Our Mexican-in-Chief recently paid respect to the historic Vien Dong restaurant in Little Saigon with a eulogy — one of the oldest continuously operating Vietnamese restaurants in the United States at 32 years old on closing its doors. He also mentioned that the restaurant since being sold went through a next-generation revamp that didn’t quite make the cut and was last seen being gutted.
Once again the restaurant has been sold but this time to a restaurant that former Vien Dong owner Julie Lam says, “specializes in Pho and believes everyone will enjoy.” New owner, Tuan Phan of Pho Go is solely focusing on Pho and lets his broth speak for itself—and it does. A standard looking bowl of steaming hot pho sets itself apart from the rest of Little Saigon with its strongly flavorful broth and fragrant spices. The restaurant offers all the heavy hitters like pho tai bo vien, pho tai nam gau and more, with three sizes to choose from, small, large and panda. The panda-sized bowl is for when you're really famished or just looking to not eat for the rest of the week because you’ll have a sea of broth, double noodles and meat churning inside ya.
Pho Go has big shoes to fill, but we're with Mrs. Lam”: here's to hoping that the new restaurant can become a staple in Little Saigon like its predecessor.
14271 Brookhurst St., Garden Grove, 92843
Cynthia Rebolledo covers anything and everything food, culture and spirits.