Top Southeast Asian Restaurant in San Pablo
California Thai Restaurant
3873 San Pablo Dam Rd, El Sobrante, CA 94803, United States
This restaurant is convenient, so we have been there at least five times. Unfortunately the food is only average for a local Thai restaurant. The portions are on the small side, so dont expect to bring home leftovers. Parking can be tight when the restaurant is even 2/3 full. The lighting in the booths was stylish, but designed in such a way that there was a lot of glare. OK overall, just not a favorite.
Sala Thai
15501 San Pablo Ave suite f, Richmond, CA 94806, United States
As I lived in Southeast Asia for 4 years, I love Thai food.My favorite Thai restaurant in the Bay area is #SalaThai in #Richmond.I really enjoy the mango sticky rice there and the combo appetizer, everything is good. I prefer the Thai dumpling, a kind of Asian vol au vent, which is delicious and the presentation is outstanding. I’ve never found this dumpling in any other Thai restaurants I tried in the Bay.I’ve been to this restaurant several times and have been happy with the service.The food is fresh and they are cook it after your order, so if clients have to wait this is a good sign.
Huong Tra Restaurant
12221 San Pablo Ave, Richmond, CA 94805, United States
I had high hopes for this place, especially since they made their prices super reasonable. But, it was all pretty bland unfortunately.I got the spring rolls with peanut sauce. Bland, & the only think I could reccomend to them to make it not so bland, maybe a bit more salt/msg in the peanut sauce, maybe toast the peanuts? Idk Im not a Vietnamese chef, but flavor is Def lacking.. which is sad because these were priced at $6 for 2 pieces cut in half so, 4 halves. They made up for the fact its cheap by making them rather small in size. But I wont complain about the size, if I want more Id order more @ $6/order.Next was the fried spring rolls that came with a sweet chili sauce. The spring rolls also $6, and also rather tiny in size but, $6 is cheap for an order of spring rolls so again, I see why theyd did this, I have no issues with it. The spring rolls theirselves, also kind of bland, but not as bland as the fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce. The sweet chili sauce is super run of the mill prob right out a bottle, I wish they used that sweet vinegar sauce most Vietnamese restaurants give with their fried spring rolls.Lastly I got the chow fun, $13, and more than ample portion. But again, lacking in flavor... it looked like theres ton of sauce and color, Im not sure why it lacks so much flavor.... as in, all I really tasted was the vegetables.The staff was nice, theres plenty of seating in the restaurant. But I dont think Id come back here for the food, unfortunately.The 4 star rating is because if you wanted just to be filled for a reasonable price and you dont care about big flavor, this would be a just fine place for that. Ie; most born and raised Americans would think this place was top tier because they are terrified of real authentic big bold flavors.
Le Pho Vietnamese Restaurant
2501 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley, CA 94702, United States
The people are really friendly and I wanted to like the food, but that was not to be. I only ordered the pho, but if that is any indication, this restaurant needs to fix its cooking or it will die. I hope the manager or owner is reading this and will take action. The pho broth could not in any way be called a beef broth. It looked more like chicken, though weak even for that. The flavor was utterly bland, and lacking the traditional pho flavors of burnt onion, burnt ginger, anise, clove, and good fish sauce, not to mention any hint of beef.Its not that hard to prepare. Boil beef bones, preferably marrow bones, for a couple of days or in a pressure cooker for half a day, add the ingredients described above except for the fish sauce, cook an hour or two more, get rid of the fat, strain, and you have the broth, ready for fish sauce to be added to get just the right salt balance and the final secret weapon of flavor. Wild fennel is sprouting up around here all over the place now, and the fresh new greens add wonderful flavor for savvy cooks who want to reap the seasonal rewards nature offers up gratis.Serve with plenty of fresh basil, cilantro, sliced onion and green onion, and sliced green fresh hot peppers for the heat lovers (traditionally, bean sprouts are served with pho too, but I think they detract from the flavor and so I feed them to my dogs, who are very appreciative). So easy, really. Most places around here make nice pho broths (check out, among many others, Phuong Nam, Mekong, and Le Cheval, all in Oakland) but Le Pho needs to learn.
White Lotus Thai Cuisine
843 San Pablo Ave, Albany, CA 94706, United States
My cousin and I live in Santa Cruz County. We had never been to Albany prior to 3/12/22, my birthday, when we attended a gig at the Ivy Room across the street. We hadnt eaten all day so we were STARVING. The White Lotus was nearly closed but served us an ample meal, plus kept the kitchen open for our dessert orders an hour after closing time. We had Pad Thai with Tofu, Sweet & Sour (sauteed) Shrimp, fried calamari, egg rolls, and took plenty of food home. We had mango sticky rice and fried bananas and coconut ice cream for dessert. Forgive my menu choices but I loved fried food. They had pages and pages of other choices. Service was excellent and our orders were delivered quickly and accurately, i.e. no green pepper on the sweet & sour shrimp. We were there until 10:20 even though they closed at 9pm, and never chased us out. Awesome staff, clean restaurant and facilities, food was presented beautifully with large wedges of fresh oranges. Delightful! Now we know where to eat in the East Bay.
Top other services in San Pablo:
Bnh M Ba L Vietnamese Sandwich Deli
10174 San Pablo Ave, El Cerrito, CA 94530, United States
If youre not Vietnamese read this review, because if you are Vietnamese in any way you already know this place is great... Friendly and fast folks working in this small store filled with Vietnamese / Asian snacks, drinks and the main focus is on tasty sandwiches! You know its good food and a great deal because its usually busy but the line moves very quickly. My favorite sandwich is the bacon, which is like a warm char siu /red around the edge of the meat, thick Sliced pork with the fat on it. Ive also had their BBQ char siu pork(red finely shredded pork) sandwich and their BBQ chicken sandwich, which is finely shredded chicken mixed with mild chicken like spices (dark yellow color). Those were both tasty but might not be what you think of as BBQ pork or BBQ chicken because they are so finely shredded. You can ask for the sandwich roll not to be toasted, which if youre eating it in your car I recommend because the crumbs will go everywhere if its toasted. Toasted or not its still a good and full sandwich with plenty of vegetables with the big bonus of having the sandwiches sliced green peppers not being too hot/spicy, unlike most Vietnamese sandwich stores. I havent tried the other sandwiches but the #2 seems very popular and as soon as I try others, I will list them here.A quick note about one of the other pre-made ready to go foods available besides the sandwiches, its their delicious raw young papaya (sliced thin strips) salad, because it is fresh and traditionally made, a very small percentage of humans might be a little bit allergic to the small quantity of natural latex like ingredients that can naturally occur in it. If you feel a tingling in your throat or breathing is affected stop eating it, even though it tastes So delicious.Lastly, I recommend everyone try a sandwich here. There are other food choices in this peppermint tree plaza strip mall but I think this is the best value for your dollar and it tastes delicious!!!
Larb Thai Food & Tapas
10166 San Pablo Ave, El Cerrito, CA 94530, United States
My review is for lunch at Larb Thai Food & Tapas.Overall, the food was tasty and the service was friendly and attentive.Dishes:Panang Curry - very tender beef chunks served with some veggies (carrots & eggplants, etc) with rice on the side. The beef was VERY tender and the curry was very flavorful. I would definitely order this dish again. Im not sure if it was a special or part of the normal menu because I dont see it on their website.Larb - The server recommended the duck larb, but what I got looked more like pork. Maybe all larbs look the same? Anyway, confusion aside, it tasted good regardless. It was my first time having larb, so I was a little confused on how to eat it because its more of a meat salad (lettuce shavings on the bottom) and didnt come with rice. Think of it more as an asian style chili thats vinaigrette based rather than tomato based.They also had Brother Thelonious on tap, which was definitely a plus.Definitely a great Lao/Thai place that serves up more than your typical Thai restaurant.
Noodles Fresh El Cerrito CA.Chinese Cuisine
10042 San Pablo Ave, El Cerrito, CA 94530, United States
My family quite enjoys this place, and I got to go with them recently for my first time recently and I also enjoyed it. They have a good number of items that are vegetarian and can be made vegan, and also a good number of items that can be made gluten-free. There is a small subset of these that can be both vegan and gluten-free, which made me happy. One of these was the Vegetarian Stir-Fry Noodles, which I got. It was good, though, perhaps a bit bland. Maybe it was a misunderstanding with our server, because she said that the dish normally comes medium-spicy, and I said I was fine with medium-spicy, but there was zero spice to it at all, like they had omitted the chilis for some reason. Oh well ... nothing a little Sriracha (which they have) cant fix.Lots of options for noodle stir-frys, noodle soup bowls, and rice dishes. A little bit of something for everyone. Even a nice list of appetizers, too.Service was good, and our servers were attentive enough. I would come here again.
Sukies Country Kitchen
2400 El Portal Dr, San Pablo, CA 94806, United States
Im always going to be delighted when I go to Sukies. Its a magical place to me because it feels like a real diner with a real authentic vibe instead of just diner decor. The big thing that makes Sukies stand out is the food. Not every dish is glamorous, not at all, but you can get comfortable learning what you like.For me, the Sukies Corned Beef Hash is the big winner. You can ask for it crispier which in my opinion is a big improvement. Fatty, thick chunks of corned beef decorate a plate of home fries with bell pepper and onion. Really divine!I liked the Portuguese skillet as well with the linguiça. The coffee is always coming and it is pretty good (darker roast than I usually use but I put plenty of cream in mine). You can always ask for sides and additions and the staff has always been friendly and attentive.I love the place! Its a bit far from us or we would go there all the time. The price might be a little high for the area but at the same time this is a you get what you pay for situation and I do think there is a sort of luxury in sitting in a diner eating food of this quality while coffee is endlessly refilled for you.Strongly recommend Sukies as its a bastion in a metropolitan area where diner style restaurants usually disappoint.