seated and then waited for a long time to place our order. The short man took our order and my food came out almost completely wrong.Not only did he not apologize, he was not at all accommodating.While I was still waiting for the missing meat of my Pho, he suddenly came to my table, rudely yanked my bowl away from me and harshly told me I overheard that your food was wrong, what is wrong with it, tell me, I will get a new one for you that was redundant as he already knew what was wrong with my food. I felt that he came back to bully me for complaining.He sarcastically replied to everything I requested or asked and ignored my requests.I then requested another server and its also ignored.Our meal was extremely unpleasant, we should have left without eating our food, but we didnt and during the entire meal none of the servers came over to check if we need anything at all.But when I went to the counter to pay, the short man came over quickly and now he suddenly nice to me and asked if everything was ok.I kept quiet and paid without including a tip, the short man followed me back to our table to check if we left cash tip which we didnt, the short man complained to my partner, but he did not understand the short man.The short man had the audacity to chase after me to lecture me that I need to tip. I told him no tip, then he further dictated that I should only order to go. I replied that I will never come back.We thought that after we were horribly mistreated, we felt that a tip was not deserving.There are so many Pho restaurants, we would prefer to drive farther than coming back to that place.The 1 star was required to leave a review, otherwise it would be no star.We saw many similar reviews about the terrible service at this location.
Pink Pepper
1638 N La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028, United States
With better management,. alert staff and warmer food the restaurant could be 4 star. The salmon was flavorful but the vegetables with it were served at room temperature with no flavor & almost raw. Staff very inept and passive -shows minimal interest/understanding of the customer experience - understands very litle english.... we attempted to communicate about the cold vegetables but gave up .. yet the restaurant was not at all busy - only one other couple in the restaurant so very hard to understand how the food could be cold and how it could take so long to get served... even when asking if the food could be made medium spicy got a flat NO - you do it yourself ...there also appeared to be a language barrier between the kitchen staff and the servers. the other couple got the wrong dish which resulted in a near comical disjointed discourse between the server and the cook. not convinced the problem was ever really resolved. There was no manager to be found. The dining experience is similar to a (not so) fast food/take out place (without benefit of even a teenage manager) but with a rather nice upgraded interior Oh... if you need to have your parking garage ticket validated make sure you get both tickets back from the server as youll need both to get out of the garage. They gave us only one back which turned into a big hassle with the garage attendant who also spoke very little English. On the positive side the Tom Kha Gai was delicious but of course just barely warmed above room temperature..... Overall the servers were plessant but not a fun experience that Id like to repeat - very stressful and frustrating I guess they depend on high volume non-repeat tourist trade
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Otus Thai Kitchen & Coffee
1253 N La Brea Ave, West Hollywood, CA 90038, United States
Came to Otus on a friends recommendation and really enjoyed it! We had a huge party (11) and Otus was able to accommodate us without any issues though we may have been a little overwhelming to start the morning...I began with a pink latte which is a latte made with Thai sala syrup. The flavor profile is similar to strawberry milk but a little more floral. A couple friends went with bottomless mimosas but remarked that it wasnt too special.For appetizers we shared the roti and Ms Dangs crispy fried rice. Both were honestly delicious! The roti was prepared like a banana fosters french toast with roti substituting the toast. It was crispy, buttery, and similar to fried bananas! As for the crispy rice, it was done very well! Ive had versions that were way too dry and crispy or too tangy from vinegar and fermented pork but this hit all the right notes and the crunchy bites from the leaves of romaine paired perfectly!For my main, I went with the Moo Ping and OMG the pork skewers were TO DIE FOR! They were marinated and grilled to perfection! The accompanying vinegar dip was a little bit too acidic for me though. I really liked the accompaniments of papaya salad and sticky rice. Both paired perfectly with the super savory pork! I also liked using the remaining dressing off the papaya salad to dip and accompany the rice as it wasnt nearly as strong as the vinegar.I tried bites from my friends dishes and some really hit! The happy chicken was a must order but the happy ribs is a miss. The chicken was so crispy yet so juicy but the ribs were clearly over fried and so dry. The kai kata is unique! Getting a bite with the baguette, ground pork, Chinese sausage and creamy egg is really something to experience at least once!Among the rest of my friends (aka the other side of the table), reviews were mixed. Both friends that ordered the shitake chicken rice bowl mentioned that it was a little bland but the one that ordered khao kai jiew gave it a thumbs up. There were also two thumbs up for the the its a joke jook. By far the worst menu blunder though was the tofu street noodles. My friend said that there was zero flavor. He tried to fix it with a lot of sambal and then soy sauce but it wasnt until we ordered some peanut sauce ($3) that he finally enjoyed his meal.Our entire meal with gratuity came to about $370. Id say its safe to plan that your meal will average about $25 with drinks.