Thien An Bo 7 Mon Restaurant — Restaurant in Garden Grove

Huge place serving Vietnamese Bo 7 mon, 7 courses of beef, which were originally derived from French dishes. It's open for dinner only on weekdays, add lunch for Fri-Sunday.

The pace is nice, clean, spacious. Friday lunch there were only 3 other parties or about 20% occupied. Each 7 course serving is now $32 with enough food for 2 people. Baked cat fish dishes are also in the menu. Beers and wines are $5-6.

Meats cooked 7 ways are served with rice paper, lettuce, herbs, pickles, to be rolled into spring rolls and dipped in fish or anchovies sauce, which are very tasty.

Meat portions are small, but all 7 dishes were better and tastier than those served by the now-defunct Anh Hong and Pagolac:

Beef and shrimp salad Top round hot pot Top round grilled Grilled ground beef in betel leaf Grilled ground beef in beef fat Steamed ground beef loaf Rice beef soup, very rich and tasty

1 serving lunch for 2 people costed $44 before tip. It's hard to compete against various Korean BBQs and hot pots in OC serving lunch for $22 and dinner $29 with AYCE rib eye, brisket, ribs.

Vietnamese Bo 7 Mon is more like a long, slow, formal dinner, where clients have to roll their own spring rolls, which can be messy. It has not caught on with a large clientele base in mainstream So Cal, likely due to price points, limited menu, beef being the only main ingredients, and the messy work required to cook and eat it. Major venues in So Cal struggled for decades and went out of business.

This location used to be Hong An, taken over by Thien An, now returned to the original owner, who operates another Thien An in Rosemead. The 2 Thien Ans on Harbor and Bolsa are original, now operated by 2 cousins. Does not look like they are doing booming business.

There may be a market for selling each dish as a single serving, for pick up with lower overhead, in the range of $7-12.

We are unlikely...

When I came to Thien An Bo 7 Mon, I wasn't sure what to expect. This was my first time coming to a Vietnamese restaurant. I came in pretty blindly but I was pleasantly surprised.

Upon entering, I was seated very quickly and able to get served just as quickly. The rest of my party was also seated very quickly as well. The servers are all very nice and understanding. Once I made known of a food allergy, they were very accommodating. I had a feeling I was in very good hands.

The ambience of the restaurant was very welcoming and spacious. I really appreciate restaurants that are spacious because I need elbow-room so I can thoroughly grub on my food Lol. They also have a large screen that displayed aquatic life the night that I went which created a very nice vibe.

Now, finally the FOOD! The food was SOOOO good! Everything was seasoned very well and the veggies were all fresh! They even offer a vegan egg roll for those who do not eat meat, which was also very delicious. The experience was very hands-on which I really enjoyed. I customized my spring rolls to my liking as well as the sauce! They offer plenty of food options so it makes customizing not only delicious but fun to experiment with different flavors. The highlight was definitely the catfish! I'm not a big fan of catfish usually but this catfish was absolutely delicious and changed my mind completely!

This is a restaurant where you can take your friends, family, coworkers, etc. just to have a good time and eat good food! I will...

Never had a 7 courses of beef before even when I lived in Viet nam, so I went with friends. So here what I took on:

The meats or courses in general was good but not great for several reasons: 1. The meat was thinly sliced with spreaded lemongrass paste on top so it was not technically marinated therefore not giving the flavor depth. 2. It was cooked on a griddle with canned flame so didn't give much of the smokiness. Trust me that back in VN when I passed by a restaurant that a chef would grill the meat on a charcoal grill, the grilled smoke made me salivating... shrimp and squids were good. Beef patties wrapped in Betel leaves were OK, not knocking my socks off. The only course that we all agreed liking the most was the grilled meatballs from the kitchen where they were actually grilled that gave the flavors of smokiness and seasoning harmonized. The restaurant doesn't focus on the sauces, you just mix it yourself from the condiment jars on the table. The fermented anchovies sauce was not just stinky but super funky. Don't get me wrong, i can eat that sauce if prepared properly and with high quality fermented anchovies sauce. A dipping sauce in general plays very important role in a whole taste experience, so if the dipping sauce is bad then it will drag down everything else... Veggies were good, not appeared to be old or rotten. The service was pretty good, very attentive and prompt especially for Vietnamese restaurants...

Any way, it was good overall...