Vien Huong Restaurant

Bombbbb Number 21 soup on the side! Best dry noodle ever-great fast service here! I love it. Super small and cozy! Yet there early or late bestthe lunch rush

I've been coming here since I was a kid and haven't been back in a while. I am happy to say that everything still taste the same.On a random Wednesday morning, even raining, I had to wait a few minutes for a table for 2. That's good food right there. They're famous for their chew chow style noodles, you can get it with soup or dry (soup on the side). I like it better dry. It's very flavorful. Their fried fish cake is also a good thing to get. I normally get some Vietnamese iced coffee with my meal, it's hard to say no.Their prices have changed a lot and keep in mind, they're only open until 3PM and cash only. Parking is ROUGH, so for these reasons is why they only get 4 stars from me. I would come here more if they were open for dinner.

The restaurant opens up early. There was a crowd of people waiting outside the door. We weren't sure if there was a sign up list, until we found a man with a notepad to put our names down. Mainly communal seating, but we got our own table. Cash only.Fried fish cakes are popular, but we went with the sautéed kidney with ginger onion. It was a pricy dish at $24. I enjoyed it though. For my soup, I got the Chow Jew Rice Noodle. The menu doesn't have a description, but I saw photos of it on Yelp. The bowl contained ground pork, sliced chicken, fish balls, pork ball, shrimp, and kidney with flat rice noodles. There was also some bean sprouts and green onions. It hit the spot. I finished all the soup but had enough noodles/ meat leftover for dinner. My bf got the Preserved Orange Skin Duck Noodle, which had a good amount of duck. Overall, a great place for a bowl of noodles!

Free hot tea.Okay noodles, not salted well so this isn't as great eating dry. Great toppings! Fish balls, ground learn pork, legit! Best part of the meal.Hot sauce: meh, doesn't have enough shallots. You can get free fried garlic but they really need shallots to up the flavor. Not sure if I'll be back, places in Monterey Park just tastes better. Lady at the register shorted me a dollar. So I gave them less than a dollar tip at the table. People at the restaurant at really friendly to non Asians but give meh service if you are Asian. Not sure how I feel about that being so blatant.

Vien Huong's reputation was already well-established in Oakland Chinatown well before my generation was even an idea and my family has legitimately been eating here for decades. This joint specializes in traditional Teochew-Vietnamese noodles in a true hole-in-the-wall, street food-esque environment, so don't be offended if the service places efficiency over detail. They open at 7:30AM and stop seating/run out of food around 3:15PM every day of the week except for Thursday, so if you get hungry around closing make sure to call in and order for pick up beforehand. Lines can get long but move fast - prepare to share a table with a stranger if you're a smaller party.My default order is the 12, the Chow Jew Noodle, with thin noodles and soup on the side (so I can sip or hydrate my noodles if I'm feeling like it that day). The ingredients are simple and the flavors highlight the natural taste of the proteins with optional spicy dipping sauces. Typically, it comes with sliced and ground pork, shrimp, kidneys, fish balls, and beef balls, but on our most recent visit they ran out of both kidneys and sliced pork and just replaced them with chicken without telling us. This understandably irked my dad, who started muttering under his breath about how they weren't worth the price anymore and how we were never coming back, but in the way you talk about an ex you can't stop going back to. We'll be back soon.

Been going here since the 1980's and this place is our go to soup place. Everyone knows VH and I need not add anymore kudos. Drop by and try our favorite Number 12 with egg thin noodle soup in and a side of crispy garlic. Sit anywhere with anyone if you come during peak. I come early and sit on the same spot by the door lol. Add a little hoisin and house made chill paste to the side of garlic as a dipping dish while consuming the broth and you will be hooked. Finish off with ice coffee to go and that garlic taste will disappear. This is my weekly spot.

Best noodles! Best hangover cure. Been coming here over 2 decades, still have love for VH!!!

This place has been around forever and is a must-try in the area.Everything is super fresh and delicious. One of the more popular menu items is the Chow Jew Ho Fun/Rice Noodle. I recommend you try it! It's a bit of a "hole in the wall" place, but the staff are friendly the food is good.

I came on a Sunday 12:30. Even though the 49er game is on, there was a little wait. The restaurant is busy but efficient. Patrons are coming and going fast. There were about 5 people ahead of us but we got seated within 10 minutes. This is a hole in the wall ambiance but I'm totally OK with that. Staff here speaks perfect English.If rated just for the dry/soup noodles here I probably give it a solid 4 stars, but my friend doesn't eat seafood so he got the duck rice plate and it just didn't do it for him. I watched him eat his lunch in despair and he probably should've ordered their noodles. He could've easily asked for no seafood as I later discovered there weren't much.My trie chau noodles were ordered dry. This is how I like it because they separate the soup. It came with lots of meat that look like pork and what looks like kidneys. Their kidneys were real tender and juicy in a tasty way. I recall only seeing like 1 shrimp and fish balls for their seafood. I usually add jalapeños and these places typically have a sweet soy flavored sauce that you can squirt. The jalapeños here aren't pickled well. The sweet flavored soy sauce I was expecting was a bottle of hoisin sauce. Hoisin is a thick condiment whereas a more liquid sweetened soy can spread the flavors better.The last thing that I feel like it's missing is the pork bone that comes with the soup. The trie chau places I go to in San Jose serve them. I find them integral to a trie chau meal. Did I mistake this establishment for serving trie chau when maybe it's a different dish? They spell it differently but the pronunciation is similar. You be the judge.

This place was a high school go to! For a while it was inconsistent but lately the food tastes just as amazing as it did back then! Of course you know we had to order the OG order: #21 soup on the side! They're quick and def not stingy with their sauces like a lot of places now! The place can get busy and lots of moving bodies, but overall, yummm!