Top Vietnamese Restaurant in La Mesa
Pho Superbowl
8342 Parkway Dr, La Mesa, CA 91942, United States
The ambiance of this Vietnamese restaurant is nice and the employees are super friendly. This review is purely on the food. Not the best Ive had. I ordered the Vermicelli Plate with Beef and egg rolls. What I got was a salad with a small amount of noodle. The sauce wasnt very flavorful but the egg rolls where nice and crispy. My bf said the sauce he got for his rice platter also needed more flavor. Overall if youre looking for PHO this is the place as Ive been here before for that and it was good. But if you are interested in the rice or vermicelli noodle entrees then I dont recommend this place.
Top other services in La Mesa:
Brew Coffee Spot
6101 Lake Murray Blvd, La Mesa, CA 91942, United States
Tried the Wakey Wakey and a cinnamon roll to start. The cinnamon roll was essentially my breakfast, and under those circumstances I highly recommend it. At first glance it may look a bit small and/or dry, but when you order it they ask if you prefer it warm, with frosting. This is the preparation I tried, and heartily recommend. When the cinnamon roll arrived, it was so seductively smothered in frosting that any dryness was gone, and after eating I felt as full as if Id just had a small side order of flapjacks with butter and syrup.So. As I said, under the particular circumstances I ate the cinnamon roll, I recommend it.People who know me know that I love coffee. And that I dont heap praise on coffee that is unworthy of that praise. I wholeheartedly praise this places coffee. The Wakey Wakey, which was my first coffee of the day, did its job remarkably well. I know coffee purists will wag their fingers at me for it, but I added cream & lots of sugar to mine, and I still felt like I experienced the additional frothiness and smokiness of the espresso beneath the delicious dark roast coffee. It stood up well to my mangling it of all its subtleties, I must say.Later in the day I refilled my mug, with plain dark roast coffee, and noticed the difference, and still enjoyed very much.I know Im a madman, but I turned down the opportunity to try any of the delicious-looking cookies.In the interest of full disclosure, I feel I must mention that I have met and interacted with the owner and his wife (and they are lovely people), but I really feel like I can still objectively review this place as the gem it is. They brought in a bunch of their board games from home that are free to play in the shop - how cool is that?Be sure to check out Saturday afternoon game days!
Bamboo Fresh Thai Cuisine
7953 University Ave, La Mesa, CA 91942, United States
I have to admit this is one of the best Thai restaurants Ive ever eaten at in San Diego. The food is incredible and reasonably priced! My favorite meal to order is spicy basil noodles with tofu and a side of Vietnamese coffee! Its a little hidden gem in La Mesa! The restuarant is not upscale; the decoration is simple. If you like great Thai food than this is the place for you!Make sure to save a little space for dessert! Every meal comes with a small complementary dessert!The pictures are: Vietnamese coffee, tofu appetizer, and small complementary dessert.
Light Bulb Coffee
8138 La Mesa Blvd, La Mesa, CA 91942, United States
Oh how I wish this coffee shop was located in Clairemont for convenience. I had been wanting to try out this place for a long time and finally had the chance to go. I liked it so much the first time I went, that I went a second time less than a week later.Ive ordered the iced Turkish hazelnut coffee, iced cali pistachio, coffee cake, and chicken & munster panini.The coffee here is literally sooo creamy, I was taken aback by it. I always order non-dairy milk (typically oat) due to a dairy allergy and when I was drinking the iced lattes here it was creamy to the extent that i was worried I was drinking real milk at first LOL. So fear not my non-dairy folks, you wont be missing out on milk at all here in your coffee at all :)If youre ordering a Turkish Hazelnut, the drink itself is very sweet so if you arent big on sweet drinks, ask them to make it less sweet. They also have a really cute lightbulb coffee cup for an additional charge which I honestly think is worth it bcuz of how cute it is.The coffee cake here is also HUGE. I have never seen a slice of coffee cake so big before in my life?? And its only $3.50 which is even more shocking. The coffee cake tasted fresh, was super light, had the perfect amount of crumb topping, and wasnt too sweet. It complimented the Turkish hazelnut coffee veryyyy well! I even took some coffee cake home to do a taste test with my mom who is extremely picky with coffee cake and hates like 98% of coffee cakes she has ever tried, but this coffee cake changed her and she actually enjoyed it! So if my mama is approving of this coffee cake, you know that says A LOT!The chicken muenster mushroom panini here is also extremely delicious. I typically dont order chicken sandwiches but was told by the workers that its their most popular sandwich so I had to give it a try. I ordered mine without the muenster cheese and it was actually really delicious! A lot of the times when you omit cheese from a sandwich, its super dry, but the sandwich here wasnt dry at all. I felt like there was a good amount of the spicy sauce they put inside the sandwich. The sandwich had a variety of textures going on which is what you want in a sandwich, because who wants to eat a mushy sandwich.The decor here is very unique but its very cozy. I plan on coming here again in the future to just chill with some friends.Also for my Arab peeps, they have Turkish coffee here! For the non-Arabs reading this, Turkish coffee is basically espresso shots on crack LOL.There is plenty of parking here so no need to worry about whether you will find a spot or not.If you want creamy, smooth, and unique coffee flavors; delicious coffee cake; and yummy sandwiches this is the spot to check out. Youll thank me later.
Wongs Golden Palace
7126 University Ave, La Mesa, CA 91942, United States
The oldest single owned Chinese restaurant in San Diego. Sorry Peking, that's the oldest Family owned and they closed for a few years since 1931 anyhow, a star for that alone. I'm a bit of a sucker for history and nostalgia, but Stanley the only and original owner still works here. He's in his 90's people, star for that too.It's not much to see with fading and old décor both inside and out and a parking lot that can not handle near max occupancy for either the bar or the restaurant, but they probably got grandfathered into some kind of exemption on that. I'm sure it once had charm, but it must be buried under dust, I mean come on they didn't even have music playing, it was dead silent and we could hear every conversation from every other patron, with ease. There is a strong sense of community as many people have been coming here for decades, along with the local school kids art projects for the Year of the Rooster hung on the ceiling. Tall leather booths, a display case of trinkets and ceramics for purchase separate the bar and the restaurants (along with some stairs).The menu is pretty big, separated into proteins and combination meals, but with lack of descriptions you'll be asking for clarification on many things. They go heavy on the garlic, but warn which items are by default spicy. Communicating less/more can be difficult. I was surprised they had an American menu of jalapeno poppers, hamburgers, non salt&pepper wings, none of which looked particularly appetizing. My chicken was for sure overcooked, tasted more like overdone pork chop pieces, quite square and tough, breaded, fried. I liked how the sauce was placed on the bottom and you could sauce to your liking, but frankly when I reheated it later it for sure did not taste like chicken. Fried rice was bland and dry, the egg drop soup was very good, light, but balanced. Egg roll was hefty, but all cabbage and oil, not sure how hot mustard and ketchup go with things, but we liked the cream cheese wontons. The mini flame pot for charring the skewers was a nice touch, great flavor and tender, that char for sure helped bring it over the top. Love the wonton chips. Wanting to try and few items the dinner special seemed like a great idea, but when the times showed up 10 minutes apart we quickly realized why the other table had so many left overs. I'm sure there are items worth getting a la cart, but I don't really think that the dinner special is worth it.I'm intrigued to come and check out the bar side as this supposed special makes me think of the Nutcrackers I've had back in NYC. They are heavy on the tiki drinks made popular in the 80's like the scorpions, shared bowls slings that have made a resurgence. I'm curious since the bar gets more traffic, but San Diego has stepped it's cocktail game up and most places got left behind, so could a place with this much history have kept up?On a closing note my favorite Chinese food is still in TJ, but there was a bit of a revolution in the 80's with the creation of XO sauce and anyone that hasn't picked up on that can't be on the same level as the top places. A place stuck in time.