Chieu Kitchen — Restaurant in Escondido

Saw this place on social media and decided to give it a try. My wife and I love support local businesses especially in our community! We walked in and the restaurant is very spacious with gorgeous interior and decorations. The owner greeted us at the door and allowed us to sit anywhere. I love that because sometimes I have a preference and that can be awkward to ask for a different table so I appreciated the option.

We scanned the QR code and ordered the House Special Pho, Grilled Pork Bánh Mi and the Chili Oil Wonton. Oh and my wife got a beer! The House Special Pho had a huge beef bone in it which was cooked very tender and had a lot of flavor. It was packed with so much meat and noodles! And the pho broth was fragrant with such a sweet aroma and beautifuly sliced green onions in it that brought the whole dish together. So good! We drank a lot of the broth since it was a cold day out and the owner offered us more which was nice to have a little reheat on our pho! The pork bánh mi was very fresh and packed with pork, the bread was also fresh and baked perfectly, not sure if they make the bread in house or not but it was very good quality bread. And the Chili Wontons were so good! So much flavor and the chili oil was not over powering either. They tossed in some bokchoy with the wontons which was so great because that's my favorite veggies! Our food was brought out to us moving robot shelf server but the server put it on our table.

Overall it was a delicious meal and great atmosphere. I look forward to trying more things...

Date of visit: August 1st, 2024

Food: The pho and broth was delicious. We have a delicious array of pho places in Vancouver where we live, so we are always wary of the high ratings in other cities. We have tried 4.9 star locations in Tacoma and Seattle that did not live up to the rating, but Chieu Kitchen fully deserves the high ratings. We ordered extra noodles and although we didn't need the extra broth, the owner kindly offered us more broth to cater to the extra noodles we ordered. Super kind of him!

Service: The service was efficient. The ordering system is through scanning the QR code and a robot serving tray comes out with the owner assisting, checking in and and guiding us through. The food prep was fast with fresh food.

Atmosphere : the decorations are very clever. The ceiling fans used traditional (bamboo?) handheld fans to immerse the cultural sense as well as the wall decorations. I enjoyed the extra efforts and thoughts that was put into the simple, traditional but modern twist to the decor.

The "water feng shui" feature that most vietnamese restaurants have at their entry is unique. They have hermit crabs with tiny feeder fish. We got to witness something even the owner never saw before: the hermit crab pushed a bouldering rock over that rolled down the top of the area they climbed up on. My kids really enjoyed observing the hermit crabs.

Thanks for a great...

Great addition to Escondido. Plenty of parking. This space is huge with high ceilings. Very simple decor and they use a robot to bring food to your table.

The menu had a bit of everything from pho, noodle soup, bánh mì, to rice dishes to vermicelli. A mix of Chinese cuisine too. You can scan the QR and place the order through there or wait for them to come by.

We ordered: Wings - 6 decent size wings that seem to be baked not fried. It was juicy all the way through. The veggies were lightly stir fried.

Chili oil wonton - 10 wontons, honestly it tastes like something you get at Costco Business that’s restaurant quality. It tastes better if you squeeze lime. Inside has pork w shrimp in the middle.

Pho house- Served in the metal bowls. The ribs were big but tough. It was chewy, not tender and didn’t fall off the bones. Definitely needed more hours of simmering.

Egg seafood noodle- Rare to see this at a Vietnamese place. I grew up eating egg noodles over pho and I was excited to get this. The broth was clean and on point but I was disappointed in the noodles. They had the bouncy chewy texture of ramen noodles not the Chinese egg noodles. Had fish balls that were cut in half, imitation crab, and small shrimps.

Coffee- Tastes like Lee’s Coffee. Strong, rich and creamy.

Overall, this place has potential. If you can’t make it south for Asian food, this place will do with a...